SANKOFA YOUTH EMPOWERMENT AWARD St. Luke's Youth Center Board
Saint Luke’s Youth Center (SLYC) is a collaborative of West Baltimore families working together with friends, neighbors, and partners to provide youth with critical resources, life-enriching experiences, and a safety-net of support. It formed out of the community programming that had been taking place at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Baltimore for decades. In the mid-twentieth century, while Episcopal churches in other areas of Baltimore followed the “white flight” of their members to the suburbs, St. Luke’s stayed in West Baltimore to serve its neighbors, especially the children. Entering the twenty-first century, even as older members died, and church membership and financial resources dwindled, the church continued to maintain its ministry to the neighborhood. It provided a summer camp, an after-school program to the children, hosted community meetings and an annual Thanksgiving dinner. As this work became unsustainable, in 2015 the ministry was reorganized as Saint Luke’s Youth Center (SLYC).
Baltimore, Maryland
Working in collaboration with the local Elementary/ Middle School, SLYC developed an arts and literacy integrated summer camp to meet the needs of children in the area. As authentic relationships of love and support developed among the youth, their families, the community, partner churches, and parishioners throughout the Diocese, SLYC began hosting weekly community dinners in 2016. Until Covid-19, these dinners brought people together every Wednesday to break bread and share in the joys of fellowship. This network of people, all celebrating community and youth, grew stronger and the need to provide a safe, loving environment after school became apparent. SLYC met that need with enthusiasm. In January of 2017, SLYC Afterschool began. With a focus on social emotional learning and leadership, children ages 7 to 17 came to St. Luke’s each day for a community meeting, followed by healthy snacks, homework support, and fun. When SLYC became an independent nonprofit in August 2019, several SLYC Kids formed a youth advisory
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