Our Story

Summer of 2016 Shine Tallahassee, Inc. was formed when a group of 22 year olds began aging out of Young Life’s special needs program called Capernaum. At that time, Genesis Church was connected to Capernaum because Scott Hunter, the lead pastor of Genesis, allowed them to use space at the church for free on Friday Nights for their program.  

Capernaum Parents were scared that their graduating adult children were losing their community, so a group of leaders at Genesis Church opened their doors again and started a program of new heights! Genesis Church volunteers already knew and loved these adults with special needs due to years of building friendships with them at Night to Shine Prom. Seeing the need and meeting the need, Shine Tallahassee began.  

Starting that summer, the planning committee created Shine’s 501(c)3 Non-Profit status. The initial celebratory, social program, called Friday Night Shine, launched a few months later in August for anyone 14+ years and older. No age cap! No one will ever graduate out of this program. Everything began with just a handful of Friends, then a few years later Friday Night Shine exploded with an average of over 100 Friends…

Shine has partnered with Genesis to create the Night to Shine in the past few years. In year three of Prom, it was so packed we had to move our prom off Genesis Church’s Campus to The Pavilion at Centre of Tallahassee.  After outgrowing that venue in two years...Shine and Genesis Church held Night to Shine Prom at our third location, THE NORTH FLORIDA FAIRGROUNDS!

Shine Tallahassee, Inc. and Genesis Church will always work in tandem together. It is a partnership. This powerful partnership has fueled such God-influenced growth that even the TIM TEBOW FOUNDATION had to take notice when Tallahassee became one of the LARGEST Night to Shines IN THE WORLD! In fact, Tim Tebow, his wife Demi-Leigh, and the entire TTF Foundation showed up (by surprise) last Prom and participated in all our activities with our amazing Friends!

We believe God has greater things in store for us.  GOD WILL DO UNBELIEVABLE THINGS WHEN YOU ANSWER HIS CALL! Our Prom attendance broke over 4,000 people including 1,014 Guests with special needs… That is an increase of 1,308% in just six years! Due to Covid-19, Night to Shine was virtual this year, but Genesis and Shine Tallahassee created a SHINE THROUGH event to allow all our guests to pick up their NTS Gift Kits as they drove through the parking lot with music, confetti, paparazzi and more! We can’t WAIT for Night to Shine 2022. We WILL be back in person. Visit NightToShineTally.com for details.

In February of 2021, we launched our very first (of many) at Shine Studio West, where the “Rise and Shine Life Skills Program” takes place. At Rise & Shine our Friends will learn life skills, create community and have a total blast. We never do ANYTHING that isn’t 100% creative and exciting! Each day we thrill our Friends with an unforgettable experience. Visit the Life Skills Program Page to see if our program fits the needs of your child!

Shine is excited to continue the mission of serving teens and adults with special needs.   Our hope is to build our own Shine Dream Center on Genesis Church’s extra property on Mission Road to establish a larger social gathering space for Friday Night Shine and the arts. It will double as the NEXT Shine Studio, continuing to expand our service to the West Side of Tallahassee and Havana.

The future Dream Center is designed with several amenities in mind: a 300 person auditorium, a fully functioning professional kitchen, theater classrooms, performance stage, offices and more…

Our even larger vision is to buy all the surrounding land by Genesis Church and build places for special needs hospital care, special needs dental care, and to create businesses such as an ice cream shop, coffee house, etc. run by our Friends with special needs.  Our hearts want to create a place for our friends to FIND THEIR OWN DREAMS and LIVE THEM OUT. 

Visit BuildTheDreamTally.org to explore, partner, or invest.

We’ve only just begun...