Bethel New Life

Web site:   www.bethelnewlife.org

Mission Statements For Areas of Activity (with links):

Cultural Arts  --  A cultural home that encourages community pride through the arts; a place for passionate expression of our rich artistic heritage; and alternative for youth to drugs and violence; a destination place.

Employment  --  Enable individuals to gain living wage jobs, create new jobs in the community, and enhance individual asset development in the community.

Housing and Economic Development  --  Quality, affordable, energy-efficient housing, bias towards ownership, development without displacement and transit oriented housing and commercial development.

Family Support  --  Strengthening and supporting families by providing assistance with food, fuel, health care, security deposits, housing and child development programs.   

Seniors  --  Help seniors live to the fullness of life in community by providing a variety of supportive services including independent living residences, in-home care, and adult day services.

Community Development  --  Facilitating the development of healthier, sustainable community through empowered people participating as citizens, building on community assets.   

Description:

Bethel New Life, a faith-based organization, was founded in 1969 as a community development corporation on Chicago’s West Side. It is a nationally recognized faith-based institution that has leveraged a new environmental awareness and a metropolitan perspective to attract new resources to the neighborhood of West Garfield. Its projects include an adaptive use of a former 434-bed hospital as an elderly housing complex, energy efficient housing: transit-oriented development as well as the rescue of the Garfield Park Conservatory, an ambitious multi-million dollar restoration plan bringing new visibility to the neighborhood. Bethel New Life has trained and placed over 4,000 people in living wage jobs, and has worked in partnership with a large number of stakeholders from across the region to secure a $300 million investment to save a subway line in danger of elimination. Because of its pioneering community-based work, Bethel has a national audience for this project.