Community of Service with Project Transformation
Overview
Casey and Chelsea from @projecttransformationnatio391 join us to talk about the community of service and discernment that Project Transformation has offered young adults since 1998. More at projecttransformation.org
And support UPROAR at motorcitywesley.org/give
Summary
In this conversation, Carl Thomas Gladstone speaks with Casey Mellody and Chelsea Jones about Project Transformation, a program that empowers young adults through community service and leadership development. Casey discusses the program's origins, its mission to engage young adults in vocational discernment, and the impact it has had on participants and communities. Chelsea shares inspiring stories of young adults who have thrived in the program and highlights recent developments, including a significant grant that will help scale their efforts nationally. The conversation concludes with ways for listeners to get involved and support Project Transformation.
Takeaways
Project Transformation began in 1998 in Dallas, Texas.
The program focuses on empowering young adults through service.
Participants build intentional communities and relationships.
Young adults often discover their vocational callings through the program.
The program serves as a bridge between churches and communities.
Many young adults return to serve again after their initial experience.
A recent grant will help expand Project Transformation's reach.
The organization aims to build sustainable chapters across the country.
Community directors will enhance year-round engagement.
There are numerous ways for individuals to get involved with Project Transformation.
TRANSCRIPT
Carl Thomas Gladstone (00:00)
Hey everybody, welcome back to UPROAR. I'm Carl Thomas Gladstone with Motor City Wesley Campus Ministry. We love talking with folks who are doing good stuff with young adults to help them in their own vocational discernment and service to the world. And today we have a couple of folks from Project Transformation, Casey Melody and Chelsea Jones, who are going to tell us a little bit more about this program, which I had the privilege of being a part of on the inaugural year.
the previous millennium so there's that. Casey, welcome. Would you tell us a little bit about what project transformation is and how it got started?
Chelsea Jones (00:31)
was crazy to say.
Yes, I'd love to. Yes. So your inaugural year was in 1998 here in Dallas, Texas, where Project Transformation started. We love to tell the story. It started out of paper napkin and two sort of revolutionary thinkers in the United Methodist Church came together over a Tex-Mex lunch here in Dallas, Texas. The late Dr. Leighton K. Farrell and Sarah Wilkie came together over lunch and started
dreaming about an opportunity that would empower young adults to give them leadership opportunities in ministry and to provide holistic programming, literacy and social emotional programming for children who are underserved, as well as how they might utilize partnerships with churches who, you know, wanted to better engage their neighbors. And so,
Thus began the mission of Project Transformation that we call the Three Cs and partnering with children, college age, young adults, and churches. And so we started in North Texas. The movement began there in 1998, like I said, and then in 2015, there was so much national interest on the board. The vision was to be a respected national model
of Young Adults Ministry. And so we had a few really passionate board members and our founding CEO, Holmes, got together and started brainstorming what it would be like to see you chat.
that point to other chapters in Oklahoma, which I think you helped start in this first summit, is that right? You may have showed up in Oklahoma City, which started a few years after national and then Tennessee, which started in the early 2000s. And so it had already replicated across the country, but they really wanted to invest.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (02:19)
I may have showed up in Oklahoma City,
Chelsea Jones (02:36)
in providing infrastructure to that replication process and to see new chapters. So we have started several chapters since then in Rio, Texas, which is in San Antonio and Greater Tarrant, which is primarily in Fort Worth, in Washington, DC, and in Arkansas. So now we have a total of seven.
project transformation chapters across the country. Our focus here at National in the next three to five years as we spend our first 10 years now, we're celebrating our 10th birthday party this winter, is to really look at the infrastructure building and sustainability of chapters so it's continuing to build capacity where we already are rather than continuing.
to see chapters across the country. So for the next three to five years, I don't think you'll see new chapters. You'll see more work of national supporting the local efforts of chapter where we already are. So that's a little info about project transformation, how it started here in North Texas, which a great flagship chapter. still the largest chapter of project transformation and how it became a national movement.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (03:38)
Yeah.
Everybody's still rocking the green polos.
