The true story of the ‘Boston Miracle’

In the 1990’s inner city youth violence and crime were strangling and threatening the way of life of the residents of South Boston. In fact they had one of the highest crime rates in the entire US. There was enormous racial tension between the predominantly Irish Catholic police force and the predominantly black inner city youth. There were cries of victimisation against the youth and the violence kept escalating. In short, the situation seemed hopeless. Sensing the level of despair in their community, the church leaders, led by Rev Brown and his allies, Reverend Eugene Rivers and Reverend Ray Hammond knew they had to make a drastic intervention. They recognised the church had lost its relevance to the black youth, who viewed the church as being aloof and not in tune to their needs. The reverends created something called the “Ten Point Coalition” and sacrificing their lives, took to the street every single night to reconnect to the youth and bring them back to the church. They also worked closely with the police and judiciary to complete the circle of trust. One of the key things they insisted on was the total absence of the media from this process, as they wanted to gain the trust of the youths and they thought the media would send the signal that the church was using it as a popularity ploy. Another interesting fact was that the reverends faced enormous opposition from within their church itself, as members didn’t see the church’s role extending to these depths. The outline of the Ten Points were:

1. Establish 405 church cluster-collaborations which sponsor “Adopt-A-Gang” programmes to organise and evangelise youths in gangs.

2. Commission missionaries to serve as advocates and ombudsmen for black and Latino juveniles in court.

3. Commission youth evangelists to do street-level one-on-one evangelism with youth involved in drug trafficking.

4. Establish accountable, community-based economic development projects that go beyond “market and state” visions of revenue generation.

5. Establish links between suburban and downtown churches and front-line ministries to provide spiritual, human resources, and material support.

6. Initiate and support neighbourhood crime-watch programmes within local church neighbourhoods

7. Establish working relationships between local churches and community-based health centres to provide pastoral counselling for families during times of crises.

8. Convene a summit meeting for black and Latino men and women to discuss the development of Christian brotherhoods and sisterhoods that would provide alternatives to violent gang life.

9. Establish rape crisis centres and services for battered women in churches.

10. Develop an aggressive black and Latino curriculum, with an additional focus on the struggles of women and poor people. These men sacrificed their entire lives for this programme, jeopardising their health and family life to ensure its success. This model has been replicated with success throughout the world. Could we do the same in Trinidad and Tobago?

Steve Seetahal

via email