Fountain Project
Nourishing Families, Churches, and Communities
A Ministry Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Funded by
Fountain Baptist Church, Summit, NJ
Rev. J. Michael Sanders, Pastor

Life will never be the same for residents of the Gulf Coast States region of the United States following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Rebuilding lives will require comprehensive strategies to empower families for stronger living, equip churches for effective ministry, and enable communities to access broad arrays of resources for development. The Fountain Project will facilitate families, churches, and communities affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to address the three goals stated above and to achieve measurable outcomes of impact on lives, churches, and communities. The two-year project will fund three areas of concentration:

1. Empowering families for stronger living.
   Many families that were evacuated, left homeless or suffered extensive damage to their homes from the hurricanes are working class, working poor, or impoverished. Their dislocation compounds their challenges to improve their standards of living for themselves and their children. To create opportunities for families to strengthen earning capacity and to bolster life skills to enhance daily living will result in immeasurable benefit for families today and generations to come. Empowering families for stronger living will concentrate on the following:
   1. Expanding employability capacities through scholarships for adults to institutions of higher education (e.g., vocational/technical institutes, junior college, etc.); and
   2. Enhancing quality of life for individuals and families through life skills training (e.g., wealth creation and management; marriage strengthening; parenting skills; stress management; enhancing self-esteem; HIV/AIDS/STD prevention education; and healthy living)
2. Equipping churches to minister effectively in post-Katrina contexts
   The ministry of churches in Katrina affected communities will never be the same. While the missional priority of touching lives with the transforming love of Christ remains the same, new strategies of ministry are demanded in the Gulf States region. Thinking afresh about ministry is not easy for most people. The challenge to creative thinking about missional priorities and ministry strategies will be even greater for pastors and church leaders who, themselves, are dislocated and traumatized. The opportunity for coaching and supporting new vision and service will be supported through:
   1. Facilitating consultations for visioning, planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluation through biblical, theological, and practical seminars and workshops; and
   2. Funding start-up costs through grant awards for essential or innovative ministry efforts
3. Enabling sustainable community development
   Redeveloping communities in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina will be a massive undertaking requiring billions of dollars of investment from the public and private sectors. Rebuilding roads, utility and communication infrastructures, homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses will be a multiyear project unimagined prior to the current catastrophe. Among the opportunities ahead will be accessing resources to pursue sustainable community development to include homes and businesses. Supporting the launch of a Community Development Corporation (CDC) of the Louisiana Home and Foreign Mission Baptist State Convention will enable a statewide African American Christian community to participate in developing community with a sensitivity shaped by holistic commitments to life and livelihood. This opportunity for enabling sustainable community development will be pursued through:
   1. Facilitating consultants to assist in the development of the visioning, planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluation required to start a CDC; and
   2. Funding start-up costs for key staff and/or programs for a new CDC

Implementation
The Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention (Lott Carey) proposes to implement the Fountain Project on behalf of the Fountain Baptist Church, Summit, NJ. The Fountain Baptist Church has a history of robust Missional investments in the United States and around the world. Lott Carey has a sustained record of implementing Missional projects that empower indigenous leaders, organizations, and communities to strengthen their capacities for improving their qualities of life around the world.

The proposed budget for the Fountain Project that will empower families for stronger living, equip churches to minister effective in a post-Katrina context, and enable sustainable community development engagement by African American Christians is one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) over a two-year period. This investment will result in developing increased capacities for families, churches, and communities that will make possible the beneficiaries to live and serve stronger. Ultimately, this investment will change the trajectory of hundreds of families and thousands of lives for generations to come.

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