wfn.org | Ford Foundation backs faith-based community efforts

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Nov. 17, 1999	News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-30-71B{615}

NEW YORK (UMNS) - A faith-based effort to reduce juvenile crime in Boston
has been so successful that it is being replicated in other parts of the
country.

"Boston had a terrible crime rate among young people back in the 1980s and
early '90s," said the Rev. Fred Davie of the Ford Foundation, which has
helped finance a program that created an alliance between churches and the
city's police. 

Davie, a Presbyterian minister and program officer for community and
resource development, spoke at a Nov. 16 briefing sponsored by the United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

The improvement in Boston - which has had only one juvenile homicide since
1995 -- was assisted by Boston Ten-Point Coalition, founded by religious
leaders in 1992 after a youth was attacked during a funeral in the Roxbury
area. The coalition has served as an intermediary between the community and
police. 

"They have just met with phenomenal success," Davie said.

With an additional $1.2 million in grants, the Ford Foundation is supporting
similar faith-based programs to decrease youth violence, improve job access
and increase literacy in Denver, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
and San Francisco. The foundation also hopes to establish a Ten-Point
Foundation and place a thousand intermediaries in 20 cities by 2006, Davie
said.

The New York-based Ford Foundation, with 600 employees and 15 field offices,
is the fourth largest foundation in the world, according to Davie. In 1996,
Ford reorganized to create more of a global emphasis. Its three major
program areas are asset building and community development, peace and social
justice, and education, media, arts and culture.

Davie's job is to make grants to faith-based institutions involved in
community development work. Last year, the United Methodist-related Shalom
Zone in Houston was the recipient of a Ford grant. "We hope to expand the
work down there," he said.

Other recent grants have included:

·	$240,000 over two years to Bread for the World -- which receives
United Methodist support - for research on international hunger and food
security;
·	$500,000 over two years to the Congress of National Black Churches
to strengthen community development church coalitions;
·	$1.1 million in a three-year supplement to the Interdenominational
Theological Center in Atlanta for its Institute on Church Administration and
Management.

Davie highlighted a program through New York Theological Seminary in which
graduates from a master's degree and professional studies program at Sing
Sing prison are placed in churches and "are now doing mentoring and outreach
with other high-risk young people." The Board of Global Ministries also has
given financial support to that program.

International projects in community and resource development are found in
Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Mexico.

Most grants are awarded to faith-based networks or institutions. Only
individual congregations with an "extraordinary" project would be considered
for funding, Davie said.

The foundation also makes religion-related grants through its unit on
education, knowledge and religion, which is part of the education, media,
arts and culture program area.

More information about the Ford Foundation can be found at its Web site,
www.fordfound.org.

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United Methodist News Service
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