Greater Fall River Partners for a Healthier Community recently honored the Diocese of Massachusetts for the work of the South Coast mission hub. The diocese was among several honorees at the Partners for a Healthier Community 20th anniversary celebration on Sept. 18. The South Coast is the first mission hub made possible by the diocese's Together Now fundraising campaign, and the hub has only been active since September of last year.
“They felt that we really stepped up and were able to have a significant impact in a short length of time,” said the Rev. Sam Rodman, Project Manager for Campaign Initiatives, who attended the celebration in Fall River, as did Canon to the Ordinary Mally Lloyd. Rodman said that the honor was a clear indication that the South Coast mission hub has made significant progress in building relationships with the community. The diocese was honored for interfaith engagement and for the South Coast hub’s work with the homeless community at the Fall River Super 8 Motel. There were more than 200 members of the Fall River community in attendance, including the mayor, several members of the city government and five Episcopal Church leaders from the South Coast.
Three interns from the Life Together program in the diocese worked with the South Coast hub this year: Elizabeth Malkin, Larissa Alter and Racheal MacLagan. Malkin, who was based in Fall River, worked with Partners for a Healthier Community throughout the past year. Partners is a collaboration of social justice, health, educational, safety, anti-drug, youth and fitness agencies in Fall River that meets once a month to collaborate on health initiatives.
“I know Fall River has been blown away by the diocese this past year,” Malkin said. “Looking around the room of over 200 community members [at the 20th anniversary event] I realized that I had worked or interacted with at least 40 percent of them in some capacity, and that having a Life Together fellow in the community had been a powerful addition to the great work that's happening.”
“We’re so excited and not at all surprised [by the honor], given the amazing collaborative work of the South Coast mission hub,” said the Rev. Arrington Chambliss, Director of the Life Together intern program. “It is a recognition of the power of relationship building.”
Malkin’s work for Partners for a Healthier Community was focused primarily on the homeless population living in the Super 8 Motel in Fall River. She organized a conference on public housing access and funding, drawing more than 50 social workers who came to hear representatives of Section 8 Housing and the Department of Housing and Community Development give updates about the current realities and future plans of public housing and ways that social workers could best benefit their clients. Around the holidays, Malkin coordinated a coat and gift drive for the families living in the Super 8. Along with an Americorps partner, she worked with a group of high schoolers to develop a curriculum that would engage their peers to talk about and help prevent bullying.
Now a mission hub employee in New Bedford, Malkin is developing a youth program with the local churches. “I wouldn't want to be working anywhere else or doing anything else at this time in my life,” Malkin said.
Mission hubs are collaborations between Episcopal churches in a specific region and focus on building grassroots leadership and organizing local resources to empower communities and work toward long-term change on a neighborhood level. The mission hubs focus on building a coalition of local-area nonprofit organizations and faith communities. The South Coast mission hub is based in Fall River and New Bedford. These economically depressed urban areas pose many challenges and attract immigrants from all over the world to work in the fishing industry.
“When we become embedded as churches in our communities, it unleashes a power that makes even more possible,” said Chambliss. “We see the kingdom of God emerging here and now, through all of us acting together in collaboration to create more peaceful and just communities.”
Rodman said that this first mission hub is already making significant strides in connecting and collaborating with the communities of the South Coast.
“[The mission hub] has a very clear sense of partnering with the community—not just other congregations but also social service organizations,” said Rodman. “This honor means that we’ve achieved one of our goals early on—a deeper connection with the community we’re serving. That’s a model we hope will be a significant part of all our mission hubs as they unfold.”
--Ellen Stuart