Sowing Seeds with Faith (SSWF) is a youth program in Louisville whose goal is to engage youth academically and socially in the Louisville community by mastering developmental challenges via educational expectations, structure, faith, and accountability.  Sowing Seeds with Faith is a Louisville-based private tutoring service with tutors ranging from JCPS teachers to JCPS retirees to current college students. Sowing Seeds uses a Village approach to provide the highest caliber of educational support to students of K-12 in every subject. Sowing Seeds with Faith particularly excels in math, reading comprehension, and black history. Whatever your academic goals, our team can help you attain them (https://www.sowingseedswithfaith.org/). The youth program not only provides youth with tutoring during the school year but also provides youth with hands-on experiential learning experiences that are geared to make a positive change in the daily lives of young people.  

4-H has been involved with the program for the past 5 years.  We’ve taught health and nutrition, robotics, and cooking classes.  With the assistance of 2 4-H Assistants, 3 teen club leaders, and 2 agents, I was able to plan and successfully implement an overnight trip to Lake Cumberland 4-H Camp.  Over 100 participants traveled to the camp. Focusing on opportunities that most inner-city youths don’t get a chance to experience, participants were given the opportunity to kayak, canoe, zipline, climb a rock wall, cook on an open fire, practice firearm safety with a rifle and a bow and arrow and much more.  For more than 90% of the participants, this was the first time they have ever stayed overnight in the wilderness and learned how to use a bow and arrow.  For many of these youth, the fear of guns and live ammunition is a trigger, 95% of them were successful in learning how to properly handle a shotgun and use ammunition.  The youth was able to learn effective problem-solving techniques in the ropes course.  They learned how to collaborate with others in the outdoor cooking, rifle, and boat dock classes.  Most importantly all youth were able to build a more positive relationship with each other and the adults who work at the camp.  

This collaboration allowed SSWF youth to the opportunity for significant personal growth.  Jefferson County 4-H will continue to collaborate with Sowing Seeds with Faith over the years.  We hope that from this single experience, many of the youth and volunteers will participate in the week-long camp Jefferson County offers next summer.  We hope to challenge their personal limits both emotionally and physically.  

Sowing Seed With Faith. 2022. https://www.sowingseedswithfaith.org/