Community enCompass -Youth
Our neighbor Mike is a Big Red who joined the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP!) when one of the YEPs knocked on his door a few summers ago and invited him. “I thought it might be a good way to kill some time. Didn’t have much to do, so why not?” he remembers thinking. Little did he know, that YEP would embrace him like family and become family.
Community enCompass believes that our youth are our future, but we also believe that youth are our TODAY. Over 10 years ago, in a series of “listening conversations”, neighbors told us that they felt there was little opportunity for youth in the city. Youth were feeling lost and forgotten, their talent and potential unrealized.

That's why Community enCompass partnered with neighbors to create the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP!). Through paid internships, weekly leadership development classes, college preparation, and civic volunteerism, YEP! provides high school youth like Mike opportunities to learn and exercise leadership skills.
YEPs then model and pass on what they learn by becoming academic coaches (paid internships) for younger youth in core city elementary schools. In the summer, YEPs lead and mentor younger youth as camp counselors at our neighborhood day-camp, CATCH Camp. Many YEPs like Mike had their first-ever paid job as a YEP Intern. YEPs are leaders today in core-city Muskegon!
VOLUNTEER NOW and join us in this neighboring movement in the City! Partner with Community enCompass and support our work with neighbors in core-city Muskegon.

Dozens of neighborhood teenagers spent their summers doing internships through the Youth Empowerment Project. The PAID internships created an opportunity of high school students to gain experience in the fields of youth work, agriculture, construction, and gardening, building interpersonal skills and developing their resumes
Want to give back to core-city Muskegon?
Here at Community enCompass the opportunities to give back to your community are endless, but here are 20 ways you can get involved today.
This summer, hundreds of volunteers have already partnered with our neighbors to invest time, money and effort along 5th and 6th Streets from Houston Avenue south into Muskegon Heights. The project activities have provided effects similar to that of a facelift, rejuvenating the existing physical built environment of our core city neighborhoods. These activities are lifting the spirits of those living in these neighborhoods as well, and allowing neighbors to show-off their amazing gifts of hospitality!
19 sleepy teens are climbing into vans in the parking lot. It’s dark, cold (and probably snowing), but there is an edge of excitement because they’ve worked hard to be here. It’s the start of the 6th annual YEP College Tour, and within minutes 19 high school youth will be on the road to Kentucky, visiting 5 colleges over 3 days. Two YEPs reflect on their experiences.
For many years, a group of our neighbors has sought to provide high quality, new toys, and gifts for hard-working families in the core city Muskegon neighborhoods at an affordable price. Every child sees the same commercial yet Muskegon County’s ALICE population (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed) struggle to afford basic household necessities.
This was my first time at the “Taste and See” Tour of our core city neighborhoods and Community enCompass. Wow: I am so very impressed with the awesome programs that Community enCompass has their hands in, rebuilding our community. Love IS what Love DOES & Community enCompass is doing much with Love. A great variety of amazing things are growing in our community as Community enCompass ministers through growth.
Phew: What a summer! So much work has been done. One of the highlights this summer has been our “4th Street Facelift” Project. Community enCompass was 1 of 10 organizations across the state to be awarded a $50,000 grant from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) for neighborhood enhancement projects. Competition was hot with 36 projects across the state applying, and the grant was a catalyst for neighborhood organizing in a powerful way.
One of the greatest joys in neighborhood development work is seeing young leaders growing up to take positions of influence and responsibility in the community. This summer a large number of our emerging leaders (YEP’s) were thrust into positions of significant responsibility that stretched their abilities and tested their faith. They worked as farmers with McLaughlin Grows Farm, as camp leaders with CATCH Camp, as crew leaders with Royal Edge (our new and improved lawn care social enterprise!), lot beautification under the direction of Sprinkler Works, and with our Home Rehab and Construction program at our current “home redemption project” on 4th street. The internships have ended, they are exhausted. And have significantly matured.