How has your personal journey led you to Faith for Change?
I grew up in the church. My mother was really involved with our local church, and she’s actually a full time pastor now, so faith has always been a part of my life. But faith practiced in a social justice setting really hit me when I graduated from the University of Maryland. I did an AmeriCorps year of service with the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in New York after I graduated, and I worked in a public school in Brooklyn as a literacy coach, to help get kids excited about reading. But coupled with that, we did retreats with the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and the sisters themselves came out of a tradition and theology of service and social justice. It was then that I really started thinking: “Oh wow, faith is not just about changing hearts and minds but it’s about changing the world, and changing society into what we believe the kingdom of God to be.”
And from there I went to seminary to be formally trained. I’m now in the process of ordination in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which itself has such a history of social justice. And when I came back to D.C. I was very intentional about finding work that sought social justice from a faith-based perspective. So working with Faith for Change has just been a natural extension.
How was Faith for Change started as a project?
Faith for Change was started by our founder Reverend Romal Tune. He has been doing faith-based consulting work for non-profits and corporations over the past 10 years. He himself was considered an “at risk youth.” He joined a gang before he was in high school, he grew up in a neighborhood where he had to contend with violence, and he grew up in a family where one parent was addicted to drugs. So it was the faith community and older people who really saw something in him that helped him change his life around. And he wanted to give back in the same way that he had been helped as a young person. He wanted the faith community to be really relevant in partnering with public schools, and helping the kids who had similar backgrounds as his.
And so then how did you get involved?
I have been a colleague of Reverend Tune’s for a while. After I finished working for a non-profit in D.C. called People for the American Way, I got in touch with him just to see what he was up to. He told me: “Look, I started this organization where we partner churches with their community public schools, and we want the programs we form to have actual meaning in the communities, and to build real relationships with the local schools…how about helping out?” and I said “Please sign me up!” That’s what I want to do. So that’s how I got involved.
How does interfaith dialogue inform the service work that comes out of it?
Well, we partner churches with public schools, and we have to adhere to the separation of church and state, as any other organization would. But as far as interfaith dialogue goes, I think that it is necessary if you want to do interfaith service. You have to build relationships with other faith groups if you want to work with other faith groups. So I couldn’t say that I want to do an interfaith service project this summer without having attended any interfaith dialogues, or had meetings with representatives from other faiths, or built relationships with other faith communities. So it’s a necessity.
On the Faith for Change website you were quoted as saying that education means access. Access to what?
Education means access to opportunities. I was listening to the first lady speak yesterday, and she was speaking in Chicago about the death of that young lady, Hadiya Pendleton. She said something like: “That was me. The only thing that stopped me from being shot intentionally or accidentally on the street was the opportunities that I had, and the different levels of access that I had.” And those opportunities and access that she was talking about come through education. We live in a society where you can barely get a job that will lead to a middle class standing without a college degree. Thirty years ago, and 40 years ago, you didn’t have to have to go to college. You could probably get a good working job just getting your GED. But even if this was still the case today, we still have a 51 percent drop out rate for African American males in high school. And, we see that if you drop out of high school, you’re more likely to end up in prison. And if you’re not reading proficiently by third and fourth grade, you’re more likely to drop out, and that means you’re more likely to go to prison. So the numbers are there, and people’s experiences speak to this. There are so many stories that tell us that education leads to more access, which leads to more opportunity to be a functioning and well-rounded citizen at the end of the day.
Where does the church come in?
So with Faith for Change, we see the church filling this gap by meeting the needs of the most vulnerable people, and I think the church does this well, not just with public education. This has historically been the role of the church—this still is the role of the church—no matter the issue. Whether the issue is homelessness, or helping out victims of domestic violence, or even dealing with global issues as well—but most definitely the church is good at dealing with public education. With Faith for Change, we look at it as how can we bring this experience to public schools.
It’s really a twofold issue: there are students in public schools that are “at risk” and there are public schools that themselves are “at risk.” And so we want to stand in the gap with the churches, to help the institutions and to help the kids that are in them.
So has this been working?
I think we can do a better job. And I don’t say that in a way of condemning or criticizing the work that has been done. I do want to pay homage to churches and other houses of worship that have been doing a really good job partnering with neighborhood schools, because they are the ones out there. But it’s a hard job. And it takes a lot of time. And it takes a lot of effort. And I think we need to get to a place where we’re really changing the culture within our congregations and within our communities, in order to put public education at the forefront of our priorities. And not just in a charitable way. We need to move to a place where we stand up as activists and advocates for public school education.
What do you think is the most pressing need of the education community?
There is not one single need. And that’s where we work—we work out of the ideology that there is not just one Band-Aid fix; there is not one solution. That’s why it’s really necessary for the faith community to build relationships with the schools, with the administration, and with the teachers and the students, to see what are the needs of this particular school, because they are not going to be the same as those of another school.
Specific examples?
One of the things we’re hoping to recreate this summer is a back to school initiative called “We Got Your Back.” The idea is that with our partner churches, we donate the backpacks to the school that they partner with in their communities. This is a goodwill initiative, and we do it so that we can pay it forward. If we have the resources to bless one kid and help him or her start the year off on a good foot, then why not? We know that this initiative is not going to solve all the issues of public education being under attack, but this is a good way for us to build relationships with the schools, and to just be good partners and to be good friends with the education community.
What would you like to say to Georgetown students?
Well, one thing that I was reflecting on the other day that has to do with my own journey is that I think as students, we pick a major, and we pick a focus, and we think, “This is how I’m going to change the world.” And then students focus their studies this way, and they sign petitions here and there, and then think they’re getting things done. But changing the world takes a lot of work. It takes sacrificing Saturdays to do service projects, it takes making time to go to rallies, it takes a lot of time and effort to pick up the phone and invite someone to coffee to say “How can we partner on this initiative?" But it’s all worth it in the end. The point being: You can’t change the world just from sitting in your dorm room, or just by sitting in a classroom.
So do you think it’s possible to change the world?
Absolutely.
If anyone is interested in learning more about the We Got Your Back initiative, more information is available on our website.
