inCOMMON Community Development exists to affront poverty through the cultivation of supportive community networks that participate in the holistic development of vulnerable populations and neighborhoods.
We work to “transform communities through community.”
Recognizing that something in the war on poverty is amiss, inCOMMON Community Development purports that a new comprehensive strategy must be imagined – a strategy offering hope and renewal to the “least of these” who struggle for life outside our own front doors. Unfortunately, often “social service workers from various agencies keep dealing with the same families over and over as new emergencies occur in [clients'] lives. No one is assigned to look at each family’s circumstances holistically and design a package of assistance that would not only address their immediate problems more sensibly, but also build the foundation to prevent the recurring emergencies.” (James O. Gibson, G. Thomas Kingsley and Joseph B. McNeely, Community Building: Coming of Age, April 1997)
In response to such realities, inCOMMON exists to affront poverty through the cultivation of supportive community networks that participate in the holistic development of vulnerable populations and neighborhoods. Holistically and concurrently addressing forms of relational, emotional and material poverty, inCommon works with families and individuals in a way that takes each unique situation into account – whether a job transition, post-incarceration re-entry, emotional instability, access to food and clothing, education, health care or housing.
Dr. Robert Lupton, President of Family Consultation Service (FCS) Urban Ministries notes the effect of this reality by stating that:
“The single greatest cause of sustained poverty in our cities is isolation.”
A person’s success in transitioning from poverty hinges on his/her possession of committed, authentic, and purposed relationships. It is only within relationships of this kind that the love, encouragement, and support one requires for life growth are found. inCOMMON trains and supports neighbors (both the poor and non-poor) as they enter into mutually reciprocal relationships empowering the poor to exit chronic cycles of poverty and the non-poor to experience relational and spiritual transformation.
Simply put, our strategy is to fight poverty by not only offering the poor services, but also ourselves. Located in downtown Omaha, inCOMMON primarily serves the surrounding area and Park Avenue neighborhoods in Omaha, Nebraska. Aimed at the holistic development of both people (CommonLife) and neighborhoods (CommonGround), each inCommon ministry appropriately gears its efforts toward a wide-range of vulnerable and individually unique communities, including those who are homeless, near-homeless, post-incarcerated, resettling (immigrants and refugees), and at-risk youth.
