Park founded Little Lights Urban Ministries, an after-school program that serves children in Southeast Washington.
How did Little Lights get started?
My parents had a business on 14th Street Northwest. It was a tae kwon do studio and I decided [in 1995] to start a tutoring program inside my parents’ business for the neighborhood. I met a young person who … couldn’t read a Dr. Seuss book at the age of 13 and I was really heartbroken.
What services does Little Lights provide?
We have after-school programs five days a week and we work primarily with the Potomac Gardens public housing in Southeast. We provide homework help; we provide one-to-one tutoring in reading and math. We also provide enrichment classes like art and music and cooking as well as some computer classes and recreation.
Where do the employees at Little Lights come from?
Kind of all over. Six of our staff members are actually with AmeriCorps Vista. Some of our staff during college did a summer camp with our organization and after college decided that they wanted to work full time with us. Our volunteers come through the Internet, we recruit volunteers online as well as from local churches and universities and a lot of word of mouth, too. We do have a teen internship program where we hire teenagers from the community.
Did you always know you wanted to work in a ministry like this?
When I was in college, I never dreamed I would be doing something like this because I had no affinity toward children or working with kids in the city; that was not even something I even dreamed about or imagined doing. But I actually went through a spiritual conversion after college. … I realized that compassion and looking out for the needs of others was more important and so that became my focus … to try to serve people instead of trying to climb the ladder of success.
– Melanie Ciarrone
