UYWI's 360LA

Guest post by Caleb Reed

Recently a group of Aim Right volunteers and staff spent the weekend in Azusa, CA (45 min east of LA), for a youth workers' conference called 360LA.  360LA is put on by the Urban Youth Workers Institute (UYWI) non-profit organization that exists to train and resource urban youth workers to effectively disciple and evangelize at-risk youth.  UYWI offers many online resources to pull up at the click of a mouse, but there is nothing like being at a live conference with hundreds of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who all are united with a passion to reach at-risk youth. 

 

 

This year’s conference theme was “The City Needs A Father."  The whole weekend revolved around this theme.   Workshops were centered around Community Engagement, Personal Development and Leadership, Discipleship and Mentoring, as well as Effects of Fatherlessness.  The general sessions were great times of worship and teaching.  We had the opportunity to hear from great leaders and teachers Larry Acosta (founder of UYWI), Efrem Smith (World Impact), and Eugene Cho (Quest Church), just to name a few. 

 

All our volunteers and staff walked away from this weekend definitely feeling encouraged and refreshed!  Conferences like this can be overwhelming and even tiring, yet they are times when our team grows together; I am confident we did just that.  If there is something I have learned over time, it is that to make a difference in a neighborhood and community, you need to have a strong team that works together, plays together, prays together, and learns together. 

A weekend in CA would not be complete without a trip to the beach.  Sunday morning, we packed up and headed west to the Santa Monica Beach; for some it was the first time to the Pacific Ocean; for one awesome young man it was the first time ever to the beach and ocean.