A Place Where the Impossible is Possible
By Donna Marable
After the Gulf of Mexico hurricane Katrina in 2005, Joe and Lorraine Aldrete served on a Relief Team in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. With serving hearts and a developing love for people of the Gulf Coast, in 2009 they moved from California to plant Calvary Chapel of Foley, Alabama where Pastor Joe serves as Senior Pastor. With God’s miraculous, guiding hand dreams continued with the 2018 opening of The Dream Center of Baldwin County.
The Center’s mission is to positively impact youth in Baldwin County by helping them overcome the socioeconomic barriers preventing them from achieving success in academics and in the community. At risk youth ages 13–18 can begin to rebuild and transform their lives with the help from caring volunteers and counselors. The nonprofit organization serves all of Baldwin County and is 100% funded by donations from individuals and businesses.
Pastor Joe came from the Moreno Valley Calvary Chapel with experience serving as Youth, College, Missions and Executive Pastor. With a background in law enforcement and leadership training he is foremost in the organized networking necessary for the smooth, successful operation of a Center combining school services, community partnerships and various community resources. He is the Sheriff’s Dept. Lead Chaplain and member of their Critical Incident Stress Management Team.
The Dream Center’s focus is ‘diversion’ – an interventional approach to redirecting youth, while holding them accountable for their actions, with the goal of avoiding formal processing into the juvenile justice system. Thirty-six youth have been taken into the program during the past year, and Pastor Joe sadly notices the absence of engaged, supportive fathers. Some of the many available services are conflict resolution, Teen-Anon (helping teens with aftercare from addiction), daily living skills, family and 1:1 support (including crisis and mental health counseling), tutoring in educational needs, mentoring and work force development. A weekly food pantry run out of Calvary Chapel of Foley the past 10+ years is available to students and their families and a clothes closet offers clothing, hygiene products and school supplies.
More information on the Center, located at 1113 N. McKenzie St., Foley, Alabama, may be viewed at www.dreamcenterbaldwincounty.com. Pastor Joe Aldrete’s statement “One person, one family at a time” embodies the passion and love for helping others that brought this Dream Center to fruition.
