THE POWER OF LOCAL TO MAKE HOPE REAL
Mayor Reggie Burgess joins Metanoia leadership with John and Trey Willis of J&W Construction and Councilman Michael Brown at the ribbon cutting ceremony for 10 affordable rentals in Chicora in April 2024.
We Christian clergy spend time reflecting on a provocative idea this time of year: that a baby born in a small stable in a local backwater could have ramifications for all people in all times and places. It is kind of an unrealistic idea when one thinks about it. But I’m sticking with it.
This year, in particular, I have become even more of a believer that really true, authentic, and valuable answers happen (or at least are birthed) in a local time and place among a particular people.
This has been a year when the chatter all around us has encouraged us to put a lot of stock in decisions and decision-makers that are often removed from our day-to-day localities. The assumption seems to be that what happens right in our little neck of the woods is insignificant compared to what happens in those far-away places of power. But experience tells me that anything of true value must matter to locals somewhere if it is to result in positive, scalable change anywhere.
As 2024 draws to a close, and we stand at the threshold of a new year, I’m deeply grateful to dedicate my time, energy, and resources—not to some distant ideology, political party, or social media clique (valuable as these can be)—but to a local community of real people with real dreams and aspirations here in North Charleston.
it HAs been a remarkable year to stay rooted and engaged locally with Metanoia.
In the Spring, we completed 10 new quality affordable rental homes for families in Chicora. This brings the total number of homes that Metanoia affordably rents to families to 49, and we maintain an occupancy rate of more than 92%, with dozens of new applicants every time a unit comes open. We also broke ground on the first of 17 fully funded homes being constructed for first-time homebuyers over the next year or so. With housing costs continuing to soar and North Charleston having the highest eviction rates in the nation, Metanoia’s work is as important as ever if local folks are to remain here and live well.
making a difference in Freedom School
Metanoia’s CDF Freedom School® provides summer and after-school enrichment through a research-based and multicultural program model that supports scholars and families in Chicora.
In 1964, college kids worked with Black Southerners across the nation for a “Freedom Summer” that would help Black people register to vote through “Freedom Schools” so that their local concerns might finally be taken seriously. It was a hyper-local effort in small towns and forgotten places that changed our nation for the better. The Children’s Defense Fund® (CDF) has carried forward that tradition by facilitating contemporary Freedom Schools that teach students literacy and citizenship in communities of color across the nation. Metanoia is proud to be among the select few Freedom Schools in South Carolina, and this year, we were thrilled to receive CDF’s National Award for parental involvement, standing out among over 200 Freedom Schools across the country. Our summer CDF Freedom School compliments our after-school leadership programs, which have continued steady growth this year. These programs identify leaders and help them grow (you can read about one such leader on page 4 of this year’s annual report)!
We continued to partner with the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), an organization based in Washington, D.C. They recognized a glaring issue: conversations about women with lower incomes rarely included the voices of the women themselves. So, we listened first and began working with the NWLC to identify and offer training to five women from the community who have been speaking up and telling their stories here locally as well as to national media outlets, like Forbes and NPR.
For several years, we have been working to renovate the Old Chicora School – a project in the heart of our local community that will have a major bearing on the neighborhood’s future. After taking a group of local neighborhood leaders to Atlanta to visit an innovative high school called Cristo Rey—and hearing their enthusiastic feedback—we began collaborating on efforts to establish a Cristo Rey School here in Charleston. Cristo Rey Schools are innovative in that they offer students an internship one day per week along with a robust college preparatory curriculum. These schools are private Catholic institutions open to students of all faiths, exclusively serving families with low incomes. Cristo Rey has now completed a year-long feasibility study for the school and just found out that they will be granted authorization to start the 42nd Cristo Rey School in the nation! We are working with a large and capable development team to close on $30 million+ in financing and will start construction at Old Chicora this Spring for the campus to ideally open Cristo Rey Charleston by August 2026.
With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, we are working with the community to discover and celebrate the rich tapestry of stories that make up the neighborhoods we work alongside. Those who attended our fall Know Better Breakfast got a brief preview of the rich stories that we believe are worth celebrating as they heard from community leaders and watched a brief video on the history of the community. Particularly as gentrification pressures increase around the neighborhood, we want policymakers and developers to know that there is culture and deep value already here that deserves to be respected and preserved.
More than 120 attendees joined community leaders at St. Matthew Baptist Church and Metanoia’s office and program space on Halloween to get to know one another better and the challenges facing neighbors in Chicora and surrounding historically Black neighborhoods.
All of this is what happens when a group of local people decides to live by Metanoia’s purpose statement: WE ARE HERE TO LIVE WELL. It takes discipline to stay focused on local families in our local community above all else.
Living well also means building an institution in Metanoia that can capably offer people real opportunities in the places they love and call home. We are proud to announce that we have received our 20th consecutive, best-case "unmodified audit opinion" on our audited financial statements—reflecting the highest standard of financial accountability. Additionally, we continue to uphold the highest ratings from leading third-party nonprofit evaluators, including Charity Navigator and Candid. In the spirit of innovation and continuous growth, we refreshed our logo and branding to reflect both who we are today and the vision of where we are headed.
As Mary and Joseph walked the road to Bethlehem, they were doing so in a fairly corrupt vassal state of the Roman empire where powerful men far removed from their experience would have a significant say in their lives. But something special was happening so very local to that poor couple that no one could see at the time. I have lost count of how many rooms of power I have been in where it was expected that nothing good could come from the community we work alongside. But more than 20 years of being proximate to that same community has taught me better.
So, as we look ahead to 2025, I’m sticking with local. Local is where the answers have always been, and local is where the answers will be as we continue to live out our key values at Metanoia.
Listen constantly
Walk with families
Build on strengths
Release the brilliance
Reject barriers
Thank you for investing in Metanoia’s efforts to Be Here and Live Well, and for keeping your own heart open to all that is possible and achievable—in the years gone by and those still to come.
Rev. Bill Stanfield
CEO