Worth Seeing

'We are in the business of seeing others, seeing them the way God sees them, and letting them know they have value.' Amy L. Williams has spent three decades doing ministry with youth in gangs and prisons. While most of society sees high-risk youth through lenses of fear or disregard, she has come to see them through God's eyes as having tremendous value and potential. Worth Seeing provides an up-close look at her work-successes, losses, lessons, and embarrassing mistakes. Through personal narrative, Amy reveals the lives of youth who are often pushed to the margins of society. Her storytelling both challenges perceptions and increases compassion and understanding, not just with youth, but all people. Practical tips equip you to take action to see others the way God sees them.

Youth ministry veteran Amy Williams ministers to teens involved in gangs and those lost in the criminal justice system with a key strategy of life-on-life mentoring. As a certified gang intervention specialist, she heard God's call to move into a Latino gang neighborhood in Chicago's Humboldt Park community to be a 'Hope Dealer' doing street outreach and walking life with young people on her block. Amy is project coordinator at New Life Centers, bringing in restorative justice programming to youth at juvenile prisons. Amy has been a youth pastor, a reentry coordinator, and a youth mentor and advocate. She is a graduate of both University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and National Louis University. She resides in Chicago and loves salsa dancing and is a true beach baby.