Region Post: The Midstates

YouthWorks sites are split up into four different regions that work year-round developing relationships in communities and working out the details for the summer. Area Directors Melissa Bonetti and Mike Thompson comprise the midstates region. In this post Melissa talks about some new developments at our Bay Area site in California. 

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We’ve got some new things going on in the MidStates that are pretty exciting.

One of our sites on the West Coast, Yes, the west coast MidStates site, has changed its name from San Francisco to the Bay Area. This is exciting for several reasons but mostly, we’re excited that we can expand our area of focus.  We’ve had a lot of presence consistently with our San Francisco volunteer sites and we are excited to expand the focus into the Bay Area.

One of the biggest changes our participants and staff will see this summer is that our housing has moved into Oakland.  We’re partnering with ReGeneration Church in Oakland for the first time.  ReGen has been great in setting up a great partnership with us and we’re anticipating a phenomenal summer in store.  Most of our volunteer sites will still remain in San Francisco this year as we try and migrate into more cites surrounding the area.

As I traveled over to the Bay area in the fall, I fell in love with the diversity of each different city. As I think about the few cities we’ll be spending time in this summer, I get filled with excitement to talk to staff and learn from them.  We can’t wait to be able to expand our knowledge and partnerships in this area of the country.