How Gaston Hope in Christ serves young people

In 1999, a group of local churches and volunteers came together to form Gaston Hope in Christ, an organization dedicated to serving the community.

One of the largest programs offered by GHIC is their tutoring program, which is still going strong even as the organization approaches 25 years in operation.

According to GHIC executive director Joe Bell, the program has more students enrolled this year than they have had in at least 15 years.

Much of the increased need for tutoring can be attributed to the pandemic with so many children catching up from the learning loss they experienced during the original shut down, Bell said.

The free program offers students extra help with homework and in understanding subjects that they might find more challenging.

However, the reach of the program goes beyond academic growth.

“When kids don't succeed academically… they lose their dreams,” Bell said. “They don’t think, ‘What can I be?’ they’re trying to get out of their situation, and they don’t think, ‘What can happen in my life?’ They’re just trying to make it.”

“What we see time after time is when we help them with their school work, when we help them with their character, and we help them find their place of belief,” Bell said, “Then they start to dream, and when they dream, then they can start to accomplish things.”

According to Bell, one of the ways in which the program helps kids see a bigger future is by surrounding them with caring adults from different backgrounds.

One of the program’s newest tutors, Aku Opata, joined the team three months ago after visiting Africa to have a wedding in her father’s home country of Ghana and another wedding right after in Kenya.

“In the amount of time that I’ve been there, I have really witnessed these kids transform,” Opata said. “We have one young lady who came in and wouldn’t even introduce herself or speak, and now she’s taking charge, answering questions and engaging.”

Opata believes letting the kids decompress from their day and do fun activities helps in getting them to pay more attention to their homework and studies when it is time to get to work.

“I think they come to a space, and they automatically know that they are going to be loved, and they are going to be taken care of for the two and a half or three hours that they are with us,” Opata said. “They know we’re going to treat them well, but that we’re also expecting that they perform, also.”

This year, the program plans to send every student home with a board game for Christmas so they can engage in group activities even at home with their families.

"Those are the kind of experiences we want to give the kids," Bell said.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gaston Hope in Christ still serving the county's youth after 24 years