Letters

What are people saying about YouthPartnersNET? Do you have something to add? We'd love to hear from you!

Letters

Dear YPN:

I have had the privilege of attending two YouthPartnersNET Executive Director Leadership Training conferences for non-profits, the first training session held in Denver, this last one was the recent EDLT in Chicago. They have been outstanding. I have attended many conferences but with YPN's training I have been able to procure information and contacts for my ministry that have far exceeded the cost. The information acquired and the fellowship has been priceless. It has provided my ministry with avenues of information that was not only practical but provided information and contacts that not only saved us money but helped expand our ministry. The expanded EDLT program is outstanding. The ability to attend last year's CMA conference in Denver, with a scholarship provided through the YPN network, was the highlight of the year for me. Thank you for your vision and ministry.

Pastor Malcolm Brown
Third Avenue Ministries – Flint, Michigan
EDLT Denver & Chicago

YouthPartnersNET:

I recommend this training for every director of every urban youth program everywhere. The information is priceless and the open doors this class allows you to see as a smaller organization are not available anywhere else in our city. It is great!

Jason Seaberg
Power Invasion Ministries
EDLT Denver, February 2007

Greetings Dean;

I attended the seminar in Washington, DC and am grateful to Brian Postlewait for directing me to it. I found the information to be well organized and presented. I left wishing we could have had another day. From my business experience, I could see how much value there was in the presentations to those who may not have had some of the experiences that I have. The resources that were given out and those made available are most helpful. I have recommended to our District Superintendent that he make this training mandatory for the executive directors of all non-profits affiliated with the district.

Cordially,

G. Robert Wells, Jr.
Washington National Foundation, Church of the Nazarene

Hey Dean,

I just wanted to say thanks for your time these last couple of days. The amount of pure info I gained from the Executive Director Leadership Training was phoenomenal. Your ministry is definitely a needed one. Thanks again for your time and efforts to advance the kingdom for the future generations. Keep helping others build those tabernacles eh!

Blessings,
Sean Newman
Impact Community Church
Denver, CO

Dear YouthPartnersNET,

Thank you for your gift to GRIP Outreach For Youth. As you might well know, we serve hundreds of inner-city at-risk youth every year, many of whom struggle with fatherlessness, gangs, drugs, alcohol, sex abuse, and teen pregnancy. Most of our kids are looking for hope. Your financial contribution will enable us to continue reaching-out to well over 200 fatherless high school kids this very year - providing them with the hope that they so need and seek.

GRIP Outreach For Youth's mission is to reach youth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, long-term mentoring Relationships, Immersion into the local church, and through Prayer. Our current program - SLAM (Saving Lives through Athletic Ministries) - is a night of high energy and action-packed fun filled with sports, team-building, Christian hip-hop music, drama, video, teaching, small group discussions, pizza, and logs of hugs. SLAM is a great environment for our Christian volunteers to start building meaningful relationships with our kids.

We look forward to your continued partnership and support. Again, thank you for all of your support and consideration.

In His GRIP,
Scott Grzesiak
Executive Director, GRIP Outreach For Youth

Dean, JP, Shelley:

I just want to thank you so much for supporting GRIP with your prayers and your finances. We did recently receive your grant and thank you for your partnership and helping us reach at-risk teens with the Gospel and growing them up as fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ!

In His GRIP,
Scott Grzesiak
Executive Director, GRIP Outreach for Youth

Dear YouthPartnersNET,

I highly recommend the Youthpartners.net board retreat weekend. Dean brought a wealth of experience and insight to our board development weekend. He presented in a way that brought the board together on difficult issues. I am confident that his practical advice and input will help Restore Ministries maximize our service to urban youth in NJ.

Luke Marples
Board Chairman Restore Ministries

Dear YouthPartnersNET,

I wanted to provide YPN with a brief update highlighting our "Rock The Block" event last weekend. Again, thanks for the grant and the shirts, they were a big hit for the 130 volunteers that day!

"Rock the Block" was an outreach to the Englewood community and surrounding areas sponsored by Impact Community Church and Re-Creation Unlimited. Our goal was to intentionally bring families together for the purpose of fun, food and fellowship. At 7:00am, the 130 plus volunteers closed the street to all traffic (permit required) and set up 4 large inflatable toys, one over 30 feet tall! The street was filled with basketball courts, children's games and crafts, food to feed an army, ministry booths for haircuts, professional entertainment by national rap artists and bands. Free giveaways from local businesses and 8 free golf rounds to exclusive courses were raffled each hour. All this was free to the 1,000 people that attended. We had a special time of worship and a evangelistic message that challenged and inspired the community.

Again, on behalf of Re-Creation Unlimited and Impact, thanks for your prayers, encouragement and support as we continue to impact our youth!

In His Grip,
Jim Galanaugh
Re-Creation Unlimited Director
Denver, CO

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to give a testimonial on the YouthPartnersNET Executive Director Leadership Training I attended in Washington, DC. I wanted to state that it was one of the best and most relevant trainings I have been to as an Executive Director.

