A golden labradoodle puppy helps a boy decompress at The Brain Kitchen. Photos by Jer Nelsen
With a mix of movement, soothing activities and cooking, The Brain Kitchen helps struggling kids learn skills to calm themselves and even rewire their brains to cope with challenges. It's a picture of how innovation happens -- with insight, small steps and experimentation.
Bigstock / Dolgachov
Countless potential pulpits -- places of community service and leadership -- exist outside the church, says a Vermont pastor, school board member and active community volunteer. But will clergy look up from the busyness of day-to-day ministry to embrace them?
As part of the CityReach program in downtown Boston, teenagers prepare sandwiches for people who are homeless. Photos courtesy of CityReach
Flipping the script on who gets to tell the story of the disenfranchised, common cathedral's CityReach program empowers people who have experienced homelessness to serve as trusted experts on life without shelter.
Composite Illustration: Klepsidra, Bigstock, Rubio
Gun violence in America is disproportionately visited upon dark-skinned people in urban neighborhoods, part of a legacy of racism and violence, says a California pastor. And the church must lead the way in transforming such neighborhoods into places of true peace, justice and inclusion.
Photos courtesy of Loving America Street
Started by a young woman wanting simply to live out the gospel, loving her neighbor as herself, Laundry Matters is a vibrant community center and more. It’s church-as-laundromat, laundromat-as-church.
The food -- and the system -- have improved since Greenpoint Reformed Church took a break and revamped its hunger ministry. Photo courtesy of Greenpoint Reformed Church
Closing the food pantry and meal program for two months allowed staff and volunteers at Greenpoint Reformed Church to reorganize and professionalize its hunger ministry.
The Rev. Faith Fowler stands in front of the first of 25 new tiny homes that will be built in Detroit by Cass Community Social Services. Photo by Diane Weiss
As both pastor and nonprofit executive director, the Rev. Faith Fowler is known for her outreach to the poor. Her latest effort: a village of tiny homes that will allow people to become stakeholders in their neighborhood and in their city.
Bigstock / elenabsl
A new game called Mission: Possible helps organizations develop solutions to problems while also learning about teamwork, design thinking and innovation.
Bigstock / Diego Cervo
In medicine as in the church, many traditional markers of success are ultimately idols, say leaders of a Christian primary care health network in Memphis. Young doctors “with eyes to see” are called instead to care for the poor.
Bigstock / Cylonphoto
The director of a homeless shelter asks: What if social service agencies focused on helping people who are poor improve both the quantity and the quality of their relationships?