CALVARY COMMUNITY OUTREACH NETWORK

Healthy Faith Initiative: Healthy Faith is a multi-strategy approach to improving the health of youth and adults. CCON"s HYPE program promotes wellness, anti-violence, and civic engagement through events and social media. CCON partners with five local congregations to replicate the evidence based, Teen Outreach Program, led by trained facilitators and licensed counselors who provide group and individual sessions. Participants engage in social-emotional learning workshops and learn mediation skills to de-escalate confrontations. CCON works with other organizations to offer safe spaces, behavioral health screenings, group sessions, and activities for youth and parents after school in Kansas City. The program focuses on physical and mental health, conflict resolution, self-esteem, and stress management. Over five hundred participants engaged in regular group and individual exercise programs at the Wellness Center. Thirty-six African American churches were trained and engaged to deliver health clinics and supportive services to their congregants and the surrounding communities. CCON staffs and maintains a Community Action Board comprised of forty-five faith-based, academic researchers and community-based agencies in quarterly sessions.

HYPE: Helping Youth Plan for Excellence is a media leadership group that creates a positive setting for urban youth ages 10-21. The project utilizes student involvement in media as the vehicle to establish ongoing youth development activities. The HYPE Media Lab provides state-of-the-art technology and caring adult leadership. Students create content regarding the things that are happening in their world. Since 1999, HYPE members have produced quality programming giving accurate, culturally sensitive HIV/AIDS and substance abuse prevention information to their peers in an up-beat entertaining way. Students work to create stage performances that speak to their peers in positive ways.