Chelsea Jones (03:58)
We do rock some green polos and some green t-shirts now, but still, it is a total thing. But it has moved from 1998 Hunter green to a more Kelly grassy green. Same with polo. Yeah, it's not cotton anymore, so it's a breathable material. Yeah.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (04:13)
Alright, staying on the times. Well for a young adult who's...
There you go.
man, those Friday visit days where we're all kind of huddled together for a big photo and the sun's beating down.
Chelsea Jones (04:31)
Yes, sir.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (04:32)
For a young adult who's wandering, great, there's this national thing and there's some places that we work with children, churches, and college-age young adults. What does it look like? What is the experience kind of focused on? How do young adults experience all the joys of what PT is?
Chelsea Jones (04:47)
Yeah, so I think the best way to capture everything that is a project transformation summer experience for me is kind of putting it in three buckets, right? Which is you get intentional community, you get intentional and mutual relationships, and then you get leadership development.
because throughout the summer at least, we have young adults from all over the country that go and serve at these local chapters and they live in an intentional community for about eight to 10 weeks. And so they're living together, they're having meals together, they're working together, they're worshiping together. And so throughout that experience, they are building these relationships with each other, with their kids, with their volunteers. And so it's like this cycle.
of relationships that are happening and one pours into the other and the other pours into the other. And throughout all of that, we're developing young leaders, not only through Friday experiences, but also through transformational coaching. Because we realized it is a bit of a crazy ask to put like 18, 19 year olds over a summer camp and just have them lead it.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (05:35)
Hmm.
Chelsea Jones (05:57)
But what better way to learn and develop as a leader through that experience? So we've had young adults that have discovered they're calling for education. We've had young adults that have discovered they're calling for social work. We've had young adults that have discovered they're calling for social justice, even ministry. We've had young adults that have discovered that through this work, they want to continue to do ministry related work. Casey and I are no different than that experience.
And so yeah, all of that is a bit of a whirlwind experience. And I served as a member at the North Texas chapter many moons ago. And so I did that for five summers because I knew that it was stirring something in me. And I got that intentional community and I got those mutual and intentional relationships and I developed as a leader. And so you get all sorts of skills throughout this experience.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (06:47)
I know that when I was at the Wesley Rankin Community Center in 1998, running that day camp, know, I definitely remember that first day kind of saying, oh, we're just doing it. that's what we do. just go and do this. It was kind of eye-opening for my own, like, oh, how do I just then go and do something like that? And there were moments where, like,
Chelsea Jones (07:03)
Yes.
Hmm?
Carl Thomas Gladstone (07:16)
The things that we were doing during a, you know, day camp for kids with a free lunch and Harambe in the morning and, you know, silly songs and whatnot, really butted up against some of the trouble that some of those kids were facing at home. Like if they weren't with us, they would have been hanging out with some folks, you know, folks on the block or whatever that they might not have had their best interests at heart. Now that's not everybody, but you know, it was some of those kids.
I wonder about the churches that have said yes to hosting these events, these day camps and other programs, and how they've experienced a kind of a wake up to their call, a wake up to their mission in the particular neighborhoods that they've been in.
Chelsea Jones (07:59)
is a good question. It is a great question and I think, right, I think Project Transformation gets to serve as this program, as this hook that allows churches and their lay people to get out in their community and offer programming that they wouldn't otherwise have. They wouldn't otherwise have. And so I think what we've seen over time is that
you know, a really engaged congregation comes alongside the program in such important ways to help recruit kids, to get to know kids, to love on young adults and bring them in. One of the greatest quotes from last summer was in Project Transformation Rio, Texas, where a young adult just communicated how well loved they felt by the people in the church because
The goal is to have those young adults engaging with that faith community as well on Sunday mornings, through meals during the week, and to really connect with the pastor as well. So we have good amounts of volunteers coming from those host churches to read with children every day and to provide meals with young adults. And I think it just creates this family of support.
and gives sometimes churches a younger population to love on that they wouldn't otherwise have.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (09:28)
Yeah. Chelsea, I'm sure
thousands of young adults have come through this program at this point. Is that right? Are there some that their story just really pops to mind as folks who thrived in their summers of service that had particular kind of story that is always good to tell when you're talking about the impact that it can have in an individual's life, a young adult who might come and serve?
