New Birth-Charlotte, an extension of Bishop Eddie Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, sits a few miles off I-77 in Huntersville. Unlike many African American congregations, it has few close neighbors and is as secluded from the hustle of the inner city as a mansion on a hill.

But the one thing its pastor, Bishop Terrell Murphy, does not want New Birth-Charlotte to become is a church in isolation.

That's why in 2006 Murphy and New Birth-Charlotte established City Dive Inc., a nonprofit arm that works with individuals and families affected by unemployment, poverty, poor education and crime.

But unlike organizations that simply offer handouts, City Dive has the ambitious goal of helping residents “transform their own communities,” Murphy said.

In addition to teaching classes that focus on financial management, City Dive volunteers also work with inner-city residents on career development and community living.
Much of the group’s early work has been focused in the West Boulevard corridor, which includes the soon-to-be-demolished Boulevard Homes public housing complex.

Dorothy Waddy, president of the West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition, said one of the biggest problems the community faces is economic deprivation. She described a neighborhood shopping center that stands 80 percent empty because retailers refuse to locate there.

Waddy said she has seen groups come and go, many of them simply giving to residents without teaching them how to do things for themselves. City Dive, she said, is different.
“I’m impressed when a church comes out of its four walls and does community work, because I think that’s what they are supposed to do,” she said, “and this church has shown that they are ready and willing to do that kind of work.”

Work in the community

With nearly 600 volunteers, City Dive is active in some capacity nearly every day in the West Boulevard corridor, Murphy said.

Waddy spoke in depth about the many activities that City Dive has held.

“I think the first thing they did was to have a Friday and Saturday workshop during the Easter holiday,” she said. “They had medical people come in, dental people, a clothes closet, and they gave away food.”

She also mentioned festival weekends, where City Dive volunteers have taken children to church services at New Birth and dinner afterward. The volunteers also take part in events sponsored by neighborhood groups.

City Dive’s presence is most visible, perhaps, during Christmas and Spring Breaks, when the group hosts daily youth-focused programs called “Freestyle Fridays” in recreation centers on West Boulevard. The programs provide classes on life skills, arts and crafts, martial arts, and dancing, along with motivational men’s meetings.

During those periods, Murphy said, City Dive workers feed 2,500 to 3,000 youth a day. Many of those children don’t receive nutritious meals at home, so City Dive provides at least one meal while parents are at work and the children are out of school.

The goal, Murphy said, is to build relationships and confidence within the youth.
Murphy said he sees relationship-building as one of the most important things a person can do in life, and he cites Christ’s relationship-first approach as a model for his own ministry.

To this degree, Murphy said he measures City Dive’s success by the bonds that are created and the behaviors that are reformed through those relationships.

“With City Dive, we know that the key for us to touch lives and build and change communities is going to be through relationships,” he said. “You can build a basketball goal, but if the hearts and minds of the people aren’t changed, the goal will be torn down.”

To reform hearts and minds, City Dive has literally set up shop in the community. The Charlotte Housing Authority has set aside an apartment in the Boulevard Homes complex to serve as a central office for the group. There, City Dive offers classes to help residents develop individual and interpersonal skills. One class teaches residents how to care for their homes and be good neighbors, anticipating the day when they will move from public housing into their own homes.

Impact on the City

Thanks in part to City Dive, the Charlotte Housing Authority received a $20 million federal grant to revitalize the Boulevard Homes area, which will be rebuilt into a mix of low-income and market-rate units. Joel Ford, who sits on the housing authority’s board of commissioners, said the work that City Dive does helped give federal officials confidence that the mixed-income project would work.

“City Dive has been extremely instrumental in helping to provide stability and improve the quality of life for residents in Boulevard Homes,” he said.

The housing authority has assigned 300 families to City Dive who eventually will be moved into the mixed-income development. The church group has been designated as the faith-based component of the city’s initiative. It will work with those families to teach them budgeting, job preparation, career development, and community living.

Residents who complete the program attend a graduation ceremony and receive a framed "Certificate of Achievement."

Changing lives

Raven Williams and Robert Brice are two City Dive veterans. Both said they have seen themselves and family members enriched and empowered by the program.

Williams, a current resident of Boulevard Homes, said she enjoyed the training and preparation she has received from City Dive, mostly because it has allowed her to interact with different types of people.

“It was wonderful,” she said. “When you come and meet new people you’re kind of shy, but they break down all of those barriers really quickly. Basically, it’s like a family setting.”
Williams said the courses also taught her to be a better neighbor.

For Robert Brice, City Dive has been a stepping stone.

Brice, 55, moved out of Boulevard Homes after completing the program. At his new location, he said, he was warned of a neighbor rumored to be disagreeable. But using some of the skills he learned through City Dive, he said, he befriended the man.

“Even if we’re not home, he comes by and mows our grass for us and things,” said Brice.
Brice said he initially wasn’t interested in the City Dive program. But after he enrolled, he said, he also signed up for a money-management class. He said the class taught him how to budget and save.

“I realized (the financial empowerment course) really works,” he said. “I would advise everyone that’s here to get all the finance education they can out of City Dive, because it really helps. It helped me.”
 

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