Love Flows At Saturday Academy

“I have a question for each of you,” Pastor Valerie Washington began, seated on the soft carpet in a circle of two dozen 3‑to-15-year-olds in the cozy confines of Grand Avenue’s Upon This Rock Ministries. 

She was conducting the most recent session of the Saturday Academy, which meets for four hours each month, offering fun, games, and lessons on life skills, as well as spiritual lessons through biblical study. The Academy, which is free and open to up to 60 students, has been meeting since 2011. 

“If there was one thing you could do to change the world, to make this world better, what would you do?” Washington asked. ​“One thing.” 

A little boy’s hand shot up. 

“I could help people get jobs,” he said. 

Everyone clapped.

Another boy spoke in a low voice. 

“Yes, Chase, you’d give them food, you’d open up a soup kitchen? Look at that. So people will be able to go and get something to eat if they’re hungry.” 

“That’s right,” chorused Simone Joyner and Robin Burke across the circle, as everyone cheered and Chase beamed.

“Tori?”

“I’d wanna help people get houses,” Tori said.

Everyone clapped.

“These are all important because they’re real issues that people face in life every day,” Washington told the group. ​“People need jobs. People need food to eat. People need housing.”

“So we could all work together,” she continued. ​“Chase will feed them, that’s right. And Kayden will help them get a job. And once they get a job, Tori can help them get a house, and you see how everything you guys do could change the world.”

From the founding of Upon This Rock Ministries on Whalley Avenue in 2005, Washington’s initiatives have focused on children. The church moved to its current location on Grand Avenue in 2016.

“She’s always been about the kids,” said Chazz McCarter, a church minister, who’s known Washington all his life. Washington was his youth leader at his grandfather’s Deliverance Temple Pentecostal Church. ​“Now I’m passing it on.”

When schools introduced remote learning in spring 2020, Washington, with help from McCarter and Robin Burke, sprang into action, setting up tables in the church for children of church members to have a place to learn.

“These parents were the essential workers,” Washington said. ​“They couldn’t stay at home, and they needed to work to be able to provide for their kids. The children needed to be able to continue to get their education but also be in a safe environment with some accountability.” 

Soon they were partnering with teachers.

“With the children being on their laptops, we were able to introduce ourselves to their teachers. If someone was struggling in a certain area, the teacher would let us know. Then we would target that subject,” she said. 

The program, which transitioned into an extended-hours affair with funding from New Haven Public Schools in September 2021, hasn’t ended with schoolwork. 

“We teach them proper communication,” Washington said. ​“When an adult is speaking, when anyone is speaking, we tell them it’s important you hear them out, and when they’re done, you can ask ​‘are you done? may I speak?’”

“We teach them about hygiene, about bullying, about helping their parents, cleaning up, taking out trash, cleaning their rooms,” she said. ​“We tell them all the time, your parents work all day to provide for you, they come home, they have to cook, so it’s up to you to pitch in.” 

“We teach them they have a voice too,” said McCarter, who routinely picks up kids and drives them to church or to their school in the church van when other transportation isn’t available. ​“They can talk to us about something that happened at school. We let them know we’re there for them.” 

There was also a vision board party, which had the kids cutting out pictures from magazines and gluing them on poster board to depict where they picture themselves in the future. ​“A lot of these kids see basketball, basketball, basketball, as their ticket,” said McCarter, a basketball star at Hillhouse and Gateway. 

McCarter, a graduate of Gateway College and Southern Connecticut State University. currently heads Gateway’s athletic department and men’s basketball team. He tells kids, ​“Education is important, just in case, but that doesn’t have to mean college. There are other options, like trade school.”

About an hour into the Academy, the groups split up, with the older kids heading to the basement for lunch and then viewing ​“The Shack.” 

“When I was growing up in the Beardsley Project in Bridgeport, there were activities to bring kids together,” said Youth Director Hila Testman, amid the warm aroma of pizza in the brightly lit space. 

“Now it’s hard, with violence in each corner of the city. So the idea is to bring them together, teach them to love themselves first so they can know how to love someone else.” 

At a nearby table, Jerseigh Brabham nodded. ​“I like coming because we learn about God, and we learn you can talk to him when you have troubles,” she said. ​“It’s just like having a normal conversation with anybody else.”

Upstairs, near the back of the church, Academy Assistant Director Robin Burke was reading aloud the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den to the younger group of kids. 

Observing the action from one of the plush purple seats was Patricia Frazier, among the evangelists at the church. She’s been coming to the Saturday Academy since it started in 2011.

“I have a granddaughter here,” she said, pointing out a little girl with beads in her hair, as Burke showed an image of King Darius on her iPhone. ​“It warms my heart to hear her tell me the stories of what she’s learned, so I know she’s retaining what she’s being taught, and she hasn’t even started school yet.”

Mary Jones, a long-time volunteer, had a similar take.

“I wish my grandkids could come but they’re staying home because of the pandemic, so I’m learning to be able to go back to teach them,” she said. 

“We know Pastor Washington’s vision, and that’s why we don’t mind helping and following,” she said. ​“Children are her heart.

“You can just feel the love in here.”

To donate to Upon This Rock Ministries, click here. visit https://bit.ly/3AxxE72.