For the last 3 years Lighthouse has been working on a youth

development framework that will change forever out approach and work.

This summer has been filled

with many sleepless nights, heavy work weeks, frustration, and huge

answers to prayer. We have moved

into our new office, found almost free office furniture,, expanded our

summer lunch program, and spent 9 months planning for an in school

tutoring and mentoring program.

These two new projects mark a significant step towards our new

youth development program. While both programs were part of a

long term vision, the doors opened

up much sooner than planned. It has been a mad dash to get things

together so that we could launch for this school year.

Character Groups: To start,

we are excited about a partnership

that has started in our community with City Life and Youth for Christ

to offer character education classes to all incoming freshman at East

Tech. We teach 9 classes a week for

the entire school year. As we take the time to invest in these students,

in four years, we will have a relationship with every student in

the school.

Sylvan Tutoring The second step that marks a major step toward

bringing transformation to the lives

of our students is a partnership with Sylvan Learning Center. This is a

critical step to change the 36% graduation rate in Cleveland

Schools. We are training 35

volunteer tutors to offer one on one tutoring three hours a week for 30

students. We expect to move the average ninth grader from a 4th

grade level to 6th grade year one

and at grade level by graduation. The tutoring takes place during the

day and is specialized to meet the

needs of each individual students needs..

School is in session:

Lighthouse Inc.SUMMER 2009 SUMMER AND FALL UPDATES

Basketball Expansion In

addition to the in school programs,

we are a l so expanding our basketball program to focus on the

needs of 7th and 8th grade boys. There is a increased focus on skill

development and fitness of each

player while creating a team culture of discipline. We will also plan on

a d d i n g b o t h t u t o r i n g a n d mentoring components to support

the development of our athletes.

Our plan is to travel to at least 7 tournaments all over the U.S.

Lighthouse hires two new staff with a youth focus.

Lighthouse Staff and students take a road trip to Washington D.C. to spend some time together, and to pick up an entire office full of furniture.

It has been a crazy summer.Lonnie Burton Locker Room

Thanks to many volunteers and generous donors, we have been

able to rehab the locker rooms at Lonnie Burton Rec. This allows

our community to secure their

belongings while at the center.

Lighthouse Office Furniture

Etreev, a DC area non profit

helped us equip our office with all the furniture we needed to get our

new office up and running. This

was a $30,000 blessing. If we can find a color copier, we will be set.

C h a r a c t e r G r o u p s a r e started.

We have hosted the first weeks of Character classes at East Tech.

The 270 students are getting High School credit for the classes.

New Tutor Orientation

Mrs. Tucker has organized a team

of 35 tutors for this year. The school was blown away to see 35

volunteers show up to the orientation. Training gets started

the first of October.

U p c o m i n g V i s i t s t o Heaventrain.

Lighthouse continues to host

introduction events on Saturdays.

This is a great way to learn more about what we do, and to see our

team in action. Please schedule a visit.

Jonnie Fine and Sellars Johnson bring a new

flavor and focus to the Lighthouse Youth

Development plan.

Jonnie Fine: Jonnie is one

of the most successful urban

youth workers you will ever find. He is the City Life director for

YFC in Cleveland and has been hired to help

Create a youth

d e v e l o p m e n t p r o g r a m f o r

H e a v e n t r a i n Kids that are

growing up. He

i s c o a c h i n g Sellears to create

a strong program at East Tech and

at Lonnie Burton Recreation

Center.

Sellars Johnson: A former

Heaventrain Kid, this up and

c o m i n g G o s p e l R a p p e r, understands life on streets and is a

l i v ing te s t imony o f God’s

faithfulness . He is a great example to our young men about

how a man of Character lives. He will lead the

C h a r a c t e r

groups at East Tech and an

a f t e r s c h o o l Club at the rec

center. He is

l o o k i n g f o r volunteers to

help staff these activities.

Look what happens when we all work together.

Multiple groups, working together, make

a big impact on the Community.

It all started with a Soccer c a m p l a s t s p r i n g . T h e

C l e ve l a n d C i t y S t a r s a n d Lighthouse Inc. partnered with

CMHA and the cities Recreation department to host a soccer camp

for elementary students. During

the event, a gentleman asked, how can I help? The center manager

explained that he was frustrated with the locker rooms, they were

old and in bad shape, kids and

adults did not want to come to the center in fear their belongings

would be stolen. He felt if was a big barrier to making a deeper

impact on the community and he

felt fixing this simple problem would have long lasting results.

Just so happens: Funny

thing is that the man that he was

talking to was an executive for Hadrian, one of the largest

manufactures of lockers in the world. He made a couple of calls

and it was done.

We had to hop to it, and get some volunteers ready to tear our

the old Lockers, the team from Cherry Valley CON and a few

volunteers from the community

worked with the Lonnie Burton Staff to tear out the old lockers. A

team of volunteers from Hadrian came for two days and made sure

the lockers were installed. To top

it all off, Sherwin Williams donated the paint, Dependable Painting

prepped and painted, and Lake Erie Electric donated the fixtures

and electrical work. Long story

short, the kids are using the new lockers

Our office is now functioning.

We got some first class office furniture and had a chance to build some memories with some young men that are sure to last a lifetime.

A blessing can turn into a burden and often times a new

opportunity brings new challenges. That was the case this spring when

Lighthouse moved into our new office. What we found is that a new 2600 sq. ft office, takes a lot of furniture. And that if your staff does not have

the tools to work, the office does not function.

Huge answer to prayer came when an office in D.C. donated

everything we needed to get set up. We grabbed a board member, a few

staff, and a handful of kids and took a road trip. a 26 foot box truck later and we had an office filled with very nice office furniture. We had a

chance to spend some quality time with a group a great young men and

our office was up and running. Special thanks to the Medina CON VBS kids who raised the money for the trip, and BedNaz for moving us in.

On the Mic with Mike.Some thoughts from the Blog of a Heaventrain Kid.

Have you ever just sat back and reflected on what your life has been so far? Frequently i find myself doing this; wondering what could’ve been if ida done things differently or better; but the thing that really made me think was when my father moved from Euclid. We’d moved there when i was 12, and i lived there for the first two years. I remember my aunty nessa whenever i was there

i mean, it brought back so many memories….have you ever had a place make you sit down and reflect on everything? it rekindles pain, resparks fire, relights light……but like that song that i was listening to while helping my father pack, the old me is dead and gone and its time to look forward.

1360 East 9th Street Suite 200Cleveland, Ohio 44113