At the Roots, Reaching for the Sky: A Story of Faith, Service and Community-Building in An American City

PRAISE FOR THE WORK OF MIDTOWN

A book about MIDTOWN…well, it will be the virtual bible of how to serve people. It was and honor and a privilege to serve. Leaving MIDTOWN, there was not question about my greatness because as Martin put it…we all can be great because we all can serve. And serve we did! We served the poorest of the poor with dignity and grace.

Ricky Jackson, former staff member

It’s the people first. All lives matter. When the world looks at you like you don’t count…at MIDTOWN everyone was treated with dignity and value. This is the foundation of MIDTOWN….that we love and respect one another.

Quincy Jones, neighbor-leader of MIDTOWN Men’s Club

MIDTOWN is a place full of care, hope and love. MIDTOWN opened the door for me to understand social work in practice. As time goes on you get more and more of a sense of mini-collectivism. …everybody is welcomed. The door is open, the programs are open, the staff respect and cooperate with each other, and clients are respected and get involved in all kinds of activities.

Tao Qi, an international social work student

I have always appreciated MIDTOWN as a classic example of professional social work. All the methods of social work are operating there every day—social casework, social group work, community organizing, social action and the elements of the old Settlement House movement. There are no more dedicated people in any of our Catholic Charities agencies than you and the MIDTOWN staff. You are making a valuable contribution to the neighborhood and community-at- large.

A former President of Catholic Charities of St. Louis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart.

Dorothy Day

To be human is to be radically incomplete in oneself 

and to place this vulnerability out for all to see as your true self.

Unknown

I would like to thank the thousands of people who came through the doors of MIDTOWN during the 26 years I was director. Every day someone would come in for help, to visit, to see what was going on or to let us know about the problems of a neighbor. In our open office, I would greet almost everyone who came. To those people who graced our door-- thank you for everything you taught me about people. Because of your patience, perseverance, friendliness and generosity, I worked in a wonderful place where I interacted with people of many different backgrounds and experiences.

From the neighbors, staff, volunteers, students and supporters I learned how people are just about the same, no matter their experience. I learned everyone wanted to care for their family and friends, be safe, free from the struggle to meet their needs and able to meet new people without fear of judgment. So many people over the years returned to let me know how they were doing. They were just stopping by--a friendly visit—but with stories of great pride and strength.

I got so many man hugs I lost count. Whether from young men who grew up at MIDTOWN or older men who were like brothers; men from the community wanted to express their gratitude, not necessarily for something I had done, but for being there. Women came in nearly every day to interact with staff, check on their children’s progress in groups or see each other. I had the opportunity to be there for them as well. (I did get hugs from the women who came, too.)

I want to thank all of our guests for the hugs, laughter, stories and memories. They were the reason MIDTOWN existed. My dreams of a community center where everyone respected and treated each other with dignity came alive through them. People proved no matter black or white, comfortable or struggling, man or woman, adult or child we could get to know each other, and find love together.

I want to remember the staff and the time, effort, skill and dedication they had. Staff was with people for the happy times-- celebrating new jobs, births, weddings and college for their children. They were also there for the sad--helping people through addiction, violence, trauma, loss of work and prejudice. At times, we had the best group of people working together to serve the community I will ever know. Staff was the backbone of the agency. They were flexible, open and understanding. They learned how best to serve our neighbors, advocate with institutions on their behalf and help people find the power within themselves (empowerment) to get the job done.

The following staff members, particularly caught the idea of what we were trying to make happen. They understood the vision, helped reach for the goals and ensured our mission. They also were very dedicated as they worked for meager pay, and stayed from three to ten years. Thanks to Deborah, Nancy, Adam, Junior, Rebecca, Sam, Quincy, LaWayna, Ricky, Chuck, Bill, Emily, Dan, Michelle and to some special people, Jeanne, Sylvia, Jack, Papa, Jackie and Kenny.

