Today in the Mission Yearbook - Centering residents’ voices to bring about resident-led change

Margaret Mwale explains how the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People has worked over the past half-century

November 17, 2022

Margaret Mwale

During her recent appearance as the guest on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast,” Margaret Mwale, Associate for Community Development and Constituent Relations for the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, offered an SDOP definition for podcast hosts the Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong.

SDOP, a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for more than 50 years, is all about self-determination, Mwale said, “the ability to self-determine and directly be in control of identifying means and possible working solutions to those needs in communities,” and also “addressing those needs in ways that increase [people’s] agency or power.”

“Self-development involves centering community residents’ voices to result in resident-led community change,” Mwale said on the podcast, which is available here. “SDOP’s mission includes participating in the empowerment of the economically poor, oppressed and disadvantaged people seeking to change the structures that perpetuate poverty, oppression and injustice. The word ‘empowerment’ was very much at the core when the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People was created, and it is to this very day.”

Mwale had some examples of organizations partnering with SDOP:

Jersey City Together in Jersey City, New Jersey, identifies and develops leaders to help deal with housing insecurity “and push for concrete improvements” in the enforcement of rent control and tenant protection laws, Mwale said. Right now, Mwale noted, “rent is through the roof in a lot of cities across the country.”

Strength to Love II in Baltimore is an urban farm worked by people who were formerly incarcerated. “They not only produce food for their need, they can sell extra food, addressing the issue of the food desert” that hampers the neighborhood, Mwale said. “People are the experts on their own challenges. They know better than those outside their communities what the issues are and what the best ways are to resolve them.”

Afghan Cattle Cooperative in Bristow, Virginia. The organization, made up primarily of refugees from Afghanistan, raises and sells cattle conforming with Halal requirements to improve the lives of families living below the poverty level. SDOP funding, provided by generous Presbyterians who give to the One Great Hour of Sharing Special Offering, helps cooperative members teach their children about animal husbandry and other life skills, Mwale said.

“A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” with the Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong drops each Thursday.

Those organizations “already knew what they wanted to do,” Doong pointed out. “They just needed that extra bit to help them get there and they were off to the races, maybe achieving things they didn’t even know they could have before.”

“I think that definitely speaks to the core of what Self-Development of People seeks to do and in essence what the church recognized decades ago what needed to be done,” Mwale said. “It was very much ahead of the curve.”

“We aren’t going to tie their funds to them doing specific projects that we want them to do,” Mwale said. “They’re looking at things from a long-term perspective in terms of eradicating generational poverty and structures and systems that keep people bound in poverty. … I think it’s pretty astonishing what some of these communities have been able to do through the years, sometimes with very little help.”

SDOP partners with organizations both at the national level, with grants at the level of about $50,000, and at the mid council level through micro grants ranging from $3,000 to $10,000. “That might not sound like a lot to some people,” Mwale said, “but it has been amazing the great uses to which organizations have put that money, advocating for themselves on matters relating to homelessness, senior citizens, youth-led initiatives, income-generating projects — all sorts of issues we have found through the years.”

Catoe called help that donors, churches and worshiping communities provide to ministries including SDOP a “both/and” situation. Places of worship do emergency short-term ministry “and this long-term deeper work. I hope people think deeper into the things you’re doing,” Catoe told Mwale. “Maybe your church has a soup kitchen and you’re asking, ‘Why? Why do you need to have a soup kitchen?’ Your community may have a food desert. Why is that? I think SDOP is a great resource to have in our denomination to facilitate asking those questions and walking alongside communities.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Lydia Kim, Mission Coordinator, Mission Personnel Team, Administrative Services Group, A Corp
Sam Young Kim, Mission Engagement Advisor, Korean Engagement, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

As you walked the streets in towns and villages, Jesus, your eyes were opened to the needs of those who had been left out. You touched the eyes that needed to be opened. You reached out to heal the hurts of the human heart. Give us courage to go where you lead. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Self-Development of People celebrates its 50th anniversary

While continuing its important work, committee will also look back, culminating with a celebration in Rochester, New York

April 7, 2020

The early 1970s was a similar time of harsh political polarization, with issues of race and poverty a prominent part of our conversations and a Church wondering how to address them.

That is where the Presbyterian Church found itself as the 1960s turned to the ’70s, and this year it will be celebrating one of the major answers to that dilemma: the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP).

The Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, coordinator for the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, said the committee’s teachers are the communities with which it partners to alleviate poverty. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“These were folks in the Church that were concerned about justice, they were concerned about civil rights,” says the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, coordinator of SDOP. “This handful of folks that were concerned about justice and lack of economic equity came together, and basically the Self-Development of People committee was born.”

This year, SDOP will be continuing its important work of walking alongside communities that want to make their lives better. But it will also take some time to recognize its 50th anniversary, culminating in a celebration in Rochester, New York, where SDOP was officially launched at the 182nd General Assembly of the then-United Presbyterian Church, after a year of meetings.

The term “self-development” was key. The direction was to create a program to assist “deprived, impoverished or handicapped people, anywhere in the world, in their development,” according to “From Dream to Reality: A Contextual History of Twenty Years of the Presbyterian Self-Development Program,” by James A. Gittings. In addition, the book says commissioners “instructed the Moderator to create in the committee a body that would give concrete expression to Presbyterian concern for the difficulties of the country’s minority populations.”

Gittings’ book, which was published in 1993, details the formation of the committee and trials and triumphs over its first 20 years. Since its inception, SDOP has been supported by the One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) special offering.

“One of the powerful things about Self-Development of People that is really noteworthy is that it has been a ministry to teach the Church about the intricate issues of poverty,” Johnson says. “And we do that because our teachers are the community. Our teachers are the projects that we fund, the connections we make in the community. … The communities teach us what it means to engage poverty in the way that is authentic, relevant and substantive.”

SDOP invites people in communities impacted by poverty to apply for grants, telling the committee how they will use the funds to improve the community and what will be the expected benefit of the project. The committee does not fund organizations. Rather it wants people in communities to organize together in groups of 10 or more and propose a project.

The national committee is a racially, ethnically, geographically and increasingly generationally diverse group that meets four times a year to discuss grant applicants, learn about the areas it visits and engage in group training.

Collaboration with other ministries has become a growing part of SDOP’s portfolio, such as teaming with the Presbyterian Hunger Program and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance on projects in places such as Puerto Rico.

Two other features of SDOP are international work and local SDOP committees based in presbyteries and synods, doing the same sort of work as SDOP at a local level.

To Johnson, the work of SDOP falls in line with the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Matthew 25 invitation to address issues including systemic poverty and structural racism.

“It’s a time for us to be in conversation about how the Church is called to address the issues of poverty,” he says. “It’s a time for us to be real about how we will engage communities and how we will allow communities to engage us to address these issues of poverty. And so, this year is going to be a time of learning, a time of growth and a time of celebrating the way God in Jesus Christ has been active in this ministry.”

 “The 50th year is about celebration, but it’s also about education,” Johnson says. “And it’s about connecting with our SDOP folks who’ve been involved in this ministry for a long time, but also creating awareness for the Church for a new generation to take hold and understand the great work that SDOP has done over the years.”

Rich Copley, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Stephanie Becker, Office of the General Assembly
Serrita Bell, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Compassionate God, thank you for the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People’s many years of serving those in need and offering lessons about poverty. Amen.