Just after my wife Catherine graduated from college, she spent a year volunteering at Harambee Christian Family Center, an urban ministry on the wrong side of the freeway in Pasadena, California. Another fresh-faced volunteer that year was Rodolpho Carrasco. Now Rudy is the executive director of Harambee and we are friends and supporters of the amazing variety of community development projects Rudy, his wife Kafi, and a talented, local staff oversee. Harambee is culture-making on a neighborhood scale, with dramatic and beautiful results. (We told part of the story in "Where Faith and Culture Meet.")

re: charity, cities, community, community development, neighborhoods, philanthropy

Andy:

In 1982, the neighborhood surrounding Harambee Center had the highest daytime crime rate in Southern California. The corner of Howard and Navarro, where we are located, was called “blood corner” because it was where the most drive-by shootings and failed drug deals occurred. Residents were held captive in their homes and there was little hope for change.

We believed the only legitimate way to become change-agents in this community was to become a part of it. Led by our founder, Dr. John Perkins, we moved into the community and became neighbors. For 20+ years we have served a 12-block target area, working with African American and Latino children and families.

“Harambee” means “Let’s get together and push” in Swahili. We seek to nurture and equip leadership that will wholistically minister to the community by sharing Biblical truths, in order to achieve the re-building of urban neighborhoods through relocation, reconciliation and redistribution.