By Brett Hetherington*

The vision of the East Ohio Conference calls churches to “being disciples, making disciples, and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ; being God’s agents of transformation in our communities and throughout the world; and being bold and courageous leaders in reaching new people, younger people, and a more diverse people.” To catch this vision a church will sometimes find itself thinking outside the box of traditional ministry.

Smithville United Methodist Church (Central Valley District) has built a strong connection with a select group of youth – and their families – in the Smithville area over the last several years by hosting Liberty Preparatory School in its building as an outreach to the community.

“Liberty Preparatory School is a dropout prevention school high school,” said Smithville UMC Pastor James Lance. “They are a state-funded, state-run, separate entity that rents our space. We are working on being in more and more relationship with them and seeing what that looks like.”

One such part of the relationship that the church shares with Liberty Prep is a baccalaureate service held for graduating seniors the night before graduation. A special meal was prepared for this year’s baccalaureate, families were invited, and a spirit of joy was in the air. Church members had signed cards of encouragement for the graduates, encouraging them on into their next steps in life and yet there was a sense of trepidation. Lance shared that was because for some Liberty Preparatory students, graduation is not solely a joyous occasion.

“Some of the students have families that never graduated high school, for some of them this is the only graduation they will have, and for some of them it was a real effort to get there. So, this is trying to let them know this is a time of celebration and a good thing. Some of them struggle with graduation because they don’t know what they are doing next or because Liberty Prep has been a safe haven for them, and so they don’t always see graduation as a good thing.”

As a dropout prevention school, the student body of Liberty Preparatory is unique, coming from varied backgrounds and enrolling for many different reasons. Ashley Wilson serves as a security guard for the school and offered her perspective.

“A lot of time kids coming here are very credit deficient, and some of them have even been kicked out of their previous schools. They kind of feel like this is their last option to really get their diploma and we try to work with them and make that happen,” she said.

Lance shared that the Liberty Prep students come to the school from varied backgrounds.

“Sometimes it means they come from lower income, sometimes it means they didn’t have support at home, some of them can’t sleep that well or have issues getting food so they can’t study well. Most of them also have IEPs, so as we all know most school systems are built with ‘Here’s how you are going to learn’ and it works great for some people but not everyone. They have alternative ways to learn here, so it’s smaller classes and that allows them to be more effective in that way,” he shared.

In an effort to meet the needs of the student body, the school has partnerships with several community organizations to provide resources and services such as mental health care, case work, and counseling. School leadership understands that there are many barriers for students to overcome as they attempt to take advantage of this opportunity to earn their diploma.

“A lot of the kids I work with have support systems that are good, but they need additional,” said Cody Graybeal, a licensed mental health professional and one of the community partners that works with the school. “Liberty Prep offers that support system with the teachers, us, our other case managers here, other organizations. They have that additional support system to help them through some of the hard times they are having whether it’s trauma, mental health disorders things of that nature.”

Graybeal shared that he enjoys the collaboration between the school, the church, and the mental health services. “All of the systems in this place work really well together and it’s cool to see that all working to help these kids educationally and for their well-being,” he said.

That collaboration has been a genuine benefit to many students. Graduating senior Alayna shared that Liberty Preparatory provided her with a supportive environment and a firm platform to stand on whenever she needed help.

“Before coming to Liberty Prep, when COVID hit I had all Fs. Before that I was an A/B student. And when I was getting all Fs, I went online because I thought that might be better because bullying also was taking place. And when truancy was an issue because I was struggling mentally that really took a dip and made the hole bigger. My mom’s friend suggested I come to Liberty and ever since then it has been uphill. It’s pretty awesome,” she said.

Graduating senior Ethan appreciated what the school offered him.

“Liberty Prep helped me because I was kicked out of all my other schools, so they gave me another chance. And they helped me prepare for my future by giving me my diploma. Thanks for giving me a second chance to graduate,” he shared.

Smithville UMC’s support of the student body – and the staff of Liberty Preparatory – is not limited to providing space Monday through Friday and hosting a baccalaureate service. In the past Lance shared how the church has provided gift cards for the staff, and each year they provide students with what they call “turkey bags.”

“The church collects different food items that you would normally collect for a Thanksgiving bag and then we make the bags, and the students get to take them home the Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving when school is still in session, so they have enough to make a Thanksgiving meal of some sort,” he said.

Turkey bags is a small step the church is taking to help with the food insecurity that many students wrestle with. Providing resources for food banks in the area is another step.

“We are trying all the time to find ways to be more and more in relationship with the school and the families of the students,” said Lance.

The partnership Smithville UMC has built with Liberty Preparatory is one that has also allowed the church to be an effective force for the Gospel in Smithville and the surrounding area. It has allowed many teenagers to accomplish something they would not have been able to otherwise. It has given them another chance to learn what it means to finish what they started.

“Don’t give up, don’t stop because if you stop it’s so much harder to keep going so much harder to get back on that horse so don’t stop even though something gets hard. Don’t stop,” shared Alayna.

The Conference Communications team would like to share other stories that highlight ways that each of us is answering the call of Bishop Tracy S. Malone to reach out to our communities in creative ways. Please e-mail your ministry story to EOC Executive Director of Communications Rick Wolcott at wolcott@eocumc.com.

* Brett Hetherington is the Communications specialist for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.