Impacting Youth in the Sugar Towns

The dining hall was alive with conversation. To a quiet observer, Creole, Spanish and English could be picked out among the many guests who were enjoying new friends and indulging in traditional Honduran foods.

But the guests were here for more than friendly conversation and good food. They gathered at the Hotel Villas del Valle in Valle de Angeles, Honduras to talk about helping young people in many contexts, including those youth who live in the sugar towns of the Dominican Republic.

More than 80 people representing 11 countries and eight Christian Reformed Church agencies met at the hotel from August 5-9 for the third Latin America Administrative Council (LAAC) assembly.

Participants traveled from Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Romania and the US. They convened in Honduras with hopes of sharing about the work they do with youth and learning about the strategies of other participants.

The LAAC assembly was established in 2002, and is a committee of representatives from  Back to God Ministries International, Calvin College, Calvin Theological Seminary, Faith Alive Christian Resources, Christian Reformed Home Missions, Office of Race Relations, World Renew and Christian Reformed World Missions.

This year’s assembly was titled, “Violence and Social Breakdown: The Redemptive Role of Today’s Youth.” Those in attendance learned about IMPACT Clubs, a youth development program that was pioneered by the staff of New Horizons Foundation (NHF) in post-communist Romania.

The Association for a More Just Society (ASJ) implemented IMPACT clubs in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 2009, and participants heard from Carlos Hernandez, co-founder of ASJ and director of Transformemos Honduras.

Robert and Betty Wood, who attended the assembly, are part of the  World Missions team in the Dominican Republic, and their ministry focuses on youth in the sugar cane villages.

“These kids work in the batey (company town for the sugar workers) and have nothing to do, so they go to the city where they no longer have their families. That is when they join gangs,” said Robert Wood.

But if they are able to train some of these young people using IMPACT, the Woods are hopeful the youth “can learn to be active citizens in their communities,” said Robert Wood.

The challenge for people like Robert and Betty Wood and their counterparts in Latin America will be figuring out how best to implement IMPACT Clubs or similar strategies where they work.

On the one hand, issues facing youth in Romania are also affecting young people in Latin America.

But since drug addiction and violence are especially prevalent in Latin American countries, there was discussion as to how IMPACT would best translate into that society.

Dana Bates and Dave Nonnemacher were keynote speakers for the assembly. Bates is the founder and executive director of New Horizons Foundation Romania, and Nonnemacher serves New Horizons as the Director of International Development and also directs New Horizons Foundation-USA, the sector of NHF established in the US to support the work in Romania.

Throughout the three-day conference, Bates and Nonnemacher presented information on Foundations of IMPACT, IMPACT experience in Romania, IMPACT in North America and Tools for IMPACT Clubs.

These clubs are designed to address the problems that youth around the globe are facing today — lack of connection to God’s word, the need for stronger leadership training and the strife between the church and culture.

Participants learned the two goals of IMPACT Clubs, which include developing social capital both within clubs and between clubs and the community, and developing problem-solving capacity. In a post-communist country such as Romania, citizens have a learned mistrust of society. IMPACT seeks to build up trust in youth.

The clubs accomplish this through adventure education, community-service learning and personal reflection. They develop youth-centered projects that are active, holistic and ultimately focus on empowering youth to serve as agents of change in their communities.

Through IMPACT Club meetings and projects, the youth learn responsibility, cooperation, service and problem-solving skills that will better prepare them to be leaders in their community.

 Participants said the assembly challenged them to think differently about how they can reach youth.

“I hope to take back a new way of thinking about youth ministry. Most of how we approach kids is as consumers, and we don’t really maximize their potential as producers in society,” said Kyle Lim, marketing and fundraising coordinator at Tall Turf Ministries in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“One of the focuses of this conference was to connect North and Central America,” said Roland Hoksbergen, director of the International Development program at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“Issues like violence and drug trafficking and our problems in the US are all intertwined. We need to meet each other, appreciate each other, and work together.”