Through a commitment to interdisciplinary learning, we combine research, organizing, advocacy, and policy expertise to create effective, sustainable solutions for the challenges communities face.

Acknowledging the Unseen Leaders

At the heart of our mission is a deep acknowledgment of the work being done by countless individuals and communities that have been marginalized and often feel insignificant in the eyes of mainstream thinking. These communities have been at the forefront of change in their own neighborhoods, organizing, advocating, and leading transformation on the ground. However, too often, their voices are silenced or ignored in broader discussions.

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The Rehoboth Project recognizes that these are the very communities whom “God has made room for”. We believe that the unseen leaders—the activists, the grassroots organizers, the community builders—are essential to the movement for justice, healing, and equity. These leaders are not only worthy of recognition, but also of being uplifted and equipped with the tools to further their efforts. We work alongside them to ensure their efforts are amplified and that their influence is recognized and valued.

 

How Do We Do It?

 

The Rehoboth Project is committed to interdisciplinary learning, where academic research, community organizing, and policy advocacy intersect to create informed, actionable solutions. We actively seek to partner with organizations and institutions of higher learning to combine empirical research with grassroots experience. This collaborative approach ensures that we develop solutions that are not only data-driven but also grounded in the lived experiences of the communities we serve.

We are also dedicated to coaching organizations to better understand the policy landscape, leveraging research and data to advocate for meaningful changes in public safety, criminal justice, child development, and healthcare. By providing organizations with access to the latest research and best practices, we help build the power necessary to create systemic change.

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United States and Abroad

 

The Rehoboth Project is acutely aware that the issues across the globe serve to bind us all together in ways never before possible. We have been active in East, Central, and West Africa, as well as across the United States for over three decades. In our work with Faith in Indiana, we helped transform the entire criminal justice approach in Indianapolis. After interrupting the construction of a $1.25bn criminal justice center, we continued to the next step by presenting and implementing a comprehensive process that has resulted in a more than 30% decrease in Marion County jail population over the past 3 years. In 2016 Faith in Indiana trained over 1300 volunteers to reach out to 164,000 potential voters and moved 13.5% of the county voters to win a $56m/year mass transit bill, while at Eskanazi (Wishard) Hospital we helped to transform a 32% annual recidivism rate for victims of violence into 4.2% over a 4-year period. Finally, our work with Global Impact Leadership Alliance(GILA) has led us to Uganda where we are supporting the work of an orphanage on Bussi Island where 160 children reside after their parents have died, mostly from AIDS and our slum church in the Luzira district of Kampala in Uganda, that feeds and confronts the day-to-day drama of scores of people in the center of the city.

 

A Deeper Look

 

Innovations in transportation, access to media platforms, and expanded resources have shrunk the world in such a way that even the most remote corners of our globe are accessible at any time from anywhere within hours or even literally seconds. Our strategic attention has been focused on urban areas in parts of Africa and urban spaces in America and food security in general.

 

The intertwined cycles of violence, poverty, and incarceration globally are disproportionately felt in communities of color and, in particular, by young men of color. American cities are experiencing poor living conditions, higher poverty rates and disparate and devastating exposure to disease and death in ways reminiscent of what’s happening in cities like Kampala in Uganda. Farmers in the American south are being sold seed with poor output, excluded from lucrative land deals, and largely overlooked for farming subsidies.

 

We have come to understand that crime, underperforming schools, unstable family conditions, unemployment caused by business migration, and the lack of life-enhancing socialization opportunities for teens, the uneducated, and people of color, and a general lack of social ineptitude are common barriers to a high quality of life in low-income communities. According to the National Institute of Health (2006), ―issues of neighborhood quality have immediate practical implications on the quality of life one leads in the community. Hence, the lack of basic resources and quality healthcare perpetuates the hopelessness of individual poverty [which] is compounded by community impoverishment. (NIH, 2006).

 

We Build Power

 

Developing leaders among the people most closely impacted by colonialism, injustice, and inequality is key to our long-term power-building strategy and one of the strongest components of our work. At all stages of our work, The Rehoboth Project invites individual and corporate agencies. We also encourage and facilitate the raising up of voices of those communities most deeply impacted by the determinants of health that serve to mitigate against people’s ability to participate in and enjoy robust and productive lives.

 

The recent pandemic presented a perfect storm for the populations in these communities. The lack of financial resources, and poor health due to a general lack of access and proper education open the door for huge numbers experiencing, not only the direct effects of disease and death but the accompanying stress. We move in the midst of such an environment to politicize the atmosphere in these communities. TRP moves particularly in ways that vary, but generally include forming groups; bringing about social and economic justice, obtaining, maintaining, or restructuring power; developing alternative institutions; and maintaining or revitalizing neighborhoods, cities, states, and regions.

 

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