we are here today because council member dave hooks stress and mr willie watts entered my office one day for a meeting they asked me certain questions that i gave certain answers to and they wouldn't leave they just looked at me they didn't like the answers and i'm glad that they didn't like the answers that kind of perseverance eventually my listening i think has led to a lot of good outcomes that i want to touch on here you'll notice that this is too long probably to read in entirety it's too long for the little that we just use for the destination education so bear with me as i growing up gang member in chicago mr watt relocated to holland twenty years ago and turned his life around ten years ago whereas mr watt knew from his own life experience that the way to create a young person was to do more than just offer a sports program which i previously spoken of in this resolution he realized the need to create a place for aspects of life from school to finances can be addressed so with clear vision and a small group of people committed to the cause really crew escape to include programs to help students to stay on track the a s a p program boxing a fitness program a summer employment program holland youth connections and various other program classes designed to give people a place to belong another key component where we knew was working with families who knew that each youth needs a safe healthy home environment he understands educating empowering and  lying our youth means a brighter future for the youth as well as the city in two thousand and thirteen mr watt approached the city of holland and suggested an at risk youth work and mentoring program starting with two teams of  community would benefit and we'd all have a chance to invest in tomorrow's leaders in the past year mr watt also served as co speaker with the chief of police chief messer at multiple community forums and collaborated with out of a kind of mission county michigan works manpower the city of holland and many more to create fifteen teams of seventy eight used to work in the holland youth connections program these work experiences are now providing the first paychecks and hundreds of  council the city of holland on behalf of the people of holland michigan express our support and appreciation to escape ministries and their staff for accomplishing such a large increase in youth employment through working in connection with community partners out permanent records of the sit at city of holland signed the sixth day of august two i've given a lot of speeches over the last seven years and i can go on and on about this ministry and what it's done for the kids in this community but i want to step aside robust i was born and raised in holland michigan really i just want to think whether you will forgive me this opportunity just to pretty much become my own person this program has allowed me to step out of the shell of being worried or scared of getting shot down in the real world and pretty much just waking up every day and coming to work just kind of shows me that there's people out there willing to help  my name's alexis rodriguez and i come from a family of eight and i have all of six children i'm the oldest nine months being the youngest fourteen years old and i wanted to help my family not just more physically but financially being in and out of foster homes i mean my parents and upped and escape taught me try to fix that how news connection someone dropped program as a helping hand and provided not for just me but the community also they gave me an opportunity this program also helped me connect with people and to have a chance to communicate and share my experience with them and they're not just my coworkers but i don't stand in a group or a crowd i stand in  family i like to think you see it ministries and the city of hollis well thank you home being a scape i was never alone i was a pad i was a pill popper an atheist and a cutter when i first knew an escape i thought i don't i thought there was nobody but something told me the story and i didn't know what it was really came to me one day he told me to attend a sunday class and then my mind is thinking that it was because i never thought of going to church but i agreed anyway and that's a neighbor people kept talking about how hard their life was and i was thinking that my life was just like that but they overcame it and when willie told me his story and all the struggle and all his pain he still found faith and he still found happiness i thought that if he could do it then why can't i be lying if i said after he joined the skate that everything was perfect but escaping me the courage and assuring to fight off what killed me the most every father day was the most miserable day for me every single year and when i hit twelve am on every father's day i would cut my arm to bloody mess two years ago i cut over twenty times on my shoulder and the  the reason i would do that is because when i was when i was younger in seventh grade my dad beat me until i could stand and then he sent me to school i went to the back of him about it made me isn't being a profound me but there is more the bowing i got was so bad the only is over never having friends every day was a new cut i knew i would steal cigarettes from anyone i could smoke you where marijuana became a routine and i never talked to my mom about my problems because i thought she'd just yell at me or make me feel worthless thanks to escape i stopped smoking and causing trouble and cutting for what i did good and they helped me through what i did bad i left for a month i'm off to skate for about a month and i got into trouble i started smoking pot cigarettes and i started cutting again i got caught with we didn't school and a handful of blades i was forced to community service and their p and that's how i got came back to escape they let me do community service could everything for good i promise to never cut again and i never break my promises i never had a real father figure in my life until willie came and lived me from the shard of glass of my misery took me and then i realize that bad things happen but through faith i finally got to see god and am for all you guys i finally have a phone i finally have i finally have a home i finally have a meaning to be alive and i finally have two friends and i'm finally happy to be alive  realize that if i complain that it's too difficult that i can't quit because it's going to be ten times harder the future i mean i have a family in the life to support i mean this may not be the job i love but it's going to be giving me a little taste of well be accomplishing in the future honestly don't think i need to say anything this is what drives me this is what keeps me up at night i have wonderful people with family my wife for me to do this seventy hours eighty hours a week so a lot when i understood that it was for these young kids and i'd like to thank the city of holland every do they need us they need us there is no such thing as a bad kid it's only what's been poured into him and what's not given to him and we try to give love it thank you so much while we close this calm i just want to say for anyone watching or anyone who knows an employer who is interested in the kind of services that you perform so admirably all throughout our community that we encourage them to contact us we did receive a contact today from a new employer and it's tremendous what you're able to to achieve in a short time and this is something that's important especially as we grow this will if you want to tell us tell everyone what our goal is next year the number was two hundred fifty that means all we got to do is triple we did more than that this last year so with employers help i'm sure we can make it happen thank you and thank you all our donors who some of whom are here tonight as well