Chelsea Jones (09:35)
Yes.
Yeah, I mean, just going through the Rolodex between my own experience as a young adult member back in 2009, but also thinking about my experience as a program director, because I had the amazing opportunity to be the founding program director for our chapter that's located in Fort Worth, which is now Project Transformation Greater Tarrant.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (09:58)
Hehehe.
Chelsea Jones (10:20)
And so I was able to serve in that position for six years. And so thinking about, I think I wanna share a story from that aspect because it's one thing to serve as a young adult member, it's a completely different thing to experience it as the person who is sending in the young adults to do the thing. I don't think I fully grasped
Carl Thomas Gladstone (10:40)
yeah.
Chelsea Jones (10:44)
the weight and responsibility, both as a program director, but also the duty in communicating that to my young adults. It was a very special season because, and not in a way to scare them, right? But in a way that I was able to tell my young adults, you are providing a safe space for a child who knows where they would go if they didn't come to our camp. But,
you have parents that are trusting our organization with one of their most prized possessions. And that is a responsibility to not take lightly. And Casey was my program director. So she was able to train me because, I mean, you watch this, like these class, like this class of 18, 19 year olds come in and they're like, what do you mean we're going to be leading the camp? And it's like, you are the ones leading it.
And so being able to see, like I said earlier, that community, the relationships and the development that comes, it's something that's so special. And we talk a lot about like the secret sauce of project transformation and it's like something you just wish you could put in a bottle. Because I think that's why we have so many young adults that do come back to serve. That is one of the reasons they come back to serve. They experience something.
that they've never experienced before and they wanna continue to have that fulfillment in those ways. Because it's not just we're giving you a job and then you're going off to do like the rest of your life, which for some young adults that is their story and that's beautiful as well. But there's just something about watching a young adult come, do their service opportunity and you just see the light bulb go off.
and you see the lights and the wheels start to turn about, I could do this or I could do this. And rather than saying, here's all the answers, coming alongside these young adults and seeing their capabilities, seeing their skillsets that they don't even see in themselves and watching them take off outside of the PT space. Like I think about one young adult in particular, she served, I think, our very first summer.
She had a separate job that fell through and her aunt texted me, because she and I served together at North Texas way back when. And so she texted me and said, my niece is looking for a job. Do you have any space left? We had had like over half our staff like cancel the last minute. So I just said, everybody get on your phones and just find somebody who can show up and pass a background check. And so she texted me and said, my niece is looking for a job. So she shows up.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (13:02)
You
Chelsea Jones (13:13)
And at first I was like, there's no way this girl is gonna make it through the summer. She just wasn't somebody I think that was fully invested. She was like, this is a job, I'm here to get my check and go on about my day. But then she met the kids and then she got to see the relationships in the community. And then I kind of got to watch these 15 strangers slowly begin to form relationships on their own.
and they started to have their own like little inside jokes and they started to do like, you know, the 2 a.m. Walmart runs to get last minute curriculum supplies. And so anyways, like she completed the first summer and before she left, she said, I will be back again the next summer. And she was. And so watching her go from just a general young adult to a site coordinator to a house pastor, like watching her grow in that leadership,
and watching her now, like now she's an educator. When I first met her, she wanted to go into business and after she served her first summer, she wanted to do education and she just completed her master's in education. And so it's one of those things where you just watch like the little seed that you plant during the little time that you have them and then they just grow and be these beautiful things.
We're still in communication today and every once in a while she'll reach out and say, you know, I'm thinking about making this career move. What do you think? And I mean, there's some days where I look at myself and I have to ask, am I the adult in the room? And so now it's like, I am the adult in the room and I've had the opportunity to watch other adults take off and grow and develop and flourish into these beautiful humans.
because of the intentional community, the coaching, the mutual and intentional relationships and the leadership development. yeah, it's something that I still just can't quite get over having to experience myself, but that young lady in particular, she stands out to me. I love that story. I think Carl, I don't know if you...
Carl Thomas Gladstone (15:13)
I it.
Chelsea Jones (15:19)
If you got this too, but in my summer internship in 2001, at the end of the summer, we got a photo of ourselves with a child. Did you all get that year somewhere too, Carl?
