In each one of our Kaleo cities, we have a city director who lives in the city and in the communities where your group will be serving.  They are the primary leaders of your urban mission trip.  In addition to the city directors, we also hire a seasonal staff team in each of our cities to serve as your hosts for the week.  They will help prep your team on the ministry that you will be doing, serve alongside of you and debrief your group on their ministry at the end of the day.  However, while our staff are there to lead and serve, we also recognize that you, as the youth leader, are the true long-term leaders of your group and our staff is there to support your group well so you have the time to invest in the lives of your students.

The fee for your group covers all of your housing, food and ministry expenses on your mission trip.  The only thing that it does not cover is the cost of your transportation and any parking expenses.  If you would like to have your group bring some money for personal expenses or to explore the city on your free night, you can certainly do so, but your registration fee covers all of your necessities while on site with Kaleo.

One of the long term goals of our inner city mission trips is that each one of our participants will leave their mission trip experience with a greater understanding of God’s call on their lives to bring the hope of the Gospel to the world, particularly to the most vulnerable and marginalized, and to live just lives in their own communities.  And we realize that for long lasting change to happen in people’s lives after the trip is over, leaders are essential.  We want you as the youth leader to be free from the logistics that often comes with setting up and leading a mission trip so you are free to experience the ministry alongside of your students and to invest intentionally in their lives.  As a result, we take care of all of the logistics including housing, meals, ministry schedules, and directions to and from ministry sites.

This is a great question and one that, as you would imagine being an urban missions program, we get pretty often.  In each of our cities, we work very hard to make sure that our mission trip participants are safe.  In each of our housing sites, we always keep doors and gates locked at all times and instruct our participants on the rules regarding who comes on the property and who does not.  Additionally, we have onsite staff living at each facility who are familiar with the neighborhood and have relationships with the neighbors.  Finally, we make sure that participants are always in groups and never off alone by themselves.  We do orientation at the beginning of each trip to share the basic safety information with your team.  If you would like more specific information on a particular city, feel free to contact us at info@kaleomissions.org or call us at 469-319-0208.

Kaleo is an evangelical ministry not affiliated with any particular denomination.  We have had mission groups from many different denominations including:  Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterians, Non-denominational, etc…  If you would like to read more about what we believe, click here to check out our statement of Faith or feel free to contact us with questions.

Great Question!  From the very beginning of Kaleo, this has actually been one of our core values.  On a Kaleo Mission trip, your group will serve alongside of year round urban ministries that are serving people day in and day out in the city.  We never have your group serve in areas unless it is connected to a local ministry where there can be ongoing service and discipleship. Additionally, our city directors work hard to make sure that what we do on a short term mission trip is connected with actual needs and is a true blessing to our ministry partners.  And finally when we come into a city, our intention is to be in that city for the long term.  We see ourselves as true partners with the ministries we serve alongside of working together for the same mission!