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Covenant Community Development Corporation (CCDC) Update
2025-2-18 | Ronda Ooms
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3
We are excited about what God is doing in and through Covenant Community Development Corporation (CCDC) and wanted to share some updates with you! In 2024 we continued to grow and become more established as a nonprofit.
Our board members for CCDC are Alicia Duncan, Scott Fultz (secretary), Kim Han, Stacey Littlefield, Ronda Ooms, Lisa Park, Jill Smith (chair), Jason Stanfield (vice-chair), and Scott Warner. Each person has their own area of expertise and it’s been fun to see how God uses them to ask questions, answer questions, etc. that help us to think and move forward as a community development corporation.
As many of us are aware, housing is hard to come by in the Lafayette area and finding affordable housing is even more difficult. One of the areas God has led us to in our outreach ministry is to help struggling families with safe housing. CCDC’s primary goal is to provide quality houses for low rent to help families become stable and help them experience success. Building relationships and establishing trust is key to helping families as they work to become independent. We are blessed to have two houses that we can offer to families and are open to purchasing more if the opportunity arises.
The board has spent the past year continuing to learn about needs, discussing our options and getting to know other board members better. We meet bi-monthly with a work session in the off month. This past Fall, all the board members took the Bridges Out of Poverty training which was very eye opening and gave us a better understanding of how living in poverty affects families and how hard it is to break out of that lifestyle. Jill Smith, and I also took training to start a Getting Ahead group (an initiative of Bridges Out of Poverty) here in Lafayette. These opportunities were available to us through some grants. More information on the grants is below.
As we discussed next steps for our housing ministry, we realized how difficult it is to help people change. It must come from within them, and we are only the “cheerleader”. Jill Smith and I started a Getting Ahead group on February 9 and we have 7 women ranging in age from 20 to 48 that attend. We will meet at Bauer Community Center every Thursday from 6-8PM through May. Our mission is “Inspire individuals to write a new story for the next chapter of their life.” A description of the group as given in the materials is:
If you’ve spent part of your life—or most of your life—struggling to get by in the world, the idea of actually getting ahead might seem out of reach. But even if your story has been filled with barriers, vanishing opportunities, and setbacks, the next chapter can change all that. Yes, you have to write it, but you don’t have to do it alone. In a facilitated group setting, Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World takes you step by step through a discovery of yourself like no other. It’s not just about how you got where you are now. It’s also about what comes next to build the life you want. Plus, you develop relationships with people who will support you all along the way.
We are excited to see how God works in this group and what He will do as these ladies take a deeper look into their life and dream about what their future can look like. By looking at their finances and current circumstances and understanding how their choices affect how they are living, they are able to see how making changes can move them in a positive direction.
Another exciting opportunity for CCDC is that we have written for and been blessed to be the beneficiaries of grant money through several of the Evangelical Covenant Church (headquartered in Chicago) ministries. Love Mercy, Do Justice gave us $6,000 to allow us to take training in Bridges Out of Poverty and Getting Ahead (an initiative coming out of BOP). We also received a $20,000 ($10,000 given in 2024, $10,000 in 2025) grant from Covenant Children’s Ministry to enhance CCDC and help it become sustainable. CCDC is one of their pilot programs as CCM has restructured the way they do their grants. I help them as they restructure and write new application forms, and they give us the grant money. 😊 It’s a win win!!
In late November, Jill Smith and I talked with Marie Beeson of Prosperity Indiana, a nonprofit that works with CDCs and helps them grow. We signed a contract with them to begin consulting with us in January of 2025. We are excited to begin working with her to see how she can help us grow in our commitment to our community. This opportunity is available to us because of the grant money from the Covenant Children’s Ministry.
This past November, we were also blessed to have Ramelia Willams of Love Mercy, Do Justice come to speak with some of our board members and preach at church. Ramelia is delightful and is a great support to us as we build our CDC here in Lafayette.
In December, we had a change of occupancy in one of our houses. One family moved out on December 9 and a new family moved in on December 24 just in time for Christmas! Lots of renovations took place in a short period of time. The family was homeless and living in a hotel. The children go to Miller School and have been a part of our Afterschool JAM program. They are very thankful for the opportunity to have a safe home for their family. We look forward to working with them and seeing how God works in their lives.
CCDC is looking for ways to become more financially sustainable. If you have questions that you would like answered or would be interested in supporting us financially please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the board members. Monthly or one time gifts can be made on our church giving portal. We’re always happy to share our vision with you. Jill and I would also love to share our experience so far with the Getting Ahead group.
Your prayers are greatly appreciated as we continue to listen to God and follow the steps He puts before us. Housing in Lafayette is difficult to come by and affordable housing even harder. May God give us the wisdom and ability to touch our community through our housing and educational initiatives.