While in Atlanta, your primary job is to build relationships with poor urban youth through personal interaction. You will do hands-on service with Essential2Life and other organizations who are seeking to make an impact in the lives of at-risk children and youth, but much of what we do is relational. Expect to be pushed out of your comfort zone as you work face-to-face with the poor urban youth of Atlanta.

You will participate in these Essential2Life experiences:
•Play-days and Hanging out with the Kids
•Personal Visitation
•Kid’s Explosion Services
•Random Acts of Kindness

Other service experiences with E2L and E2L partners:
•Housing Community Work Projects
•Housing Community Clean-up Projects
•Boys & Girls Club of Atlanta – Tutoring and recreational activities
•Atlanta Public Schools – Summer and after school tutoring, teacher aiding, and work projects.
•Atlanta Food Bank – Food sorting and distribution to Atlanta’s neediest families
- Serving the homeless and work projects in homeless shelters
- Work projects with/in local churches
- Serve in government run nursing homes

Seasonal or Special Opportunities •Back 2 School – backpack and school supply distribution
•Christmas – gift wrapping and distribution to over 2000 kids
•Vacation Bible School


The Other Stuff
•Visit the Martin Luther King Memorial Center
•Visit local church worship services
•Hear from speakers who know the issues related to poverty (week-long trips only)
•Hike Stone Mountain on a Prayer Walk

When you are in Atlanta you will stay in the city. Housing options vary depending on the time of year and the size of the group, but you will be in the city. We want you to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the city during your trip. Each evening you will eat dinner at local, affordable, downtown restaurants in the city so that you can get a taste of the food that the city has to offer.

You will also have at least one Essential2Life staff member with you throughout the day. Our staff members have an intimate knowledge of the city and will serve as guides and mentors to your group. We live in Atlanta and work with urban youth throughout the year, not just while teams are in town. We are experts in what we do. Our presence takes the pressure off of the group leaders and lets the leaders participate in the service experience. We do ask that the group leaders be responsible for morning or night devotions and any extra worship times.

We want all of our participants to grow spiritually while they are serving, loving, and building relationships with “at-risk” youth. Jesus spent his life in and among the poor and we become more and more Christ-like as we follow his pattern and build relationships with those who are in need. Additionally, when we are out of our comfort zone we are stretched and grow closer to God as human beings who are capable of loving one another.

You will also become more educated on poverty and the political and economic issues involved in it. We want to raise up an army of individuals who have a heart for the spiritual and social needs of the poor and know what can and must be done to address those needs.

It is important that you not view an Expose trip as a one-time work trip. It is an opportunity to learn, to grow spiritually, to build relationships, and to begin to think through how you can serve the poor in your own community. The activities and programs that you will take part in on an Expose experience are not complicated and complex. They can be done in each and every community where there are people who are trapped in a life of poverty with no hope of anything better.