History

A thirteen year old girl in a mobile home park tragically died of a drug overdose in 2001, birthing the vision of Firewall Ministries.

In July 2003, we began a weekly gathering for the youth of that same community, sharing our faith, providing a meal, and playing games with those that would join us. However, even though we would meet with these young people every week, they still didn’t get any support at home and were flunking out of school and hanging out with the wrong people. We were not getting the results we envisioned, losing too many of them to drugs, sex, and hopelessness.

This is when we decided to establish a daily presence in their lives, beginning our after-school program in January 2005. Our idea was to be there every day for the youth, to listen to their problems and to share our values with them in practical ways. We felt that if they succeeded in school, they would begin to build a healthy self-worth.

Although it was tough at first, we started to see the life transformation that we had always prayed for and desired. The fact that we were there every day for them changed their lives. As a result, we now operate three centers in South Florida and expect to add three additional centers in 2010.

Firewall’s future plans include partnering with churches and other organizations to initiate, influence, and inspire the establishment of centers everywhere.