UPDATE

We restarted this ministry the first week of February 2007and it filled up on the very first day we opened the doors!  By the first week in March we had a waiting list. 

We've expanded the number of children we work with as God provided more volunteers.

We have doubled the number of children in KidCity since reopening after Katrina!

Summer Drama Camp

2009

For the first time since Katrina we made it back to a full three weeks of camp (9am-4pm).  This year we did the story of Moses and learned how we need to trust God even when we can't see how things will work out.  As we've seen for the past 4 years, God will make a way for us just like He did for His children back then.  We maxed out our capacity at 50 neighborhood children and 20 junior and senior counselors from our youth group. 

Fall 2008

Building on the success of last year we kicked off this fall with a flurry of new volunteers and lots of returning students. 

After school tutoring is in full swing and we now have more children than before Hurricane Katrina even though we are meeting in temporary facilities while we work on our building!

We eat snacks first, pray with and for the children, and then spread out for homework and tutoring.

At the end of the day we do crafts if we can't go outside.

Why do we do this?

Because, sometimes it is in the eyes of our children that you can see into the heart of God.  In His kingdom love sees no color.

Summer Drama Camps

Our three week Summer Camp for the neighborhood children is a way for us to minister to them, teach them, and model for them what Christ is like.  Each year we do a different Bible story and let them retell the story for their parents and friends in song, dance, and drama on the last night of camp.  As the kids get older, they can apply to be camp counselors joining with our teens to mentor the younger ones.

Our camp also allows us to stay in touch with our KidCity children and deepen relationships with their siblings and with children from Hollygrove. 

BACKGROUND

Kid City is a ministry of the Carrollton Avenue congregation designed to reach out to the childen of the church's immediate neighborhood.  It began in 2000 as an after school tutoring program for children in elementary school but soon expanded to include a Pioneer Kids club for 5th and 6th graders.  As test scores rose and word spread about our efforts, we had more children asking to be in the program than we had volunteers or computers. 

Relationships naturally developed between the children and the families at Carrollton, and we did not want to lose touch with the children during the summer, so a three week summer arts and drama camp evolved and became the highlight of the summer for us.  The focus of each summer's camp was the production of a show which the church, community, and especially the parents of the participants could attend.  This show gave our children, wearing costumes they made, dancing numbers they had learned, and acting in front of a set they helped paint, a chance to shine!  We believe that God blessed our congregation with the opportunity to serve our city's children and to reflect Christ's love to our community.  Even more than this, our congregation was enriched by the love and enthusiasm of the children who became a part of our church family through Kid City. 

The classrooms where we tutored and bonded with the children have been gutted, the computers are all lost, and the children are scattered across the Southern United States so we ask that you please pray for them and their families as they adjust to new lives and make decisions about the future.  We are now reaching out to a new group of 1st and 2nd graders as we rebuild this ministry. 

Above all else, we covet your prayers as Carrollton seeks to be Christ to the children returning to our neighborhood.