Some stories stay with you for decades. This is one of them.
It has been more than thirteen years since this chapter began. But at Aslan Youth Ministries, time does not diminish the connection. Once a child is part of Aslan, they are always a part of Aslan. And the young woman in this story is proof that the seeds planted in a child, even in the hardest of circumstances, never stop growing.
She was about six years old when her mother made an impossible but loving decision. The neighborhood they called home in New York City had become too dangerous, too destructive, and too full of forces determined to steal the future of a little girl who deserved so much more. So, her mother sent her to live with relatives in Monmouth County, New Jersey, hoping that a change of scenery would mean a change of story.
But Monmouth County had its own challenges waiting for her.
The Girl on the Curb
One afternoon, one of our founders climbed behind the wheel of the Big Blue Aslan bus and pulled up to make a stop. What he saw stopped him.
There she was, sitting alone on the curb, her schoolbooks spread out on the street in front of her, doing her homework outside because the noise inside the house made it impossible to concentrate. She was not complaining. She was not waiting for someone to rescue her. She was just doing what she had always done: finding a way, in whatever space life gave her, to keep going.
That image never left.
It would have been easy and completely understandable for a child in her situation to give up before she ever got started. Too much instability. Too little support. Too many obstacles stacked against her before she was old enough to understand what obstacles even were.
But she did not give up. She fought hard. She fought long. And every time life knocked her down, she stood back up and kept going.
Why Programs Like Aslan Matter in Monmouth County
What this young woman needed was what every child in her situation needs: a consistent, safe, nurturing space outside the home where trusted adults showed up, believed in her potential, and refused to let her circumstances write her story.
In Monmouth County, that need is urgent and widespread.
According to the Afterschool Alliance, one in five children in New Jersey is left unsupervised after school hours, which research consistently identifies as the highest-risk window for juvenile crime, academic disengagement, and emotional distress. In lower-income communities across Monmouth County, including the neighborhoods Aslan Youth Ministries serves in Red Bank, Long Branch, Asbury Park, and Neptune, that number is significantly higher.
Research from the New Jersey Department of Education shows that students who participate in quality after-school programs are more likely to attend school regularly, perform better academically, and graduate on time. They are also significantly less likely to engage in risky behaviors during the critical after-school hours between 3pm and 6pm.
For children growing up in chronic poverty or unstable home environments, the stakes are even higher. Studies show it takes approximately 12 years of consistent, intentional intervention to truly redirect a child’s life trajectory. Aslan Youth Ministries has been doing exactly that work for over five decades, one child at a time, one family at a time, one community at a time.
For the young woman sitting on that curb, Aslan was that intervention. And what she became because of it is nothing short of extraordinary.
From Monmouth County to Microsoft
She graduated from high school. She went on to spend four years at Clark Atlanta University, one of the nation’s most respected historically Black universities, where she earned her degree in Communication. She entered the professional world and eventually found her way to Microsoft in North Carolina, one of the most influential technology companies on the planet.
And then she kept going.
Today, she has developed an artificial intelligence gift-assessment software program for churches, a tool designed to help faith communities identify and activate the unique talents of their members. She built it because she understands, from lived experience, what happens when someone sees the gift in you before you can see it in yourself.
She loves God. She understands the plan He has for her life. And she is, without question, unstoppable.
What Your Gift Makes Possible
This story did not happen by accident. It happened because someone drove the Big Blue Aslan bus to her corner. Because someone noticed a little girl doing homework on a curb and decided she deserved better. Because donors like you made it possible for Aslan Youth Ministries to keep its doors open, its programs running, and its commitment to every child unshakeable.
There are children in Monmouth County sitting on their own curbs right now. Doing the best they can with what they have. Waiting for someone to show up and tell them, through actions, not just words, that they matter. That their future is worth investing in. That someone refuses to give up on them.
Your gift to Aslan Youth Ministries is that investment. It funds the after-school tutoring that keeps a child from falling behind. It fills the gas tank on the Big Blue bus that picks up the child with no other way to get there. It pays for the cooking class, the field trip, the Bible study, the moment that plants a seed that will grow for decades.
One gift. One child. One story that starts on a street corner and ends at the frontier of technology.
That is what you make possible.
To support Aslan Youth Ministries and invest in the next generation of young people in Monmouth County and beyond, visit aslanyouth.org or contact our development team at development@aslanyouth.org.
Are you an Aslan alumnus with a story to share? We want to hear from you. Reach out to Zoraya at development@aslanyouth.org. Your story could be the one that changes everything for the next child who walks through our doors.
Aslan Youth Ministries | aslanyouth.org | development@aslanyouth.org
