Advancing the Kingdom

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pool that included 66 cities, St. Louis

was awarded a $35 million grant.

The Departments of Veterans Affairs

and Housing and Urban Development

and Independent Agencies Act of

1993 created the HOPE VI program.

Funds are allocated for demolition and

revitalization of public housing. Of the

five objectives given by HUD, the most

applicable pertains to the forging of

“partnerships involving public housing

residents, state and local government

officials, the private sector, non-profit

groups and the community-at-large…”

Kingdom House, as a neighbor to and

in the Near Southside Redevelopment

Area, is a crucial foundation and

support for the partnerships that HOPE

VI creates; the settlement is particularly

vital to the Darst-Webbe, Paul Simon

and Webbe Elderly, Clinton-Peabody

and LaSalle Park Village public housing

sites.

After a bitterly contested election

that ultimately was settled by the

Supreme Court, George Walker Bush

was declared the forty-third president

of the United States. Shortly after his

swearing-in, Bush announced his plan

for the continued government support

of faith-based charities through a

program based upon “Compassionate

Conservatism.”

The paramount goal is compassionate

results, and private and charitable groups,

including religious ones, should have the

fullest opportunity permitted by law to

compete on a level playing field, so long as

they achieve valid public purposes.... The

delivery of social services must be results-

oriented and should value the bedrock

principles of pluralism, nondiscrimination,

evenhandedness and neutrality.

Despite the controversy over the

creation of the White House Office of

Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

early in 2001, many Americans did not

realize that the western collaboration

between church and state dates back to

welfare reform laws passed in Europe

in the latter sixteenth century.

Few

recall that both Vice President Gore and

Governor Bush proposed expanding

the cooperation between government

and “faith-based organizations” during

the campaign leading up to the 2000

election.

Without governmental support from

the local, state and federal levels, many

smaller, community-based agencies

like Kingdom House could not offer

the multiplicity of programs they

provide. Of the nearly $2.5 million

dollars in support and revenue required

for 2002, just over $1 million came

from governmental sources. The

United Way contributed over a half

million dollars, with churches, private

donations, investment income, and other

miscellaneous revenues comprising the

rest.

Kingdom House has consistently

demonstrated good stewardship of the

provision of public and private funds.

The agency’s longevity and commitment

to the near South Side of St. Louis has

proven the effectiveness of collaboration

between community, church and

government towards problem-solving at

the local level.

Donna Puyear, long-term supporter of

Kingdom House, headed the Centennial

Committee to plan a series of events in

honor of the 2002 anniversary of the

agency.

These events incorporated

the annual favorites of the Auction and

Golf Tournament, but also included the

making of a video,

Kingdom House –

The First Hundred Years

, and the writing

of the commemorative book

Advancing

The Kingdom

. While the celebrations

all reminisced and recalled the previous

achievements of the agency’s founders

and supporters through the decades, the

year’s events also reminded neighbors,

staff and volunteers alike of the many

obstacles yet to be overcome in the

community Kingdom House serves.

Reflecting back upon the efforts made

by Kingdom House, and the successes

of the settlement house movement in

general, Rev. Eugene Morse affirms,

What I have discovered over there [in

England] and what I’ve discovered here

and all through this over the long haul, the

ones that get the A+ as far as I’m concerned

for sticking with it and making the greatest

contributions are the churches. They have

stuck with it. Government programs throw

some money at a program and then back

off and then throw some more at it. But

the churches – here’s a hundred years of a

church saying ‘we’re not going to leave; we

might not solve the problems overnight, but

we’re not going to leave.’ And when I look

at who[m] I have worked with the most in

the past 23 years that I’ve been here, it has

been the Roman Catholic-backed settlement

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