Chaplains For Our Youth

In harmony with movements in other states and nations around the world, Chaplains for Our Youth seeks to place trained chaplains in middle schools and high schools throughout Clark County, providing students with caring adults who are prepared to listen, encourage, and support them. They are a Washington nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing Christian compassion, encouragement, and hope to young people during some of the most important and challenging years of their lives. Based in Vancouver, Washington (along the Washington-Oregon border), they are a new ministry that started in 2025 by our friends Raymond Brady, Brian Gellatley, and Michael Miller.

They state:

While most Chaplains today are Christian, they provide comfort, sound counseling and hope no matter their faith. Chaplains should not only be ‘dispatched’ to the scene after a trauma occurs — accident, fire, disaster or death — but now are ‘imbedded’ into companies, social organizations and public agencies, such as schools. As such, they can already be integrated into the public social life of staff, teachers and students so that they are available to intercede as they are needed. They may actually prevent trauma from occurring merely by their presence. Currently, four states have laws allowing Chaplains to serve in public schools. Whether Washington joins this group or not, we offer trained Chaplains as mediators, counselors, and friends to our youth today.

Compassion & Faithful Service

At the heart of this mission is the biblical conviction that every young person possesses God-given worth and should be treated with dignity, compassion, and love. By reaching young people where they spend much of their daily lives, Chaplains for Our Youth seeks to put this Christian commitment into practice through compassionate relationships and faithful service.

The Christian faith provides the foundation for this approach to chaplaincy. Scripture repeatedly calls Christians to care for people who are hurting, discouraged, lonely, or burdened. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 encourages Christians to comfort and build up one another. These principles are especially meaningful when applied to young people facing family difficulties, grief, loneliness, academic pressure, relationship struggles, or uncertainty about their future. A Christian Chaplain can offer a listening ear and compassionate presence while pointing toward the enduring hope at the center of the Christian faith. Romans 15:13 describes God as “the God of hope,” expressing the message of hope that Christian chaplaincy seeks to carry into difficult circumstances.

Natural Helpers: Chaplains Into Schools in Clark County

One of the most significant aspects of Chaplains for Our Youth is its desire to bring this ministry of presence directly into school communities throughout Clark County. Christian ministry recognizes that meaningful relationships are often developed through consistent presence, patience, and trust rather than through a single conversation. James 1:19 tells believers to be “swift to hear, slow to speak,” an especially appropriate principle for chaplains whose work begins with listening to young people and understanding what they are experiencing. Chaplains can demonstrate the character described in Colossians 3:12 — “mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering” — through the way they interact with students. In this sense, chaplaincy provides an opportunity to demonstrate the love of Christ not only through words but through everyday acts of kindness, encouragement, patience, and compassion.

From their website, here are some examples of their mission in action through a “Natural Helpers” program:

Chaplains for Our Youth also reflects the biblical teaching that Christian faith should lead to active service. James 2:17 teaches that “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone,” reminding Christians that genuine faith should produce tangible acts of love toward others. The organization’s connections with Christian ministries and community organizations in southwest Washington place its work within a broader effort to strengthen young people, families, churches, and communities. Christians are called not simply to recognize the problems confronting the next generation but to respond with compassion and service. By preparing Chaplains to serve young people consistently and compassionately, Chaplains for Our Youth provides one avenue through which Christians can live out that calling in their community.

Meaning & Value

Ultimately, the mission of Chaplains for Our Youth reflects a Christian commitment to bear burdens, comfort the hurting, encourage the discouraged, and demonstrate through their conduct the love that Christ commanded His followers to show others. Through its commitment to Christian chaplaincy, Chaplains for Our Youth seeks to remind young people that their lives have meaning and value while bringing the hope, compassion, and love of Jesus Christ into the communities it serves.