Healthier, sustainable community through empowered people participating as citizens, building on community assets.

Programs

• Adaptive Reuse and Sustainable Development
  We advocate for sustainable reuse and development of at-risk properties in our community. Our work on award-winning work with brownfield remediation is setting the standard for approaches to urban redevelopment that doesn't leave indigenous stakeholders behind.
  

• Community-Building
  We work with partners and community residents on a grassroots level, to help gather the community’s opinions about change, then we support neighbor-to-neighbor, block- by-block dialogue and solutions to real life issues. We foster real-life dialogue and understanding among youth because we recognize they have a great stake in both the present and future conditions of our community.
  


• Educational Advocacy
  Bethel New Life advocates for West Side families to be heard by the school system as we work to develop quality schools of choice. Quality Education for All is one of our three strategic goals. We support educational initiatives that bring together parents, students, teachers, and the community.
  


• Technology Access & Training
  The Community Technology Center is bridging the digital divide by providing individuals and families in the Bethel New Life service area with access to current technologies. The CTC has established a computer lab and offers technology tours for local residents.

Notable Accomplishments

• Operated community technology center with 420 member users.
• Have four VISTA volunteers working with various programs in asset development and financial literacy and leadership.
• Became co-sponsors and fiscal agent of the Al Raby School for Community and Environment, a small public high school which uses the community as a part of the curriculum and trains students in organizing around issues and concern for the environment.
• Area coordinating groups for West Garfield Park beats of Cease Fire, including the beat that had one of the highest reductions in homicides of the City.
• Spearheaded advocacy around public schools (quality and closures), violence reduction and city capital expenditures.
• Spearheaded voter registration and voter turnout efforts.
• Coordinated the ongoing work with formerly incarcerated sponsoring the Winning Circle and liaison for re-entry efforts.

What I learned from Bethel, I'm still learning today.  It's how faith in community leads us to discover a whole that's bigger than the sum of its parts.  Living and working and loving together in community, we discover a grace, a grace that's inside us, a grace that's between us, a grace that's bigger than all of us.  Thank you all the people of Bethel New Life for making, and being in community.
— Luther Snow, Asset Based Community Development Institute, former employee