I want to express my gratitude and love to Joyce, my wife, with whom I worked for 35 years. She was the heart of Midtown. All the ideas for services and programs were vetted by Joyce and she wholeheartedly worked to help make each one a success. She was loved by the children and by connection their parents. Joyce set a perfect example of how to treat and love other people. Her patience helped people with overwhelming need slow down and take a breath. This virtue made the children and teens look at her as their second mom. Joyce supported staff in every program, taught students the social group work method, and made the group of neighborhood women, the MIDTOWN Mamas the best imaginable. I also want to thank her for contributing to this story.

I want to thank Jessica, my daughter. She grew up at MIDTOWN. She began her attendance in a bassinette in the office, when she was 3 months old. As a toddler, she hung out in the hallway with her adult friend during teen club. She got to meet the teenagers as they left the building. She attended after-school and teen club programs from 5 to 18 year of age and was a teen leader. She came back summers to work in day camp as a college student.

Jessica experienced two worlds as she grew. The first was a white, middle class experience of private elementary and high schools where she had every opportunity to learn and grow. She was never hungry, alone, or without her needs met. She was always safe and cared for by her two parents. She experienced a different world at MIDTOWN.

She was one of the only white children coming to after-school programs. In the beginning she was not sure how she fit (she was also Joyce’s daughter). Not all the other children were accepting of her, played with her or became her friend. She did not like this reception, sometimes complained a little, but found her struggle to be nothing to what her peers faced. Over time, Jessica made friends with many people and has stayed in touch over the years. Jessica shared her memories for this book. They come with a slightly different perspective as she grew up with many of the people we served, and stays in touch through social media.

As a teenager she began to see the differences in their lives, and hers. By the time she was finishing high school, she was an exceptional leader in both worlds. When she came from college to work in summer day camp, the younger children loved her almost as much as her mom. Because she viewed the disparity of her experiences to be unjust, she became a teacher and is now school leader (principal) at a charter school in the city of St. Louis. She has plans to become involved in education policy or politics in her future. She strongly believes all children should have the same opportunities she had.

Rejoice in hope, be patient under trial, persevere in prayer, and if possible be at peace with everyone.

Romans 12:12

FOREWORD

A gathering of people who work and pray with laughter

to reach for stars that seem too distant to be touched, 

or too dim to be worth the effort.

We try to be friends with persons in need, 

And to celebrate life with people who believe that the struggle to follow Jesus 

In building a world more justly loving is worth the gift of their lives.

Anonymous

This is a story of people working together to build community. By developing positive human relationships, a group of residents who lived in neighborhoods in St. Louis, Missouri, connected and began to work on community issues of benefit to all. The story is about faith, not church; people, not race; generosity, not poverty; equity, not equality; and justice, not selfishness. This story challenges norms of religion, social work, community organizing and non-profit management. It is also a story challenging the expectations of human behavior and relationships. The story tells how people with vastly different lives came together, worked together, enjoyed one another and built a community in which everyone contributed no matter their race, economic status, social position or life experience. It took many years to reach this point. A community grew where the whole was much greater than its parts and where differences of experience mattered in making things better for everyone.

In order to address the challenges presented in bringing people of different backgrounds together, I formulated new definitions of words commonly used in the field of social services. This redefining creates an understanding of where our challenges originated, the work needed to address them and how the positive relationships we made were countercultural. The definitions are outside the norm and stand against the present culture of the church, in opposition to current social work methods, and a challenge to community organizing and corporate approaches to decision-making. The definitions draw strength from the contributions of a diverse array of community members and celebrate the connections between people who would not usually come together.

A DIFFERENT WAY OF THINKING

The redefining includes words such as service, ghetto, redevelopment, community, grassroots and empirical evidence. When used by people whose experience defines them, words become more real. Service, for example, may express power or patriarchy--I’m better than you and I can tell you what you need, or it may mean putting another person’s needs ahead of your own. As a graduate of St. Louis University School of Social Service, I learned service meant following the ethics of social work—starting where the other person is, not using them to meet your needs, being consistent in your approach and insuring self-determination by identifying options together. Service requires a sacrifice of time, money, personal need and relationships. Not everyone is prepared to make.