Carl Thomas Gladstone (15:31)
I don't remember. We might have been a little early.
Chelsea Jones (15:33)
Yeah, maybe so, but we got one. And that child in mine, 12 years later, had completed the full throttle program from first grade to high school at Project Information North Texas, and then helped Chelsea launch Central Texas.
and another chapter in the Midwest. And now she's working in children's ministry at a United Methodist Church in the Midwest after spending so many years. And so we've dubbed those kiddos who have grown up in the program become interns and then also left and gotten other ministry or service opportunities as kid turns because now over a hundred...
Carl Thomas Gladstone (16:18)
You
Chelsea Jones (16:20)
that probably close to 150 kids have grown through the program, whether that's, you know, been in North Texas or Oklahoma or Tennessee, those chapters are now old enough to have kids who have become interns and now also in North Texas staff members on, you know, local chapter staff. So I love that story. just speaks to the long term relationships that become full cycle that
I think is unique to project transformation and the way it nurtures all of us in different phases, right? And I'm not a kid turned, but I was a young adult in 2001 and I've spent my entire 20 plus year career in ministry at project transformation, both at the local chapter and now as CEO of the national chapter. So I think it really speaks to, and you too, Chelsea, the way that...
know, project transformation really invests and allows young leaders to take on opportunities that they might not get in other spaces with other organizations.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (17:28)
Yeah, it's a missional adventure, but it is also integrated into the life of the broader church and faith communities. And in that, think it does help.
kind of keep people connected lifelong. It wasn't just something that you did previously, but can be something you continue to help others find and to connect otherwise. I want to give a shout out to my co-teacher Blake for coming up with the idea that in our first little classroom in 1998, we would write and record an album over the summer.
on a cassette tape and then we made dubs of the cassette tape and gave it to all the kids. And it was probably one of my first moments of understanding how growing up with some musical skills can really feed into, you know, faith and ministry. And my greatest regret is that I don't know where that tape is anymore.
Chelsea Jones (18:15)
I wish we still had it.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (18:17)
I know,
I know. They were pretty good. They were kind of about the kids and about their projects and it was great. It was very fun. Recording in the upper room of the SMU Service House over the summer of 1998. Yep. Well, I know that Project Transformation also has had some big news lately. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about some fun Lily connected project stuff that is coming along. Casey?
Chelsea Jones (18:22)
I love that.
Yeah!
space.
Yes, Carl, we feel so lucky, so blessed to have been invited to apply to the Lilly Endowment's Young Adult Faith and Service Initiative.
We applied for a $4.25 million grant and found out in the fall that we received it and are just so excited for what that means for Project Transformation. As I alluded to before in terms of where we are nationally as an organization, this grant gives us unprecedented capacity to scale.
our young adult programs across the country. I'll let Chelsea tell you a little bit more about how we're sort of going to be nationally involved in the young adult process, more so than we have been, but it also allows for a centralized national services to go out to chapters and really build chapter capacity as well. So a big part of the grant is capacity building and we're so excited to be able to offer.
more development supports for our local chapters for this grant in terms of fundraising supports, board supports, very, very exciting stuff in terms of capacity building with alumni networks and being able to build those out. So, so much good infrastructure work that a 10-year and younger, smaller nonprofit needs that Lily saw the value in investing in.
just feel so, so, so lucky. But I'll let Chelsea tell you a little bit more about the exciting ways that young adult programming is going to grow and then be scaled across the country because of this grant. Yeah. So as we started talking about this opportunity of if we wanted to apply for this grant, what would it look like? What are some ways that we could create something that could be sustainable?
Carl Thomas Gladstone (20:27)
yeah.
Chelsea Jones (20:41)
And the first thing almost immediately that came to all of our minds was what if we just brought back the house pastor position? Because it originated in the North Texas chapter and for a while it was able to replicate, but of course with the pandemic and then everybody was trying to find ways to just stay afloat through the pandemic. And so like most churches, nonprofits, just about every business that took a hit,
Carl Thomas Gladstone (21:00)
Mm-hmm, right.
