2021 annual report
Dedicated to Change
We believe fully that we are better together. That every community has history, gifting & experiences that we all are richer & wiser for knowing. We believe that we need one another and that we are created for reconciled community.
positive change
Our Community
Measurables help us make sure that we remain faithful to the hopes and dreams expressed by the community and the resources that have been entrusted to us to see those come to expression. We know there is never a way to fully measure what happens when youth teams sit with Godly widows and listen to history from the mouth of one who lived it. Or share a meal & listen to one another & build a friendship and while those are the stories we most love to tell, we also seek to measure what matters.
more than $487,000+ in Free Home Repair
More than 600 volunteers gave over 2,000 hours to help homeowners with accessibility, weatherization, or deal with city citations, fees & fines so they could remain in their own homes.
60%+ Increase in Teacher Retention
More than 400 volunteers served 1800+ kids in the schools & opened a HOPE Center in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club to assist students with virtual learning in a turbulent year.
Over 30,000 lbs of food went Home with families
Plus, students gardened weekly at their schools & were able to try healthy new foods that they not only grew, but were then able to take home & enjoy!
60+ neighbors Employed
Our community-owned businesses generated more than $500,000 in revenue in 2020 & are poised for growth as we expand to add The Market at Eastpoint to our businesses this year!
Our History
Where We Stand
Last year, we had a neighbor with a roof that had leaked for more than 10 years. A long history of discriminatory housing and home loan practices along with imminent domain and unjust practices for renewal in the city meant a scared senior home owner. Like many, she needed repairs but her home had some issues with the title which meant that she was ineligible for city services or any programs that received state or federal funding. An investor had attempted to swindle her out of her home & she wasn’t sure who to trust and how to proceed.
On the morning that our teams arrived to help it was rainy and cool. She had prepared cider and invited them in once the repairs were done for the morning, then she began to play the piano for them all which turned into an impromptu concert led by a widow who had every earthly reason to complain but, instead, chose joy.
Now, we aren’t experts in community development or city renewal, but we think something foundational shook that morning. We believe that true reconciliation happens in moments just like these. Moments where we listen well and allow someone else to see things differently than us without breaking fellowship. Where we all give what we can. Where we learn just how much we don’t know & let that change us so we can begin to think together about how we work to seek justice & love mercy and members of one body.
Sure, at one level it is roofs & paint & home repairs. But it so much more than that.
Numbers provided by the Lynn Institute’s 2016 Lifestyle Summary of Northeast Oklahoma City.
building relationships
Amazing Things Can Happen
Our goal is building relationships that transcend barriers enriches the lives of everyone involved.
We believe that if we move forward in unity we can change the fabric of community. We aren’t interested in repeating our failures. We want to work toward a different future. Just this year, 750 students in Northeast Oklahoma City built relationships with more than 200 school support volunteers who loved and served teachers with every ounce they had in them. We fed lunch to teachers, brought coffee, surrounded their classes with support, brought in teacher training, made sure supplies were plentiful, built out a uniform closet & committed to not letting any kid from our community experience the shame of being dirty at school by putting a laundry facility in place.
We’ve watched more than 500 volunteers paint homes, plant gardens, and repair roofs. We have spent time sitting together & listening. We have gardened together every Friday and shared meals. We believe that building relationships that transcend barriers enriches the lives of everyone involved. We think this is where the real work lies to interrupt the cycle of poverty, crime, and lack of education and improve the odds for all students without seeing the negative impacts of gentrification.
It’s not simple and it takes a lot of work to see cycles break — especially when they are tied to foundational injustices from the beginning of our country. But, we believe that we are all created to be justice-makers and given gifts & resources to invest in one another until we are all able to say that we have truly “loved our neighbor as ourselves.” We believe that means making schools places we’d all put our children, creating jobs we’d all be proud to work, and giving students a chance to become the stakeholders that change the fabric of sustainable food while they invest in a flourishing future for themselves too!
That is development that starts with the assets that already exist and builds on the beauty and resilience of some of the most beautiful saints whom the world never sees. We are so proud to be a part of this work and thankful for the thousands of you who each give what you can to make it all possible.
We’re Better Together
With your help, we can continue to serve our community and positively impact those in it. We invite you to join us in seeing reconciliation accomplish restorative justice.