Several years ago the Renaissance in Salem’s toughest neighborhood began.  That’s when a tiny church in Salem’s highest-crime neighborhood opened a huge community center.  This led to potent partnerships with neighbors, nearby schools, the City of Salem, Marion County, youth agencies, businesses and law enforcement. 

By opening its doors, Capital Park Wesleyan Church sparked a miraculous turnaround.  Crime came down 25%, the parks are clean again, home ownership is up, children are safer, and families are healthier.  Today, not only is this one neighborhood being transformed, but our whole city is being indelibly impacted. 

Inspired by the Capital Park story, other churches have begun to open their buildings to their neighborhoods.  They are engaging in strong collaborations and offering their facilities to neighbors in a variety of innovative and asset-building programs.   Likewise, public agencies and the social-service system have been inspired to seek partnerships with the Faith Community!  Now, more neighborhoods are being revitalized, and hundreds of kids and families are benefiting.

Churches as Neighborhood Centers

In 2003 Salem Leadership Foundation began to coordinate the Churches as Neighborhood (CaN) Centers Program among several congregations.  In the program’s first seven years, SLF has raised more than $774,000 to support the operation of 15 CaN Centers sites in Salem and Keizer.  The sites themselves have expended over $1.4 million to run their programs, plus $3.8 million in volunteer time.  All together more than $5.9 million has been generated for community good.   More than 6,000 at-risk kids have been served with after-school programs, GED/ESL classes, Homework Clubs, family nights, block parties, and other asset-building activities.  The Capital Park story is now being replicated in neighborhoods across Keizer, East Salem, South Salem, North Salem and—with the advent of the “Dream Center” in the Edgewater—West Salem.

SLF’s leadership/fiduciary role in the CaN Centers collaboration has three (3) important functions:

1. Start-up.  We recruit and help new sites develop programming, hire staff, and begin basic operations.
2. Capacity-building.  We help current sites expand their staffs, volunteers, hours, and numbers served.
3. Sustainability.  After three years, each CaN Centers site becomes a self-funded operation within the church’s strategic plan and budget.  There are now eight (10) self-sustaining CaN Centers.

Over the years, the CaN Centers Program has grown from a fledgling group of loose-knit colleagues into a formal collaboration of service providers.  Churches that were tentatively serving their neighbors by experimentation are now engaged in strategic deployments of their buildings, people and assets.  Community partners (schools, non-profits, government) who desire faith-based partnerships can now turn to well-established places and programs.  Families and neighbors who were once under-served are now accessing asset-building programs in buildings that once stood fallow and dormant.   Kids and youth who struggled to find safe places and caring adults are now engaged in healthy activities between those ‘infamous hours’ of 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.  Adults and seniors are able to improve their education and their language skills. “Neighborhood Efficacy” is on the rise all over Salem-Keizer.

The CaN Centers churches and community partners meet first Wednesdays (11:30-1:00 p.m.) at various sites throughout Salem-Keizer.  All are welcome to come learn about serving kids, families and neighborhoods. For more information, call Megan at Salem Leadership Foundation at 503-315-8924.

8/13/10