CHRIST IN THE CITY
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Mission Statement
Christ in the City is a Catholic non-profit dedicated both to forming young adults, volunteers, and the greater community to be lifelong missionaries and to knowing, loving, and serving the poor.
About This Cause
In 2011, Christ in the City (CIC) began with 15 young people who committed themselves to live in community, learning about the Faith, and serving the poor. The program was entrusted to the Christian Life Movement as the service arm of their mission in the United States. In 2020, the program has expanded to form 34 year-long missionaries in Denver and this summer we sent missionary teams out to 5 cities to lead 3-week summer programs, training others and making friends on the street from coast to coast! THE NEED With the main cause of homelessness being unemployment, 80-90% of people who experience homelessness do so on a temporary basis and are able to find and use the resources they need to change their situation. Many of the remaining chronic homeless, however, stop looking for a job or applying for housing due to a lack of hope and an acceptance of defeat. They become service resistant and refuse the help of local services. Isolated from society, some of them may even go months without hearing their own name. How then do we serve the service resistant and prevent these economic costs? A new approach is needed. At Christ in the City, we devote ourselves fully to pioneering this new approach to addressing chronic homelessness in Denver and preventing it from growing. Our ministry involves training young people – missionary volunteers who commit themselves for one to two years of service with CIC. Their mission on the streets of Denver is to seek out the chronically homeless population in order to bring them out of isolation from society and into community and relationship with people and other organizations that can help them change their situation. In teams of three or four our missionaries walk the same street route regularly all year, befriending the chronically homeless they meet. Through consistent contact, trust is developed, and real friendship occurs. As we grow in relationship with our friends on the street, reconciliation with society begins. Often, as this trust is built with our friends on the street, they become more open to the idea of utilizing the resources available to them. We work tirelessly to know these resources that are available for the homeless in Denver so that when the opportunity arises, we know where and when to take them to the places they need. What’s more, our missionaries will often accompany our friends on the street to these appointments, providing moral support and friendship in stressful or anxiety-ridden situations that they would not have kept on their own. Sitting with a young woman during her prenatal appointments and during the baby’s birth, waiting with a friend to meet his caseworker for the first time, calling a local shelter and securing a bed for the night – these are just some of the ways CIC missionaries have shown their friendship to the chronically homeless in Denver. We also invite our friends on the street into the community at our weekly Lunch in the Park events that provide a free lunch and access to basic necessities. Because we know them, it is not strangers feeding strangers, but a friend helping a friend and a community forming at the heart of the city. In this way, CIC helps people not just serve the poor, but know and love them also.