reVision Youth

By partnering with churches, collaborating with schools, government agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, and training hundreds of caring adult volunteers, we build communities of kinship in key neighborhoods which leverage the power of compassionate relationships to alter our mutual trajectory toward a hopeful future. 

Mentoring

One at a time, we connect a caring adult mentor to a youth experiencing profound disconnection. Disconnected youth may be isolated, alone, abused, traumatized, deserted, and abandoned. Many of them are involved in the juvenile justice system and child welfare system, are refugees, experiencing homelessness or are gang affected. They are on a trajectory toward homelessness, addiction, crime, sex trafficking, incarceration, unemployment, and suicide. Our mentors have no agenda other than to show up in compassion, pay attention without distraction, and listen without judgment for one hour a week, affirming each youth’s worth and potential. A reVision mentor’s primary role is to be someone to a kid who has no one.

case management and Positive Peer Experiences

Our professionally trained case managers use a trauma-informed approach and evidence-based practices. Case managers advocate for youth in court, support Juvenile Probation Officers, help youth transition out of detention centers, seal or expunge records, and connect youth to housing and jobs. They also create positive peer experiences for our youth through weekly activities, including softball, basketball, and our State Championship-winning soccer club.

School based programs

We recognize that a school with a harsh disciplinary policy and practice is a crucial reason why disconnected youth experience what is called the “school to prison pipeline.” We also recognize the transformational potential of authentic, caring relationships in the lives of these youth to keep them out of this pipeline. By working with school administrators, teachers and students, we offer alternative disciplinary practices, intensive tutoring support, caring adult mentoring, restorative justice circles, and clinical therapy to re-engage students who have histories of multiple suspensions, juvenile justice involvement, and low parental and family support. 

First Friday

We work with every youth (age 14-17) in the state of Texas who has been certified to stand trial as an adult or is currently serving an adult prison sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Youth serving adult sentences are incarcerated at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville. We match youth with mentors, write them letters and send them birthday cards. On the First Friday of every month we travel to Huntsville (transportation provided) to bring them pizza and connect through art, music and dance projects.

BUILDING COMMUNITIES OF KINSHIP

CommUnity Night is a weekly gathering at reVision’s southwest Houston headquarters on the Gethsemane Campus of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. Every Thursday from 7pm to 9:30pm 45-50 youth on probation visit their mentors, gather to hear a message of encouragement delivered by a peer, share a free hot meal prepared by volunteers, and participate in hip-hop, breakdance and krumping dance battles (youth that are not on probation are also invited to participate in the hip-hop culture activities). See videos of battles from previous events on our You Tube channel here. 

Community Partners and Collaborators

Built on collaboration, Houston: reVision has established partnerships with criminal justice agencies, school districts, and governmental organizations that embed it within systems and ensure meaningful work can occur. reVision leverages its extensive knowledge of how to navigate large institutions to create pathways for increased partnership, then catalyzes systemic change across systems. Current partners include:

• 39 churches*

• Harris County Juvenile Probation Department

• Texas Department of Criminal Justice

• Texas Juvenile Justice Department

• Houston Independent School District

• The Texas Network of Youth Services

• The Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD

• The Homeless Youth Network

• The Harris County Youth Collective

• The Episcopal Diocese of Texas

• The Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church

• CONNECT (St. Luke’s UMC, KIPP Houston, YMCA, Legacy Community Health Services)

• Harris County Commissioner Precinct 1

• South Texas Youth Soccer Association

*Partner churches: Bear Creek UMC, Bering UMC, Celebration Lutheran, Chapelwood UMC/Mercy Street, Christ Church Cathedral, Christus Victor, City Church, Covenant Lutheran, First Methodist The Source, First Presbyterian Downtown, FUMC Missouri City, FUMC Pasadena, Good Shepherd, Holy Comforter Episcopal, Holy Covenant UMC, Mission Bend UMC, St. Aidan's, St. Andrew's, St. John's La Porte, St. Luke's UMC, St. Martin's Episcopal, St. Matthew's Lutheran, St. Paul's UMC, St. Peter's UMC, St. Timothy's, Strawbridge UMC, The Foundry UMC, St. Mark’s Episcopal, Cypress Trails UMC, St. Stephen’s UMC, Memorial Drive UMC, Trinity Episcopal, Grace Presbyterian, FUMC Huntsville, The Hallowed Place, Blue Ridge UMC, St. Alban's Episcopal, Terrace UMC, Calvary Episcopal.

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