I believe that the Executive Director position is often neglected in the non-profit and faith-based world and the YouthPartnersNET training really helped to fill a much needed void. Dean Cowles was an excellent trainer and aptly blended humor, inspiration, and pertinent information to provide a terrific training for the ED's. One of the best parts of the training was the building of community among the ED's and the quality of the networking among participants was tremendous.

I would recommend this training for any Executive Director of a starting and emerging non-profit organization and I have already spoken to several colleagues about the value of the training. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at the number above or email me at littlelights@yahoo.com.

Sincerely,
Steven Park
Executive Director, Little Lights Urban Ministries
Washington, DC

Dear Dean & Shelley

I just wanted you to know that our youth ministry just recently partnered with YPN and we have been truly blessed for it. This past weekend (September 8-10, 2006) we held a Youth Retreat. We were blessed to be able to distribute the "My City My God" Bibles to 41 teenagers. Out of these 41 youths, only five of them actually live with their parents. The other 35 live with either a single parent, grandparent or foster parent.

It was wonderful to be able to look into an audience where everyone had a "unified" Bible to read and refer to and from. YouthPartnersNET made that possible and at no monetary expense to a financially frailing ministry. On Sunday afternoon, three teenagers "accepted Christ into their life" and will be baptized next month. I also observed during free time of the retreat, seeing a couple of kids reading the "bio clips" in the Bible. This was an indicator of interest.

We are hosting a "lock-in" on Friday September 22, 2006. We will be serving approximately 40 urban children (up to 5th grade). The remaining Bibles will be given to them at that time.

Veruynca Williams
Children/Youth Director, Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Dean

I just wanted to thank you for all your support and let you know that I appreciate the grant you gave to Calvary Hill Music Group. It is because of generous people like you that we are able to make a difference in our community. The Save Our Streets "Hittin Tha Streets For A Cause" Community Outreach Concert on 7/29/06 was a success. There were about 250 youth and young adults that attended. Many gave and rededicated their lives to the Lord and I had an opportunity after the concert to speak to about 30 kids froms Sky's The Limit to give support, words of encouragement and to inspire them to become all they can be in Christ Jesus. It was a phenomenal time. God moved in a powerful way. The Back to School Extravaganza event is scheduled for 9/9/06 from 12pm to 4pm. Thanks again for your support!

Corey Clark
Calvary Hill Music Group

YouthPartnersNET

The ED Training was great. We came to LA all the way from Houston, TX. The information and experiences that Dean shared with us was a tremendous blessing. It shifted our thinking regarding organizational structure and fundraising. He gave us some real hands-on, from the inside information that we have been able to implement and put to use. The whole concept of Community Development Corporations to raise money was very new to us, but we have already began thinking about how to implement it. I would reccommend that any staff of a faith-based non profit get to a YPN ED Training ASAP.

Robert Taylor
Assistant Director, Street Life Worldwide Outreach
Houston, TX

YouthPartnersNET

A note of thanks for providing such an all encompassing seminar. Although my area of interest is quiet different from your main focus and thrust, I was still able to pick up on lots and lots of things which I think will be of great benefit in my ministry. Your knowledge, expertise and dynamics was remarkable, and I'm sure that I will benefit from all that you've provided in many, many ways.

God's Blessings on you and all of your endeavors,

Sue Hughes
Miracle Word Ministries
Huntsville, Texas

Dear YouthPartnersNET,

This has been our eighth year to the Lakota Reservation in South Dakota and without question, a pivotal time in our ministry to the Native Americans there. In collaboration with Colorado Community Church and Impact Community Church, our goal to build a large gymnasium has become a reality! It is finished!! Send us your letters!

Within a three year period, several churches from the Denver area rallied together and raised over $200,000 in construction materials to complete the project. Through grants and personal contributions, it is estimated that the building is worth over $500,000! Our special thanks to you for your continued support in both prayer and finances. Send us your letters!

Our goal this week was to finish the painting and install the basketball backboards and rims. On Wednesday, we opened the new gym to the community operating a mini camp for 55 elementary school-age children. In the evening hours over 100 young adults laced up their sneakers and came out in force to run the courts. In addition, the staff launched a VBS program that was operating in the gym throughout the morning hours utilizing every hour of the day for ministry. Send us your letters!

We are relieved and excited to finally have a place we can call our own. For over 6 years we depended on the local schools to use their gym for this cutting-edge sports ministry. Now our goal is to simply train up the staff on the reservation to develop sports ministries throughout the year. We are already raising up emerging leadership who are willing and able to continue where we left off.

On behalf of Re-Creation Unlimited, we truly appreciate your commitment to the Native Americans and your support in our efforts to build healthy and lasting relationships with the Lakota people. Finally after all these years it's working! Attached are some pics from our trip!

I am sincerely In His Grip,

Jim Galanaugh
Re-Creation Unlimited Director

Dean,

I wanted to give you an update as we recently finished our KidTrek training which Youth Partners helped to fund. We had 16 participants representing 12 ministries for eight days of extensive training. Below are listed some of the final evaluations of the week.

"Wow! Outstanding! Life changing!

