Addressing needs

Josh Roe had a both vision and a mission when he launched Spokane Youth for Christ in August 2002.

But as he says, “we had a lot of vision and not a lot of resources at the time.” Four-plus years of hard work have allowed Roe and his staff to come a long way.

“Basically, we launched YFC in August of 2002. I like to say out of the trunk of my car. That’s about all we had,” according to Roe.

The trunk of a car has morphed into a wonderful facility that is doing its utmost to make changes in the lives of young people in Spokane’s troubled West Central neighborhood.

Youth For Christ will host both city and neighborhood officials on Wednesday to show them exactly what YFC has accomplished – and more so, perhaps, what the organization plans to do in the future with continued community support.

The real focus of that gathering will be to show off the new 1,800-square-foot classroom and lab that offer an after school tutoring program.

“This is my biased opinion, but I think we did a pretty bang-up job on the building,” Roe said.

The YFC vision has been to come into high-poverty neighborhoods around our city and develop a model that would have typically three key components, Roe said.

Roe’s model, which he’d like to duplicate in other similar areas of the city, includes finding a strategically located building that serves as a youth center where YFC conducts its ministry. That came when Bill and Barbara Bates of Bates Pharmacy donated the building, a 7,000-square-foot warehouse to serve as the center.

Roe’s flagship West Central headquarters is at 1309 N. Ash St.

Another part of Roe’s puzzle is staffing.

“In August 2003 we launched out first neighborhood ministry house with four college-age women living there together,” Roe said

“This January we added a second house. Now we have a men’s and women’s house.”

The YFC staff has really taken ownership in its mission according to Roe.

“Eighteen YFC staff or leaders either have purchased or rent homes in the neighborhood,” Roe said.

Finally came initiating programs that fit the neighborhood needs. That has been an enormous success.

“We started with eight kids in a living room in August 2003,” Roe said. “Now we have 350 kids on mailing list.”

How has the program grown so rapidly?

“This will sound kind of corny, but it’s location, location, location,” Roe said. Roe added that we “planted in a needy area where kids don’t have much.”

Roe, 31, graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 1994 and from Western Washington University in 2000. He and his wife live in the West Central neighborhood.

YVC offers a whole range of programs that target the needs of West Central kids ages 11 to 19.

Roe pointed out that there is a national statistic that says the highest instances of drug and alcohol abuse, misdemeanor crime, sexual misconduct and violent victimization all happen between the hours of 2:30 and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

YFC responded to combat that with the Youth Center and an after school drop-in program that, “is growing out of control (in a good way),” according to Roe. The program offers a few programmed activities, but it is really just a place to “come in hang out and have a safe place to stay out of trouble.”

“The “nutshell version” of what we do is to develop the spiritual, emotional, educational and physical potential of at-risk young people that live in poverty,” Roe said.

One of the structured programs at YFC is known as Club. It’s another after-school program, but one that targets a true specific need in the community.

Roe explained that six “meal teams” from area churches come to the center, where they prepare and serve a much needed home-cooked meal for 90 kids.

“This is a huge need,” Roe said. “Kids coming to Club program were hungry.”

YFC is 100 percent locally funded, said Roe, who has seen his focus change from leading the ministry to finding the funding to keep the program alive.

“I still have my hands personally in ministry,” Roe said

He works with a small group breakout each week, “investing in eight to ten seventh-graders.

“It’s challenging but the right age to get them,” Roe said.

The demographic of the West Central area lends itself perfectly to the YFC mission, according to Roe. The neighborhood competes back and forth with an area on Washington’s west side in the unenviable statistic of having the highest per capita poverty rate in the state.

Despite a recent extensive story on the mushrooming gang problem in the area, Roe said YFC has “not been run over by the gangs.”

Roe said YFC staff members see some kids who are gang members and a lot of brothers and sisters of gang members. The center’s “ownership” element – more of a junior high ministry at this point – was established long ago and has been successful at self-policing the gangs.

“Gang-oriented kids come in here, and there are more little kids,” Roe said. “We’ve done this for four years. We are keenly aware of what goes on.

“We watch for drug stuff and gang activity and make sure it is not going on.”

Roe,said he is “one hundred percent confident” his staff knows how to manage the kids.

YFC has four full-time paid staff members and a “whole gaggle of volunteers,” as Roe describes his many college-age helpers.

And while YFC’s focus may be helping neighborhood kids, it is also a great training ground for students in various social program studies. Roe said he works closely with all area colleges.