Born in March of 2020, We Love White County is a 501(c)(3) non-profit looking to transform the community through cultivating relationships. One of the ways they’re achieving that is through the organization’s Arrows program for 6th – 12th graders. Cooper Thompson, Ashley Elliott, and one of the successful students who’s been a part of the program since its inception, were guests at Thursdays Carmi Kiwanis luncheon.
Thompson serves as the Arrows Executive Director and had this to say about the non-profit’s origins and secret to sustainability.
Now its true that identifying and addressing immediate material insecurities is one component of the organization’s community engagement. But I think it would be a mistake to class We Love White County primarily as a material outreach ministry. In other words, the organization wasn’t formed primarily as a solution to physical problems in the community, but rather as an expression of the conviction that number one, every individual and family is in need of the hope of the gospel…number two, that gospel has the power to transform a community and affect positive generational change…and number three, relationships are the primary context for sharing the truth of the gospel.
The after-school program provides academic support, emotional enrichment, and guided Christian fellowship.
Elliott, a volunteer with WLWC for years, has moved into the Program Director role with Arrows this year. When it began, Arrows started with one director, two coaches, two to three volunteers and ten kids. Over the last half decade, it’s seen growth.
Today, we have one director, five coaches and a student coach, and twelve other volunteers consisting of people who provide snacks for when the kids get out of school, transportation home for the kids if they need it, and we also have a couple high school volunteers that come after school and help with homework. We now have twenty-five students and we’re still working on getting a couple more 6th graders.
Elliott says luckily, they have a great relationship with many in the school system and get recommendations from social workers, teachers, or administrators. From there, WLWC talks to the students and their families to gauge interest in participation.
Aaliyah says when she joined Arrows, she was struggling with some family issues and had lost her way in faith. What she found was fellow students who even though they came from different situations, were able to lean on each other and grow their faith together.
So where do the leaders hope their “Arrows” land? The aim, according to Thompson is…
…to develop students into members of the community that can positively contribute. That’s why we do academics, emotional, and spiritual enrichment because we feel like those three components really develop students into young adults who can then contribute positively. And that’s why we wanted to bring Aaliyah because we think she’s a great example of what that looks like.
You can learn more about We Love White County, Arrows, and other outreach programs on the organization’s website www.welovewhitecounty.org.