The Dock provides a variety of options for students to learn, grow, relax, build, and just be themselves. Listed below are the programs where this happens.

The Dock’s Refuel Station is our after school drop-in center that meets from 3:00 – 5:00 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  At our Refuel Station, students enjoy a relevant message from the Word of God, eat a hot meal, and interact with loving mentors in a safe and nurturing environment.  They can choose between a variety of supervised activities including arts and crafts, basketball, pool, foosball, air hockey, musical instruments, video games, and many others. 

Our Teen Cuisine Cooking and Nutritional Program meets each Monday from 3:00 – 5:00.  This hands-on, 4H cooking program, developed by Virginia Tech, teaches students in grades 6-12 the value of good nutrition, basic food preparation techniques, and food safety guidelines.  Students prepare a variety of dishes and are exposed to new foods each week.  Afterwards, they enjoy the fruits of their labor by sitting down as a family to eat the meal they prepared together.

During our Wednesday Refuel Station, students can participate in our COW Club, which teaches computer coding, web design, and other relevant computer skills.   They also experience advanced computations and graphic rendering using several Oculus Rift headsets.  This is a valuable opportunity for our students to gain marketable skills that will carry them into the workplace and discover new talents.

Utilizing the Habitudes curriculum, which teaches young adults valuable perspectives and leadership habits, this class meets each Thursday after school.  It emphasizes areas such as:  self-awareness, impulse control, empathy, teamwork, decision making, and time management skills. These are lifelong skills that will benefit them in whatever they choose to do in life.  Students participating in this class will eventually serve as an advisory board for The Dock Ministries and have the opportunity to be hired as a student leader under the direction of our Dock Director.

Cadets is an international boys club organization that’s designed to bring boys into a living relationship with Jesus Christ.  Cadets raises boys to be Christian men through Bible study, crafts, projects, and games all while earning merit badges that explore their specific interests and build core character traits.  The Dock’s Cadet group meets the first three Thursday evenings of each month from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.

Many students in our community are sleeping without beds.  We, at The Dock Ministries, would like to put an end to that.  As a certified chapter of Sleep In Heavenly Peace, we build and deliver beds to children who don’t have one.  The community is invited to join this facet of our ministry by attending a build day where we construct these beds together, serving on a delivery team that distributes and assembles the beds to needy homes, or collecting/donating needed items and materials.

For over 25 years, Kid’s Hope USA has provided a proven, life-changing program through church-school partnerships that train and equip mentors to reach kids in public schools in need of caring, reliable, one-on-one relationships.  The Dock Ministries serves as a bridge to train mentors and connect them with at-risk students in the Kelloggsville Public School District.

In our ongoing pursuit to positvely impact the students in our community we are always looking for additions to our programming. Listed below are two that we are currently working on.

The Dock will soon be housing a greenhouse donated by Kelloggsville Public Schools.  This long-anticipated addition will allow us to add a Gardening Club to our programming. Students will enhance their scientific knowledge by performing experiments, discovering inequities in our food system, and examining beneficial bugs.  Additionally, they will see firsthand how they can reverse the cycle of food insecurity by growing their own food and building raised bed gardens for our neighbors to do the same.  While working with their hands in our greenhouse, they will also benefit from the calming activities of planting, nurturing, and weeding.

Junior Achievement’s proven lessons in financial literacy, work and career readiness, and entrepreneurship are shown to positively impact the lives of young people. These lessons align with national and state educational standards and are delivered to millions of students across the country with the help of our education partners and volunteers from the local community.