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Objectives

20 of America's Poorest
Counties "Plus"

1. Starr, TX
2. East Carroll, LA
3. Zavala, TX
4. Shannon, SD
5. Owsley, KY
6. Ziebach, SD
7. Maverick, TX
8. Holmes, MS
9. Todd, SD
10. Willacy, TX
11. Dimmit, TX
12. Phillips, AR
13. Hidalgo, TX
14. Sharkey, MS
15. Lee, AR
16. Sunflower, MS
17. McCreary, KY
18. Perry, AL
19. Presidio, TX
20. Buffalo, SD

Together for Hope Objectives

Objective One:

Through interaction with Together for Hope (TFH) and community-based organizations, those living in poverty in the focal counties/parishes will be able to deal more effectively with their critical issues.

Measurable Goals

1. By 2008 CBF Global Missions and/or a CBF state/regional organization will have identified partnership relationships with individuals and groups that are recognized as agents of change within each of the focal counties/parishes. TFH will provide development strategy, information, and other technology and resource development support as appropriate (including local asset development.)

2. When ‘Goal 1’ above has been accomplished in each of the focal counties/parishes, the following goals will be in effect for that particular county/parish:

a. Within two years an organization within each of the focal counties/parishes will have a website (linked to CBF, TFH, CBF-related organizations, and others) that gives a detailed, county-wide list of desired resources and promising practices to implement a high quality TFH effort over time.

b. Within five to ten years each of the focal counties/parishes will show improvements in areas such as per capita average income, literacy rate, mortality rate, high school graduation rate, and other selected standards appropriate for the individual counties.

c. Within five years advocates in the focal counties/parishes will have identified goals for economic development, local leadership development, good education, medical services, adult education, and infrastructures (sewer and water systems, fire and police protection); and within twenty years will have achieved those goals.

d. Within fifteen years each of the focal counties/parishes will have a lower percentage of its citizens living at or below the poverty level, and by the twentieth year they will no longer be among the twenty ‘poorest’ (those with the highest percentages of citizens living at of below the poverty level).

e. Within twenty years each of the focal counties/parishes will have two or more effective leaders or leadership groups who will facilitate ongoing efforts in harmony with TFH principles.

Objective Two:

Churches, organizations, mission groups, and individual volunteers who participate in TFH efforts in the focal counties will gain a greater awareness of our biblical mandate with the poor and will be able and willing to implement what they have learned with the poor in their home communities.

Measurable Goals

1. Within five years CBF will be continually identifying, producing, and distributing effective educational materials and learning opportunities that result in informed activity with the poor. This will help partnering churches, other organizations, and individual Christians to develop awareness of rural poverty and its root causes and to engage these issues based on the biblical mandate of serving the poor.

2. Within five years CBF will help to build a communications network that will provide appropriate communication tools that will provide access to educational resources and volunteer opportunities related to Together for Hope.

3. Within ten years 500 churches and 15,000 individuals will have participated in ‘hands on’ volunteer/partnership activities in the focal counties. These volunteer and/or partnership activities will provide opportunities for all participants to be transformed by their mutual engagement in the challenge of rural poverty and to experience a changed worldview and a changed view of God that will prompt them to implement what they have learned in their respective communities.