A ghetto can be a run-down area of a city where only poor people live, no one else goes and fear dominates the people inside and out. Or, a ghetto may be a state of mind in which people isolate themselves from any thoughts or feelings which challenge their place, comfort, or compassion. A gated-community is a ghetto of like-minded individuals who have separated themselves from the rest of the world and hope to avoid people who are different. People in a gated-community place themselves away from any responsibility for others. A ghetto is any area where people have an experience separate from civil society. People in a ghetto only know what their neighbors know. All their neighbors know are the same experiences. Without connection to common, shared experiences it’s difficult for people to act differently. For example, our economy now makes mainstream experiences those of being poor or living paycheck to paycheck. People who have not worked realize how poverty impacts their lives. Those who live paycheck to paycheck understand the struggle of working, but don’t really know what it’s like to live in poverty. And the wealthy don’t understand either of these experiences. In many ways all three groups have shut themselves off from other people’s experiences, and created a ghetto experience which includes only their struggles or comforts, and their place or power or feeling of powerlessness.

In major cities across the country redevelopmentoccurs as young people move into urban areas. Redevelopment implies an area with problems which must be removed before new residents move in. The problems are usually defined as the poor, and usually, African American families and children. To improve an area, these people have to be replaced. In most cases this means younger, more affluent and mostly white people. The people who originally lived in these neighborhoods have kept them attractive enough to be redeveloped, but they are excluded from the improvements

Development of an area means taking all its strengths and stability and building from the roots up. Most areas in need of development have a strong core of citizens living there and helping make the area attractive to developers. This core of mostly lower income, African Americans, has the kind of strength and connections which outsiders identify as positive. However, instead of building with these residents, their stability is manipulated by those who want to remove them. Development allows everyone to benefit from an attractive area of the city in which people already live. Redevelopment and gentrification require the displacement or removal of that which makes American cities most attractive—diversity.

People often think of community as the area in which they live. This can be true, but more often what is felt as community is a group of people with common interests who may or may not live in a specific geographic area. People speak of the great community experience they have at their segregated church and come from miles around to attend. Others talk about their school community made up of middle and upper middle-class families who have found a way to guard their children’s education from outsiders. Some people consider a dog park as a place they find community.

A number of groups may live in a geographic area. These groups may seldom if ever come in contact with other groups’ members, even if they live next door to each other. Sometimes, these groups come into conflict with each other because of what each represents to the other. For example, I have heard white people discuss living in a diverse community, yet everything they do excludes the people who create the diversity. When problems occur, the people blamed are those who have less power.

Community organizing is called grassroots meaning it reaches people with less power than local representatives, party officials, and business leaders. Organizing helps people find ways to stand strongly in the face of those with power and not be pushed around. Such use of power to dominate people is called oppression. While I agree with this concept of organizing, it seems the process doesn’t always reach the roots of neighborhoods. In what I have seen of community organizing, it has involved more stable parts of a neighborhood or city.

In St. Louis, much community organizing was church-based. If you belonged to a church involved, you could be a part of the action. If you did not attend church you could be left out. In the community we served, the majority of people did not attend church. They were also poorer, almost all African American, and blamed for problems community organizing addressed.

An internet search of community organizing involving lower income residents of cities produced very little information. I recall only the Welfare Rights movement including and welcoming very low-income members. Some low-income community members may be involved in organizing, but in my experience, they are not targeted for involvement.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Social work and religion have struggled to prove their worth through the analysis of growth and change among participants. Some statistical analysis used to discern impact and change has not proven the connection. However, not everything is measurable by a count or a number. Emotional or social growth, empowerment and quality of life are examples of qualitative change hard to measure. Stories people tell about their beginnings and the progress they have made become a method of evaluating such change. Stories may be used as qualitative measures of social change.

Most statistical analysis is very short term. Researchers usually spend little time with people. Some studies may last 2 or 3 years. In terms of individual change, this is a short time. There are very few longitudinal studies in social work. Thus, empirical evidence is important in measuring qualitative change. Spending years working with people and following the growth in their emotional, social and spiritual lives provides empirical evidence of change. I worked at Midtown for more than 26 years and literally followed people’s lives from childhood through adulthood. I heard many stories of change.

