Epic Leadership Centers exist to build character in vulnerable youth based on the Golden Rule and reinforce it with their parents and families by creating everyday leaders throughout marginalized communities, using experimental learning and arts as the mediums to produce responsible citizens.
Everyday leaders see a gap of need in front of them and move to fill it with Golden Rule character:
Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then take the initiative and do it for them.
Current EPIC Needs:
Volunteers for after-school homework help and programming are always needed - contact Chris Wood at (805) 512-1755
What EPIC saw in this child was a way to cause him to laugh. Research tells us, “The average child laughs 150 times a day.” This is not true of the low-income children living in the neighborhoods where EPIC is currently working: Westview in the Ventura Avenue area and Cabrillo Village in Saticoy. EPIC initiatives bring laughter, learning and transformation. We do that by offering workshops through all forms of art, sport, academics, parent support group, and field trips.
This is a picture of one of our EPIC kids who went to a class where an EPIC volunteer brought in a music van. He is a boy who always tries to help in our workshops. Right now, he is in an “Everyday Leadership” class and an art workshop. Caleb has learning deficiencies, and soon will be offered EPIC tutoring sessions in math and science, taught by a CPC volunteer. What you see in this picture is his sheer delight in being able to play the tuba the first time he tried!
When EPIC began in 2008, we realized that we were entering into a “Post-Christian” culture. To engage our targeted people in marginalized neighborhood, we would need to work within the secular community. Many of our EPIC participants have had a disappointing and hurtful experience with church. EPIC moves in these neighborhoods as friends who are there to help with kids and their parents. We come first as friends and from a position of establishing kind relationships, deep conversations emerge. Surely this is what God had in mind when He spoke through the prophet Zechariah, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.
Zechariah 7:9-10
Another Picture Worth 1,000 Words
A low-income person living in an EPIC neighborhood can feel as though they have no power over their life and their circumstances. To empower such a person means to give them the resources to do something they can or want to do, and even get paid for it. In EPIC’s case it this means one of our volunteers tasting a chocolate chip cookie and some collard green soup, then having the idea that Tabitha’s cooking was so outstanding she could be a personal chef. Next was giving her that idea and watching her get excited. Then the EPIC friend gave her generous friends the idea to help set Tabitha up in business. Each woman then contributed $100 to help this woman, an outstanding cook and baker, get clients to pay for her cookies and home cooking.
Tabitha ran with the idea and funding. Before night’s end she had done the research for setting up her business! Then she filed for her business license – TnT Food for Soul Services - with the city. Soon she was cooking for three CPC families. Slowly, but surely, conversations between our Westview and Cabrillo Village friends go deeper. Perceptions change, especially about God and church.
We always need more volunteers and more funding to implement all that God has put in our minds and hearts to do. We would love it if you could help us with your time, talents, or treasure. We are especially looking for younger volunteers to engage with the children and youth at Westview and Cabrillo as God continues to open this neighborhood.
God will take what you give us further than you can imagine!
Be A Generous Hand
Clicking “Giving” On:
www.epicleadershipcenter.org
We now have a Paypal link on our website
501(c)(3) charitable organization
Mail Check to:
EPIC Leadership Center
P.O Box 3252
Ventura, CA, 93003
Your gift is transforming lives!
Christine Wood: EPIC Leadership Center Inc. (805) 512-1755 info@epicleadershipcenter.org