Local community tries to lend a hand

Members of Providence Baptist Church on Daniel Island do a lot to help those in need. They started a program to provide breakfasts for the Ronald McDonald House, and other faith institutions now participate, according to their pastor, the Rev. Don Flowers.

They work with East Cooper Community Outreach, the Lowcountry Food Bank and Lowcountry AIDS Services, providing material donations and volunteering time.

They tutor students at Cainhoy Elementary/Middle School. And they work with relief organizations, such as Charleston-based Water Missions International in response to natural disasters.

Providence is just one of many local congregations that invests generously in outreach and aid missions. Driven by faith, a biblical imperative to help the disadvantaged and a sense of social purpose, its mostly affluent members want to give something back to the community, Flowers said.

Other places of worship and faith-based organizations are making a difference, too, sending money to social service agencies, launching educational programs, trying hard to help people in need.

Most members of the faith and aid service communities agree: The response to poverty in the Lowcountry is well-intended and often effective. Many groups and individuals are doing many things that help. But those involved also agree that the delivery of aid to the needy could be more efficient and far-reaching if the various agencies, church groups and individuals that are involved better coordinated their efforts. In other words, if they talked less and did more.

So why, despite several efforts and a lot of good intentions, hasn't a centralized aid-delivery system emerged in the Charleston area?

"Bridges," Flowers said.

The geography of the Lowcountry perhaps isn't conducive to a hub-and-spoke system, he said. Too many bridges and rivers. And regional identities are strong. The experience of living on Johns Island isn't much like the experience of living in Mount Pleasant or North Charleston, Flowers said.

An interfaith coalition?

"We have tremendous resources in the faith community," said Bruce Jayne, a retired Baptist chaplain and local activist. "There are a lot of people in the region for whom faith is meaningful, and many would like to know in what ways they can put their faith into action."

One problem is that it can be hard to figure out what to do, Jayne said.

He and a few others have looked outside Charleston for a model.

The Cooperative Ministry in Columbia, started in the early 1980s by five downtown churches, is an umbrella organization that manages the influx of financial donations and coordinates the delivery of services, often referring clients to existing agencies. It provides an easy way for service providers to track cases and avoid wasting resources.

"People who find themselves in crisis have to negotiate to get themselves out of crisis," Jayne said.

But such people aren't always equipped to cope with the complicated bureaucracy. They need guidance.

Last month, Jayne and 35 others met with the idea of forging an interfaith coalition like the Cooperative Ministry. It was the group's second meeting, at which they agreed to get together again in November to form a steering committee, draft a mission statement and determine the new organization's structure.

Much already is being done, Jayne said. "We would simply like to magnify that good work by bringing people together in large numbers."

And as more people get involved, they will become more aware of the systemic challenges and push to change public policy so it better serves the common good, he said. Poverty can be addressed most effectively when the faith community works together with the private sector and government. "There needs to be a partnership," he said.

Cautious optimism

Jermaine Husser, executive director of the Lowcountry Food Bank, likes the idea of leveraging existing solutions. There's no sense in reinventing the wheel when "a lot of good stuff is happening." Still, if an interfaith coalition could work hand-in-hand with Trident United Way's 211 hotline and organizations such as ECCO, the community would benefit, he said.

But Husser notes that other initiatives, such as The Charleston Expression and Seacoast Church-North Charleston's Dream Center, also are dedicated to helping the underserved. The trick, he says, is to get these organizations working in tandem, not at cross-purposes.

Jack Little, executive director of the East Cooper outreach, points to another challenge: distinguishing between rural and urban poverty and adjusting the delivery of aid accordingly. In the inner city, some public transportation is available, enabling people to get to work or to various agencies. But how can needs be met in the country, where services often must be brought to the poor?

One way is to educate them, Little said, showing them that with some careful planning and mentoring from volunteers, they can stabilize their finances and work toward a more productive future. To this end, ECCO introduced a free 15-session course called "Getting Ahead in a Just-Getting-By World." Ten people participated in the first session, which examined mental health issues, Little said. Seven came to the second class, which dealt with theories of change and how the privileged and underprivileged cope differently.

Next year, ECCO will sponsor a daylong seminar called "Bridges Out of Poverty" to show community leaders what life is really like for those who struggle day to day.

The Rev. Joseph Darby, pastor of Morris Brown AME Church, said he'll likely join Jayne's effort. If recent experiences are any example, the initial emphasis of the interfaith coalition will need to be outreach, Darby said. When outreach is combined with advocacy and political action, many people tend to shy away.

Even so, political action, along with good communication, is needed, he said.

"If black and white people of faith are to work together to alleviate poverty, it will require mutual respect and a frank assessment of race and class, and the role that they often play in the cycle of poverty, especially in Charleston," Darby said. "A lot of my white colleagues have no trouble whatsoever throwing big bucks at the issue through housing and feeding programs, but shy away from doing anything to address poverty by influencing public policy. Maybe that's because a lot of them don't have those suffering the ravages of poverty in their pews and in their congregations, as a lot of black clergy do."

One way to effectively monitor the impact of philanthropy and address the root causes of poverty is to focus on the people you know, Darby said.

"A good portion of the outreach funds expended at Morris Brown go not to the anonymous poor, but to those in our church family who have problems making ends meet," he said. "To help them pay the bills without dealing with what makes it hard for them to pay the bills is ridiculous and hypocritical."

It's not good enough for the privileged faithful, on their way to church, to throw a few pennies to those on the side of the road, Darby said. That might appease the conscience, but it's not exactly what Christ would do.

Other efforts

Meanwhile, The Charleston Expression and the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina's department of social ministries have teamed up to launch a Christ-centered solution called Next Steps.

The diocese offered $12,000 for the licensing of a crisis and case-management database developed by the Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington. The database will link Christ-centered nonprofits and churches via the Web, enabling them to collaborate more effectively and monitor the results of their charity, according to Ed Dyckman, who runs the diocese's social ministry department.

The Charleston Expression is dedicated to supporting faith-based organizations involved in helping people overcome poverty, Director Brian Keelin said. Many Christ-centered charities "have been quietly doing the work they feel they've been called to do," Keelin said. The Next Steps program will help make the public aware of these organizations.

Case managers will be able to register individuals, log all aid disbursements, monitor for abuse and intervene when they think some guidance is necessary, Keelin said. And they will be able to work from any location since the secure database is Web-based, he said.

Keelin said he attended the recent meeting organized by Jayne but opted to pursue his own course of action, citing theological differences.