Faith In Action® National Program Report

On a sunny day in April with cherry blossoms in full bloom, Mark Andersen walks the streets of one of the poorest, most troubled neighborhoods in Washington. The neighborhood, bounded on one side by North Capitol Street, sits in the shadows of the U.S. Capitol.

As Andersen shows a visitor around, he stops and greets many elders by name. "Hello, Ms. Stokes, how you doing today?" Ms. Stokes and others light up when they see Andersen, and often promptly launch into a discussion about the latest troubles where they live.

Andersen is the executive director of We Are Family, a site funded in through Faith in Action, Phase 2. RWJF supported the project with a grant of $35,000 between 2005 and 2008.

A community organizer by background and bent, Andersen works to meet the most basic needs of seniors in this neighborhood by providing friendly visitors, supplying bags of food at the end of the month when money from Social Security checks runs out, and providing rides to grocery stores and doctor's appointments to homebound elderly.

Walking the Sometimes Dangerous Streets
But Andersen does not stop there. His larger mission is to help elders in this community find their voice and advocate for their rights—whether it be to landlords who are refusing to make needed repairs or city government officials who are not following through on promises to provide assistance in paying rent.

The neighborhood he works in, while poor, is becoming gentrified. Landlords who own apartment buildings are seeking to re-develop them into expensive condominiums for Washington professionals. If elders are forced out of their homes, Andersen says, Faith in Action will not be able to serve them if they are forced to move to another area where there is no Faith in Action project.

Beyond getting their basic needs met, Andersen explained, elders in this distressed community "have to get resources and get organized…. We put flyers in groceries that we bring them so they know their rights, such as belonging to tenants' organizations. If they need something and we can't provide it, we know who will provide it or who will help them make some noise so things will change."

It is a difficult and sometimes dangerous job. Several times on this April day, Andersen points out drug dealers plying their trade on corners and alleys. When he sees a deal being made, he quickly steers himself and a visitor away. To drive home the extent to which drug dealing and violence permeate the neighborhood, Andersen points out used crack cocaine wrappers that litter the sidewalks and gang graffiti that marks each gang's territory.

A Firing Leads to a New Beginning
Andersen had worked in a Faith in Action, Phase 2 project—Emmaus Services for the Aging, in Washington (see Grant Results on ID# 027602)—for many years. When he was abruptly fired by a new executive director in 2004 because of personality conflicts, Andersen set out to create a project that would reach seniors in one of the most troubled and neglected neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. He later heard about the Faith in Action, Phase 3 funding, which was a perfect fit for the work he sought to do.

At the start of the project, Andersen worked out of his Catholic church, St. Aloysius, under an umbrella organization called the Center for New Creation (RWJF ID# 053107). In May 2005, Andersen moved the organization to a long-standing community organization, Northwest Settlement House, in part because the Settlement House had vans that Andersen needed to provide transportation for elders (transfer grant ID# 055957).

Having an umbrella organization eased the financial pressure of starting up a new, nonprofit organization, Andersen said.

Starting a New Faith in Action Project—With Help from a Punk Rock Band
When he organized the Faith in Action project, Andersen brought together a fairly standard group of organizations—except for one. Along with local churches, nonprofit agencies and community centers, Andersen brought members of the punk rock movement to the table. Andersen had long been a fixture on the punk rock scene in Washington and knew many of the musicians well.

When he started the organization—before receiving the Faith in Action, Phase 3 funding—the band "Good Charlotte" donated $15,000 to the project. A punk rock activism group, Positive Force DC, provided volunteers to bring groceries to elders and perform other services.

"Punk rock is largely a secular movement," Andersen said. "There is a strong critique of organized religion and society. What [this work] suggests is that we're building a bond between deeply religious African-American seniors and fairly blasphemous secular punk rockers."

Bringing Food and Advocacy
The punk rockers and other volunteers—including elders—accomplished the following, according to Andersen:

• Assisted 600 care recipients in such ways as delivering free monthly grocery bags, providing visits and telephone calls, organizing and sponsoring bus trips to the grocery store and a shopping mall and providing advice on choosing Medicare drug benefits.
• Worked with landlords to avert or delay evictions for at least a dozen elders in their apartments. Faith in Action staff and volunteers helped seniors by advocating on their behalf, finding funds to pay overdue rent or getting them free legal assistance.
• Organized seniors to attend city council hearings and testify in support of a local rent supplement project as well as participate in a city planning process to redevelop parts of the neighborhood that Faith in Action serves.

In 2008, We Are Family was setting up its own, independent, nonprofit organization. It had a budget of $100,000 with funds coming from family foundations, corporations, punk rockers and other supporters.

Challenges Ahead
Andersen said that he faced two major challenges in sustaining the Faith in Action project: fundraising and his own potential burnout. In terms of his own well-being, he said he is learning to set better boundaries.

"The need is so great," he said. "You have to learn to accept that you are not going to meet all the need. It's ultimately the best approach. I want to create an organization where people can stay for a long time. The longer you can stay at it, the better you get."