Chelsea Jones (21:06)
everyone was trying to think of ways like what can we get rid of that we just don't necessarily need right now. And because we weren't able to gather in person for so long, there just wasn't really a need for that position in particular. And so as we were talking about like, well, with this funding, we could bring back the house pastor position. And then maybe we could call it something different because I mean, house pastor, it's a bit of a...
is a bit of a definition, but it's so much more than that. As Casey and I both served as house pastors, and so it's so much more than that. And so as we were discussing, North Texas had already adopted some, what was it? A title of community directors. And so we were thinking about that and we were like, we have this big white board in our conference room. And sometimes when we have big brain ideas, we just like, just put it on the white board and let's just.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (21:39)
sure.
Chelsea Jones (22:01)
put some lines and arrows and let's just see where it goes. And so the more we sat with it, the more we dreamed with it, the more we prayed about it, the more we just kind of tossed around this idea of what to do with this position, we were like, well, obviously we have to bring it back because it was so pivotal to the connection in the community. Because with this particular position, not only are they providing spiritual care, but
They're also providing logistical care. And so they're the ones that are working with partner churches to coordinate dinners. And they're the ones that are helping the young adults living in community with basic maintenance. But also if a young adult gets sick, they're able to help the young adult that way. they also hold an important role because they're planning and executing small groups, Bible studies, weekly worship services. And so thinking about that, we said, what if we were able to provide
this opportunity for every single chapter in all of our chapters across the network. So thinking about this, we were dreaming about what it might look like to be able to say, all right, we know we have a one person chapter up in DC. Not only will this give them capacity, but it gives them another staff person they can have. And so the more we sat with it, we also just got to be so creative with.
Yes, it's traditionally a summer position, but what if we were able to have a year-round position for community directors? And what if we took this year-round opportunity and we worked with our local seminaries that we have MOUs and partnerships with, and we were able to build that relationship and partnership that way? Because traditionally, this position was filled by a student that was either...
wanting to go into ministry through the route of seminary or they were already an enrolled seminary student. And so we were able to just say, all right, well, if we were able to do this across the country and we were able to work with our local seminaries across the country to help us recruit, and if we were able to work with them to either look at it, either look at having this opportunity be part of their supervised ministry.
or their CPE or their pastoral care credits, what would it look like to make it beneficial for everybody, not just the network, but for the young adults serving in these roles? And so that's kind of where this position of the community directors came about. And so we're very excited to explore what this could look like to finally be able to say the national network has been able to provide community directors for both the summer and the year.
for all of our local chapters. And so throughout the summer, they're going to be helping with intentional community as far as social events, Bible studies, small groups, worship planning, and being able to help in that way. But throughout the year, what would it look like to have a more structured curriculum? And so there'll be cohorting and meeting monthly. That'll be led by our national team.
and another big part of their year-round responsibility will be helping to stay connected with our alumni. So they'll be leaving a small group of alumni at each local chapter to help with connection. I think all of our chapters, they have this really magical summer and then young adults are fired up and then they go back to their schools and life happens. And then those connections kind of fizzle. But our hope and our vision is that with these community directors, specifically in the year-round,
they'll be able to oversee the small group of alumni and either the alumni will be able to come back and serve or they'll be able to tell their friends and they'll be able to help recruit. And so again, it's creating this cycle of relationships and community and all the while, like the national team will be overseeing the community directors and developing them and then the community directors will be pouring into the young adults and developing them.
And so it's like this beautiful cycle of connection and relationships. And so, yeah, we're looking at books to study and Friday experiences and what that could look like throughout the year, along with these small groups. But yeah, really we're just hoping to get back to just kind of a reset and refreshing of the culture of what we do, which is relationships and connections. And so, yeah.
Did I miss anything, Casey? That was a long time to talk. No, I think that's such a great detailed vision. And I think the only thing that I would add is as a part of that program, as Chelsea talked about in the year round, is that question of how do we continue to engage young adults and provide vocational discernment experiences, not just in the summer, but in the year round. This grant gives us the opportunity to pull young adults, about 40 across the country and host
vocational discernment, midwinter retreats for then the next three years. And then, know, Lily loves to build capacities in organizations, but it also wants to build best practices in young adult vocational discernment for the wider church. So this sort of gives us the opportunity to share our learnings with the church through sort of a final conference in the fourth year of the grant that
allows PT to really offer courses through the Institute for Discipleship on Young Adult Vocational Discernment and also share our learnings and have our young adults cohorting with other Wesley groups, with other partner churches across the country to share and continue to learn and be in conversation about the needs and wants and desires of young adults as they become faithful.
faithful Christian leaders.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (27:34)
That's amazing. So watch for more. If you are in the business of working with young adults and helping them do vocational discernment and service in the world, there are going to be some new things coming. That's great.
