The Alabama Power Foundation recently released its annual report for 2022, highlighting the good works of its nonprofit partners. Alabama News Center is sharing the stories of four foundation partners that are featured in the new report, titled All Forward. Today’s feature is about Edmundite Missions in Selma.

When a tornado tore through Selma in January 2023, Edmundite Missions facilities briefly closed. Despite the 140-mile-per-hour winds causing destruction all around them, the Mission structures were miraculously spared, and within a few hours the nutrition center reopened to serve free meals. More than 200 people showed up to eat and find fellowship.

They didn’t even question that the Missions and its staff would be there for them; their certainty points to the trusted relationships that the organization has built with the community, relationships that promise, “You can count on us.”

Residents of Selma and the surrounding counties of Alabama’s Black Belt have counted on the Edmundite Missions for 86 years. What began in 1937 through a directive to grow the area’s congregation of Catholics quickly shifted when the first two Society of St. Edmund fathers arrived. In response to the poverty they found, one of them wrote in his diary, ‘This is not a people without faith, but a people without food,’ and they immediately began serving sandwiches out of the back of the rectory. Eight decades later, this same spirit moves the Missions today.

Rooted in community

While Edmundite Missions has done its work for close to a century now, needs remain.

“Thirty percent of the population here lives in poverty,” says Chad McEachern, CEO and president. It’s a staggering statistic, yet he stresses the Missions team never views people as numbers; they see every person and seek to meet them where they are, offering compassion, resources and solutions to long-standing issues.

Forging relationships is an essential element for the Missions; so is honoring people’s inherent dignity. They underpin all the programs and services provided to children, teenagers, adults and seniors.

The work is conducted from several locations: the Bosco Nutrition Center, Center of Hope, Bullock Community Center (completed two years ago) and the new administration building.

Edmundite Missions: Supporting families in Selma and across the region from Alabama News Center on Vimeo.

McEachern says the new structures provide more than space for programs. “Investing in these buildings sends a message to our community,” he says. “It reminds them that we are not going anywhere; we are committed to them.”

While the commitment is unwavering, the Missions’ services have expanded, particularly in the past 15 years. When McEachern was named CEO, he oversaw a reassessment.

“We engaged the community to see how we could ensure our organization not only grows but continues to address their evolving needs,” he says.

The result was a realization that identifying systemic issues, creating opportunities and demonstrating that poverty doesn’t have to cancel potential are as vital as distributing food and clothing and offering shelter.

“We continue to help those who live in poverty but put equal emphasis on providing a pathway out of poverty for those who are able, and strengthening the self-reliance of families,” McEachern says.

Unlocking potential

Today, the Missions’ concentration on education and workforce development comes to fruition through small business skill-provisioning for the recently unemployed, through its New Possibilities Youth Program, and through a high school internship program funded by an Alabama Power Foundation grant. The program recently welcomed its first group of five Selma High School seniors.

Every day after school, for one semester, the interns help run the community center’s multiple offerings. They learn to operate the center’s registration system, aid elementary school students with homework, assist with crafts classes, and train to run the scoreboard clock and manage concessions for the youth basketball league. They collaborate with the organization’s graphic designer to make fliers and other informational materials. They file and do other administrative tasks, as well. They are learning leadership and employment skills, but they’re helping the Missions provide its essential services, too.

Preparing young people for careers is one of several focus areas for Edmundite Missions. (contributed)

Tedric White has already benefited from his time as an intern.

“I see many of my classmates going down the wrong path, and I thought this was a way to be on the right path. And it has been,” he says.

“I’ve learned to manage my money better and to budget. I’ve really enjoyed teaching the younger kids basketball, too.”

After military service, White plans to take advantage of a $60,000 scholarship to attend college, where he wants to study computer engineering.

A crucial element of the internships is transforming a mindset that limits what some students believe they can accomplish.

The New Possibilities Youth Program serves a wider group of students, offering summer enrichment, showing first-through-sixth graders how to enjoy learning, and exposing middle school students to experiential STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. The academy, which is centered on ACT prep and career knowledge, engages high school students.

Ongoing impact

Despite the Missions’ greater emphasis toward learning and employment, McEachern underscores its consistent dedication to meeting immediate needs. This work is carried out by a team at the Bosco Nutrition Center and Catholic Social Ministries.

The Nutrition Center serves 600 meals a day through its Meals of Hope delivery service, plus another 1,300 hot lunches, dinners and snacks served onsite. Recently, it upgraded the menu to include healthier options. The health of the local economy is top of mind, too; much of the food comes from nearby farms through the Missions’ Black Farmers Initiative, a program that sources from Black-owned farms across the area, giving them guaranteed purchase orders, and even grants to buy seed and build fences.

From enrichment programs, to cooking classes, to providing nourishing meals, Edmundite Missions has built a reputation of trust while supporting the people of Selma and the region. (contributed)

The center hosts monthly cooking classes to share wholesome recipes, and holds cooking demos at the local Dollar General to show the community that delicious and nutritious dishes can be made with items purchased from the store.

Other necessities – free medical exams, mental health support, transportation to doctor appointments, help with housing crises, and assistance paying for medications and utilities – are fulfilled by the Missions’ Catholic Social Ministries.

“Whoever walks in our door, whatever they need, we assess and then meet the need,” says director Heidi Hock.

McEachern reiterates the importance of whole-person and whole-community care. “We must meet these needs, but we can’t stop there,” he says. “We are showing there is a way out of poverty, and we are going to partner with you and walk beside you on that journey.

“We can’t really get to the root of any problem and find solutions without the trust fostered through deep relationships with individuals and families over time,” adds McEachern. “We have been here 86 years, and we must be here another 86 years. We are taking the long view: Generational poverty does not end overnight.”

Learn more about Edmundite Missions at edmunditemissions.org. To learn more about the Alabama Power Foundation and view the latest annual report, please visit powerofgood.com.