THE CHURCH
Fresh Start Christian Church in Jackson, Mississippi
THE CHALLENGE
Many working parents lack childcare when school is out.
ONE BIG IDEA
Give kids a safe place to go during the summer.
About a year after Fresh Start Christian Church opened its doors in 2004, members of the nondenominational church and its pastor, James Henley, Jr., observed a problem in their neighborhood.
“We noticed there were kids in the summer who were just sitting at home,” says Henley. “So, we said, ‘That’s a need, and we can fill it.’”
With the motto “Making Christ Visible” as their inspiration, in 2005 the church launched Summer Break, a free day care program to help working parents in the community. Today, the program is still going strong.
“We didn’t want to do a program that was half a day,” Henley explains, “because we felt it would do working parents little good.”
The program is open to the first 45 children who apply. The church promotes Summer Break in their bulletin and on Facebook, plus it is mentioned at the Wednesday night Bible study.
“Usually within a week and a half, all our spots are filled,” Henley says.
The church resides in what used to be a YMCA building complete with a gym, a kitchen and playground equipment, making it the perfect place to hold Summer Break. Youngsters ages five to 15 arrive at 7:30 a.m. and stay until 5:30 p.m., five days a week. Each day starts with a devotion, followed by academic tutoring, snacks, playtime, lunch and more educational activities.
The program has a theme of the week such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, sports or the arts. Coaches, artists and other professionals come in to teach special lessons based on the theme.
Two years after starting Summer Break, the church opened a Spring Break program to coincide with local schools’ spring time off.
According to Henley, “Sometimes people ask, ‘Why do you do this?’ and we say, ‘So you’ll know that God loves you because he made a way for your child to have somewhere to go this summer.”
