In a single month, Elizabeth Little vacationed, all expenses paid, at Westin’s resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, as a top sales leader; oversaw a $150,000 bar mitzvah at the Westin Charlotte in North Carolina, as senior catering manager; and took a mission trip to Mexico’s Yucatan, where she slept in a hammock in a village where no child had access to middle school.The contrasts were jarring.“I just kept thinking, there has to be something more,” said Little, who has been a Church Consultant with the Board of Pensions since 2016. “How could I take my hotel experience into the mission world?”
With bumper stickers and hashtags, Facebook pages and community partnerships, the Freedom Rising initiative to improve the plight of the African American male is beginning to take off in the five cities where the program will be piloted. The initiative approved by the 222nd General Assembly (2016) seeks to assist communities in Baltimore, Charlotte, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and New York City by addressing problems specifically related to African American males.
Although the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina are now quiet following protests in response to the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott by police, area Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors say the historic and deep-seated sentiment that fostered unrest after this killing remains.
The executive committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted August 25 to direct designatable funds from its fall board meeting’s Peace & Global Witness offering to the “On Taking Specific Action to Address the Worsening Plight of the African American Male” initiative.
Freedom School Partners are making a difference for those in need by Rick Jones | Presbyterian News Service Literacy skills, character strengths and a community that believes in success. Those are… Read more »