GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Bethany Christian Services will take time to honor female caregivers and mentors on Saturday in Grand Rapids.
The Youth Services department of the Grand Rapids-based nonprofit will host a free mother/daughter forum and brunch on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Generations of Grace is intended to honor mothers, grandmothers, caregivers, aunts and mentors who support young women on their journey and offer a space to celebrate their love and care.
“I’ve always had a passion for working with high school-aged girls and mentoring them and just through that there’s this understanding that not everyone feels like they might be a family because they don’t have a mom at home so we wanted to do something that would celebrate every single relationship,” Michelle McGlaun, one of the forum organizers, said.
Bethany’s Youth Services branch offers a program called Pro Track where staff work specifically with youth ages 14 to 19.
“Our whole goal is to change the community and in order to do that we have to reach their parents and so we have had other ways that we can reach their parents like we have the parent cafe, that is a support group for our parents,” Veronica Cook, youth services program supervisor said. “This (forum) right here is another avenue of reaching those parents and those children and giving them the love that they need.”
The forum will be held at the Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation at 1530 Madison Ave. SE and feature several speakers, including Andrea Blue of Bethany Christian Services, Nikeidra Debrage of New Destiny Pathway, Tashuna Hunt of Space for Change and keynote speaker Marisol Martinez, senior diversity, equity and inclusion specialist.
Teens can bring any woman who they feel has a positive impact on their life.
“This could be a foster mom, this could be a mentor, this could be an auntie that just loves on her niece,” Cook said. “We want to give them a time of being together, being able to have that girl talk and celebrate them.”
The registration form can be found here.