CHURCH & NEIGHBORHOOD PARTNERSHIPS
BLK South accompanies historic Black congregations and their community partners across the South as they listen to residents, discern their role in the neighborhood, develop community-informed strategies, cultivate place-rooted leaders, and implement projects that contribute to long-term neighborhood flourishing.
Our work is grounded in the historic witness of the Black Church, Asset-Based Community Development, and the belief that faithful community development begins with presence, relationship, and accountability to the people who already call a place home.
We work alongside congregations, community organizations, and institutional partners to build the relationships, leadership, and capacity necessary for long-term, place-rooted work.
We can support churches with:
• Neighborhood listening and asset mapping
• Community development strategy
• Resident-led planning and facilitation
• Partnership and coalition development
• Program and project design
• Funding strategy and grant readiness
• Implementation support
• Leadership formation and Neighborhood Chaplaincy
THE NEIGHBORHOOD CHAPLAIN
Neighborhood Chaplains are trusted, consistent leaders who cultivate the spiritual, social, cultural, and civic well-being of historic African American neighborhoods. They listen to residents, nurture relationships, connect people with resources, preserve community memory, and help neighbors and churches translate shared concerns and hopes into collective action.
Rather than waiting for residents to enter a church building, Neighborhood Chaplains practice a ministry of presence within the everyday life of a neighborhood. They walk alongside residents, recognize the gifts and leadership already present, and help congregations become more deeply rooted, relational, and accountable partners in the flourishing of their communities.
BLK South is developing a comprehensive Neighborhood Chaplaincy formation model that brings together spiritual formation, pastoral care, community organizing, Asset-Based Community Development, mutual aid, trauma-informed care, cultural history, land theology, and place-based community development.
The model is being developed in partnership with Street Psalms, a global network committed to equipping leaders and communities for incarnational ministry in vulnerable urban communities. Together, BLK South and Street Psalms are exploring a formation and design process that will help develop, pilot, refine, and strengthen the Neighborhood Chaplaincy model. Through this partnership, BLK South is growing as a local catalytic and formation hub that equips congregations and neighborhood leaders to cultivate flourishing within the communities they serve.
The Neighborhood Chaplaincy is being shaped through BLK South’s on-the-ground work alongside a local congregation and residents in Durham’s historic Hayti District, as well as through growing collaborations with other congregations and institutional partners. These relationships allow the model to emerge from real neighborhoods, congregations, and community needs rather than from theory alone.
We are also working toward establishing a formal certificate program in partnership with an accredited academic institution. Our vision is to create a rigorous, accessible training pathway that equips church and community leaders to serve historic African American neighborhoods with theological depth, practical skill, cultural humility, and a long-term commitment to place.
Ultimately, the Neighborhood Chaplaincy is designed not simply to grow BLK South, but to strengthen the capacity of historic Black congregations and neighborhood partners to become catalytic agents of healing, belonging, preservation, and community flourishing in the places they call home.