It Takes a Community

Neighborhood Cooperative Ministries shows how local nonprofits work together to better the lives of at-risk families.

Afew years ago, Neighborhood Cooperative Ministries (NCM) acquired a complex to further the mission of helping neighbors who sincerely want to break their cycle of poverty and regain financial independence. To remind the community of its expanded facilities and partnerships with other nonprofits, NCM invited the community to an event called Tacos + Tours.

Stakeholders were informed about ways they could continue their support while munching on tantalizing Latin cuisine. Afterwards, guests were shown the improvements and processes NCM has devised to help those in need. Ryan Jones, director of community development, kicked off things by explaining why he retired from his career in banking to begin the journey of helping improve the lives of people who were hungry, homeless, jobless and lacking some of

By Arlinda Smith Broady Photos by George Hunter

life’s basic necessities.

“I realized today that it’s my twoyear anniversary here,” he said. “The man is in the room who, kind of, led me on the journey to retire as a banker.”

He motioned to Randy Redner, who had been the president of the Community Foundation at the time and now is working at Rainbow Village.

“One of the things that stood out to me as I was doing my discernment and making my career change was ‘where could I make the most impact?’” said Jones.

He shared statistics about the pockets of poverty in the community. Then the various partners talked about how they work together to improve the lives of at-risk families in Gwinnett County.

Community helping community

“We’re now a county of more than a million people. We expect to have another 500,000 in the next 20 years,” said Jones. “The poverty rate has doubled, and the vast majority of that poverty is right here in our surrounding area.”

According to the United Way’s child well-being index, 45% of southwest Gwinnett’s children are living below the poverty line. That adds up to more than 11,000 kids

Lack of affordable housing is also a big issue in this area. “A lot of times, we have families that are living in extended stay hotels and paying more money to live there than I pay for my house,” said Jones. “What these families are facing, a