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Youth Empowerment Center News

By Ryota Dei
Pacific Daily News; rdei@guampdn.com

Ric A. Eusebio/Pacific Daily News/reusebio@guampdn.com
Reaching out: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Amanda Swanson, 20, an electrician's mate at Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station Guam who is originally from Big Bear Lake, Calif., sits inside the Abundant Life Church in Dededo. Swanson, who is a youth coordinator, women's prison ministry leader and the head angel for her church's Angel Tree ministry, was once a recipient of the Angel Tree Program as an 8-year-old whose stepfather was once incarcerated.

When twinkling red and yellow lights illuminate the whole town and the jingle of bells reverberate in the night sky, people start feeling lighthearted in anticipation of Christmas. But while Christmas is a happy time for young children, some can only look enviously at luxurious holiday celebrations. "Everyone around me was talking about decorating Christmas trees and receiving gifts," recalled Amanda Swanson, 20, a former recipient of Christmas gifts from the Angel Tree program.

The Angel Tree program is one of the programs conducted by Prison Fellowship Guam. Church volunteers purchase gifts for participating prisoners' children and deliver them to the kids, usually with messages from incarcerated parents. And as another gift-giving season approaches, island residents can help the program by dropping off donations at more than a dozen churches on the island.

A small gift from the program can have a life-long effect on a person, as was the case with Swanson. "I felt I was left out because my family couldn't even afford power and water services at home," Swanson said. "I thought why we can't have a tree and why my family can't have any gifts. I remember I was so sad in my heart."

Swanson was living with her mother, her fifth stepfather and five brothers and sisters, each of whom bears a different last name. Her family was poor. Her stepfather did not have a job. Mostly fed by the Salvation Army and being unable to afford power and water services, they had to sleep close together just to keep warm in freezing winter nights in northern California. Child Protection Services personnel occasionally visited her and her brothers at school to check if they had been abused or neglected.

"Mom made all of us sit down before we went to school, saying 'These are what you had for breakfast. You had Fruit Loops, orange juice and waffles.' We actually didn't have any breakfast, but she knew Child Protection Services would ask us questions at school, so we all need to have the same stories," Swanson said.

It was the Christmas Eve when she was 8 years old when her stepfather was imprisoned for six months, charged with spousal abuse. Her family made what she called a "Charlie Brown" tree, cutting a branch off an outdoor tree, putting it in a soda can and decorating it.

"That year, we all made a gift for each other," she said. "We created gifts by putting together little sticks, empty food cans, or whatever we found in our neighborhood and wrapped them in newspapers. We put them under the tree, oh, I mean, around the tree because there was no under in the short tree." As soon as her family started opening gifts on Christmas Eve, someone knocked on the door.

When she opened the door, there were people dressed as elves -- pointed toes, green hats and big ears. They were holding lots of gifts in their hands, all nicely wrapped. "We were all astounded, like, 'Wow! Are you in the wrong house?'" Swanson said. The "elves" gave her family food, blankets and Christmas gifts.

"I still have it," she said. "I got a little red plastic boombox which has five buttons on top and makes drum sounds when you push the buttons." It was not until she moved to Guam and started volunteering for the Abundant Life Church that she discovered it was a gift from her imprisoned stepfather through the Angel Tree program.

The program is aimed at helping reverse a trend that children of an incarcerated parent tend to engage themselves with drugs or other criminal activities as they feel abandoned, isolated and unloved. By reaching out to those forgotten victims of crime, the program sends a message to the young children that they are indeed loved and cared for by their absent parent.

When parents are incarcerated, children's lives become disrupted, and children may experience traumatic separations from their parents, stressful shifts to different caregivers and loss of contact with parents, according to experts at the Child Welfare League of America.

Consequently, they tend to develop emotional and behavioral difficulties, including aggression, anxiety and depression, according to the league. They are also at greater risk for poor academic performance, alcohol and drug abuse, and juvenile delinquency, the league stated.

"A strong bond between parent and child is essential to the health of a child," said Bob Dames, executive director of Prison Fellowship Guam, in press release. "That fragile bond can be easily shattered when a parent becomes incarcerated. The Prison Fellowship Angel Tree program is one way to help restore that important relationship."

When asked if she thinks her stepfather loved her, Swanson showed tears and a little bewilderment. "I don't know if my stepdad ever loved me, does now or ever will. He never expressed it," she said. "But maybe sending us gifts through Angel Tree was kind of his expression that he cared about us."

Her oldest brother died in his mid-20s. Her second oldest brother is serving in prison for armed robbery. And, Swanson, being stressed out by working two jobs to support her family, started "doing all the bad things one can possibly imagine" after she graduated from high school. The experience with the Angel Tree program couldn't prevent Swanson and her brothers from a path of crime. The memory, however, remained vividly and has warmed her heart until today.

Today, Swanson's life has completely turned around for the better.

Turnaround

She's now U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Amanda Swanson, an electrician's mate at Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station Guam. She is also a pious Christian. She volunteers to serve as a coordinator for the youth program at Life Abundant Church in Tumon, mentoring local children. She aspires to become a pastor.

There are many Guam children who could use the kind of holiday cheer Swanson received one Christmas. About 470 people are incarcerated on Guam, including inmates and detainees.

For the last 16 years, Prison Fellowship Guam has been caring for children of prisoners through the Angel Tree Program, serving more than 300 children across the island just last year. More than 110 applications were received from incarcerated parents this year, and church volunteers of the program will visit more than 300 Guam children again this Christmas.

"Angel Tree program is a good opportunity to give back to someone who has nothing and to see how the children's faces glow when they receive gifts," Swanson said. "And, you might change their lives. It might become one important experience in their childhood that can turn them in the right direction, rather than in the wrong direction."

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Youth Empowerment
Lorraine Bowman, President
4249 Manzanita Drive
San Diego, California 92105
info@empowering-youth.org