Cathedral of Faith Youth Summer Job Program interns learn how rewarding it can be to work with children

FLINT, Mich. - As part of Mayor Neeley's Youth Summer Job Training program, student workers were given a variety of ways to help their community. For the group chosen to work with Cathedral of Faith, that meant helping out with the church's Super Summer Fun Camp.

In the summer when school is out, the Cathedral of Faith church turns into a site where kids aged 5 through 15 can come during the week to participate in fun activities, do special projects, and get a free lunch. With as many as 70 kids at a time, managing them all can present quite a challenge. One group of summer workers is proving that they are up to the challenge.

Program Director and Youth Coordinator Asiah Smiley says her workers were quick to adapt to their roles and help their young companions with all the fun projects they do on a daily basis. "From my experience here, they have been very mature and great with the kids," Smiley said.

According to Smiley, this week was 'Sensory Week', "so we did all the five senses, a lot of hands-on activities and projects." Those activities included abstract painting where no two colors could be next to each other, origami in the shape of Pacman, colorful clay mold making, mystery flower planting, an ice cream party, and on Friday the sweet treat of homemade cinnamon rolls.

With each project the interns also participated and made their own versions to help guide the kids and lend a helping hand when needed. Having never done many of the projects before themselves, the summer workers are learning as they go, and then turning around and teaching it almost instantaneously. This allows them to use their imaginations on how to solve problems and improvise.

"A lot of our workers have never worked with kids before," Smiley said. "They may have nieces and nephews, but working here has taught them how to communicate differently. I'm teaching them different methods that are effective with kids, especially in large groups."

All of the workers are paired off together and each given a specific age group to work with. For their part the kids see the summer workers, all between the ages of 16 and 18, as not only helpers, but as mentors the kids can look up to. After just three weeks, the kids know all the summer workers' names, according to Smiley, and the workers are honing their name recognition skills as well. "They work really well with each other and with the kids."

In the next week the program's theme will be 'Water Week' with lots of outdoor activities designed to cool the kids off while they have fun. Smiley admits her camp is the 'fun one' when it comes to the jobs program. "I know they would have fun doing and learning the things the other sites are doing," she said with a smile, "they just lucked out getting to be here with me."