“If you’re not willing to sacrifice for God’s Kingdom, then you don’t love it,” preaches Courtney Brown, the Family Partnership Director and Operations Manager for Habitat for Humanity of East Central Ohio. Courtney passionately delivered a sermon on creating cultures that honor our communities at the Absurd Conference hosted by the ONE Center for Leadership right here in our 44707 community.

Wherever you see Courtney, Habitat CEO Beth Lechner is usually close behind. Throughout the conference weekend, Beth could be seen cheering Courtney on and the two used downtime between sessions to finish up Habitat work. Courtney and Beth found themselves again in 44707 last Sunday morning with 3rd Street as they launched Habitat for Humanity’s Southeast Renewal Project.

The Southeast Renewal Project is a holistic revitalization strategy to raise up neighborhoods through ownership, pride, and empowerment. The project includes a combination of Habitat’s affordable housing solutions such as new home construction, home preservation, existing home repair, and interest-free loans. Each completed project equals one homeowner living in safe, secure housing for years to come. The Renewal Project is targeting the demolition of vacant, blighted structures to make room for usable community green space and pocket parks.

The overall goal of the Renewal Project is to provide residents with an increased quality of life while allowing elderly homeowners to remain in their homes. Habitat’s hope is to increase owner-occupancy and property values while creating a sustainable neighborhood for generations to come. 3rd Street is partnering with Habitat’s Renewal Project to see our 44707 community become a beacon of light in the city of Canton. It seems that we’ll be seeing a lot of Courtney and Beth in the coming months, something we are definitely looking forward to.

For more information on the $4FOR707 campaign and the Southeast Renewal Project contact info@3rdstreetchurch.com.