Real Skills, Real Growth: Amazing Grace’s Summer Program Makes a Lasting Impact

Amazing Grace Advocacy equips students with real-world skills, like grocery shopping, food prep, and managing money, to help them build confidence and independence.

Participants with Amazing Grace’s Summer Program making bagels. Photo courtesy of Gwen Bartley

Caroline Guinn, 24, has a natural love for working with children. During a recent visit to Families First, a bilingual preschool, she comforted a child who was having a tough day by reading them a few books.

Carter Moler, 19, found joy in more practical pursuits — he particularly enjoyed learning to pay bills, write checks and visit the bank.

And Ella Fink, 23, lit up while learning to make pizza at Hawthorne’s Pizza in downtown Concord. With hopes of working in a restaurant one day, she also found value in rehearsing for job interviews, an experience she described as especially helpful.