City Life's Involvement with South Side Continues to Flourish with Recent Events
By Alice Kauffman
March 9, 2023
City Life's Involvement with South Side Continues to Flourish with Recent Events
By Alice Kauffman (9)
alice.kauffman@fwcsstudents.org
March 9, 2023
People are constantly buzzing about the organization City Life. Students are hearing about leaders, teachers, events, and games going on here, all throughout the day. Many kids at South Side, especially freshmen, might be a bit out of the loop on what this is.
Keishyia Lockett (10) said, “My sister used to go here, so I came. I’ve been coming since freshman year. Learning new things and meeting new people are reasons for me to come.”
City Life is located across the street from South Side. Students meet on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but Friday focuses more on events happening at the school (sports, plays, etc.) On Thursday’s, City Life also features their basketball league which is called “Better Together”. Being apart of this atmosphere is free, and you can ask the City Life Director for South Side High School, Mario White, for more information on joining in.
City Life is a part of the ministry “Youth For Christ” (YFC). While they incorporate a lot of their work with faith, they also separate away from it when it comes to school. YFC is considered a holistic program, which strays away from the same mindset at regular high schools. This means that while they value and spend time on education, they also make sure to acknowledge mental health, and having fun. It means to think about the person as a whole, and everything that goes into their lives. Here, they have five specific things that they stick by.
“We go into civic literacy, meaning we give them opportunities to serve in the community. You learn things about being a good citizen. We have financial literacy, educational success, basic health and safety, and spiritual and moral literacy (connecting your life and story to God’s story.) Looking at the question, how do we integrate faith into who we are as a whole person," explained Amy Binkley (Urban Ministry Director).
Each day, they start their time together with a little bit of free time. Everyone comes to the building, checks in at the door, and then goes into either the gym or the study rooms. Everyone gets adjusted, and then they form something called a “power circle”, where everyone circles up and they go over the plans for the day. Kids end up playing basketball, socializing, doing homework, and splitting up around the building.
“Everyday we have different opportunities. We call them Special Opps. Outside of just hanging out, we have Man Up, Leading Ladies, and things where people can go in and talk about life issues. We integrate faith into real life situations, and things happening in different lives. It’s neat to see how when you give kids space to open up, talk, share, you never know where it will go. It gives them a kind of safe place to open up. We make treats, donuts, we always kind of mix in food, and we have financial literacy meetings. There’s a partnership tonight actually, with The Three Rivers Credit Union. We will talk about banking, saving, and advice like that. Along with this, we do college visits,” says Binkley.
Aside from all the activities that go on after school hours, they also have incredible fundraisers and trips outside of school days.
“We did a community ‘Be the Light Night’. We invite other people in the community to experience time slowing down in the pace of life, with soul searching and reflection. There’s also going to be a spring break trip to Florida, which we have been talking about recently.”
Students can meet up right after school to begin cooking dinner for the high schoolers. Middle school kids eat before them, and at 5:45, the older ones meet up to share a meal. Their saying is, “In my family, we all eat!”
“We all grind together, we all do things together, we always have each other’s backs,” says Brandy Martin (10).
“Family meals are a big component of what we do. More so about the relationship and connections that can happen by eating a meal together,” exclaimed Binkley.
“During the pandemic there was an education crisis that was going on nationwide. My friend told me about some opportunities to help with education, I was just here to help students take a pivot from being behind in lots of credits. Now, I’m all about networking. After school I oversee studying tables, I talk to people about what’s going on in their lives, and provide tutoring,” says Holistic Coordintor, Alexia Martin.
Lot’s of teenagers learn to prioritize their school work here, and Martin is a huge part of what is essentially the education department. Even on Thursday’s, when the basketball league is in motion, they continue to have study groups.
City Life is also a hotspot for interns to go and learn about social work. They currently have an intern studying at Indiana University who learned about it from her academic advisor.
“I started here in August 2022. I help out with middle school educational success, and high school. I fill in at the front desk when needed,” IU Social Work Intern, Sarah Rayle said.
YFC is a positive environment that is quickly growing around Fort Wayne, and there’s always something new happening. As they continue to advance, more schools are getting involved, and it’s a great way to meet kids at South Side. Students, listen on the announcements each morning to hear about anything going on at City Life.
Martin helps out kids during a study group before everyone eats. (Photo by Alice Kauffman)
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