History Of PH

In The Beginning…
The Lord gave me a seed of an idea in the summer of 2000. One particular show at the Glass House in Pomona changed my world. On the trip home one of my son’s friends asked, “Hey, did you see that guy in the stairwell? He was all by himself, sitting on the stairs and doing drugs!”
That statement hit me hard. How could this kid be surrounded by so many people, some of them Christian, and not be helped? It troubled me that this kid was screaming for help but no one came along side of him to engage.

The Seed Is Planted …
For over a year, I talked about my idea, looked for other ministries with a similar mission, and presented the idea to any one or group willing to listen. With the help of the Barnabas group, Project Hangout established itself as a non-profit organization and the first Board meeting was held the evening of September 10, 2001 .

And The Seed Sprouted …
In 2004 we began to look for possible Lifestyle mentors. The first group established was a guy’s skateboarding group lead by Nate Klein. Later on, we added a guy’s surfer group lead by Josh Lloyd and a gal’s surfer/skateboard group headed by Mandy Eschenmann. As we entered 2005 we had well established groups and we saw God moving in the hearts and minds of those participating.
By the end of 2005 we had added a fourth lifestyle group. I have called it the, “coff(ee) & talk” group lead by Jenn Zeulner. Jenn meets with a dozen young ladies on an individual basis at a local coffee shop and talks about their lives.
As we entered into 2006 God lead us to Cornerstone Church in Anaheim, CA. With their help we started the Backyard in the summer of that year. This was a monthly event that included bands and a great environment that included food and video games. At times we had 40 people show. At other times we had 300 people crowding the room. All in all, we were able to show that this type of event could draw a good size crowd and that the unchurched would come.
On September 15, 2007, Ryan officially became the Director of Operations for Project Hangout in order to expand our lifestyle mentoring model into churches and facilitate community events.

With A Bright Future Ahead Of Us.
In the future, as God guides us and provides the means, we desire to one day operate our own facility. A building in the middle of the local community that provides after school programs, summer activities, weekend events all focused on the Lifestyle Mentoring model.

Written by founder: Dale Hedges