FAITH

Fighting Against Injustice and Toward Harmony

Mission

We are a congregation-based community organization composed of religious congregations and other community organizations. Our members, of diverse racial, religious, and economic backgrounds, pledge to work together to address the root causes of poverty and injustice, through the empowerment of low to moderate income people.

Past Accomplishments

Crime and Drugs: Over the past five years, F.A.I.T.H. has identified nearly 200 spots plagued by persistent crime in both Daytona Beach and Deltona, and held law enforcement accountable to its responsibility to respond. In 2005, F.A.I.T.H. was victorious in its efforts to get the city of Daytona Beach to double the size of the Police Department?s street-level narcotics unit.

Education: F.A.I.T.H. has been working with the Volusia County School District to implement a new curriculum in the schools to help ensure that all children learn to read. In 2001, two local elementary schools, Westside and PalmTerrace, began a pilot project using the Direct Instruction Curriculum. In the Fall of 2003, because of the program?s success at these two schools, the district expanded the curriculum to twelve additional schools. A significant marker of the program?s success came with this past academic year?s FCAT scores, as our district?s third graders recorder their highest ever reading score! F.A.I.T.H. continues its work with the District to monitor and expand this successful program.

Substance Abuse Treatment: Through the persistent efforts of F.A.I.T.H., a substance abuse treatment program was started in the County Jail in May of 2001. In May of 2002, F.A.I.T.H. received a commitment from community treatment providers to arrange a link between the jail program and their programs in the community to ensure that treatment is continued upon release. Today over 1,000 people have successfully completed the program decreasing the recidivism rate and giving many people a second chance at a productive life.

Jobs / Wages / Economic Development: One of F.A.I.T.H.?s biggest accomplishments has been the expansion of public transportation hours from 7:30 pm to midnight in the Daytona Beach area. This was in response to members? identification of the difficulty to take second and third shift jobs as a result of no nighttime bus service. Monitoring meetings with Votran inform us that ridership is doing well, and breaking 470 riders per night.

Health Care: In 2003, the members of FAITH voted to work on the issue of health care. FAITH sought to work with Halifax Hospital to ensure the almost $30 million yearly that they receive in ad valorem tax dollars to provide healthcare for those without insurance was spent both wisely and justly. In 2005 we succeeded in getting an agreement to streamline intake procedures and increase access with a new clinic and Urgicare Center to better serve those in our community without health insurance.

Affordable Housing: FAITH is leading the discussion of how to develop a sustainable strategy to provide affordable housing for those working in our community. During our 2007 Action, FAITH received commitments from a majority of the Daytona Beach City Commission and the Volusia County Council to work with us to implement a Workforce/Affordable Housing Ordinance for the city of Daytona Beach and unincorporated Volusia County that would provide an array of tools and incentives for devolopers and builders to build housing that our community can afford.

_Mental Health:_ This past year FAITH won commitments from the Volusia County Council to work with local mental health agencies to ensure that mentally ill inmates are given their prescribed medications and are treated humanely while incarcerated at the Volusia County Jail.

Year End Report

On April 28th over 1,100 members of FAITH’s twenty member congregations came together in strength and unity to demand justice from the Volusia County Council on two important issues regarding the Volusia County jail. Over the past year, the Volusia County jail has become a source of major concern in the community due to the unjust, and in some cases, inhumane treatment of mentally ill inmates. Based on over 100 complaints from mentally ill inmates who were denied their medication and multiple lawsuits, FAITH became a leading voice to ensure quality mental health treatment for inmates. The contract for healthcare at the Volusia County jail has been contracted to a for-profit company based out of Brentwood, TN that has a long track record of poor treatment of inmates and multiple lawsuits. The company lived up to its reputation promptly upon taking over the healthcare for inmates in Volusia County by denying inmates psychotropic medications and using questionable tactics for restraint and decompensation. FAITH won commitments from the Volusia County Council to work with a local mental health provider for mental health services in the jail and to ensure that there are more just methods for treating inmates, including continuity of care, providing inmates with required medications, and using more humane methods of restraint. Also, FAITH won commitments to reestablish a new, improved substance abuse treatment program in the Volusia County jail using a local provider with a strong linkage for continuity of care upon release. Until its termination in Fall 2007, over 1,000 inmates had successfully completed the substance abuse program in the Volusia County Jail that FAITH was instrumental in getting started.

FAITH is continuing to work for Affordable Housing for its residents based on commitments made at the Action Assembly last year. In 2007 FAITH’s Affordable Housing Committee made a significant victory in the fight for Affordable Housing by getting agreements from four Daytona Beach city commissioners, the mayor, and the community development director, as well as four Volusia County Council members and the county chair to work with FAITH to develop and pass a Workforce/Affordable Housing Ordinance that will use an array of tools to increase the number of affordable units in the city of Daytona Beach and unincorporated Volusia County. These victories came after a successful community-wide campaign spearheaded by the FAITH Affordable Housing committee that included several educational and relationship building meetings with local government, non-profits, developers, realtors, and FAITH members discussing the problem in our county and viable solutions and tools that are available to us. The mayor of Daytona Beach and the Volusia County Chairman made a public recommitment at the Action Assembly and are looking for the ordinances to be completed in 2009.

FAITH is also continuing to monitor past victories that continue to improve the lives of our community’s residents. FAITH continues to work with the Volusia County School District to improve reading ability for at-risk students in Title 1 schools. Direct Instruction, a proven phonics-based curriculum for teaching reading, was implemented in 2 pilot schools in 2001 and became a tool for children reading below grade level in 12 additional schools in 2003. FCAT and SAT9 scores continue to show the program’s success. In 2005 we saw Halifax Hospital follow through on their commitment to implement the plan that FAITH’s Healthcare committee helped win, that increases access to medical services for residents with little or no health insurance. The Express Care Center and Dunn Ave Clinic have cut down wait times from weeks to hours and now thousands of people without health care have signed up for the Hospital’s indigent care program so they can have the access they need to ensure they remain healthy. Also, our Jobs Committee worked with the Volusia County Transit System (VOTRAN) to establish nighttime bus service so residents would have access to second and third shift jobs. The number of riders continues to increase and surpass expectations. The Daytona Beach Police Department has identified over 200 Hot Spots of drug and crime activity due to FAITH’s Hot Spot Card campaign, which is in the process of spreading to other municipalities throughout the county.

Last year FAITH raised almost $50,000 locally and trained over 200 leaders. These accomplishments will help us continue to work to bring justice to the residents of Volusia County.

Current Membership

Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church
Christ Presbyterian Church
Community United Methodist Church
Deltona Christian Church
Epiphany Catholic Church
First Christian Church of Daytona Beach
First Presbyterian Church of Daytona Beach
Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church
New St. James Missionary Baptist Church
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community
St. Mary?s Episcopal Church
St. Timothy?s Episcopal Church
Seabreeze United Church (UCC)
Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church
Temple Israel, Daytona Beach
Tubman King Community Church (UCC)
Unitarian Universalist Society of the Daytona Beach Area
United Church of Christ, New Smyrna Beach

Contact Info

Beth Howard
Lead Organizer
(386) 238-7060
P.O. Box 164
Daytona Beach, FL 32115