URBAN PROMISE began in 1980 as a project of Tony Campolo’s Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, serving children and youth in Philadelphia.

The program expanded to Camden, New Jersey in 1985; in 1993, the Camden program was incorporated as Urban Promise. The first director was Bruce Main, who grew up in North Vancouver – and was recruited by Campolo while studying at Azusa Pacific University in California.

In 1997, students from the Lower Mainland who had volunteered in Camden returned to start a similar program in Vancouver. Their support networks formed the nucleus of the support system for the new ministry.

Other Urban Promise ministries were soon started in Toronto and Wilmington, Delaware. Main said other students who have worked in Camden – which, he said, is often ranked the “poorest and most dangerous city” in the United States – have “caught the vision.” They have gone on to start similar programs in places several American cities, and in Malawi.

Continue article >>

The individual Urban Promise ministries have programs, governance structures and finances separate from each other. However, leaders of the programs meet a couple of times a year to share insights and “hold one another accountable.”

They are also working at ways to more systematically encourage and counsel similar ministries. Upcoming TV coverage on 20/20 and Extreme Home Makeover may help spread the vision farther.

Main said all the programs share a “commitment to provide cutting-edge children’s and youth ministry, in under-resourced communities often abandoned by the church.” Also common to all the programs is a strong emphasis on developing leaders who can become “instruments of change in their home neighbourhoods.”

Main said he isn’t sure how far “God’s going to take us.” However, he would not still be involved if he wasn’t seeing results. Over the years, he added, “hundreds of kids have had their lives transformed – and are doing incredible things.”

He is also gratified that Urban Promise has “become a model and inspiration for other organizations concerned for kids in the city. . . . Our ministries are great places for church people who want to make a difference.”

– Jim Coggins

November 2007