Griffin Center, Catholic Urban Programs
The accompanying photos show youngsters who participated in a Bible study that was conducted at three Griffin Center sites involving children from six different public housing complexes in East St. Louis, Illinois. The first four- week session was conducted at the DeShields Center every Thursday during June. The sessions lasted about 2 l/2 hours including the video presentation, lesson and accompanying crafts.
The second sessions were conducted at the Griffin and Roosevelt Centers each Thursday during the month of July. Between 43 and 50 children attend each of the three four-week sessions.
The program selected this year was “Whoosh” which connected heroes from Black American history with heroes of the Old Testament. Video presentations of the sites of outstanding events in Black American history as well as of Old Testament sites were shown.
The T-shirt theme this summer was based on the Sankofa bird…the symbol originally from Ghana which urges children (and others) to look back to the past for clues on how best to move forward into the future.
While some of the children who attend our summer day camps are church-goers, most are not, and the Bible information is pretty much “new information” for many of the children.
A special thanks to the Black and Indian Mission Office for making the Bible study possible again this year!
