Make a Donation to Rocketown

Christian recording artist Michael W. Smith founded Rocketown in Nashville, TN to reach out and minister to kids that the church isn’t reaching at all.

Watch and listen as Michael W. Smith shares the vision of Rocketown:

Rocketown Florida began in 2009, and today provides a safe, positive, and uplifting alternative to the negative influences felt by today’s students. Under the constant pressure to experiment with drugs, alcohol, and sex, Rocketown provides a haven.

When the world tells them they don’t have the right friends, clothes, houses, toys, or body, Rocketown is there to tell a different story. The true story.

A Rocketown kid looks like...

You might see Rocketown kids skateboarding in shopping center parking lots. If you call up the picture of those kids in your mind--their hats, hair, clothing, and shoes, then you'll have a decent picture of many kids that come to Rocketown.

They are kids without the opportunities many of us take for granted—like after school supports, loving parents, and a church support network.

We are here for the kids who are slipping through the cracks. Some kids come from broken homes or live below the median income. Rocketown serves those kids who want a shot at something better, but just need the right relationships to get there.

What Rocketown does...

We bring these kids face-to-face with adults who love them, accept them, and are ready to listen and guide them. Our tools are a skate park, a coffee shop, a snack bar, and a concert venue. Since the kids are going to skate, we’ve provided a high quality alternative to getting in trouble with police for skating all over other people’s property.

Rocketown uses our 13,000 sq. ft. facility in Pompano Beach to provide a safe after-school place to hang out, skate, grab snacks, and learn from Christian mentors. There are so many places our kids could end up in South Florida. But every night, over 50 kids choose Rocketown.

Rocketown also has a café for drinks, and snacks. Our concert venue is packed on nights and weekends with music only a teenager could love. In short, Rocketown is a place for teenagers to skate, eat, and listen to loud music.

Watch this video to see more of Rocketown:

How Rocketown reaches kids...

Here’s a little of what we’re trying to accomplish:

A: Attract kids using culturally relevant tools—like a skate park and loud concerts—to draw in kids. Rocketown is not a youth group or a community park. It combines the best elements of both to reach kids who desire authenticity.

B: Build relationships with caring adults. These are men and women who share love through actions, and help kids to see themselves for who they really are—not what the world tells them to be.

C: Connect to regular programs—like Skate Church or Girls Group—where students can get pursue their questions about God, life, relationships, school, family, or whatever is on their mind. This connection helps solidify other good habits that keep kids in school, out of trouble, and progressing toward a healthy adult life.

D: Discovering purpose through individual relationships. What makes Rocketown eternally significant is our staff and volunteers who wrap each child in love, and help them discover their unique purpose in life. Each student who walks through the doors or Rocketown was created with a specific purpose. Through their time at Rocketown, we help guide them toward discovering and pursuing this purpose as passionately as possible. Preferably by providing a one-on-one mentorship relationship for the student, ensuring they are growing closer to God, and fully expressing everything He created them to be and do.

Along the way, kids aren't getting involved in drugs or alcohol or crime or sex. Because someone cares about them, they discover their own self-worth, and begin to realize the bright future that God has planned for them.

How you can help...

Thank you for helping youth in our community through Rocketown through this opportunity. If you have any questions, please contact Rocketown Florida’s president, Danny Kanell, at dkanell@rocketown.org.