By David Eck and Eileen Connelly, OSU

ARCHDIOCESE — For years, Pat Youngblood, a member of St. Vivian Parish in Finneytown, searched for the best way to put her faith into action and address the injustices in her local community.

She found the opportunity through the AMOS Project, a faith-based coalition comprised of more than 40 urban and suburban religious congregations. The group, which takes its name from the prophet Amos, who urged the practice of justice and loving kindness, works to address many issues in the Greater Cincinnati area, including drug use, racial division, poverty, unemployment and the lack of adequate housing. The AMOS Project is an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation, a network of 45 grassroots organizations in 16 states.

CNS FILE PHOTO

Local Catholics are involved with a housing task force formed to address the foreclosure crisis in Springfield Township and in Greater Cincinnati as a whole.

"Each individual member congregation of AMOS works on issues in their own community, but is also part of the action of the larger group," Youngblood explained. "We work together to come up with systemic solutions for injustices in our area, especially those that effect people who can’t speak for themselves, economically and politically."

The core team at St. Vivian’s holds listening sessions where parishioners can express their concerns about various issues. One area of concern for elderly parish members has been health insurance, Youngblood said, so the core team took the issue to the larger AMOS group. It then became a topic for one of the group’s public meetings and a task force was formed to address the issue. The core group at St. Vivian’s was also involved with holding a public meeting to address concerns regarding low student test scores in the Finneytown Local School District. The school district has since been able to improve its test scores, said Youngblood.

Her involvement with the AMOS project also led to service as co-chairperson of a housing task force formed to address the foreclosure crisis in Springfield Township and in Greater Cincinnati as a whole.

"Issues like this have an impact on the entire community," Youngblood said. "Homes are abandoned and closed up, then people ransack them. Look what this is doing to housing values in our neighborhoods."

Issues afffecting young women have been of particular interest to Youngblood. As a result, she also served on a youth crime and drug task force formed in response to the concerns of social workers that there are few local facilities geared toward evaluating young girls who end up in the court system. "These are girls that are only in the system because of issues at home, not because they did anything wrong," Youngblood explained. "As I woman, I’m concerned about the welfare and future of these young girls."

In May of 2006, AMOS joined other Gamaliel Foundation affiliates from Cleveland and Youngstown in convening a meeting of 200 faith and civic leaders from throughout the state to examine the challenges and solutions to the plight of Ohio’s cities and older suburbs. Numerous local officials participated, joining the Ohio Gamaliel affiliates in the emergence of a cooperative effort between urban officials and the faith community to have a stronger voice in the state capital. Locally, AMOS continues this work by expanding its outreach to the mayors of Cincinnati’s "First Suburbs," communities that are racially and economically diverse, yet subjected to state and local policies which threaten that diversity. AMOS is also attempting to build new relationships that will ensure stable, integrated communities.

The group’s most recent victory was winning the inclusion of low-income and minority workers in the contract for the Banks construction, an $800 million public project planned along Cincinnati’s riverfront. Through AMOS’ efforts, two African Americans were added to the project’s oversight board and were able to renegotiate the contract to include AMOS’ demands. AMOS is also continuing its efforts to advance workforce development and job opportunities for minorities and low-income people, Youngblood said. "I’m part of AMOS because I think this group has such great potential," she noted. "If you can get religious congregations to come together to work on issues in their community, it creates power. That’s how injustices are corrected. I would encourage other parishes to get involved in AMOS to develop organized systemic solutions to address the concerns in their communities."

Each fall, the members of Justice Action Mercy (JAM) in Springfield begin a comprehensive listening process in their congregations to determine systemic community problems that need to be addressed.

They talk to people in the local churches. They listen. They document and compile data on problems the congregants feel negatively impact the community and the poor.

At an annual assembly in January, the JAM members vote to determine the problems to be worked on. Committees are formed and they research the problems and ways to address them. By spring the issues have been identified.

Each May at an action assembly, JAM challenges appropriate targets, those who have the power to initiate change, to work with them to address and resolve the issues. Examples of systemic targets are corporate heads, public officials, and legal officials.

JAM, which was founded in 2000, is made up of 16 churches in Springfield, representing a variety of faiths.

"It’s a faith-based, grassroots organization that holds systems accountable to do justice," said Carolyn Patton, a parishioner at St. Raphael/St. Joseph Parish in Springfield and a board member of JAM. "Participation in JAM is a way to live out aspects of Catholic social teaching.

"It is an ecumenical organization, and it has a premise that what is one person’s problem is everyone’s problem," Patton said. "What happens to you happens to me because I care about you is an important philosophy of the group."

Over the years, the group has developed issues to tackle crime, transportation, slum landlords and is working with county officials to create a drug court.

Several years ago, JAM targeted a national grocery store chain that has several stores in the area, including one on Springfield’s urban south side. That store wasn’t as well maintained as others in the city, didn’t have the same variety of the goods and wasn’t very appealing, Patton said.

As part of the action plan to address the issue, JAM members surveyed shoppers at the store, compiled the information, and met with corporate officials.

The company responded and made obvious improvements to the store and the goods sold there.

At JAM’s most recent action assembly, the group opted to push for the creation of a drug court and access to jobs through increased public transportation in Clark County. More than 500 people attended the meeting and signed hundreds of post cards urging the judicial system to take initial steps to start the court and meet with a JAM committee by the end of May.

The cards were delivered to a judge’s office and others were mailed in, said Marilyn Demma, an original JAM board member and St. Joseph/Raphael parishioner.

"You want to demonstrate the power of the organization to make change happen," she said. "We are surfacing the kinds of problems that people understand exist in the community and assign a committee. It researches that problem and discusses a winnable issue."

In a past action campaign, JAM developed cards that residents can use to anonymously report crime hot spots to police. It was an immediate solution to an issue.

"Everybody likes to be a winner," Demma said. "Everybody likes to be on a winning team. In addition to bringing about a more just community, you are also building an enthusiasm and a commitment for doing justice work.’’

In the next issue: Rights and responsibilities