Awana

Awana began in 1950 at the North Side Gospel Center in Chicago, where Art Rorheim and Lance “Doc” Latham built a weekly programme for children that grew to 500 kids before other churches took it up. Children work through handbooks, learn Scripture by heart and play games, with church volunteers alongside them.

Awana does not run the clubs itself — local churches do, with curriculum, online training and a local missionary from Awana. By its own reporting, 11 million children in 140 countries take part every week, most of them in Africa and South Asia.

We found no national Awana ministry in Poland. Awana’s own blog did report in 2023 that a refugee from Ukraine started a Ukrainian-language Awana club in Łódź, supported by Awana Ukraine, with Polish children welcome too.

• Founded
  1950, at North Side Gospel Center, Chicago, by Art Rorheim and Lance “Doc” Latham
• Legal name
  Awana Clubs International, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in St. Charles, Illinois
• President
  Matt Markins, President and CEO
• Reach
  11 million children in 140 countries every week, by their own reporting, including about 481,000 children in 7,400 clubs in the United States
• Ages
  2 to 18
• How it works
  A church runs the club. Awana supplies the curriculum, online leader training and a local missionary to help it start
• Cost
  Church membership is $125 a year and brings about 30% off most curriculum and full access to online training. Awana puts basic supplies at about $35 per child; each church decides what parents pay
• Free to try
  A free curriculum sample can be requested on clubs.awana.org
• Statement of faith
  Published on awana.org
• Financial reporting
  Form 990 filings are publicly available through ProPublica. Awana states that it is an ECFA member with a four-star Charity Navigator rating
• Polish
  Poland is not named on Awana’s Global Impact or International Ministries pages, and we did not find a national Awana ministry in Poland
• Contact
  (630) 213-2000 · membership@awana.org · PO Box 809, St. Charles, IL 60174
• What we checked
  The history, leadership, reach, prices and contact details come from awana.org and clubs.awana.org, and the filings from ProPublica. Prices quoted on third-party sites were left out

Awana does not sponsor or endorse Embassy of the Kingdom, and we are not affiliated with them. We list them because we checked them and would put them in a friend’s hands. If you lead a ministry and would like to be considered, or believe something here should be corrected, write to us — we read every message ourselves.