“Every child wants to be known, loved and affirmed,” says Brent Christie, executive director of Jubilee REACH. And the organization is working towards fulfilling that need by building a caring and accountable community inside and around Bellevue schools.
Jubilee REACH works alongside the school district and the staff administrators, addressing the deeper needs of kids. They focus on what they call ‘opportunity kids’—the ones most in-need, most challenged—and find opportunities to engage and build a relationship with them, with love. It’s not a quick-fix solution, but an ongoing process and the goal is to make the child a part of the community. Brent loves to share the story about a young boy who, with love, compassion, and football, transformed from a bully to a mentor for younger children.
Brent believes that change happens when people and organizations work together. “If we all do a little, a lot changes,” he says. And that is why he is enthusiastic about partnering with Eastside Pathways, an organization that emphasizes the need to collaborate. “It’s a relationship that’s built on trust and candor. Eastside Pathways is a place where you can speak and there is no agenda except to see how we can build a better community and help kids have the opportunity to succeed.” He appreciates that Eastside Pathways has persisted and persevered in encouraging organizations to build a relationship and to do things together.
Brent is particularly excited about Eastside Pathways’ involvement with the Pacific Educational Group and their ‘Courageous Conversations’ trainings, which address racial equity by helping individuals develop skills to have productive conversations about the difficult topic of race. Brent attended the 2014 National Summit for Courageous Conversations in New Orleans along with staff from Eastside Pathways and the Bellevue School District. He described it as an “intense” experience, yielding a new awareness that “many of my beliefs on race are based on misconceptions.” As a result of Courageous Conversations, Jubilee REACH is working with many organizations – Eastside Baby Corner, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Bellevue, and the YMCA – on this sensitive issue.
“You start thinking of how you relate, the words you speak, and you shake off your perceptions and pre-conceived notions, and look at things differently,” he affirms.
Jubilee REACH
- Relationship: first and foremost
- Education: building awareness in the community about the gap between need and resources
- Assistance: staying alongside
- Community: being part of something greater
- Hospitality: giving love so that children no longer feel estranged from family, friends, country…
Article written by Sujata Agrawal, communications strategist and storyteller, and volunteer writer at Eastside Pathways.