Church Partners
Church-based Community Development is about learning how to practice being a church that partners with the community. Churches are called to address the wholistic needs of people both inside and outside of church walls and to work toward individual and systemic transformation that results in a thriving community for all residents.
Walnut Neighborhood Partners
Having good neighbors begins with being a good neighbor. Many issues facing our communities today would be drastically reduced if, block by block, we strengthened the fabric of our neighborhoods. Link’s geographic focus is in one particular neighborhood: The Walnut Neighborhood of Waterloo, IA. The Walnut Neighborhood Association is an active partner toward neighborhood flourishing.
Development Partners
A development coalition formed in the fall of 2016 after neighbors and invested community members identified the top five challenges facing the Walnut neighborhood:
- housing
- safety
- unity
- financial resources/jobs
- economic development.
This coalition meets monthly to promote and protect fair, affordable, mixed-income, and historically preserved Housing and Urban Development in the Walnut Neighborhood.
Youth Development Partners
Youth empowerment is a central component of Link CCD. Nurturing the needs of a whole young person (spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual), building bridges across divides in our community, and introducing relationships and skills to encourage lives of service, employment, faith, and leadership among youth are central to Link CCD.
Youth Art Team and Try Pie are two youth development partners steeped in CCD principles. Both programs were incubated out of Link CCD, both have grown well beyond the neighborhood, and both are taking flight into their own nonprofit status in our community. We believe in the strength of connecting relationships, gifts, and learning, and so we look forward to continued partnership with these amazing friends!
CCDA Partners
CCDA has been an invaluable vehicle of training, inspiration, and networking for Link CCD. This national association has connected Link with others doing Christian community development across the country. Together, we can learn from one another regarding best practices, struggles, and failures. We have built relationships over the past 11 years that have helped provide the encouragement, support, and prayer needed as we all work toward healing and restoration in our respective communities.
Link CCD formed a regional CCDA network in 2019. You will see opportunities for learning, conversations, and experiences coming forth from this network throughout the year. More Information is available here.
LEADERSHIP
Laura Hoy, LINK Director
Laura Hoy is a visionary, catalyst, communicator, and networker within Link Christian Community Development. Living in the Walnut Neighborhood and employed through Orchard Hill Church, Laura works to develop and strengthen the Link network so that this network of friends and organizations might develop focused strategies together for life and neighborhood transformation.
Laura was trained and certified in the philosophy of Christian Community Development in 2011 by CCDA. She continues to learn from and speak publicly about this approach to community engagement and transformation.