"Seeing is believing," More than just a summer camp at Isaiah's Hub

• Video shows kids at Isaiah's Hub summer camp.
• The camp runs Monday through Friday all summer, and 10 field trips a year.
• Over 100 underserved youth attend each day, as well as the staff, who are hired to be given learning and development opportunities.

In the old school on Tomlinson Street is Isaiah's Hub, which hosts a summer camp that sees 100 kids a day. At Isaiah's Hub, it's not your typical summer camp with crafts or campfires. Seven year old Josiah Palmer says, "It's the funnest program."

Executive Director, John Willis, started Isaiah's Hub to help Jackson's under-served youth. "I love people," he says. "I get to see people at their most innocent, most creative state, and I get to help reach their highest potential." Willis does so by providing free meals at camp each day, providing programs and visitors to camp, and hires under-served youth as staff to help build the programs. "I've seen a kid come in here and be considered a 'troubled kid.' We give them jobs. We give them objectives, goals, and what I've seen is our 'troubled kids' develop into responsible young adults."

Summer camp doesn't just happen here. Willis explains, "One of our main goals in our summer program is to travel, to take the kids places, otherwise, that they would not have an opportunity to go." The summer camp kids at Isaiah's Hub go on ten field trips a year. Eight year old Alayna Jeffries says, "You get to see new things you haven't seen in Jackson before." Throughout the summer, kids experience places like the Shedd Aquarium, Michigan Science Center, and the Detroit Zoo.

Willis believes showing kids what waits for them outside of their neighborhood will lead them to a brighter future. "You want to make sure that they have those options, but that have to see them. Seeing is believing." However, the best moments can happen right at the hub. Willis continues, "It's like seeing miracles work every single year, and it's just amazing."

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