The Sawyerville Work Project, begun in 1993, is supported by many people. People serve as prayer partners, staff members, organize book drives, gather paper products, provide meals and make financial gifts.  Again year, the Episcopal Diocese has committed substantial funds to this ministry.  The generous people of the Black Belt have opened up their homes and churches for staff housing and meals.  Volunteers from within and outside of the Episcopal circle lend time and talent.  High school, college, and adult staff come from all over the state to serve as counselors. The Hale County School Board permits use of school facilities and buses. This project is woven together by a hundred different supporters, all working together to form the Sawyerville experience.

History of the Sawyerville Work Project

The Sawyerville Work Project is, on paper, a day camp. It is an outreach project sponsored by the Youth Department of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, and the Episcopal Black Belt Ministries. It takes place in the summer for one week, and for that one week, the children that attend the camp are not framed in the light of the region’s poverty.  They are simply kids, having fun, in a place created solely for them.

The camp originally came about through the connecting of two entities: the Episcopal Black Belt Ministries and the Youth Department of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama.  The Episcopal Black Belt Ministries is a worshipping community of the Episcopal Church, formed by a cluster of 10 parishes in the Black Belt, their clergy and lay leaders.   The Youth Department is a group of youth and adults that plan and facilitate Diocesan-wide events for senior high young youth and EYC advisors.

How did it start?

In the early 1990’s, the Black Belt Ministries Coordinator was working with lay leaders to keep alive a kind of summer event created for children in Sawyerville.   At that time, the Youth Department was searching for a summer-time outreach project to offer to senior high youth in the diocese.  Previously, a companion relationship with the Diocese of South Dakota allowed a delegation of youth to help facilitate a Vacation Bible School for Lakota natives at Camp Thunderhead in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  The impact of this experience left the Youth Department with a strong desire to participate in and provide an outreach experience of similar depth in their own Diocese.

The Youth Department issued an advertisement for a local outreach project, the Black Belt Ministries responded and the idea of the first youth-led Sawyerville Work Project was born.