Urban Family Empowerment Center
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PURPOSE

MISSION

The Urban Family Empowerment Center is a non-profit, faith-based community center located in the Marble Hill/Kingsbridge section of North West Bronx whose mission is to holistically empower urban families through providing practical tools and spiritual motivation.

VISION

The vision of the Urban Family Empowerment Center is to be a place of hope where urban families can find the tools, programs and inspiration to improve the quality of their lives within a safe and loving environment.

BACKGROUND

The center began its journey on Wednesday, August 22, 2001.  Fernando Arzola Jr. gathered several community leaders and shared a vision of planting a new church whose significant aim would be to engage in social action.  In the midst of these lively and frank discussions, emerged the common theme of their shared concern for inner-city urban families.  If the whole family could be affected, the community would become transformed.  The concept of a multi-service community center began to take precedence over the original church plant initiative.  Family-oriented and faith-based, the center would be driven by partnership and based in the community it serves.  The organization was incorporated March 27, 2002.  After several years of strategic planning, continuous board meetings, fundraising and program leadership training, on Friday, October 7, 2005, the Urban Family provided their first program, Urban Teen Jam, a hip-hop and DJ house concert in a safe and positive environment.  125 teens attended this successful inaugural event.

PRINCIPLES/VALUES

1) Leadership: We value leadership development.  2) Outreach: We value partnerships.

3) Values: We value the Christian biblical principles.  4) Education: We value learning.

5) Love: We value, above all, love.

MODEL

The Urban Family Empowerment Center utilizes a five-part model. 1) Family-Oriented: Providing programs and initiatives that empower and strengthen inner-city urban families. 2) Partnership-Driven: Establishing collaborative working relationships with other agencies, private and public, that will link with this organization in providing services for the families. 3) Community-Based: The center is located within the community it serves. 4) Faith-Based: This organization provides a healthy environment and promotes Christian biblical values that nourish the whole person. 5) Multi-Service: To provide a matrix of services that will meet the needs of the urban family

HOLISTIC MINISTRY PEDAGOGY

Holistic Ministry is the commitment to community transformation through the integration of social action and Christian faith. The Urban Family Empowerment Center is committed to holistic ministry.  The center is a faith-based organization rooted in the Christian Biblical tradition.  Their unifying statement of faith is based on three pillars:

1) The Holy Bible, 2) The Apostle's Creed, and 3) Social Justice.

The following is their social justice statement:

We believe people are created in the image and likeness of God and recognize the sacred dignity of human life at every stage.  While people are capable of great good, we are marred by an attitude of personal disobedience toward God called sin.

Furthermore, beyond personal sin there also exists social, economic, and political sins that create systemic injustice which oppresses people and demeans human dignity.

Any injustice or disrespect for human life is an affront to God.  Therefore, all of creation is in need of liberation, reconciliation, and redemption that can only be found through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

While all people are in need of God’s love and healing, we are uniquely concerned about the urban family, particularly the poor, and stand in solidarity with them.  Therefore, we humbly yet boldly accept the call to be a lighthouse, spiritually and socially, in the urban community, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ, engaged in personal, spiritual, and social transformation, and committed to the struggle of justice.

ACTIVITIES

·          Inner Strength: Phase One

During phase one, the Urban Family Empowerment Center, will dedicated the 2005-2006 academic year to focus on its youth component.  Inner Strength is a Friday evening program providing teens a safe and positive place to the negative influences of the streets.  It is comprised of four components: 1) Sports and Recreation, 2) Music and Arts,

3) Community Service, and 4) Leadership Development.  The goal of Inner Strength is to increase the educational, vocational and personal well being of each program participant.

Inner Strength’s initial results have been encouraging.  On October 7, 2005, during their inaugural youth event, 125 teens attended Urban Teen Jam, a hip-hop and DJ house concert in a safe and positive environment.   Since, then, the Friday night teen attendance has average in the mid-40’s.  Attendance has also peaked with over 50 teens.

·          Higher Ground and Forward Vision: Phase Two

The center ultimately envisions providing comprehensive programs and services six days a week.  In addition to Inner Strength, we desire to provide the following two additional components:

1) Higher Ground Enrichment Academy: An out-of-school and summer enrichment program providing children with a stronger foundation on which to grow.  The services will include reading and literacy enrichment, homework help, performing and visual arts, arts and crafts, recreational and fitness activities, and values-based teaching.

2) Forward Vision: An enrichment program that empowers parents and strengthens families.

These services include development of parenting skills, support groups, teen- parent workshops, parent advisory boards, leadership development, community empowerment, family enrichment activities, economic empowerment workshops, social service referrals and values-based teaching

OPERATIONS

The center operates under the direction Fernando Arzola Jr.  Fernando is the Deputy Chair for the Department of Youth Ministry and Christian Education at Nyack College NYC.  He serves on the board of the Association of Youth Ministry Educators.  Fred is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Education at Fordham University.  He is married to Jill and has an 11 year old daughter, Nicole.

Presently (2005), the adult leadership team consists of 13 people that oversee Inner Strength: the executive director, 3 core leaders/coordinators, 6 program staffers, and 4 parent volunteers.  They are also nurturing 5 junior leaders, teens who have displayed leadership potential.  The 3 core leaders/coordinators receive a modest stipend.  Also, between the core leaders and program staffers, all but one are undergraduate students and one program staffer is a graduate student.  The organization is also supported by a Board of Directors consisting of 5 members.  The center is actively seeking additional staff, interns and volunteers.  Finally, the center is committed to the value of collaboration and thus has fostered several partnerships with organizations who share a common vision, such as The Church of the Mediator where they house their center, and Nyack College who provides several student interns and volunteers to help run the center.

OPINIONS

During the center's first hip hop concert and outreach to the community, one of the leadership team members came across a mother crying in the bathroom. When asked what was wrong, the mother explained that the Inner Strength Youth Programs were an answer to her prayers:  "The teens in our neighborhood didn't have a safe place to go, to hang out. And now they do thanks to the Urban Family Empowerment Center."

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1.        What are your thoughts about holistic ministry, integrating Christian faith with social action?

2.        Re-read their social justice statement.  What do you think about these provocative words?

3.        What is your personal interest in this kind of program?

4.        How do you assess the possibility of short-term success, long-term sustainability, or possible failure of this program?

5.        Do you think a program like this would succeed in your area or situation?  Why or why not?

6.        How would you use the ideas here to build a program in your situation?

IMPLICATIONS

1.        More community centers like the Urban Family Empowerment Center are desperately needed across the urban landscape of our nation and world to lead broken families into wholeness.

2.        Two very important features of this particular program are its inclusion of families and a leadership that is representative of the community.

Christen B Yates and Fernando Arzola, cCYS