The Story:

In October of 2021 we formed our first Community Advisory Board and began having serious discussion with our neighbors. We simply listened and held space to explore what the biggest needs are in our community and what we might be able to do together to solve problems and fill in the gaps.

In April of 2022 the Community Advisory Board hosted a neighborhood BBQ to share the ideas we had gathered from everyone and have our first fundraiser to support these new ministry possibilities.

We wrote all of the ideas we’d received on butcher paper and plastered it up on the wall for neighbors to vote on what they thought were the most important things, as well as space to write any ideas that we hadn’t heard yet.

We not only got great feedback from our community, but we also raised $500 for future renovations to make these dreams come true!

1. Game Room

The Treehouse “teen room” got a face lift! The children spoke and we listened!

We are now the proud owners of an X-box, Wii, and a ping-pong table (that sometimes conveniently doubles as a conference table)!

We also added fun activities for adults into our schedule, like a sewing class and arts and craft days!

2. Wellness & Mental Health

Our neighbors expressed desire for a broad range of community wellness and mental health resources, such as counseling, support groups, art therapy, speech therapy for their children, and classes to learn more about mental health and other topics.

Over the last year we have addressed this felt need by paying for professional counseling, helping through mental health crises, starting a mom support group, and expanding our Peace Garden as a safe place to express both grief and hope.

We have learned a lot over the last few years about the long waitlists to receive care from Medicaid approved mental health professionals and the gap in services between recognizing a mental health concern and reaching the point of crisis. We are eager to continue learning from our community, research, and professionals and begin to fill in these gaps!

3. Job Opportunities

Creating opportunities for employment directly in our community without the barrier of transportation has long been a dream of ours. We had already begun taking small steps in that direction by hiring our teens to help with the lawn care and cleaning at Oak Tree, but this was a clear sign that it was time to expand to bigger jobs!

In December we were thrilled to hire one of our Community Advisory Board members to assist with Christmas in the Village, and we just couldn’t imagine our staff without her after that! Theaudra has been working part-time with us since then, and we are aiming to have her with us full-time by the end of the year as the manager of our first business division: Renew Printing!

We are learning from other ministries who have had great success launching screen printing businesses and are grateful to have formed a partnership with a local company who will train and coach us as we launch this new endeavor.

We cannot wait to be able to employ more neighbors in our community as Renew Printing grows.

Keep an eye out for the opportunity to vote on our first t-shirt design and be sure to remember us for all of your screen printing needs in late 2023!

what’s the next step?

If you’ve been to the Treehouse lately you might have noticed that we are quickly outgrowing our space and are creatively using every inch of it! To continue providing safe space for children to thrive AND provide the resources that our community has requested, we’re going to need to expand our square footage!

You may recall that we own a large warehouse just around the corner that we’ve been praying and planning to expand into (you can read a little more about that HERE). We’ve known that renovations to that space will be no small task (think upwards of $1 million), and while we are up for the challenge, we are also aware of our need to grow at a manageable rate. Rebuilding that space is a long-term project, so we have been exploring ways that we can begin implementing feedback from the community BBQ on a shorter timeline.

Recently, a small office building, located just between our two properties (see map below), came on the market. We have had the opportunity to learn some of the history of the space and meet family members of the former owner, Mr. Newman. It didn’t take long for us to imagine our collective dreams for community wellness resources and job creation beginning to unfold in this space!

The property is .5 acre with office space and a large workshop. It will need cleaning up and renovation, but it is a much more manageable task than our neighboring warehouse space! We believe this is a perfectly sized next step as the Lord continues to grow our ministry.

You can read more details about what it will take to renew this space in our community, make a donation to the work, and track where we are at in the fundraising process below!

SOLD!

We are thrilled to announce that we are the official owners of the Newman building! The property was listed at $95,000 and our offer of $55,000 was immediately accepted by Medicaid! God provided the funding needed to close the purchase in His perfect timing. We will be announcing volunteer opportunities to help us begin cleaning up the property soon and continuing to raise the money needed to renovate and begin services there soon! Can you re-imagine this space with us and envision the renewing work God will do in our community as we work together on this property? We can hardly wait for the transformation to begin!

Support the Newman Center for Renewal by giving today:

All gifts are tax-deductible.

Checks can be made payable to Oak Tree Ministries with “Newman Center” in the memo line and mailed to: 6517 Kimberly Ave. Birmingham, AL 35212.