A vital component to building a healthy community here at CHAT is to provide both the staff and youth with opportunities for spiritual growth and development. To support this development, we partner with East End Fellowship, a church local to the neighborhood, and encourage youth to get involved in youth group as well as smaller community groups.
- LOVE & YMA Groups – Ladies of Virtue and Excellence(LOVE) and Young Men’s Academy(YMA) are weekly community groups for middle and high school age youth. The groups are led by CHAT staff as well as adult leaders in the Church Hill community dedicated to teaching the Bible and establishing the principles of walking a Christ-centered life in the youth of Church Hill. Community group typically consists of eating together, praying together, reading the Bible together, and going on trips together. These groups are in many senses the lifeblood of CHAT where some of the strongest relationships are formed.
- East End Fellowship – During the spring of 2007, John Perkins, a veteran to urban ministry and founder of the Christian Community Development Association, visited Church Hill and met with many of the families involved in CHAT and the East End Community to describe his initial thoughts about the ministry happening here. He mentioned the need for a place for the local community to come together and worship regularly. One week later, a couple of leaders from the community decided to expand a prayer group that had been meeting for several years into a full-fledged worshipping community. The majority of the CHAT staff attend EEF and alongside interested youth.
- Youth Group – For roughly seven years, CHAT partnered with the youth group at Third Presbyterian Church. In the fall of 2010, a youth group was formed at EEF for middle and high school youth. The youth group is currently meeting on the first Friday of every month at the Robinson Theatre.
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