Student Paper Sample
Gunshots, murders, gang banging, and drugs are the things that come up to a person’s mind when you ask them to describe the city of Oakland. During decades, Oakland has been seen as the ugly step sister of the bay area. People get killed almost every single day; you cannot turn on the local news without hearing how someone got killed due to gang or drug related violence. There is a lot of people who want change in Oakland but just don’t know how to achieve that. People sometimes don’t even try to promote change because there is no one to back them up. Church of God in Oakland has been rising up to make that change which people are so eager to see, especially to aid the youth.
My church makes youth events every other Friday night and Saturday mornings in order to distract the youth and prevent them doing other things that will get them into trouble. For example, we make talent shows on Friday nights to encourage Oakland’s youth that they have so many other positive things in them and they have to let show. We also make barbecues Saturday mornings to give some time for the youth to open up. Many of them have been taught to be tough because they have had a rough child hood and have had negative influences in their lives so we do these barbecues and get together in order to motivate young women and men to change their mindset and in the long run their lives. Throughout these activities we have noticed that it is hard for some of the girls to express themselves with guys around so we thought of what we could do in order to talk to them in private.
We opened an all-girl club in order to talk to the girls about life as women. My mom is the leader in that club. She opened this little club in order to talk to young women about life in Oakland and being a young lady. A lot of the girls open up way easier when there is no male pressure to look good or say things right. My mom tries to encourage the ladies to push hard to pursue their dreams in a world that is mostly male dominated. She tries to help the girls with their own problems like depression, physical insecurity, family problems, and relationship questions. This group has really worked a lot and has been a positive thing towards the girls. The staff noticed that guys also feel uncomfortable talking about personal issues when they have girls listening so they had the idea to also do something for them.
The youth leader gathers all the boys and takes them for a day of basketball on the weekends. The intent for this activity is to make boys get to know each other during the game so when it is time to talk about certain things the guys feel good to express themselves and not feel shy or weird talking to a bunch of strangers. Male youth leaders are in charge of giving the guys a reflection on life and answer to the best of their ability any questions that the guys might have and advise them on what they should do in a certain issue whether it is relationships, family, male insecurities, male pressure etc. This activity as well as the female club has been a really big help toward the youth in order to counsel them. This is the only time when we divide guys and girls but besides that, all the activities are together because what would a camp day be without your best guy or girl-friend.
Last but certainly not least, we make a youth camp one time a year. We reserve a camping ground near Fresno CA, where the sun is shining and the weather is warm, this way we are able to enjoy most tof the activites that are offered. This is a spiritual event so there is prayer time and a little bible study including a reflection every day twice a day, once in the morning and another in the evening. The objective of this retreat is to show the youth a different type of life that is offered when people try. This major event is to also show that it is ok to be different and it's ok to not like to drink or smoke. The reflections given to the youth is usually from a youth pastor or youth leader that once went though the same things that the youth goes through today. We try to choose those people that have had expirience with gangs, drugs, and alcohol, and that have been rehabilitated. They have the chance to give their testimonies to the youth so they can know that there is actually someone out there that understands them and went through the same thing that they might be going through at the time but turned out to be good people because they decided to change their lives. After that we are given a free speech time to kind of let everyone speak on their lives and what part of their lives they want to be different wether it is a drug problem, gambling, gangs, or other difficulties that might be dragging them down.
At the end of the day, everyone needs someone to lean on no matter how independent someone thinks they are. These youth activites have really been a blessing to peoples lives becasue they have found that there is still people that care about their lives and are willing to give a helping hand in order to help you better yourself. The most important thing is to let God be the center of your life and everything will work out for good. The youth is the future of tommorow and if we start providing the resources to help them Oakland can be the best city everyone is dreaming of. So how do we change Oakland? The truth is we dont change Oakland, we change ourselves.