Presbyterian News Service
06275 May 18, 2006
Grants awarded to congregation-based community organizations
$157,500 goes to 21 organizing groups
by Evan Silverstein
LOUISVILLE - The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) (http://www.pcusa.org/hunger/), in partnership with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Urban Ministry Office (http://www.pcusa.org/urban/), recently allocated $157,500 to 21 congregation-based community organizations (CBCOs) in urban and rural areas across the country.
CBCOs are broad-based coalitions of congregations, faith-based groups and grass-roots organizations that address quality-of-life and family issues such as affordable housing and access to quality health care.
Grants are provided to support training for lay leaders, pastors, middle-governing body staff and seminarians to develop the skills for congregational-based community organizing.
"CBCO's are bringing about positive change both for the life of the congregations involved with CBCOs, and with the communities they serve," said the Rev. Phil Tom, associate for urban ministry in the PC(USA)'s National Ministries Division. "Presbyterian congregations engaged with CBCOs are learning how to reach out and to work in partnership with their neighbors in responding to the quality-of- life issues impacting their communities."
Other examples of CBCOs' concerns, Tom said, are crime, safety, public health and public education.
Funds for the grants come from the Community Development portion of the One Great Hour of Sharing offering. Recipients were chosen during a March 28 meeting of the Presbyterian Hunger Program Advisory Committee.
"We are very excited about the strategy," said Andrew Kang Bartlett, PHP's associate for National Hunger Concerns. "CBCO's approach to fighting poverty is to call on government to play its proper role, and its power comes from people of faith themselves."
The PC(USA) has long been a supporter of the community organizing movement pioneered in Chicago in the late 1930s by Saul Alinsky, who adapted labor-organizing strategies to community organizing.
The movement today includes more than 170 church-based community organizations across the country. Most are affiliated with major national training networks, such as the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) and the Gamaliel foundation, both in Chicago; Direct Action and Research Training Center (DART) in Miami; and the Pacific Institute for Community Organization (PICO) in Oakland, CA.
One example of a congregation-based community organization is A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy, or AMOS, which for years has involved members of Central Presbyterian Church in De Moines, IA.
The non-partisan, church-based group tackles social injustices in central Iowa by bringing together a variety of activists and people of faith from various churches and synagogues.
"It's doing public ministry," said the Rev. Jim Wallace, pastor of Central Presbyterian Church. "Meaning: how do we help others that may not be able to act on their own to bring about change? How do we make a community more caring for all participants? Those kinds of things."
A $7,500 CBCO grant will allow AMOS, whose membership consist of about 30 religious institutions, to help pay the salary of a full-time organizer who is assisting in building and expanding the organization.
"It's allowed us to move forward," Wallace said. "The grant has helped enable us to hire an organizer who is trained in this process and because of that we're able to tackle these issues and continue to grow."
The organization includes a range of faith traditions from Baptist and Catholic to Jewish and Methodist. Together they are building a reputation for success.
Last year AMOS - formerly called A Metropolitan Organizing Strategy - persuaded administrators who control 13 Iowa hospitals to change how much they charge uninsured patients. Those patients often pay higher fees because they don't have big insurance companies negotiating discounts on their behalf.
Among other AMOS efforts: pushing for a statewide sales tax that would go toward improving school district infrastructure, and rallying support for keeping a homeless shelter from being moved out of downtown De Moines.
AMOS has proven it can inspire hundreds of concerned people to gather on any given day. For example, 650 people, including 400 Latinos, showed up at the Capitol building in Des Moines last year to rally for driver's licenses for immigrants and for a tobacco tax increase to cover Medicaid expenses.
"It's not to be out there protesting and hacking at people," Wallace said. "An important part of this is that we study the issues and come up with some solutions and then seek to work with government, private business, hospitals or whoever it might be."
The grant recipients:
- A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy (AMOS), Des Moines, IA: $7,500 for developing a broader metro strategy. - ACTION Network, Gainesville, FL: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues. - Anchorage Faith and Action - Congregations Together (AFACT), Anchorage, AK: $7,500 in start-up support. - Brower Interfaith Sponsoring Committee, Coconut Creek, FL: $7,500 in start-up support. - Charlottesville Area Interfaith Sponsoring Committee, Charlottesville,VA: $7,500 in start-up support. - Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together (CLOUT), Louisville, KY: $7,500 to work on an affordable housing trust fund campaign. - Cortland Interfaith Sponsoring Committee, Homer, NY: $7,500 in start-up support. - Ecumenical Ministries - All Congregations Together, Fairhope, AL: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues. - Federation of Congregations United to Serve (FOCUS), Orlando, FL: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues. - Greater Milwaukee Sponsors, Milwaukee, WI: $7,500 in start-up support. - Helping Empower Local People (HELP), Charlotte, NC: $7,500 to develop a broader metro strategy. - In The Hopeful City, Wheeling, WV: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues. - Interfaith Action, Rochester, NY: $7,500 to work on a neighborhood affordable housing trust fund campaign. - Kansas City Church Community Organization (KCCCO), Kansas City, MO: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues. - Lake County Sponsors, Libertyville, IL: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues. - Long Island Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods (LI-CAN), Valley Stream, NY: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues. - Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good (MACG), Portland, OR: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues. - Peninsula Interfaith Action (PIA), San Carlos, CA: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues. - PICO Flint Area Congregations Together, Flint, MI: $7,500 in start-up support. - Pinellas Organizing Committee (POC), Safety Harbor, FL: $7,500 in start-up support. - VOICE, Buffalo, NY: $7,500 to work on affordable housing issues.
For more information about CBCOs, contact Eva Slayton in the Urban Ministry Office by phone at (800) 728-7228, ext. 5244, or by email at eslayton@ctr.pcusa.org; or contact Phil Tom by phone at (800) 728-7228, ext. 5845, or by email at ptom@ctr.pcusa.org.