Communities of Hope

Communities of Hope walks with communities to identify their assets and develop strategic plans for community transformation. During training, local teams develop a Hope Plan for implementation within their communities.

The United Methodist Church of Greater New Jersey is committed to resourcing congregations to become apostolic leaders in their communities. A Future with Hope provides Communities of Hope training so that congregations can work with their communities to build on assets, create alliances and transform the world.

Core Competencies

• Asset-Based Systemic Change
• Strategic Planning
• Social/Missional Entrepreneurship
• Community Organizing
• Community Economic Development
• Strengthening Multicultural Relationships

The United Methodist Church of Greater New Jersey, through its mission arm, A Future With Hope, has already proven capacity for construction, urban housing development, case management, volunteer coordination and funding. Through our work in Sandy recovery we have built relationships with more than 21 municipalities, freeholders, state senators, members of congress and the governor. As we look beyond Sandy recovery, we see A Future With Hope transforming into a Community of Hope, a Shalom Initiative and training program, to expand its capacity and build on its strengths.

• Asset Based: We identify resources in the community and build on their strengths of those resources to create systemic change.
• Reverse Learning: Participants in the training are the experts guiding their training by their participation and their contexts.
• Social Innovation: The curriculum introduces teams to social entrepreneurship or income generating enterprises that fund the mission and vision of change.
• Sustainable Partnership: Hope Teams are supported through eighteen months of technical assistance as they implement their Hope Plans, discern early learnings, troubleshoot challenges and evaluate impact.
• Investment: Hope Teams are eligible for up to $2500 in seed grant funding to jump start implementation and community transformation.