Connie’s Urban Brothers (Cubs): The Work Of Unlikely Leaders With At-Risk Adolescents

The ministry issue addressed in this dissertation is the deployment of people in leadership who have been denied the opportunity to use their giftedness because of their histories. This study asserts that not only should they be enlisted as leaders but in certain contexts they are more qualified and better suited than anyone else. These unlikely leaders command a respect and gain a hearing with at-risk adolescents more quickly and in a deeper way—not in spite of their background but often because of the background.

The project revolves around a group of men engaged in ministry in Seattle’s Rainier Valley, an under-served urban neighborhood. Serving at the alternative high school (South Lake High School), Connie’s Urban Brothers (the CUBS) have labored for three years. The academic part of this work describes the history, the context, the influences, the guiding principles, and the results of the research into the change affected in students, the school, and the leaders themselves. It finishes with an eye toward the future of this ten-year project with the practices that have made it successful and the lessons learned from some failures.

This dissertation also includes a media piece (appendix 1) telling the stories of the individuals who make up this group of unlikely leaders, primarily told in their own voices. It is a vulnerable invitation into their lives that will help the reader understand that the things that shaped their younger lives give them insight and entre with young people on a similar path. The section concludes with the lessons I have learned from the three years of laboring with this group and the ways it has transformed my life.