Model 14: Community Organizing / Nehemiah Strategy

Bob Linthicum introduces this model of “community organizing” by telling his own stories of community organizing among churches in Chicago and among the ‘untouchables” in India.                                 

Dr. Lee Stuart  and Rev. John Heinemeier tell their story of the power of community organizing and how 60 congregations created four thousand homes in the most devastated parts of New York City, initially East Brooklyn and then the South Bronx. The chapter zeros in on the South Bronx Nehemiah Strategy. South Bronx Churches (SBC) borrowed $3.2 million  dollars from local and national religious judicatories and organized thousands of potential homeowners to create the political will that convinced the City of New York to provide vacant land and modest subsidies for the Nehemiah construction. The Nehemiah Strategy is unique because it is an organizing strategy, not a development strategy, which is explained in this chapter. These authors trace how the churches used their relational power and resources to organize the public sector (land and subsidies) and private sector (construction and mortgage financing) to create unparalleled opportunity for low and middle-income families to become homeowners. The people themselves broke the downward cycle of poverty and continue to lead in rebuilding their community.

Other Resources:

• Christians Supporting Community Organizing www.cscoweb.org
• Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination by Walter Wink, Fortress Press, Minneapolis 1992
• Organizing South Bronx, by Jim Rooney State University New York Press 1995
• Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice, by Ed Chambers, Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc. NY 2004
• Signs of Hope in the City, edited by Robert D. Carle & Louis A. DeCaro Jr. Judson Press 1997
• Transforming Power: Biblical Strategies for Making a Difference in Your Community by Robert Linthicum, Intervarsity Press 2003