For our All Bonner Winter Retreat this year, we volunteered our services to various places in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. My group was chosen to serve at the Urban Restoration Center, which is a nonprofit organization serving the children and families of the inner city of Charlotte since 1993. Urban Restoration is Charlotte’s largest inner-city outreach ministry that aims at decreasing crime, drugs, gangs, and abandonment issues within the area and helping local ministries to grow stronger in order to assist people experiencing these factors. The Urban Restoration building has several classrooms for its youth programs which include Saturday Morning Kid’s Club, Summer Camp, After-School Services, Christian School, and Counseling. Other youth programs that are fit for older youth are Friday Night Youth Group, Job Training, Sports Teams, Athletic Camps and Mentoring. Programs developed for inner-city families include Emergency Food Assistance, Household Appliance Assistance, Family Counseling, Job Training, Parenting Classes, and Foster Parent Training. Lately more families are becoming involved with Urban Restoration and the amount of space available to hold them all is limited. Therefore, the organization plans on adding more classrooms and hallways to the building.
When we visited Urban Restoration the staff was in the process of remodeling the entrance way of the building. They needed us to paint the walls green in order to brighten it up from the bland beige color it had at the time. It was my first time ever painting a whole room before and I found it enjoyable. We were only able to finish the first coat of paint. However it still had an effect on the front entrance by giving it a more comfortable and inviting atmosphere. I’m sure that after the entire building is remodeled, it can attract even more families and youth to expand its size and outreach.
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