CHURCH-BASED VS. FAITH BASED SOCIAL SERVICES

Church-based social services come out of institutions whose missions are to protect themselves. Ultimately, no matter how good the social services are, everything falters when this mission interferes. One of the most significant ways such institutions protect themselves is in their use of money. The use of money to ensure institutional survival often supersedes the good work of a church.

Faith-based social services come from a faith commitment. For Christians, following Jesus leads people into service--not membership in a church. Mission, in faith-based services, is to protect, advocate and interact with those served. Churches often sponsor social services in which faithful people work. The difference between the two is the conflict in mission.

THE STORY

The title At the Roots, Reaching for the Sky reflects how we started where people were in their needs and feelings. We worked with low income, African Americans as they wished and requested. We did not tell people what they needed, but were always there for support. We never promised the impossible to people struggling with poverty, prejudice and racism. We were, however, reaching together for what we knew we could accomplish. I spent every week for nearly 40 years meeting and being with African American men, women and children. I tried to be patient and listen carefully. I wanted everything we did to be the best it could be. One of my favorite statements to staff, board and volunteers was just because people aren’t paying for our services, does not mean they shouldn’t be the best available.

Everything we did, and all the stories and conclusions in this book, relate to how our society affects African American families and children. Whether it is the critique of church-based social services, the work of Midtown or the hope for the future, the questions I asked were, Did it benefit our neighbors or did we do harm?Were we standing with people or were we afraid?Did we try to understand people’s circumstances or decide for them?Were we friendly and open or did we act like the work was too hard?

This story involves thoughts and experiences which come from being part of a special community. It includes reflections on faith, poverty, community-building and peace. Context is the key as elements unfold to describe how people in mid-city St. Louis, Missouri were able to grow beyond expectations of one another and form unifying bonds as they worked to build a peaceful community.

Freedom…is authenticity, truthfulness, fidelity 

to the pursuit of truth and to truth when found…

in its intimately Christian sense, however,

freedom has a higher meaning than all of this.

Freedom, in the deepest experience of it, is love.

To be free is to be-for-others, an impulse

To the service of others.

John Courtney Murray

INTRODUCTION

The key to the whole of life is to be able to put oneself in the second place.

Turgenev

I am a white guy. I have a Master’s Degree in Social Work. I was a member of the Catholic Church and still believe in the tenets of Christianity. I worked with families and children in neighborhoods in the city of St. Louis, Missouri for nearly 40 years. I don’t believe in a colorblind society. In fact, I think we should notice the color of our neighbors and celebrate our differences. I don’t think America is a melting pot where everyone blends together. I don’t think it’s a mosaic of many-colored tiles without a plan for the design. I think America is a vegetable stew, without meat, so no ingredientreceives more attention.All the many types of vegetables add their own flavor and color and the juice or gravy helps tie it all together as a unique dish. America is this dish of people of many colors, religions, origins, and languages and the sauce of America is democracy and hope. I tell you this so my story of people coming together to create a peaceful community has a context. Also, I describe myself because in America race and class are what most divide us.

WORKING TOGETHER

My wife Joyce and I had the opportunity to work in St. Louis, Missouri city neighborhoods for more than 35 years. North of downtown in Cochran Housing projects, far north in an oppressed and ignored neighborhood, or in a mid-city part of town, we were able to meet and be with families and children nearly every day of those years. We were very fortunate to have such an opportunity. It was what we hoped to do with our lives.

We graduated from St. Louis University School of Social Work. We received our Master’s degrees in Social Work and immediately went to work. I spent one year working as a VISTA volunteer--Volunteers in Service to America, the program before AmeriCorps--at the Missouri Public Interest Research Group. When Joyce graduated, she began at the agency where she had completed a practicum. We were excited to be in the field and truly tired of school.

After my year as a VISTA volunteer, I joined Joyce at the United Church of Christ Neighborhood Houses (UCNH) where we worked for more than 10 years. There we engaged children, teens and senior adults using social group work. The goal of our work was to help children and youth develop the social skills they needed to succeed in a world which would not be favorable to them. I spent some time managing and providing social services in a Section 8 senior and family housing complex called Lafayette Towne. I also helped open a new site for UCNH, in a near south St. Louis city neighborhood, where I returned to group work.

