Friendship Houses - Overview

A Community Renewal Friendship House is a haven of hope in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. Like a community center in a home, a Friendship House is a place for after-school education programs, character building, service projects, GED courses, tutoring, computer training, art and music lessons, family nights and much more. The house is lived in by a Community Coordinator employed by CRI and their family, who not only help the neighborhood – they become a part of it.

The Friendship House outreach is the primary component of the Internal Care Unit strategy of CRI in rebuilding the caring infrastructure in our cities. The focus is to go into distressed neighborhoods where crime is often high and incomes are often low.

Relationships are never static and do not take care of themselves. They are always growing or diminishing. Although society has become technologically advanced, our relationships have disintegrated and “community” has been lost in the process.

We move community coordinators and their families into Friendship Houses in distressed neighborhoods to become the catalysts for caring relationships. They spend time with their neighbors and earn the trust of individuals, families, groups and agencies in the neighborhood. The relationships they form become a foundation for residents to set and achieve basic goals in the areas of community, education, leadership, housing, health, safety and meaningful work.