"I have had a year to prepare to do KidTrek...I could not have begun to start a KidTrek program without this training."

"Intensive? Um, yeah! But totally worth it …definitely! I am leaving feeling challenged and inspired and surprisingly energized!

Everyone of the attendees have been in ministry for a while – they were not novices. Over and over they told us how much they needed this training. For me it was again an affirmation of the need to train those who are on the front lines. I had one participant, who has gone through the DeVos training, tell me, "Wanda this has been so much more helpful than the DeVos training." Another participant, a former youth pastor said, "This is the best training I’ve been through and I’ve through a lot of trainings over the years."

The Lord isn’t blessing us with big bucks but He continues to bless us with the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of adults working with kids and thus with kids across America. Thank you for partnering with us in this venture. In faith we are going to be setting a date in April for the next training.

Because He loves each kid,

Wanda Parker
Executive Director, KidTrek

Dean,

Just want to thank you for your executive training here in Chicago in April. I took a great deal away from your teaching and greatly appreciate JP and his prayers and support here in Chicago.

In His GRIP,

Scott Grzesiak
GRIP - Outreach For Youth

To Every Perspective Executive Director,

The YPN Executive Director Leadership Training is one of the first investments you would want to make into your ministry.

First, this experience will put you in touch with reality. Do you really want to pour yourself into this level of ministry or not! The Bible urges us to count the costs. Secondly, Dean Cowles is a reservoir of information, administrative techniques, and procedures that make effective executive directors. Dean Cowles is a premier executive director who has had more than 30 years in ministry. Through his experiences, he shares "nuggets" of information that cannot be gleaned from textbooks. He gives instruction on the structure of ministry boards, current issues with ministries, how to raise funding for your ministry, ministry operations, and how to choose staffing.

The added blessing in this is that support to your ministry development continues after the training sessions adjourn. I was enlightened and enriched by the Executive Director Training. Even more, I feel empowered.

In God's Love,
Ramona Goff

YPN:

I recently attended the YPN Executive Directors Training in Denver CO. This series of intensive workshops opened my eyes to some new approaches that I would like to implement to increase our organization's effectiveness. Along with coming away from this time with armloads of resources, I was filled back up. Being an Executive Director or spouse of a director takes a unique energy level and creates a heavy drain on us spiritually. Having time to fellowship, network and worship with like-minded and similarly called brothers and sisters was worth all the time it took to arrange for the time off to attend this event. If we don't create time to be filled back up by the Holy Spirit we will not be effective leaders in ministry in the long haul.

YPN, its talented staff, as well as the highly qualified conference speakers created an intensive environment which will have you thinking for months down the road. Go, be inspired, come away transformed!

Rev. Ellen L. Barton
Crossroads of the Rockies
Dear Dean:

Thank you for a wonderful conference last week. Both Glenn and I truly enjoyed our time, not only was it a time of learning, but it was also a time of refreshment with the Lord. We came away very excited about what God is going to do in the ministry center at our church. God truly is doing wonderful things. I am looking forward to the conference in Philadelphia in March and have already been asking others to attend.

Your staff was great to work with and each one was not only helpful but also fun to be around. Again, thank you for a wonderful conference and for all the resources I came away with.

Serving Him

Ruth Beers
Institute for Advanced Study

[Ruth attended YPN's Executive Director Leadership Training and has since launched a new ministry in Pennsylvania.]
YouthPartnersNET:

We were excited to host a one day seminar entitled "Keys 2 Multiplying Your Impact" on January 28th. This seminar dealt with God's heart to reach the nations through the building of the faithful (2 Timothy 2:2). There were over 60 people in attendance, mostly urban youth ministers from various parts of the city.

We received great feedback including the following:

"This gave me a sense of vision and purpose. It convicted and challenged me. It made me take a serious look at how I do ministry."

"Thank you for making this training available and affordable!!! It was desperately needed!"

None of this would have been possible without your faithful prayers and support. I truly am grateful for your generosity and partnership.

For His glory,

Brian Dye
Vision Nehemiah

Dean:

Hope things are well with you. Thank you for the hookup on the Boy Scouts camp. We recently hooked up with them on some ideas on taking inner city kids up to the camp in southern colorado. We met the Boy Scouts at the YPN meeting and it was helpful to know that there are resources out there for partnerships with inner city ministries. The scholarship is worth around $5,000.00.

Once again thank you a bunch.

Age Sandoval
God Style Records / Preachas In Tha Hood
Dear YouthPartnersNET family:

An exciting accomplishment for RU is the successful completion of our inaugural camp in Aurora, CO, the Elementary Basketball School. The courts were packed with excitement and enthusiasm. The children had a hunger to learn and listen to instruction from the staff and coaches.

The last day of camp proved to be the most rewarding when each child received special awards for individual attitudes and talents.

I personally want to express my appreciation and support to YouthPartnersNET and their partners. Re-Creation Unlimited shares in the passion and excitement for their vision and looks forward to assisting that vision in every way. Thank you for assisting us in realizing our vision too!

Re-Creation Unlimited

Sincerely in His grip,

Jim Galanaugh
Re-Creation Unlimited