We are inevitably our brother’s keeper because we are our brother’s brother. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As we prepare to celebrate the holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his vision for a better world for all, we wanted to ask for prayer for the success of one of our newest service offerings: Open Table. We plan to launch our first table before the end of the year and we ask for your prayers over those that volunteer in this wonderful team mentoring ministry.
I recently read an article about mentoring youth who are aging out of foster care. There is a mentoring program run by the Department of Social Services in Wisconsin that is helping a few young people toward a more optimistic future. The article shared that 40% of youth who leave foster care having not found permanency are likely to become homeless, along with other bleak statistics around educational and employment outcomes. As an agency that puts a lot of resources into planning and permanency for the youth we serve in foster care, these statistics are an unacceptable reality. That is why we have decided to implement the Open Table team mentoring model as a part of our Good Samaritan Network program offerings.
Open Table is a faith-based, team mentoring program that helps young adults transitioning from foster care. Each Table is composed of a group of volunteers who make a one-year commitment to act as a team of life specialists, encouragers, and advocates. The Table members, together with the young adult being helped, establish goals, accountability, develop an overall plan and implement it. Table members network in their congregations and the community for resources to support the plan. As Tables end, they transition into an After Plan, through which they are able to remain in supportive community together.
While congregation members join Tables to help others, they soon realize they are changed forever by the relationships they create through missional community. In Open Table, relationship is mutual: love, healing, purpose, faith and transformation given by each other for each other. God gives everyone human potential and the Open Table model allows us all to use it to share lives of meaning with each other.