2018 end of the year letter

Bryan Kelly, Founder and Executive Director

I am deeply grateful to report that 2018 has been a great year at Common Ground Montgomery. We understand that there are so many wonderful nonprofits that are worthy of your investment, but we are thankful you have chosen us. Your support allows us to transform lives, families, and our community.

Over this past year, while I focused on expanding our efforts to other areas beyond Montgomery’s westside, Justin Hampton served as our local director and worked to make us more effective in our mission.

Recently, he felt a calling to devote his efforts towards the renewal of Montgomery’s Public School system. We are extremely grateful to Justin and look forward to seeing his future impact on our kids’ educational development as he works with the Montgomery Education Foundation. I have stepped back into the executive director role and I am excited to see God continue to use us for the transformation of our city.

This last year we established a new sending and training mechanism, Common Ground Alabama, in Birmingham. We helped establish our first plant, Common Ground Shoals, that is now seeing wonderful things happen in Florence, Alabama. We are on the verge of helping start a new kids camp in Montgomery’s southside (Camp Tenetke). This endeavor will not only provide an affordable camp and developmental experience for underprivileged youth, but will also focus on bringing kids together from all walks of life. Additionally, the Mercy House officially launched in October (as its own 501(c)3 non-profit) to help meet the needs of many through a daily presence that helps homeless families, latch key kids, and families struggling to make ends meet.

We are continuing to see the grace of God shared and shown in our midst, and that’s why I’ve included Quanda’s story from how she went from a parent with kids in our program to working at CGM.

Your giving has allowed us to put full-time people in a distressed community who continually show up and are present in a chaotic context. As Quanda has expressed so well, God loves to be present to us through people. He is using your generosity to show His love.

We are beyond thankful for your love and support because we couldn’t be here without it. Would you please consider a year-end gift and commit to a recurring monthly donation in 2019? Thank your for your prayerful consideration to help change Montgomery and beyond!

meet quanda brown

BY BRYAN KELLY

“I am a single parent that didn’t want my kids (a 12th-grader, 8th-grader, 6th-grader, and 3rd-grade twins) roaming the streets. CGM was a way for my kids to have a safe experience in the community. I wanted positive role models in a good environment for my kids. The after school program really helped me out because I was working two jobs and it helped them have somewhere to go until I could get home later in the evening.”

“I lived in Gibbs Village for five years with my kids. I saw a guy shot on my porch. And that does something to you...”

“I didn’t want my kids to be out and see that type of stuff. I felt like I had to keep them inside all the time. I was scared for their lives and the impact of all the bad stuff that can happen. So, I found a place that was good for them; a safe place.”

“That can’t be taken for granted. That would have been enough for me. But, then I saw all the amazing adults up here, real role models and caring adults who loved my kids and who helped them every day.”

CGM helped her combat the effects of some of the community trauma that happens during after school hours when so many kids are unsupervised and under the influence of destructive people. But personal trauma is what also brought Quanda to CGM.

The more Quanda came to pick her kids up and interact with the staff and volunteers, the more she experienced the love and grace of God as they were shown to her and her kids. And other kids that recognized her would flock to her as she spent more and more time around CGM. She felt that the safe, loving, non-judgmental environment and relationships were not only drawing her to a place of connection, honesty, and healing that she couldn’t yet put words to, but she began to have the same heart to see those same things happen for the girls in the program.

She began volunteering 15 hours a week to lead a third grade class. She started sharing her life and story with the middle school and high school girls. She was so effective that we hired her part-time at first, and then eventually full-time. Her connection to the kids and the gracious environment she was participating in led her one day, to the surprise of all the staff and kids (and Quanda herself), to share long term betrayals and traumas including a long absent father that once told her, when she finally tracked him down: “I don’t have any money.”

She replied, “I don’t want any money, I just want to know why you don’t love me.”

He had no answer.

She internalized a lot pain for most of her life. Those years of carrying the hidden pain, levels of shame, and the loss of self-love, identity, and innocence had taken a toll in her life in ways she didn’t even understand. She made an incredibly bold choice to share her story with the girls at CGM.

At least three things happened to her.

Contrary to all her fears in life for so long, her new friends and family at CGM drew closer to her in love and support and not away. She also began to find personal healing and started the grief process for all that had been stolen from her, and for the hurtful choices she made for many years as a hurt person. And lastly, the girls began to come to her and open up about their own devastating experiences.

Safe space, honest intimacy, love and acceptance, and shared pain and weakness have begun to create a deeper environment of connection and a process of healing. It has overflowed into mothers of the children as well, as Quanda has chosen to engage them with her presence and story.

God is showing so much sideways grace through this incredible woman.

