Message from the Executive Director
"The Beloved Community is ready and able to break through the barriers of mediocrity and indifference".
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| Kelwin Harris, Executive Director of The Beloved Community |
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| Dear Friends:
I am humbled to be the Executive Director of The Beloved Community at such an important time. The agenda of our grassroots organizations have profound implications on the direction and legacy of our country as a whole. Make no mistake that while we are living in an unprecedented time of hope and change, we are in no way oblivious to the fact that everyday people in our community continue to struggle for basic needs. For anyone who professes to be committed to the gargantuan term "social justice"; the task ahead requires tremendous strength and will. I can say firsthand that The Beloved Community is ready and able to break through the barriers of mediocrity and indifference and boldly confront the proverbial "soft bigotry of low expectations".
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I am excited to be in a position to add a fresh momentum and renewed sense of urgency to our organization and the people we serve. My job is all the more thrilling as this is a season when we are actively making our tent bigger. By this I mean, we are transitioning from a grassroots organization in its infancy, mostly reliant on government funding and in large part serving as a fiscal agent for other providers, to a free-standing entity with faithful and durable partnerships. We value our partners and rely on their commitment now more than ever. Our survival as an organization and the stability of our community as a whole depends on those with the courage to join us in the work of empowering ordinary people.
In an era of global competition, The Beloved Community is proud of the part that we play locally in building stable residents from young children to senior citizens. We have made great strides over the course of the past year towards making Dr. King’s vision of a model community a reality. We have made significant gains in our core areas of education and economic development and made lasting progress towards breaking the viscous cycle of apathy in our community. Students in our after school program have been exposed to a variety of leading colleges, including many Ivy League Universities, and are applying to schools that they never thought possible before. They have presented business plans of their own creation to professional investors, seen their standardized test scores improve significantly and become more competitive for high school and college overall. A number of small businesses have also grown through The Beloved Community and more than 100 business owners have been given professional training and entrepreneurship counseling by our staff along with some of the nation’s top experts. In addition, we have made impressive gains in job training and placement, lifestyle and well-being services for seniors, and affordable housing for residents, including some who were formerly homeless.
Just as we rely on the philanthropic sector to exercise their goodwill, we likewise expect to be held to the highest measures of accountability and stewardship.
We welcome this responsibility and subject ourselves to the same rigorous standards of excellence and transparency that our partners expect of us. By conducting regular internal audits and frequently monitoring quantifiable performance measurements, we consistently show a convincing track-record of success. This website is a snapshot of those results and a scorecard of our success. As you browse the site, I invite you to bear witness to the good works we have been able to perform with our current resources. We invite you to count yourself as an investor and join us in making an even greater difference in strengthening the human capital of our community.
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| Sincerely,
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Kelwin Harris
Executive Director
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