A look at the work Gaston Hope in Christ's World Changers summer camp achieves

Gaston Hope in Christ, a Gastonia based organization dedicated to serving the community and uplifting local students , is in the middle of its fourth ever World Changers summer camp.

The camp aims to empower youth to achieve their dreams and connect with the community, according to Joe Bell, executive director of GHIC.

Several years ago, GHIC leaders noticed a summertime gap in preteen enrichment.

To address that gap, they started World Changers as a three-day per week program in which 15 Gastonia preteens could play educational games, develop leadership skills, complete volunteer service projects, and interact with local professionals.

Today, the program is one five-hour session per week that starts the first week of June and ends the first week of August.

Over the last several weeks, this year’s group has helped Keep Gastonia Beautiful, Gardner Park Elementary School, the Salvation Army, the Gaston County Library, and other organizations in the community.

They have interviewed local medical professionals, business leaders, pastors, non-profit leaders and first responders.

“They’re meeting people from a wide variety of backgrounds, and they’re meeting people who are telling about how they got to where they are,” he said. “For a lot of the kids who are in our programs historically, they’re people who need homework help, they’re people who need some academic support, and when school is a negative for you, you don’t tend to dream about what you can be.”

Roxann Jimison, the executive director of Dream Center Academy, was invited to GHIC where she spoke to the kids about times in life when she did not succeed.

“These stories … give them a new way to see the possibilities in their own life,” Bell said.

With only a couple of weeks left in the 2024 program, GHIC teens still have some service projects to go and when they are not out in the community, interns and volunteers at GHIC will be working to teach them card games and give them a great summer, Bell said.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: A look at the work Gaston Hope in Christ's World Changers summer camp achieves