Youth For Christ Dallas-Fort Worth: Accomplishing Their Mission Through Juvenile Justice, Parent Life and City Life Ministries
DALLAS, Texas — YFC Dallas-Fort Worth accomplishes its mission with two current and one upcoming local ministry programs: Juvenile Justice Ministries, Parent Life and City Life.
Each day, Youth For Christ Dallas-Fort Worth (YFC, www.yfc.net), reaches local young people everywhere, working together with the local church and other like-minded partners to raise up lifelong followers of Jesus who lead by their godliness in lifestyle, devotion to the Word of God and prayer, passion for sharing the love of Christ and commitment to social involvement.
The Juvenile Justice Ministry reaches young people in a variety of youth-serving institutions such as detention centers and probation programs. Mentoring relationships are built and sustained through ongoing involvement as teens re-enter their communities and Juvenile Justice Ministry staff and volunteers are committed to connections that last long after the teens have left the facility.
“There is a huge disparity around Juvenile Justice Ministry and the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” explained LaToyia Dennis, executive director at YFC Dallas-Fort Worth. “We have more than 10,000 kids arrested annually in the area and those 10,000 kids come from 10 zip codes. That is significant with very little programming addressing the juvenile justice need in the area – we are grateful that YFC Dallas-Fort Worth offers this as one of our programs.”
Parent Life reaches expectant and parenting teens and their children through intentional relationships with trained adults and community partnerships, empowering the teens to make good choices and encouraging them to further their education and move toward independent living and become life-long followers of Jesus Christ.
“It is incredibly important to encourage the teens in the Parent Life ministry program, because while they’re moms, they’re also teens,” explains Rhonda Lewis, ministry director at YFC Dallas-Fort Worth. “That can be challenging for anyone – and at a certain age these girls may not have all the skillset yet. So being able to come in and help walk with them through that process is always a blessing.”
City Life is an effective ministry model to transform the lives of urban youth, their families and the communities that they live in. The City Life model gives a strategic way to pursue every young person in urban communities through relational, holistic, community-based ministry. YFC Dallas-Fort Worth strives to see deep change in an urban neighborhood through the raising of indigenous leaders from the young people in that community and empower urban youth to change their community for Christ. Working together with local leaders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area from the church, non-profit sector, schools and marketplace…it is YFC Dallas-Fort Worth’s hope to provide this City Life ministry for kids in under-resourced neighborhoods in the coming year.
YFC has chapters impacting thousands of communities across the nation that seek out and serve youth from all walks of life. Many teens are silently struggling through a variety of challenging issues—and now they see the living power of a loving God.
Youth For Christ staff and volunteers are encouraged by the YFC 3Story® concept, which is based on the belief that kids will be reached for Christ when met at their point of need—and as workers connect their stories with Jesus’s story. The ministry efforts of Youth For Christ are changing lives, one young person at a time.
Youth For Christ encourages staff and volunteers to be good news while also sharing the stories of the Good News of Jesus. It involves building relationships through the ups and downs of everyday life in order to lead people to Christ. For more information, visit yfc.net.
Youth For Christ has been a pillar of missional ministry since 1944, when the Rev. Billy Graham served as YFC’s first full-time staff member. Since then, Youth For Christ has continued to be both a rural and urban ministry on mission, and it is always about the message of Jesus. YFC reaches young people everywhere, working together with the local church and other like-minded partners to raise up lifelong followers of Jesus who lead by their godliness in lifestyle, devotion to the Word of God and prayer, passion for sharing the love of Christ, and commitment to social involvement. Youth For Christ operates in over 100 nations and has more than 160 chapters that impact communities across America.
To learn more about what Youth For Christ is doing in Texas, visit www.yfc.net/texas
Visit the Youth For Christ media page here. Learn more about Youth For Christ at its website, www.yfc.net, Facebook and Instagram pages, Twitter feed @yfcusa or on Vimeo.
