36 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | NOVEMBER 2019 graduate from high school and only 3 percent go on to college. “We realized programs for older kids were essential,” Brewer explained. “We begin our Life Skills program when kids are 12. By 15, they’ve already developed bad habits. We offer tutoring and incentives for good grades.” The organization becomes like an extended family for these kids. “They turn back to our volunteers for guidance, many of whom take the place of parents. And we send birthday cards to them, with a gift card enclosed. These kids have spent most of their lives hardly ever getting recognition for that one day a year,” Brewer said. Hope and A Future is making strides against the college statistic, too. In 2007, they set up the John Brewer Scholarship Program, in honor of Brewer’s brother, who died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. To date, they’ve awarded 85 scholarships to Grand Canyon University. Chelsea, who attended their first camp, graduated from GCU as a nurse, is now working at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and is about to be married. A set of twins who went through camp are also in the college-graduate column, as is Brandon, the young man who set Brewer on this path in the first place. Brandon received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from GCU, and is now a married, middle school teacher and high school football coach. Brewer’s goals for the organization are as expansive as the desert sky. Camp attendance has grown from 25 that first year to 345 kids this past summer. He recognizes the need to zero in on 12-year-old boys, finding mentors to walk life with them, so that when they turn 18, they’re walking a good life. While getting more kids into the programs would make it wider, Brewer hopes that they can maintain relationships with those they already have, making it deeper. More money would mean more educational needs fulfilled, and more staff to help coordinate volunteers. Volunteers and mentors are the organization’s lifeline. Not only do they serve the kids already in the program, but it is through them that the organization learns about other kids in need. Hope and A Future celebrates their 15 th anniversary this month. And Brewer’s original vision couldn’t be more clear: One day, all children in the Arizona foster-care system will have hope for their future. To learn more, go to azhope.com . At Hope and A Future summer camps, kids in foster care create powerful, positive memories to keep them going and growing until they return the next summer for another week at camp. Judy Pearson CONTRIBUTING WRITER info@A2ndAct.org