Our Schtick

 

Story

We were born under an overpass.

Back in ‘09, against the backdrop of the Great Recession, our founder, James, stirred by the example of Jesus, quit his lucrative job, sold everything he owned, and chose to live homeless to be near people in poverty. It was from under the overpass that Neighborly (formerly CYNY) was born.

Mission

We exist to help others see, love, and join those in the margins.

 

Neighborly is a relationship-based poverty relief organization advocating for biblical justice. We provide ways for our supporters to feed, tell, heal, shelter, welcome, and clothe their neighbors.

We not only fight poverty, we dismantle the systems that produce and perpetuate it. At times, we give a fish. Sometimes, we teach how to fish. But we're always asking why there is a darn fence around the pond, who put it there, and why they are charging more for a fishing license for people who need it the most.

Vision

Deinstitutionalize charity & make poverty personal.

The vision is to relationally reimagine charity - that those alleviating poverty would genuinely know those experiencing it. The vision is to stop calling our neighbors "the poor", but to call them by their names. This vision is fueled by a perpetual hope that another world is possible and is led by a bunch of idealist, ragtag, mischief-making, radicals, who are brave enough to not only see and love those in the margins, but to join them there. This vision is to do anything but "keep calm & carry on". The vision is to get angry with injustice & liberate those bound by it in the name of Jesus.

 
Method

Intimacy > Efficiency

Friends don't let friends experience poverty. So, for us, friendship is the goal. We see the person, not just their problem. We make it personal because, when poverty gets a name, it's hard to ignore. Any and all poverty alleviation is a result of meaningful relationships. Another way of saying it is to say that our efficiency is a byproduct of intimacy. This is both our narrative and the experience of our supporters who journey with us. This is what we mean when we say we're "relationship-based".

Though this method slows us down, we believe this model faithfully mimics Jesus' incarnation and makes a sustainable impact in the lives of the people he loves. If friendship is the goal, downward-mobility is the method. The Apostle Paul says it best:

"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, though he was God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing and became a servant in human likeness ... he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on a cross." Phil 2:5-8