King’s Club is an empowerment ministry that began in 2013 through Westgate Memorial Baptist Church in partnership with other churches and community volunteers. In the summer, it involves youth from Plymouth Village Apartments and other Beaumont area children in sports, crafts, music and dance in order to help them find their gifts, talents and abilities to cope with life’s challenges. The program culminates with a block party and program at the end where the kids get to SHINE and show their family and friends all they’ve learned! It also includes a summer King’s Club store and a Christmas store where children and parents spend tickets earned through involvement in King’s Club programs. In order to keep older students engaged, the Junior Leadership Team was formed. Junior Leaders help as volunteers with the younger children, attend classes focused on leadership skills and job skills, and enjoy attending field trips to learn more about jobs they are interested in. Some of the favorite field trips have been the Beaumont Police Museum, Fire Station #1, learning CPR and exploring being an EMT at Baptist Hospital, touring channel 12, seeing the many jobs available at Market Basket, packing boxed food for Meals-on-Wheels, and touring LIT and Lamar University. They also learned from managers and enjoyed lunches at Chick-fil-A, McAlister’s Deli, Casa Ole, and Jason’s Deli. In 2019, after phone calls from single working moms who needed a safe place for their children, our Junior Interns Program was formed to go deeper into job skills with students who wanted to help behind the scenes. As most of the children attend low-performing schools, in 2018 King’s Club also added the After-School Program to offer mentoring, fun enrichment activities and one-on-one tutoring to help children succeed. This has led to opportunities to develop deeper relationships beyond academics which include outdoor activities, games, Christmas sponsorships for every child in each family, and birthday celebrations, all to bring joy and stability in a world that sometimes seems unstable.