Youth Equipped to Serve | March 2019 E-Newsletter
Expose, Engage, Equip, Entrust.
These are the steps in the E4 Service Learning Method that guide every YES experience. Now you can join us every month as we highlight the journeys of young servant leaders across the country!
Expose: What Do We Learn On YES Trips? Organization Highlight – Phoenix Dream Center
Last year at the 1st Annual YES Servant Leadership Conference, we made a visit to the Phoenix Dream Center! The Dream Center Network was founded in 1994, and in 2006, Phoenix got a Dream Center of its own. They have one goal: “To find a need and fill it, to find a hurt and heal it”.
Their three main programs include Foster Care, Human Care, and Christian Recovery. They provide safe housing, spiritual nurture, and community engagement through their family systems model to change foster care and combat human trafficking in the state of Arizona. They also administer life-recovery classes and career training to combat addiction.
The Dream Center’s needs are specifically stated on their website, so parishes and businesses can host donation drives. They also do mission trips and can make customized t-shirts as well. Get connected and subscribe to their newsletter if you live in the area! What an amazing organization whose values correlate so well with ours here at YES!
Engage: Reflections From Participants
“The YES Servant Leadership Conference enabled my past experience of YES’s mission— from trips to debriefs— into an active servanthood that utilized the God-given talents of others and myself to lead in Love. By living our gifts together, we created a community with courage to foster a leadership that finds God in all things. For and with others, we prayerfully, practically, and positively developed our true human selves.
This experience revealed possibilities of living and leading that continue to transform my every day life.”
-Caroline Mellekas on The YES Servant Leadership Conference
Equip: Tools For Continued Service
YES Servant Leadership Conference Registration OPEN!
If You Are Seeking To…
- Serve others on a more consistent and deeper level
- Take initiative in addressing the needs of your community
- Connect to others and build meaningful relationships
- Discover your purpose and find the courage to live it out
…Then the YES Servant Leadership Conference is right for YOU!
Must have attended 1 YES event (weekend trip, college day, family day).
Contact Katrina Bitar for assistance with the cost of travel.
Entrust: YES Leaders in Action!
Spyridoula Fotinis – Her YES Journey
“We talk about experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, but how often are we actually blessed to experience it? The YES Leadership Conference was a taste of the Kingdom of Heaven. I have never experienced such a loving community of wonderful individuals, of all ages, coming together to grow as a family and as the body of Christ. We came united in our love and passion for serving our neighbors, and we left the weekend feeling whole, nurtured, and ready to serve even more because we were allowed to grow with each other in an environment of unwavering and Christ-filled support.
I had only experienced one YES College Day before going to the Leadership Conference and I did not think I was capable of being a leader. After the conference, I knew I wanted to serve as a leader, and soon, I was asked to join the team. I even helped lead a YES weekend soon after my training. All by the Grace of God. The Leadership Conference planted the seed that has allowed me to slowly keep blooming, because I am supported to discover and cultivate what God has put in my heart for me to share with my neighbor.”
– Spyridoula Fotinis on her YES journey