LOVE CITY INC
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Mission Statement
Love City’s mission is to simply love our neighbors and community, creating a culture that empowers a movement of loving people as they are.
About This Cause
Our Story We were living in the Crescent Hill neighborhood of Louisville when we had a tug on our hearts to move to the Portland neighborhood on the western side of downtown in the fall of 2014. Through the process of looking for a house, we felt that we were being led to purchase not only a house but a community center next door. We started renovations on our house, completely gutting it and rebuilding from the inside out. Shortly after we finished renovating our house in Summer of 2015, we threw a block party for the neighborhood. We had over 800 people come including 17 different organizations from across Kentucky. That’s when we realized this was much bigger than what we could have ever dreamed of - this was the beginning of Love City. To us, the building is just an extension of our living room where we can invite more people. Youth Programs Youth programs are one of the main focus areas of Love City. Whether it's an after- school program, summer camp, or weekend event, Love City reaches out and shows love to the youth of the neighborhood and their families. Economic Stimulation One of the main pillars of Love City is Economic Stimulation. Over the past year we have grown our fish fry and helped start and grow two neighborhood businesses. Whole community transformation must also include economic development. Love City continued it’s fish fry, providing not only sustaining income for Love City itself but also providing the neighborhood a place to have a meal and meet their neighbors. In addition to the fish fry we also continued to grow woodworking business Reborn Woodworks and helped start a craft business called Gracious Dezigns. Both businesses are run by local neighbors here in Portland enabling them to become entrepreneurs while learning the ins and outs of business. Love City continued to foster community through events and programs throughout the year. Bringing back some favorite events and adding new ones. In addition to events, a number of youth focused programs also worked to help build community. With everything from sports programs to after- school activities, the Mackin building was full every day of the week. The Mackin Building Originally the Mackin Club Young Men’s Institute, this Portland landmark has adapted over the years to serve the various needs of the community. It’s been used as everything from the recreation center for St. Cecilia school to a Boys and Girls Club of America. Now run by Love City, the Mackin building primarily serves as the hub for our youth programs. With a full court basketball gym, most of Love City’s sports programs are run out of the Mackin building. The building also hosts multiple after school programs from art club, to Mackinettes Girl’s club, to academic tutoring. Future plans for Mackin include a social impact incubator center and a pizzeria, both designed to bring economic stimulation to the neighborhood and inspiration for the youth of Portland to dream big. St. Cecilia Campus In 2017, we saw a major expansion of the physical foot print of Love City. In August of that year, the purchase of the St Cecilia campus on 25th and St Cecilia Streets was finalized. The purchase included St. Cecilia Church, Resurrection Hall, the St. Cecilia Rectory and garages as well as the old out door fish fry area. We kicked off using the campus with a worship night in the church featuring Love City Music and Iron Bell Music. Father Burke, the Rector of Good Shepherd Parish on Rudd Ave, ceremonially gave the keys to Love City during the service, passing the torch of community development and transformation from the Catholic Archdiocese to Love City. The campus expanded Love City's footprint in the neighborhood to include almost two whole city blocks. It also married back together the Mackin Building and St. Cecilia which were originally both owned by the Louisville Archdiocese. The Fish Fry moved to Resurrection Hall at the end of September bringing life back to the building. In November, we held a community Thanksgiving dinner for almost 500 people from the neighborhood. Mutual Transformation Neighbors loving neighbors changing physical aspects of one neighborhood and the hearts of those all across town. The Love City motto is Neighbors Loving Neighbors. This motto embodies a core belief of Love City which is mutual transformation. Not only do we want to transform the neighborhood we live in, from both a physical standpoint and a heart standpoint, we also want those who come help to take back to their neighborhoods the understanding that they can transforms their neighborhoods in the same way. We had almost a thousand volunteers from all over Louisville and the nation come to help on projects and love the neighborhood. One great example of mutual transformation in action is the story of one man from a neighborhood on the east side of Louisville that came down for lunch one Friday to have a fish sandwich and ended up spending as a majority of his free time at Love City over the course of the year. He not only volunteered his time, he volunteered his expertise, helping to build out many projects in and around Love City . He also brought his neighbors and friends to Love City, who now also volunteer regularly at Love City. He has seen the impact of spending time at Love City on his own family and friends and has even seen a change in the neighborhood where he lives. His neighbors are loving each other and sharing meals, love and fellowship. This is truly Mutual Transformation at work! Four Pillars ECONOMIC STIMULATION Creating businesses, bringing jobs to the neighborhood, and hiring local will launch our area into a thriving community. HEALTHCARE Becoming healthy is the first step toward wholeness. Hyper-local healthcare is the start of building a healthy, whole community. EDUCATION Lifting up local public schools as well as supporting private school options brings diversity and strength to the community. YOUTH From attaining education to employment rate, many things can be tied to the availability of quality youth programs.