After 10 years at the Neighborhood Houses I left and found a job at Catholic Charities of St. Louis. I became director of an outreach center. A few months later Joyce joined me to provide social group work in this new community. Yes, we worked together at both agencies and spent our lives together sharing in the most wonderful of journeys.

Our time at the Neighborhood Houses was a valuable learning experience and we met hundreds of wonderful children and teens. Leaving that job to work at Catholic Charities provided an opportunity to develop our own approach to people, programs to address their needs and an opportunity to treat people as we believed they should be treated.

Love is the suffering

of making another person’s problems

more important than your own.

Anonymous

THE BEGINNING

The journey began as we worked with families and children in a Southern/Midwestern city--Southern in attitude, Midwestern by location. We were with mostly African American families and children in one of the most segregated and racist cities in America. We saw their daily struggles and their capacity to cope. We experienced the happiest of moments with our neighbors, and some of the saddest imaginable. Every day we saw what poverty and racism could do to people, but we also saw an extraordinary amount of resiliency, self-determination and grace. We found people living happy lives amidst the struggle to survive the violence of poverty. We met people who were able to find the strength to trust us, although they had been hurt so often by white people. We found anger and hostility, at times, but more often friendliness and generosity beyond belief.

I often gave a tour of the neighborhoods we served to new staff, students, volunteers and board members. The tour included a description of the neighborhoods, their demographic make-up and the way people of different backgrounds interacted. At the end of the tour I would tell the tourists, although poverty was prevalent and people came for help, lack of income and opportunity was but one aspect of their needs.

The people we met through our work carried two burdens. The first burden was whatever need was created by their level of income. The other, much heavier burden was how they were thought of by other people. Although it was hard for people to ask for help, it was even harder if the person they were asking did not see the second struggle. We had to see the second struggle! When people are blamed for the bad things happening in their neighborhood, when their neighbors avoid them on the street and when other people’s prejudice is their daily experience, it is hard to trust, anger simmers under the surface, and frustration is a justifiable feeling.

The place we spent more than 25 years was called MIDTOWN. There we were able to build an organization dedicated to helping people--always with dignity and respect. We were able to help our neighbors begin to understand everyone had something to contribute. We worked hard to help people trust their contribution was just as important as anyone else’s. We helped people overcome the fear that other people were more important. We constantly pronounced--if you had a college education or were trained on the streets, if you grew up in the country in Mississippi or lived in a city, if you are white or black, male or female, everyone’s experience was valid and sharing a wide range of experiences made life better.

Through our work we tried to discover what is important in the lives of people. We wanted to be with people who had different backgrounds and experiences and try to learn how much that mattered. Because of this, the status quo was always called into question. Should we expect people to behave differently than what was normally expected? Should we challenge people to live out a Christian perspective on relationships? Should we help people with their material needs because they were poor? Ultimately, I think the norms of American society are like Jesus answer to the question about paying taxes—he basically seems to be saying, who cares about taxes, that’s not what’s important, pay them if you must, but remember I am teaching how to love God by loving your neighbor.

THE NEIGHBOR

One way we communicatedwith neighbors and supporters was through our newsletter called The NEIGHBOR. The newsletter was produced about ten times per year from 1993 to 2016. I wrote feature articles challenging thoughts and ideas. The newsletter included an update on programs to inform neighbors of upcoming activities and the results of past efforts. Good News from the Neighborhood told of positive happenings in families, with volunteers and donors. This included births, weddings, college admissions, new jobs, new donations and volunteer efforts. Upcoming events told neighbors and others about special activities such as the annual Family Fun Fair or monthly health luncheons. Perfect attendance in social growth and development groups was listed each month for children, teens and adults. This page of names was key to getting everyone to read the newsletter. Each month, children, teens and adults searched for their name in the attendance columns.

The NEIGHBOR was distributed to families involved in programming, taken on home visits to new families, placed in local churches and made available to supporters. Articles reminded everyone about our mission, gave people new ways to think about each other and provided hopeful reminders of all the good things we found in our neighbors. The NEIGHBOR was a key element in reflecting what our neighbors brought to our community. The newsletter was a way we connected to each other and provided hope. Throughout this book articles from The NEIGHBOR will be used to illuminate our story.

