Northwest Christian Leadership Conference (NWCLC) is a non-profit, faith-based organization formed in October 2002 by Pastor Antonio Wyatt to promote community and economic development, employment training, and education and technical assistance as defined by the Internal Revenue Service. The organization is based in Seattle, Washington and is serving the Puget Sound Region of Washington State.
After the formation of the organization, Northwest Christian Leadership Conference initially provided summer meals to children who reside in Greater Puget Sound areas and who received free or reduced lunch in the previous school years. Likewise, the organization served as mentors and tutors to middle school students at Jason Lee Middle School. Its first program was made possible through a reimbursable grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, Summer Feeding Program administered by the Office of the Superintendent for Public Instructions. To further support its feeding programs, the organization received contributions from its working partner churches and donations from individuals once a month.
Because of the success it has achieved in these endeavors, the Northwest Christian Leadership Conference sought out similar organizations, such as the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance and the Tacoma National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to continue providing these services. Through their help, the organization was able to train volunteers and to assist local churches in establishing a mentoring program in their respective areas. On the other hand, these ventures continue to grow; thereby, enabling the group to turn the reins of its mentoring program to God’s Anointed Temple and contemplated on providing summer meals to youths and creating healthy communities. Since then, the Northwest Christian Leadership Conference has been providing free breakfast and lunch meals to low-income and disadvantaged youths in Seattle, Kent, Maple Valley, Spanaway, and Tacoma in Washington.
From 2004 to the present, the Northwest Christian Leadership Conference summer feeding service program provided over 400,000 breakfast meals and 500,000 lunch meals daily to low-income and disadvantaged youths. In addition, it also ensured that youths have access to community and business leaders, and civic leaders during their feeding programs. In the same way, the organization offered peer-to-peer counseling for youths, presenting them with an environment of “coming as you are”, and providing them with a sense of belonging.
Moreover, Northwest Christian Leadership Conference has provided mentoring, tutoring, leadership training, and counseling services to an average of 2000 students, aside from its summer feeding program. In fact, has annually held a commencement ceremony for the successful completion of 16 hours of Basic English Skills, Introduction to Retail Management, and Introduction to Sales.
Aside from this, Northwest Christian Leadership Conference has also conducted a six-week job enhancement and retraining program for people who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina and has obtained permanent residency for over 30 Katrina survivors. It also focused on offering free leadership training and community-activism introduction to local churches, as well as provided free consultation to African-American entrepreneurs.
Northwest Christian Leadership Conference currently aims to bring all these services, especially those that concern the youth, such as feeding and mentoring programs, to the children, teenagers, and young adults in Southeast Seattle, Washington, where most of them are involved in various illegal activities.
The primary purpose of Northwest Christian Leadership Conference has always been to provide feeding and mentoring programs to those who are disadvantage. As residents of the Puget Sound region continue to struggle in poverty, the organization has decided to advance their services and programs to better provide the needs of families. We are happy that Christ Temple has accepted our invitation to assist in this endeavor with the establishment of food for the soul at their facility. Food for the Soul provides free restaurant quality meals and food supplies for the needy families in Seattle, Washington.
Our goal by August 2017 is to have an established tutorial and mentoring program that will assess the needs of each family being served. We will provide financial counseling, goal setting, and General Educational Development Examination courses, acquiring internship or volunteer opportunities in local business.
