Radical Welcome at Kid City Hope Place

Vesper Society believes in a simple idea: a just society begins when everyone is well and respected as a human being.

It has been a year since the pandemic turned the world upside down and exposed the cruel inequities in our society. We asked Anne Hawthorne, executive director of the Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation to reflect on how COVID-19 has impacted the students, families, and community served by their Kid City program.

In Los Angeles, the grief is palpable. Heavy. You’ve heard the statistics. South Central is the hardest hit. But do you know the people who have died? Do you know their names? The parents who would do anything for their children, who work two or three hard jobs, who bring bowls of freshly cut fruit to school staff, who go into the factory after hours to print T-shirts for the local youth agency? The grandmothers who raise the kids while parents work, who attend every back-to-school night, who hug them, who pat the masa and the beans into delicious pupusas?

Kid City Hope Place, a youth leadership and college access program, was founded on the idea that an authentic welcome moves us from invitation to inclusion by engaging the whole person — “their thoughts, feelings, hopes, what they are going through and what brings them joy.” Founding pastor Rev. Sandie Richards also believes radical welcome, a central social value of the United Methodist Church, “engages with the community that surrounds the person: their schools, family, friends.”

But what does radical welcome look like in the middle of a pandemic, and at its epicenter? A few weeks ago, Anne Hawthorne, Kid City Director, made a condolence call to the home of one of the Kid City families. From the porch, the mother called out “cada familia, cada familia aqui” as she waved, indicating that on the entire block, “every family” had been struck by Covid-19.

In a community with this immense loss, radical love is the only salve. The exuberant welcome normally found at Kid City has made its home online, transcending the isolation of the pandemic. Staff are moved by the empathy, brilliance, and compassion of Kid City members — evident in college students who move home to help with their siblings’ online school, the flood of $5 donations to GoFundMe’s, and the tamales bought and sold to pay for a family member’s medical expenses.

Radical welcome was easier in person, when staff could sweep a new guest along in a tour of jellybean-colored rooms, with some students deep in thought on laptops, and others putting together snacks in the closet-sized kitchen. “They made me feel like I was the most important person in the world.” Now Diana Balbuena, a Kid City alum studying at USC, practices radical welcome by listening and making others feel comfortable. “If more people did it, there would be more meaningful conversations. More love.”

Alma Sanchez, College Programs Coordinator, has transferred that welcome and love into Kid City’s online programs for an entire year. “Radical welcome invites authenticity, mutual support, and most importantly genuine care/love — all which are needed now more than ever due to COVID’s impact. Radical welcome prioritizes building a sense of community and relationship before getting into the nitty gritty. Instead of asking, ‘How can I help you?’ Or ‘What do you need?’ radical welcome pushes us to first ask “How are you?” or have a check-in, which is what people need during this pandemic.”

In a time when the world is chaotic, and people fragile, Kid City Hope Place offers welcome, respite, and friendship. The deep, bottomless well of grief locally in Los Angeles and throughout the world will require an infinite pouring in of love in the days ahead. But to see the future with hope, all one has to do is to get to know the young people at Kid City. Their practice of radical love and welcome is the start of what will heal the hurt and propel a movement toward a more compassionate, caring, and equitable world. Vesper Society is proud to walk side-by-side with Kid City Hope Place as they carry on this journey, finding long-term solutions that improve the health and wellbeing of their community.