EZRA is a ministry to streetkids in urban Denver run by Bruce Vlieger and Bex Drake. Streetkids are those who have been abused from a young age and who have not matured or developed past these traumas, and have left home to live on the streets. Subsequently, they reflect their emotional age rather than their chronological age. Our ultimate aim is for the street kids to come to know Christ through our living example of his compassion and acceptance. Our passion is to see each one grow beyond their street mentality and to become living examples of Christ themselves. The youth on the streets have much to give, but the opportunities for them are few. So, we provide a venue of love, acceptance, expression, opportunity and learning.

Ezra has four major aspects: Outreach, The Studio, Sunday Dinners and Mentoring. Outreach is done through simply hanging out on the streets with the streetkids and handing out coffee, listening to their stories, and just being “out there” with them. We do outreach Monday through Friday mornings. The Studio is open in the afternoons, giving the streetkids opportunities to express themselves through art and design. We provide the opportunity to work in a variety of artistic disciplines, like drawing with graphite and charcoal, or painting with acrylics and oils, or air brushing. We also offer graphic design and web design, and much more. Sunday Dinners are served family style every other Sunday using nice dishes, plates, and glasses. This is an invitation-only event where the streetkids are treated special... because they are. Mentoring is done one-on-one weekly. We each mentor three or more streetkids through one-on-one meetings over a meal. Our goal is to also have volunteers each mentor one streetkid, as well. In addition, Ezra hopes to merge a business aspect into the ministry. This would include a variety of possibilities from the streetkids selling their own art, to bringing in actual design projects that would give streetkids on-the-job training in graphic and web design, to selling t-shirts and greeting cards designed by streetkids. Ezra Needs List justEZRA.com myspace.com/artztudio