Habitat Sandtown Blitz Week 2002

My thoughts...

Blitz Week is over. We are all home again. It's hard to imagine that the week has come and gone so quickly. We have thought and discussed this week for almost a year now. And now it is over. What was once a dream for John Elsen (my wife's brother) has become a reality.

Blitz Week is a concentrated work week where 300-400 volunteers per day gave their time to Habitat for Humanity to rebuild Sandtown, a Baltimore neighborhood. Sandtown is familiar with Habitat; they have been refurbishing, rebuilding, and restoring both houses and lives since 1989. Habitat in Sandtown is part of a larger organization determined to restoring hope to people who live in the community. That larger organization is called New Song. Taken from their web site, here is a description of the various ministries of New Song:

New Song Program Overview
New Song is a holistic approach to neighborhood development known as "church-based Christian community development." Initiated in 1988, we have grown to a staff of more than 80, mostly from the neighborhood, administering numerous programs. While our neighborhood, Sandtown-Winchester in West Baltimore, encompasses 72 square blocks, our concentration is a 15-block focus area in the north-central section of the community. Here we are eliminating all vacant houses and providing various programs and opportunities which foster empowerment.

Many different individuals - black and white, affluent and poor, urban and suburban - are working closely together to break down barriers across geography, race, class and culture and to rebuild the Sandtown community, presenting a model that shows incredible possibilities for hope and change.

An interracial congregation, New Song Community Church, is the foundation out of which our other programs emanate, including the following:

* Sandtown Habitat for Humanity - Providing houses for homeownership for low and very low income families in Sandtown. Have completed 160 homes including the 100 homes initiated during our 1992 Jimmy Carter Work Project with 50 more under construction. More than 25 full-time staff, primarily from the neighborhood, including numerous young men who are being trained as assistant construction managers. Several thousand volunteers annually.

* New Song Community Learning Center - Providing educational opportunities for Sandtown children and youth since 1991. Preschool (ages 3-4) and after-school programs; scholarship programs. New Song Academy opened in September 1994 and became a K-8 public school in 1997 under the New Schools Initiative; current enrollment 110 students. More than 30 full and part-time staff, primarily from the neighborhood.

* New Song Family Health Services - Primary health care for Sandtown residents, both adult and pediatric. A network of volunteer doctors and nurse practitioners supplement our full-time staff. Open part-time 1991-1995 with approximately 1,000 patient visits annually. Began operating full-time in May 1996 in a newly-rehabbed 3,000-square-foot facility in partnership with Mercy Medical Center. More than 6,000 patient visits annually.

* EDEN Jobs - Jobs and economic development. Job development and placement program for unemployed Sandtown residents beginning in 1994. More than 600 placements to date, plans for 100 annually. Will begin business development during 2001.

* New Song Arts & Media - Addressing the creative capacity and artistic needs of our neighborhood. Committed to discovering, nurturing, and promoting the talent in Sandtown, with particular emphasis given to the performing arts. Numerous recording projects to date, including award-winning Voices of Hope children's choir in Fall of 1995 ("Chatter With the Angels" in CD and cassette formats) and recently-released "I Can Talk to God" under the newly-named Sandtown Children of Praise choir.