Partners in Change Launches

Family Life Center has started the mentoring program in response to a decline in organized youth activities in many neighborhoods and a reduction in positive role models for youth.

The center, the nonprofit outreach arm of the Ekklesia Miami congregation, has launched the Partners in Change program for boy and girls ages 10-18 to help them overcome social and emotional challenges of growing up in single-parent or two-working-parent households.

“We’ve created a program that seeks to transform the lives of young people and improve the community at a time when delinquency involving young people is constantly highlighted in the media,” said Esperanza Martinez, executive director of Family Life Center, which also runs youth musical instrument classes, an English for Speakers of Other Language program, and other initiatives.

Funded by the Esperanza organization in Philadelphia, the Partners in Change program focuses on building lifelong relationships.

Just recently, a young man in the program without a father figure invited his mentor to an important senior year football game. He asked the mentor to walk him down the field and serve as his father figure. It was a powerful moment – while other students had their parents present, the young man was fortunate to have a mentor step in and play the role on a monumental day in his young life.

The mentees and mentors meet individually every two weeks and get together quarterly with other mentees and mentors in the program to attend movies, musicals, go out to dinner, and participate in other social functions. The goals for the youths are to improve their self-esteem, social skills, and relationships with their parents.

The program’s organizers are seeking Hispanic boys and girls from single- parent households, from immigrant families, or from parents who lack English language skills. They are also seeking volunteers to become mentors from the Kendall area.

To get involved in Partners in Change, contact program coordinator Betty Chavarria at 305-273-0028 ext. 112 or at bchavarria@thefamilylifecenter.org.