This article from The NEIGHBOR reinforces this thought and talks about how oppression can be overcome.

The NEIGHBOR

UNTO CAESAR

SEPTEMBER 2006

The zealots of Jesus’ time wanted him to be a revolutionary leader who would throw off the yoke of the Roman Empire.   They expected Him to be political and militant because the Jewish people were oppressed by a ruthless military government.  The question is, did they get the revolution Jesus was offering?

Between the Vietnam War and the War in Afghanistan, what have we learned?  Knowing war is wrong, torture is evil and people can be corrupted has not transformed us.  Corresponding actions such as protests, letter writing and voting have not helped us be more human.  The nation is at war with terrorists instead of communists, torture is being used as a weapon and war profiteers are stealing the people’s money...again.  Would Jesus have protested, or continued to heal, preach and live among the poor and oppressed?

When Jesus taught about loving God and neighbor, he was not speaking in the abstract.  Jesus loved his apostles, laid hands on the sick, blessed and shared food with thousands and went door to door spreading good news.  The revolutionary power of love was intended to change hearts and minds. 

Sharing the energy of the Spirit of Jesus with each human being we meet is really hard to do.  Positive results require a long-term commitment to a very slow process.  It is not exciting, front page news, to care for each other—but it is what makes us most human.

Who knows where we would be if between the Vietnam War and the War in Afghanistan energy and focus had been on changing communities by being compassionate neighbors?  If churches again became places of Christ and had doors open to all, blessed and shared food as much as prayer, healed the sick and went door to door spreading the Word, what would be different?  

Caring for our brothers and sisters directly, and every day, could lead us to a just society and world.  Other approaches have not moved us forward.  We must decide between fighting against war or moving toward love of God and neighbor.  Revolution of the heart can bring peace to us all.’

I can help you accept and open yourself mostly by accepting and revealing myself to you.

Anonymous

No One can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Eleanor Roosevelt

UNDERSTANDING OPPRESSION/ENDING OPPRESSION

While I understand white privilege has created a society which is oppressive to African Americans, I believe African Americans have shown us a way through oppression to a just society. To become like the oppressor, only leads to more oppression. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others who struggled for civil rights knew this. Over and over again, MLK, Jr. preached how violence begets violence. Choosing a nonviolentapproach for the movement meant African Americans would work toward justice by treating their oppressors as human beings. No matter what white people did to black people during the struggle, members of the movement would not return it as an eye for an eye. Dogs, hoses, batons and vile language used to attack nonviolent protestors, were met without physical, verbal or spiritual violence¹. People in the movement had to agree to this.

In Ferguson, Missouri, the protests against the murder of an unarmed teenager by the police, reminded everyone what happens with even the appearance of violence. Peaceful protesters were associated by police with others who started fires and were looting. The police responded as if the protesters were doing something wrong--the tear gas flew and tanks began to roll. The protesters had every right as Americans to protest the overstepping of the state. Instead, they were treated like people we have seen in other countries, who do not have these civil rights. To be afraid to be killed by the police because of the color of your skin, hands up, don’t shoot --is a stain on liberty and justice. To have to proclaim, Black Lives Matter, is a measure of where African Americans stand as citizens.

The civil rights movement was about more than the fair treatment of African Americans. MLK, Jr. and others knew they were about the radical change of American society. As Christians, they believed in the commandments of Jesus—to love God and love your neighbor. In the way they responded to their oppressors, they represented not only how they should be treated as human beings, but how all Americans, and people across the world should be treated. This message became clearer to many Americans. I believe this message lead to the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.--a horrifying way to preserve the status quo.

Many of the families we served were led by mothers and grandmothers who had moved from the south during the Great Migration² . While living in the south, people had learned to avoid or negotiate with the people who might hurt them. After moving to northern industrial cities, they had to learn this all over again. The cities were places where there were so many more people who could hurt them. They found institutions had incorporated racism into their business. However, people found ways to cope with prejudice and racism and still