Youth ministry veteran Amy Williams ministers to teens involved in gangs and those lost in the criminal justice system with a key strategy of life-on-life mentoring.

Amy Williams' Website

Worth Seeing: Viewing Others Through God’s Eyes

Amy Williams on IVPress

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

• Seeing People “through the lens of God” in Daily Interactions and Decision-Making
• Meaningful Inclusion with At-Risk Youth
• Learning More from These Youths than Any Other Group

ABOUT THE GUEST: 

Youth ministry veteran Amy Williams ministers to teens involved in gangs and those lost in the criminal justice system with a key strategy of life-on-life mentoring. As a certified gang intervention specialist, she heard God's call to move into a Latino gang neighborhood in Chicago's Humboldt Park community to be a "Hope Dealer" doing street outreach and walking life with young people on her block. Amy is project coordinator at New Life Centers, bringing in restorative justice programming to youth at juvenile prisons. Amy has been a youth pastor, a reentry coordinator, and a youth mentor and advocate. She is a graduate of both University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and National Louis University. She resides in Chicago and loves salsa dancing and is a true beach baby.

TIMESTAMPED SHOWNOTES:

01:22 - Introducing Amy Williams

05:42 - Amy's inspiration to work with high-risk youth

06:42 - ...deepest pain can become greatest passion

07:25 - ...pull for the underdog

07:54 - Seeing People “through the lens of God” in Daily Interactions and Decision-Making

08:07 - ...evaluate ability to see people through the lens of God

08:42 - ...seeing the value and worth of young people

09:09 - ...God created them for a purpose

09:48 - Meaningful Inclusion with At-Risk Youth

10:13 - ...moving from being watched to being seen

10:49 - ...inviting them into a space where they should already be invited to

11:12 - Justice and Mercy

11:37 - ...the call is to serve both the harmed and the harm-doer

12:05 - ...spirit of mercy

12:31 - ...not "What's wrong with you?" but "What happened to you?"

13:02 - ...compassion for both

14:54 - ...understanding but not agreeing

15:40 - ...opportunity to chnage the direction of kids' lives

16:57 - ...hope that her book would inform us about the issues and help turn compassion into action

17:25 - Learning More from These Youths than Any Other Group

19:55 - The Need to Belong

21:26 - Doing Better

22:07 - ...include people who are involved in the situation

22:57 - ...create spaces for the voices

25:08 - What keeps you going after decades of such intense work?

26:12 - ...God-given work

26:37 - ...community of support

27:06 - ...lost too many young people-- someone is praying for help

28:43 - Give our young people a chance

29:21 - Getting in touch with Amy Williams: ahopedealer.org

29:49 - Book on ivpress.com

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