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Teamwork: Working to Transform Communities
By Rheta Murry

Transforming communities begins with the children, who are the leaders and parents of tomorrow. Communities in Transformation (CIT) brings together the people of a community to work together for youth in their areas to help change lives.

“The vehicle has been after-school programs,” said Toni Branyon, CIT program director. “Once teamwork is established, many different programs can be created to help the children.”

Branyon, formerly a spunky elementary school teacher, has seen teamwork really working! Not long ago she agreed to volunteer as community center director in an apartment complex acquired by her friend Tim Cummins of Whirlwind Ministries. Because the community was plagued with gangs, drugs and many other crimes, the children were often at risk not only for physical injury, but also for negative influences to their hearts and their minds related to sexuality, drugs, alcohol and gangs.

Branyon started an after-school program for the children in the area. Volunteers from four different churches served on different days, and the police department sent volunteers on Fridays. In addition to the after-school programs, there were computer classes, block parties, English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes, health fairs, dental fairs, and "back-to-school" carnivals in the neighborhood. Children received book bags at the carnival filled with the school supplies they would need when school started. The block parties served to bring different races and neighbors together.

Teenage boys from the area, however, continued to break into the community center.

“That was one group that was not reached. I wanted badly to reach those boys”, said Branyon. “I asked God to please make a way for me to form a relationship with them.”

God honored her request in an unusual way. While driving to the apartment complex one day, she watched the teenage boys play basketball, as she often did. That’s when God revealed to her that basketball would be the vehicle used to make a difference.

“I stopped and let my window down – others now telling me perhaps I was risking my safety,” Branyon said. “It never dawned on me at the time. I was excited at the possibility of a plan.”

God’s Sixth Man Joins the Basketball Team

Organizers split the boys into different church teams. The churches adopted them, paid for their registration and transported them to and from the games. Branyon provided water, food and a lot of encouragement, cheering at the games until she nearly had no voice left. The boys, she thought, would filter into churches sponsoring them. However, that didn’t happen. Branyon prayed for a Christian black man to be a role model for the boys, who all were black.

“Although I was praying fervently, I tried to make every Christian black man I met be the one,” Branyon confessed. “I am not very patient, and I felt they needed this person NOW. God took his sweet time showing me I am not the boss of Him!”

God did bring a godly man to the group – Sheldon Landy, a man in Branyon’s church. Through Landy, the ministry has grown tremendously in two years – with more than 45 participants. As volunteer leader, he leads Bible study with the teenagers and their friends each week. The youth have outgrown the community center and now have their own high school and middle school basketball teams.

Through the basketball sessions and watching the teen boys grow and develop into responsible young men, Branyon learned how much difference it can make when a community focuses on its youth and builds community.

Teamwork Continues in Elementary After-School Program

Last fall, CIT launched a new after-school program in Forest Park, Ga., with a task force from Forest Park First Baptist Church. Five days a week, 32 students in third through fifth grades ride the bus from two elementary schools the program.

“CIT is all about relationships,” Branyon said. “A free after-school program brings a wonderful opportunity to reach others for Christ. We are meeting needs and have the opportunity to get to the families of the children and their needs.”

CIT volunteers are as diverse as the children, who are as diverse as the community, Branyon said. Approximately 30 caring people from Forest Park Baptist Church, the local library, the police department, the high school, St. Francis Evangelical Church and Clayton State University in Morrow, GA. invest time with the students. This represents a ratio of one adult to about four students.

The program continues to work toward four main components: academics, character development, self-development and service. Branyon describes self-development as identifying a child’s strengths and helping them reach their potential. Service is defined as teaching the students to serve others, including their communities and other people.

Through relationships, teenagers change their outlook and their opportunities in life. Through the community programs, CIT also changes lives through relationships. More communities and more volunteers are needed to continue this trend throughout the country.

Join the Team!

If you know of a church or community leader who would like to see God move in amazing ways through after-school programs and youth ministry, get in touch with Communities in Transformation. Contact Toni Branyon at tbranyon@lifeshape.org call (678) 999-2181, ext 370; or write, P.O. Box 80113, Conyers, GA 30013.



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