This vision for a local student center/community center began in 2013 at a conference in Gilbert, AZ. Since then, life has unfolded with its joys and challenges — marriage, the arrival of babies, career shifts, trauma, and even an unexpected relocation to Colorado. Through it all, every experience, whether painful or triumphant, has shaped the blueprint you see here on the right. It's been a journey of understanding, guided by divine purpose.
Today, I invite you to embark on this journey with me—a journey where every twist and turn has led to this mission field. As we look at my simple sketch of the vision planted in my heart years ago, I am filled with hope and anticipation for what lies ahead.
Together, we will explore how the Holy Spirit will move in this space, touching lives and transforming hearts. Stay tuned as I share my passion for these students and our community. Below, you'll find a glimpse of the services we envision offering, not only to our young men but to everyone who walks through our doors.
While we haven't mapped out every detail yet, we trust in prayer for guidance and provision with every step we take forward.
Here are ways you can join me in faith:
Please pray for provision in finances. We need a space to begin the work with youth and funds to support our staff.
Please pray for the right team to join us at the right time.
Please pray for the permits, licenses, and background checks required for working with youth.
Please pray for connections with local schools and community agencies interested in partnering with us to transform the future of our city.
Raising Highly Capable Kids™
Raising Highly Capable Kids (RHCK) is a 13-week evidence-based parenting program developed to build stronger families by empowering parents with the confidence, tools, and skills they need to raise healthy, caring, and responsible children.
Our program increases parents’ knowledge and skill level of the essential building blocks every child needs — the 40 Developmental Assets from Search Institute, which are proven to increase childhood resiliency and academic achievement.
Community Presentations & Lessons
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Help fellow parents or community members stay informed about the youth vaping epidemic and prevention efforts by hosting an educational presentation. This presentation provides basic information about e-cigarettes & vaping products, the extent of the youth vaping epidemic, short- and long-term effects of vaping, and explains how to engage in your community, including how CATCH My Breath can help schools.
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CATCH My Breath is an evidence-based1 youth nicotine vaping prevention program that will provide your students with the skills to resist peer pressure and media influences to try e-cigarettes. The sessions can be taught during a normal class period, during homeroom, student enrichment time, after-school, or at other non-school activities and clubs.
The program is designed to help students:
Discover that non-use of e-cigarettes is the norm for adolescents
Identify reasons why young people might start using e-cigarettes
Recognize the subtle, and not so subtle, messages in e-cigarette advertising
Practice skills for resisting peer pressure and advertising pressure to use e-cigarettes
Decide on their personal reasons not to use e-cigarettes and set goals for future non-use
“We can’t keep suspending students expecting them to come back to campus “fixed”, we need to be the adults and show them a new way. How they restore these situations is on us to teach them.”
Education Equipped Community Center (still in dream and vision mode!)
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Redemption
Transforming Lives with Academic Support and Personal Growth. Our ministry offers a second chance to young men who have faced challenges like suspension or expulsion. We need to start digging deeper into why these events occurred in the first place and how do we compassionately walk through this difficult process with these young men? Through this ministry we are dedicated to academic tutoring, restorative practices, and daily counseling, while navigating communication and a partnership with home and school. As a team we will explore how we model Christian values into every aspect of our program to inspire hope, foster resilience, and guide our students toward a brighter future.
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Restoration
Our community-centered approach focuses on restoring relationships and pathways for young men who have experienced setbacks in traditional education. Beyond academic lessons during school hours, our students engage in hands-on learning such as gardening, wilderness survival skills, and entrepreneurial ventures like running our café and thrift store.
The activities offered by Education Equipped provide students with a diverse range of skills that are valuable both personally and professionally:
> Gardening
> Wilderness Survival Skills
> Mechanics
> Entrepreneurial Ventures (Café and Thrift Store)
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Revival
Our mission goes beyond education—it's about revival. By integrating faith-based values and practical skills training, we ignite a revival in the hearts and minds of our students and their families. In addition to academic support and entrepreneurial opportunities, our after-school programs offer a variety of workshops and mentoring sessions. These include parent workshops covering topics like positive parenting, digital safety, and substance prevention, empowering families to support their children effectively.
> Raising Highly Capable Kids™
> CATCH My Breath: Empowering youth to live vape-free through knowledge & behavior.
> Dads on Duty (mentorship)
> Art and Mind: How to Build Social-Emotional Habits Through the Creative Arts
> Suicide and the Christian Response: Recognize the Signs and Respond
Trauma stewardship is the imperfect, messy practice of lamenting with others and helping them walk a difficult road.
— KELLY SIMPSON
Interested in Partnering with us or volunteering?
Let us know! Contact Sharon here.