BREAKING NEWS!

Metanoia Earns Internation Recognition from BBC News

To view the BBC article on Metanoia, click on the following link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10497083.stm

An audio piece in connection with this story is also available.  To hear it, follow the following link.  Metanoia is mentioned about 2 minutes into ‘chapter 6’: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p008gr41#p008pzdk

Metanoia was mentioned in an international news peice when the British Broadcast Company (BBC) published a story on an increasing wealth gap among races in America. In a series of interviews arranged by the South Carolina Association of CDCs, two Metanoia

The story reveals that the gap in wealth between white and black Americans is more than four times as large as it was in 1984.  Furthermore, one out of every four black families, the article states, have no assets at all. 

BBC correspondent Paul Adams profiles Natisha Boston, a resident of Chicora/Cherokee and mother of two students in Metanoia’s afterschool programs.  The article mentions Metanoia by name, and describes us as “an award-winning community development corporation in one of the tougher neighborhoods on North Charleston.”  Natisha credits Metanoia’s financial literacy and home-buying programs (in partnership with Charleston Area CDC) with helping her to clean up her credit and move twoard a position to purchase her own home, and therefore build an asset for herself and her family. 

The Chair of Metanoia’s board of directors, Germaine Jenkins, is also profiled in the piece.  Mrs. Jenkins has become a model of the type of community leader Metanoia strives to inspire: she is a Metanoia homeowner, and has become a community leader by not only serving on our board of directors, but by helping to sustain her family’s food supply through by growing her own produce, and creating a website devoted to tips on healthy, thrifty living.  Despite all her hard work and effort, Mrs. Jenkins says that she owes her current life to her home: “’There wouldn’t be a website […].  I wouldn’t be home-schooling my son.  There wouldn’t be any garden if I was still in public housing or worse yet an apartment, trying non-stop to make that rent.  Its awesome to come home every day, open the door to something that’s ours.’” 

Creating affordable quality living is one of the cornerstones of a successful communities.  At Metanoia we host financial literacy courses, assist with down payments, and build housing in an effort to guide more of our community members towards owning their own home and nurturing that asset.