Kayla met Zach on Easter Sunday in April 2015. At the time, he was a resident at Youth-Reach Gulf Coast (YRGC) and on a break spending time with his family. Kayla didn't know much about him and certainly didn't know that he would be her future husband. She later learned that he had been court-ordered [...]
In 2014, Keith and Phyllis Smith were coming to terms with their son's self-defeating behavior. This is their story of faith, prayer, and redemption as God used YRGC to change their son Austin's life...
I'm from a Christian household in Orlando, Florida. Growing up, my dad was handy. He built our house and was always teaching me things. I even had summer gigs in construction. My parents always taught me right from wrong and in my teenage years, I knew I was on the wrong path.
Blaine was trapped in a cycle of drugs, juvenile detention, and getting help. Even after graduating YRGC's program, his life wasn't one of wholeness and relationship with the Father. But now, God's built a community of other believers around him that he didn't think was possible.
Two of our staff members are hundreds of miles into their cross-country bicycle trip, "Restoration Cycles," an extension of the Youth-Reach Gulf Coast (YRGC) Transitional Living initiative. Now, they've been pedaling for two weeks, have seen the Pacific Ocean, the desert, forests... and the miraculous.
Our volunteer staff are a tremendous blessing, and Smith Prestwood and his wife Jessica have been faithfully blessing Youth-Reach Gulf Coast (YRGC) with their volunteerism for years.
Through Andy's experiences with others, he had grown to associate “love” and “trust” with pain. He didn’t know I needed to unlearn those buzzwords and relearn what they really mean. But God gave Andy a close glimpse of His heart, and he's been in love ever since.
At Youth-Reach Gulf Coast (YRGC), we are grateful to have the support of volunteers who pour their lives into helping us raise strong men of God. Tia Morris is a committed volunteer who holds a particularly special place in the hearts of the young men we serve. She and her husband, Ronnie, frequently host our residents [...]
Born in Ethiopia, Blaize was adopted at 11-years-old and welcomed into a loving home. At 18, he graduated high school and moved out of his parent’s house with what little money he had saved up from working two jobs. However, he quickly learned that living on your own isn’t as easy as it sounds. Within a [...]
At the young age of just 12-years-old, Micah began using drugs and by the time he started high school, he was known as “that guy who could get his hands on anything.” Although he graduated at the top of his class, he passed up numerous scholarship opportunities because of the money he was making selling drugs. [...]
