How to Start an Inner City Youth Ministry

The purpose of an inner city youth ministry is to reach teens before they get into trouble or are incarcerated. Inner city youths are statistically more prone to delinquency, truancy and other bad avenues. Churches are scrambling to start these youth organizations in order to get these high risk teenagers before trouble finds them.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Church organization
• Youth leader
• Police liaison
• Donated video games, television sets and computers

1. Go to your youth minister and discuss the topic of a youth ministry to be set up for inner city youths who may or may not be parishioners of your church.
2. Along with the youth minister, search out other persons in your church, such as teachers, counselors and others who have had experience dealing with troubled youths or teenagers in general.
3. Take your idea to the pastor and see if the parish council would be willing to listen to your idea by way of your pastor.
4. Once approval is obtained, seek out volunteers who would be willing to chaperone after school programs or sports programs.
5. Look for the donations of some video equipment and games which can be hooked up to a donated television in your church basement. Also seek out the donations for donated computers that can be used as training centers for the youths involved.
6. Contact the chaplain of your local police department if there is one. If not, use an officer who works with teenagers to be the coordinator who can arrange for inmates to talk to the youths.

Tips & Warnings

• Generally once this project is ongoing, many new programs pop up as they are needed.
• Any way you look at it, this is one project where it will take a village to raise its children.