Chelsea Jones (27:45)
Yeah.
Carl Thomas Gladstone (27:46)
Friends, thanks so much for telling us a little bit of the story. The other piece we like to do is try to use these conversations to help people find you, support you, apply for an internship, et cetera. Where do people need to go? What do they need to do to find you and to hear more?
Chelsea Jones (28:02)
Thanks
for that, Carl. Go to the website www.projecttransformation.org. Here are four really important ways that you could get connected with Project Transformation. I would just say, one, give a gift to Project Transformation National. Go to the website. We are going through the fun of launching our 10th birthday fundraising campaign.
Right? Lilly provides so much operating support, in the next three years, we need to raise $1.2 million alongside that grant to continue the great work of National. And so, financial gifts are a huge part.
of our needs right now. And so you can do that online at the website and come alongside Lilly and be a part of our 10th birthday campaign would be huge and help us scale.
vocational discernment for young adults at the national level. If you're a young adult, apply today for our summer program this summer. Applications are open for our seven chapters across the country. We are currently interviewing and hiring.
all positions, interim positions, leadership positions, community director positions. So if any of this just sounds like it would light you up and you want to be in a position where you are actually leading and have responsibility and be fully empowered and be invested in by beautiful staff and beautiful churches, we would love for you to sign up to lead summer camp with
with children and youth across the country while you have the opportunity to discern your own vocation. If you're a church and you want to host programming, you can contact the chapter closest to you on our website. You can see all of our local chapters and what churches they're in. We also license our curriculum, our summer camp.
curriculum to churches and so Dr. Julie Wilkie who's on our staff has
built our research-based curriculum and now we are selling and partnering with churches who may not have a chapter in their area but would love to offer and have the funds to offer a camp. We can come alongside you with our curriculum and help consult with you on summer programming. So that's a beautiful opportunity to do that. Email Melody, M-E-L-L-O-D-Y at projecttransformation.org and we will get you connected and informed.
And if you are the parent of a child or a youth that lives in one of these seven cities across the country, we will start enrolling kids for camp this summer, most likely in February everywhere. So keep your eye out on the website for enrollment for chapters. We would love to love on your kiddo and walk alongside your kiddo as they also find
opportunities for leadership and purpose even as a young kid and youth in the program. So we would love for you to be involved. There are so many different ways to connect. If you're an individual who lives where one of our local chapters is, we need reading volunteers. You can go to each local chapter's website to
give to the local chapter nearest you for the direct service support that they do that's so important, to volunteer, to read one-on-one with children, and to provide meals to the coolest young adults across the country. there's so many ways to get involved, and we invite you and we need you to make this mission possible. thanks for allowing us to share,
Carl Thomas Gladstone (31:48)
Absolutely. Happy birthday to Project Transformation National. Ten years, great. And all the years of project transformation throughout history at this point. Thank you to Casey and Chelsea for sharing today. And we encourage everybody to connect, at least to hear more of the story and to see who it is in your life that you might help connect with project transformation. Young adults, local churches, kids.
all of it. Help people find this amazing ministry so that we can continue to partner with them in some really great work. This has been Uproar. We thank you for listening. Now go and make a ruckus in the world for faith and justice. Peace.
Chapters
00:00Overview of Project Transformation
03:38Experiences of Young Adults in Project Transformation
07:13Impact on Churches and Communities
09:19The Impact of Young Adult Service Programs
17:17Building Long-Term Relationships Through Service
18:42Exciting Developments with Lilly Endowment Grant
27:46Connecting with Project Transformation: Opportunities and Support
Sound Bites
"Young adults discover their calling through service."
"We have a $4.25 million grant to scale our programs."
"We're bringing back the house pastor position."
