Report

The Faith Communities and Urban Families Project, operated by the Leadership Center at Morehouse College, focused on four communities: Indianapolis, Denver, Camden and Hartford. The purpose of the project was to strengthen connections between low-income residents and faith-based organizations. This document summarizes the extent to which connections already existed between residents and faith-based organizations, what challenges surfaced during roundtable discussions and how the communities were able to move forward based on what they’d learned. The four communities studied for this project were also part of the Foundation's Making Connections initiative.

November 1, 2003

In This Report, You’ll Learn

  1. 1

    Why churches and faith-based organizations are important to low-income communities.

  2. 2

    How changing demographics have impacted the relationship between community churches and low-income residents.

  3. 3

    How four communities fared when clergy from community churches met with resident and community leaders to discuss issues.

  4. 4

    The potential challenges and opportunities for building bridges among residents, congregations and social and religious organizations.

Key Takeaway

Issues Identified but Little Unified Progress Toward Solutions

Although the Faith Communities and Urban Families Project had the expectation that communities would move forward with specific activities once the resident, community leader and clergy roundtable discussions were completed, not all communities were successful moving to the next step. All communities created plans of what should occur but they had varying levels of success implementing the plans.      

Findings & Stats

Statements & Quotations

Related reports:

Copyright of the text materials contained in this website is owned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and any use should include an appropriate citation.

Read More