Central Georgia foundation gives $350,050 to 21 nonprofits, and many of them serve youth

What happened

The Community Foundation of Central Georgia gave $350,050 to 21 nonprofit organizations and initiatives on Thursday, October 8, at a ceremony at the Rescue Mission of Middle Georgia in Macon, 41NBC reported. According to 41NBC, the money will support youth development, education, housing, food assistance, health care and family support across Middle Georgia.

41NBC reported that several grants went to mentoring young people. Bibb Mt. Zion Baptist Church received $23,000 for the Middle Georgia Mentorship Alliance, which connects churches, schools, nonprofits, businesses and public agencies, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Heart of Georgia received the same amount for its Big Futures program. Central Georgia CASA received $20,000 for two purposes: recruiting and training volunteer advocates, and expanding support for teenagers. The station reported that other awards went to Scouting and girls’ programs in Bibb County, a planned men’s transitional home, help for survivors of domestic violence and people experiencing homelessness, and meals for homebound seniors.

One recipient, Joining Our Youth, received $20,000 for its after-school program in Macon’s Davis Village community, according to 41NBC. The program opened June 1 and serves 50 children from kindergarten through eighth grade. The children get dinner there Monday through Thursday, along with homework help and learning activities. Its leader, Deborah Boatwright, told 41NBC the grant will buy iPads and charging equipment to help the youngest students build reading skills. She also told the station, “we just opened officially June 1st. And we’ve had problem with getting funding. So this is going to help us a lot.”

A social media post sharing local coverage of the awards connected them to ongoing concern about youth violence in Macon-Bibb. The 41NBC report did not link the grants to any violence figures, and it did not say how recipients were chosen or how results will be measured.

Our reflection

Fifty children in Davis Village have a place to go on a Monday afternoon, with dinner and an adult looking over their homework. Until last week, the woman holding that together was four months in, and by her own account funding had been a problem. In our work, the hours between the last bell and dark are the ones we worry about most. The people standing in that gap are often running on folding tables and faith.

I keep coming back to a scene in Mark 10. Parents bring their children to Jesus, and the disciples rebuke them. These were not cruel men. They were triaging. Jesus had teaching to do and a road to Jerusalem ahead of him, and children looked like an interruption to the serious work. Mark says Jesus was indignant. Then he took the children in his arms and blessed them.

I see myself in those disciples. Most of us pay attention to young people after something goes wrong. A shooting gets a vigil and cameras. An ordinary afternoon when a first grader sat at a table learning to read gets nothing. Waiting for a crisis before we show up is its own way of hindering children, and we do it with public budgets and with our own calendars. Jesus does not leave us in shame over it. He corrects us and shows us where to stand, and here, repentance shows up on a calendar.

Macon is showing what that can look like. A church is using its grant to link congregations with schools and public agencies so more young people have mentors. CASA is recruiting volunteers to stand with more children and teenagers. I will say the hard part plainly: a grant can buy iPads, but it cannot buy the grown man who shows up every Tuesday for three years. That has to be given. Our JCVI work at We The Revolt rests on the same conviction. You reach a young person at first contact, before a record exists, and you stay. We serve a Savior who walked out of a grave, so we refuse to believe that any child in Davis Village, or on your street, is already decided.

Here is the ask for this week. Find out how your city or county funds youth prevention, and ask the people who decide. Then put your own name down to mentor one young person. We will help you start.

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Mark 10:14

Source: 41NBC News | WMGT-DT, “Community Foundation awards $350,050 in grants to Middle Georgia nonprofits”