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LOUISVILLE — The Presbyterian Church (USA) Hunger Program (PHP), in partnership with the denomination’s Urban Ministry Office, recently allocated $175,000 in grants to 22 congregation-based community organizations (CBCOs) in urban and rural areas across the country.
They are among the hundreds of Presbyterian U.S. congregations making a difference in their local communities through CBCOs.
CBCOs are broad-based coalitions of congregations, faith-based groups and grass-roots organizations that address quality-of-life and family issues — working, for example, to see that people have affordable housing and access to quality health care. Other examples of CBCOs’ concerns are crime, safety, public health and public education.
“A recent study of CBCOs funded by the Ford Foundation demonstrated that the community organizing process provides congregations with the capacity and skills to revitalize the life of their congregations and communities,” said the Rev. Phil Tom, coordinator of the PC(USA)’s Urban Ministry Office.
Congregations rooted in local communities serve as “prophetic, faith-informed voices” and help shape public policy, Tom said. Grants also support organizer-training networks and congregation-based organizing programs.
The funds are from the Community Development portion of the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering. Recipients were chosen during a March 25 meeting of the Presbyterian Hunger Program Advisory Committee.
The PC(USA) has long been a major 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 in urban and rural areas alike. 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.
A representative example of a community development organization is BUILD (Building a United Interfaith Lexington through Direct Action), in Lexington, KY, that has involved members of that city’s Second Presbyterian Church for two years. BUILD intends to become a self-sustaining organization, rooted in religious congregations and able to affect public policy. Through BUILD, members of Second church have been working with representatives of 12 to 15 other congregations on issues of public safety, education and service for seniors.
“It’s just another way of participating in the Democratic system,” said the Rev. David Renwick, the church’s pastor. “We think we can help build a better community.”
The grant recipients:
- Action in Montgomery (AIM), Silver Spring, MD: $7,500 to support affordable housing in Montgomery County
- All Congregations Together II (ACT II), Fairhope, AL: $10,000 to preserve affordable housing
- Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (ACTS), Syracuse, NY: $7,500 for a start-up CBCO
- Baltimore County Organizing Neighborhoods, Randallstown, MD: $7,500 to strengthen this CBCO
- Charlottesville Area Interfaith Sponsoring Committee (CAISC), Charlottesville, VA: $7,500 for a new CBCO
- Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together (CLOUT), Louisville, KY: $7,500 for work with public-housing residents and on housing issues
- Congregations Acting for Justice and Empowerment (CAJE), Evansville, IN: $7,500 for a new CBCO
- Dane County Sponsors, Inc., Madison, WI: $7,500 for a new CBCO
- Direct Action & Research Training Center (DART), Miami, FL: $10,000 for organizer training, with an emphasis on recruiting people of color
- Empower Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach, VA: $10,000 for a start-up CBCO focused on housing issues
- Faith In Community, Fresno, CA: $7,500 for a new CBCO
- Federation of Congregations United to Serve (FOCUS), Orlando, FL: $7,500 to address housing issues
- Greater Hartford Coalition for Equity and Justice, Hartford, CT: $7,500 for capacity building and training
- Jubilee Interfaith Organization, Jersey City, NJ: $5,000 for a new CBCO
- Justice Overcoming Borders (JOB), Cudahy, WI: $7,500 for a new CBCO
- Naugutuk Valley Project, Waterbury, CT: $7,500 to address predatory lending practices and housing issues
- Pinnellas Organizing Committee, Safety Harbor, FL: $7,500 for a new CBCO
- Tying Nashville Together (TNT), Nashville, TN: $10,000 to develop a mixed-use, mixed-income housing community
- United Action Connecticut (UACT), Hartford, CT: $7,500 for a start-up organization addressing housing issues
- United Congregations of Metro-East (UCM), Madison, IL: $7,500 for a needs assessment related to housing and environmental concerns
- Vermont Interfaith Action, South Burlington, VT: $10,000 to support housing-related work
- VOICE, Buffalo, NY: $7,500 to support work on housing issues
For more information about CBCOs, or about a recent Ford Foundation-funded study of their impact on congregational transformation, 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.
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