Joel’s Place began in the hearts of Mike and Linda Setterberg; through their experiences with youth they began to see a need for positive youth activities in Fairbanks. The youth needed somewhere to hangout, somewhere to belong and so started their journey.
Wellspring Revival Ministries was incorporated in 1998 and Joel’s Place opened April 1999 in response to the need for a reliable, accessible and comfortable place for youth to gather. We started having a youth group meeting on Fridays and concerts on Saturdays at a downtown location. It was through our Saturday concerts that we attracted many musicians, artists and skateboarders. In October of 1999 we moved to the Tanana Valley State Fairgrounds. The space was just what we needed, a big room with a commercial kitchen and bathrooms. We continued to grow and as we gathered more volunteers we were able to be open more days of the week. For the first five years we were staffed by volunteers.
While working with these young people we found another need in our community; the need for an indoor skate park. In September of 2004 we moved to a warehouse at 1890 Marika only one mile from the fairgrounds. Along with the skate park there is a concert area complete with sound system, pool table and foosball. Enough room for a couple hundred crazy concert goers. The youth have been an integral part of decorating by painting murals and building skate ramps. In 2005 Betenbough Charitable Foundation gave us a $35,000 grant to build new professional ramps in our skate park. Our mission is to give creative, adventurous, adrenalin-seeking youth a good, positive outlet for their energy.
In September 2006 we completed renovations on the kitchen and opened a café, offering free and reduced cost food and drink for our youth. The café also offers a place for young artists to display their art. They can eat a hot meal every evening for no cost. Young people come from all over Fairbanks North Star Borough and beyond as we have the only indoor skate park in the state.
In 2008 we were invited to write an AmeriCorps grant through Serve Alaska, since that time over 140 young adults have served as Joel’s Place Seasons of Service AmeriCorps members and we were recently awarded our second three year grant.
In the past year (2011) over 800 youth have benefited from our programs here at Joel’s Place and many more as our AmeriCorps members serve in schools, youth programs and community centers in Fairbanks North Star Borough.