“Not having a father involved in my life and other childhood pain led to a place of me looking for many years for the wrong type of men to make up for it. You can’t find healing like that, only more pain.”

She wants the girls and other moms to stop that cycle as well.

Quanda has started a track to be trained to lead our lower school program and to be a mentor-leader to our older girls. She is an amazing person and has had an impact on all of us.

Thank you so much for helping support us to help create the space and platform for leaders like Quanda to be transformed and to be instruments of love and transformation for others.

the mercy house grand opening

Thanks to the initiatives and partnership of Common Ground Montgomery, the Mercy House has launched into a new 501(c)3 nonprofit ministry continuing to focus on the holistic transformation of the Washington Park Community.

The Montgomery Chamber of Commerce held a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, October 2, 2018.

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Open every day, this ministry houses a food pantry and a clothes closet to serve people in need. Through the food pantry, TMH able to serve about 50 families each week with emergency food needs. Daily, TMH serves hot meals to both the elderly and homeless people in our community.

TMH will soon include the Pathway House (John 3:16). The Pathway House was designed to be a multifaceted building that will house programs to meet many of the needs of impoverished people. It will be an adult education center during the week which will include parenting classes, GED classes, financial literacy classes, word-processing and basic computer skills, interviewing techniques, and resume writing. They will also teach how to dress for success in the work place. It will become a tutoring center for children that are not in any other structured programs in the community. On Sundays, the Pathway House will be Sunday school classrooms.

TMH’s desires are, through teaching, to elevate people from poor behaviors, bad practices, life circumstances beyond their control, and generational bondage to the plan that God has for their lives.

For more information, call Ken Austin at The Mercy House: (334) 676-3040. 

Mailing address

Mercy House 
P.O. Box 10035
Montgomery, AL 36108

Physical address

Mercy House
2412 Council Street
Montgomery, AL 36108

job opening: director of operations

We have a new job opening for a director of operations in Montgomery, Alabama.

director of operations

Would you like to be a part of a multi-cultural team working in west Montgomery, Alabama, to help in Gospel-centered community and cultural transformation and reconciliation?

The Director of Operations will liaise with the Executive Director and the Board of Directors to make decisions for operational and organizational budget goals, plan and monitor day-to-day running of the organization, and oversee all human resource needs.

This is a full-time position with salary and benefits commensurate with market standards.

Responsibilities:

• Directly supervise Office Assistant and oversee all office operations
• Manage day-to-day operations/maintenance of facilities, vehicles, and other CGM properties.
• Work with Head of Programs, Executive Director, and Board Finance Committee Chair to create annual organization budget
• Monitor monthly spending, budget adherence, and communicate with Executive Director and Board of Directors of progress.
• Sign all checks
• Monitor all incoming mail
• Make bank deposits
• Work with accountants and auditors to create and maintain integrity and transparency with CGM finances and bookkeeping
• Assist accounting firm with annual audit
• Oversee all human resource staff policies and procedures along with documentation
• Maintain employee documentation of vacation, sick days, and reimbursements
• Execute payroll and ensure timely payment of bills
• Maintain pertinent files and organize office with organizational filing systems
• Assist in any planned or special CGM related events as needed

Requirements:

• Proven experience with above roles in equivalent or equal position
• Excellent organizational and leadership abilities
• Outstanding communication and people skills
• Knowledge of industry’s legal rules and guidelines
• In depth knowledge of diverse business functions and principles (e.g. supply chain, finance, customer service etc.)
• Working knowledge of data analysis and performance/operation metrics
• Familiarity with MS Office and various business software

Additional:

• Degree(s) in business administration or relevant field is a plus

Please email to jobs@cgmlife.org a resume (a CV is not required, but will be accepted if you wish to submit it) along with a statement answering this question:

Knowing the mission and vision of Common Ground Montgomery (can be found online here: www.cgm.life/mission), why do you want to work with CGM and what do you hope to accomplish?

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Link: CGM Jobs

summer camper sponsorships

It's that time of the year again! The CGM Summer Camp is just around the corner, and we need your help to make it happen! Every year CGM hosts a summer camp for eight weeks. Our goal is to have 100 children this summer.

The children will be with us for seven hours a day, five days a week. 

We want to provide these children a chance to get off the streets for the summer, be surrounded by Christian men and women that love them in paradigm shattering ways, teach them the Gospel, and provide an amazing summer of fun.

Along with the staff, we also bring in 10-20 college interns to help run the camp.

We budget $400 per child in our camp for grades kindergarten - 8th. The high school students are budgeted at $500 per child because they go on college tours and other trips.

Please consider donating to help us put on our annual Summer Camp!