Inner City Kids Find Hope In White Paper Bag

By Karen Dye Apr 21, 2011

Nearly 15 million children in the United States live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. As their parents struggle to make ends meet, these children also struggle . . . to find hope. This spring, volunteers are using gift-filled paper bags to deliver that hope to kids in America’s most difficult neighborhoods.

Here’s Life Inner City is partnering with hundreds of churches and
community groups to provide “Easter Bags” to 25,400 children in 13
cities nationwide. The bags are filled with candy, crayons, a toy, a
colorful beaded bracelet and a Bible story/activity book designed
especially for children of the inner city.

“Poverty often isn’t just about lack of money. It can create a mindset
in children that there is no reason to dream, nothing to look forward to
in life,” says John Sather, national director of Here’s
Life Inner City. “We want to help break the cycle of poverty by giving children a
reason to have hope.”

Here’s Life Inner City, the
compassionate outreach of Campus Crusade for Christ, has worked in
America’s inner cities for 27 years.

Through
food, necessity items, life skills, career development and youth
development programs, Here’s Life Inner City and more than 1,300 partner
churches and organizations are reaching America’s poor with the
resources they need not only to survive, but also to succeed and
overcome the challenges of poverty.

“For more than 20 years, we’ve seen how an Easter Bag can change a child’s outlook, mend a broken family or impact a neighborhood,” Sather says. “And it begins with the promise of a simple gift, in a simple white paper bag.”