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SUMMARY:Mission Partner Highlight - Edna Martin Christian Center
DESCRIPTION:  Stacie Miller has long known the Edna Martin Christian Center is a safe place where her children can get year round services. A single mother of two girls\, her children have been center regulars for years. The sisters\, Terri\, 11\, and Sherrell\, 13\, are commonly known as leaders in our youth programming\, due largely to their positive presences.\nA long-time resident of Martindale Brightwood\, Stacie also knew that\, on occasion\, she was welcome to take advantage of the various social services offered at EMCC\, be it food pantry or rental- and utility-assistance made possible through contributions that arrive daily from churches and individuals.\nToday\, Stacie is also aware that EMCC is a place for her to increase her skills and find a living-wage job that has eluded her for far too long.\nOne of the first individuals to be served by the center’s Strategies To Empower and Promote Success program\, Stacie is currently training as part of the center’s food service staff. In that capacity\, she is working to help the center provide nutritious meals to young people and seniors\, and also studying for food service certification to become employed. Her persistence and drive to complete the program is noteworthy.\nShe participates in a battery of training activities\, orientation\, case management meetings and mandatory activities designed to help overcome barriers to success. Being able to train while watching her girls complete homework makes the obligation that much more rewarding\, she said.\n“I’m thankful that the Edna Martin Christian Center is here\,” Stacie said. “I get the chance to work and spend time with my kids. It’s been really good for me.”\nEMCC Executive Director Tysha Hardy-Sellers considers Stacie\, Sherrell and Terri examples of the vision of EMCC\, which is to provide holistic\, wrap-around services for the entire family.\nSince the introduction of the STEPS program last summer\, the center has incorporated various supports designed to keep clients committed to the program\, while adding a necessary layer of accountability. Through STEPS — a program created by the late Evonne Brown\, the center’s long-time social service director — families experience a cross-case management system that assesses each adult in seven key program elements\: employment training\, coping skills\, retention/advancement assistance\, case management\, life skills training\, job search assistance and barrier reduction strategies.\nIn Stacie’s case\, entry to the STEPS program not only meant social service supports via utility assistance and job training but also an opportunity to watch her daughters flourish as youth leaders.\nSince she began her STEPS journey\, Stacie’s daughters have accepted responsibilities as leaders in training and have experienced modest academic gains partly because of the center’s continued emphasis on scholarship\, respect and service via the Leadership and Legacy Youth Program.\nA year-round effort that incorporates life skills and character development after-school and during the summer\, the youth program fulfills the mission of the EMCC by helping give students the tools needed to compete in a global society.\nThe two have participated and excelled in training opportunities designed to help young people understand their roles as community stakeholders. They have worked with seniors\, assisted in the center’s first breast cancer awareness drive and\, most recently\,  voiced their support of expanding Center operations to another school\, a potential move that would provide more space for working with even more students.\n “We have a lot of fun at the Center\, and they make us do our homework\,” Terri\, a sixth-grader at IPS school 69\, told members of the City County Council. “We just need some more space so we can do more things.”\nA study in total family case management\, the Miller family is achieving opportunities they may not have believed possible previously. With EMCC’s renewed commitment to empowerment and accountability\, their story is merely the first of many expected from the “wrap-around approach” to providing services.\n
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SEQUENCE:9
DTSTAMP:20120207T123356
CREATED;TZID=US-Central:20100211T072804
LAST-MODIFIED;TZID=US-Central:20100308T131922
DTSTART;TZID=US-Central:20100208T082600
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