The V-word.

Volunteers. At the Herald Youth Center, we see them more as ministry partners. We strive to develop a vision for these partners for their personal calling, both short and long-term. It is our hope that we provide an environment that fosters spiritual development as effective Christian witnesses by serving the Chinatown community.

We also hope to include the volunteers to extend their vision and hope for the community by inviting them to help implement programs. Many of the partner/volunteers come with a certain degree of expertise in their fields and have contributed a great deal to our ministries.

A major focus and mission of the Herald Youth Center is to build up our volunteers. We are committed to developing fellowship and community and to be part of their calling as they seek to serve the Lord. We are committed to serving with and praying with those who are willing to offer their time to serve at the Herald Youth Center. Part of our goal is to cultivate these volunteers to become leaders.

We have also seen many volunteers pursue other ministry opportunities after serving here. Serving at the Herald Youth Center has helped them to move toward missionary work or become leaders in their own churches. Our goal is to help them to envision Chinatown and the city as a mission field.

We wouldn’t dare do it alone.

The Herald Youth Center (as well as CCHC) meets with other social service agencies to discuss the sharing of resources and cross-referrals. Our staff consists of licensed counselors, social workers, lawyers and ministers. We do formal cross-referrals with several local community-based organizations such as Asian Americans for Equality, Chinese Planning Council, Chinatown Manpower Association, Asia LifeNet, Project Liberty and many others. We are also part of the organizing and planning for the Chinatown Community Social Service and Health Council.

The Herald Youth Center connects with local guidance counselors, social work agencies and teachers to make them aware of the services we provide for teens. Despite our network of social service providers, there has been a lack of referrals. We hope to have these teens referred to our programs. With the new network of youth service providers we hope to make this one of our priorities.

We also meet with pastors and congregations to expose them to the needs of Chinatown youths. As mentioned above, we often join with other organizations to plan special events and facilitate prayer meetings.

We are unique in comparison to the other organizations because of our long history and experience in working with immigrant families and teens. We are in a unique position of being a non-government funded community based social service agency and a parachurch organization that ministers to a particular targeted population. Therefore, we are able to take on a new challenge to unite the churches and social service agencies to share resources to meet the needs of the Chinese community.

We have also worked with a consultant on developing a stronger partnership through the Faith-based Initiative for federal and state funding. The Department of Labor and local councils have recognized our relationship with the community as both long-standing and committed.