Al's Outreach Outtakes

About once per month I, along with members from multiple other churches and organizations in the area, get together with staff and students at Beaverton High School (BHS). The purpose of this “Community Partners” meeting is to learn what needs the students at BHS might have and how we, collectively, might be able to help. While the needs of the homeless/housing insecure students takes most of our meeting time, needs of the general student population are also discussed. At our most recent meeting topics included the spring food drive (130 students received food bags for spring break week), general student mentoring, graduation, homeless graduation support and trauma awareness. With several of these topics, preliminary planning is occurring.  
 
For those of you who have an interest in learning more about the affects that trauma can have on children, both in learning and their life in general, Beaverton High School will be hosting a  Community Night with a special screening of the movie Resilience followed by a presentation by a local expert, Dr. Amy Stover. More information will follow, but mark your calendars for  Wednesday, May 15th. It proves to be a highly informative evening.

We are also exploring ways to celebrate the success of this year’s  graduates who have dealt with housing insecurity along the way. High school is tough enough; throw in not knowing where you are going to sleep tonight or where your next meal is going to come from and the possibility of graduation becomes exponentially more difficult. Plans are being formed now and I hope to have more information in the next bulletin. Please watch for that and please pray for all of those students who will be graduating soon.