An Old Timber Town's "Freedom Church of the Poor"

Volunteers and neighborhood residents gather at the Alhambra Beloved Community Church in Phoenix, Arizona, each week to provide meals, showers, and a place to get out of the summer heat to people who need it.

In many parts of the United States, people struggle with economic mobility and achieving the American Dream. Salt Lake City’s rate of economic mobility is at the highest in the country. An investigative journalist explores the Mormon-influenced structure of charitable giving and various social factors that have created this socio-economic anomaly, and discovers that compassionate conservatism and some government welfare programs have contributed to the state being a unique case.

Los Angeles County’s Flex Vote Center Program establishes polling locations at shelters, transitional housing sites, and service centers for people who are unhoused or face other barriers to voting. In 2020, nearly 2,800 people cast their ballots through the Flex program.

A mobile shower facility called God’s Bathouse stops at churches in Florida to provide a safe environment for people experiencing homelessness to take a hot shower and address their health maintenance needs.

Moms for Housing reclaim vacant homes owned by investors to provide a place for single mothers to live. Advocating for housing as a human right, 13 organizers are currently living in these unoccupied houses and through civil disobedience, managed to negotiate temporary housing as they continue fighting for permanent solutions to the area’s housing crisis.

Temporary modular housing is alleviating homelessness in Richmond, Canada. Stacked units are quicker and cheaper to construct and the temporary housing comes with wraparound services such as meals, support groups, and health care to help people experiencing homelessness get back on their feet. The first modular housing project resulted in a public outcry that the city successfully used as a lesson in engaging the community the second time around.

In Canton, Ohio, Refuge of Hope is a faith-based organization serving the town's male homeless population, offering a place to stay overnight and meals. The organization runs primarily through the help of volunteers, providing more than 80,000 hot meals and 15,000 nights of shelter.

Almost 3,000 Alaskan families received governmental assistance for rent - those who are in need but don't qualify for government help often turn to family, friends, and other informal sources for aid. The St. Vincent de Paul Society is just one of the many faith organizations stepping in to help fill in the gaps.

POWER Northeast is trying to fight against voter disenchantment and reach the parts of the community that usually feel excluded and disillusioned by politics. This organization goes all over Allentown, Pennsylvania speaking to the formally incarcerated and minorities, advocating to political leaders on behalf of the public, and helping make voter registration easier.

In Salt Lake City, a bipartisan coalition of public and private actors, including members of the business, industrial, religious, political, and civic communities voluntarily came together to pass an ambitious twenty year land use plan. The plan, which conserves water, promotes clean air, and imposes new taxes for new rail lines, was made possible by Envision Utah, a public-private partnership that capitalizes on many Utahns' cultural and religious heritage.