Street Saints: Renewing American Cities

Based on eight years of hands-on experience and more than 300 interviews, Street Saints is both a book of motivational stories about unsung heroes and a sociological study of the faith factor, documenting faith-based programs that are treating social maladies in America. This book takes readers on a tour of communities and institutions in America where faith-based initiatives are making a difference. It offers inspiration, role models and guidelines for people who would like to give back to their own communities. Section 1 introduces street saints, people who are willing to go where there is pain and suffering and be a presence of healing with love. They are people of faith who are solving problemssuch as a woman who has reclaimed a city-block from drug dealers and a pastor who walks into gang confrontations to defuse them. Although of diverse races, religions and socio-economic backgrounds, they are alike in their motivation to transform individuals. Section 2 offers a tour of programs with an examination of what works and why. Examples include: prison rehabilitation programs, a program that cares for abused toddlers, one that mobilizes thousands of mentors for at-risk children by pairing a church with an elementary school, drug treatment and welfare-to-work programs that move people into self-sufficiency and programs that help mentally and physically handicapped people support themselves with micro-enterprises. Section 3 focuses on three citiesPittsburgh, Memphis, and Fresnowhere people of faith are mobilizing resources to transform entire communities. Section 4 presents the historical framework that puts social entrepreneurship into a broader vision of the soul of America. An appendix provides contact information for those who want to emulate the examples provided in the book.