CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTERS
What is a Child Development Center?
A Clubhouse Development Center is a center that is designed to meet the basic needs of children and young adults in impoverished areas. The program is designed to allow children to come to a local church and be fed a nutritional meal 3 days per week. After lunch the children are engaged in meaningful Bible study, play games, sing music, and are helped with their homework.
The goal of the center is to give children from very poor backgrounds the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty within their family by achieving a full education. In most areas of Guatemala children normally quit school in 6th grade simply because they cannot afford to go any further.
How are they developed?
Clubhouse strategically looks for underdeveloped areas, works with school principals, and identifies local churches or areas to plant or replant a local church to help those in need. Once an area has been identified the first goal is to build relationships with the school. Once that relationship has developed Clubhouse then seeks out a partner or will build a building or partner with an existing church with a building to host the children after school.
Clubhouse then works with community leaders, school administrators and parents to identify those kids currently not attending school or those who are struggling financially. The Development Center is then started with a minimum of 50 children. It is the goal of Clubhouse to then place the centers in a partnership with a church from the United States to develop a new church plant or train our church partner in Evangelism outreach.
How Many Development Centers are there currently?
Clubhouse currently has 8 programs running at capacity and 1 running in a start-up phase. Our goal is to continue to develop these areas in 2020, then look to grow into new areas in 2021-2022.
What is the Purpose of the Development Center?
As you take a quick glimpse of the centers one would think the main purpose is to feed the hungry. That is our first goal simply because a hungry child cannot learn. However, our purpose is much deeper. The purpose is to us the program in each community as a way of introducing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we feed the children, help them learn, and disciple them it allows Clubhouse to build a long-lasting church in the community.
As we minister to the needs of the children Clubhouse is able to host mission teams who come and work in the communities building houses, installing stoves, doing VBS in schools. Within a 3-year plan Clubhouse is fully engaged in the Village. The purpose of this program in not to enable people or create dependence on Clubhouse. It is to teach the next generation of believers to do for themselves and to minister to their families. All programs are supported by Clubhouse but are operated 100% by Guatemala staff.
How can I get involved?
Getting involved is easy. On our website we have a list of over 500 kids that are needing a sponsor. The way these centers are funded is through individuals sponsoring a child. The sponsorship is easy. You pick a child and then Clubhouse will send you a packet of information via email to get you going. Then you may then start writing letters to your child and building a life long relationship with them.
Your sponsored child will send you 3-4 letters per year and you will get to watch this child’s life be changed first hand. You can also get involved through traveling to Guatemala with a mission team and working with your child. Clubhouse also depends on many donors that will make one-time gifts to help sustain the programs long term. If you would like to get involved in any way, please contact us. All of our contact information is listed on the contact page.
