Florida Catholic | Interfaith Group Seeks BOLD Justice

Interfaith group seeks BOLD Justice

Broward County churches organize in a grass-roots effort to advocate for affordable housing and dental care for the indigent.

PRISCILLA GREEAR | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 03.14.08

SOUTHWEST RANCHES | The Rev. Rosa Lindahl Mallow, an Episcopal priest, remembers how one parishioner would repeatedly glue his bad tooth back into his mouth. Another endured an infected tooth for several weeks until his parish paid for treatment that cost $985 — with a discount.

“I’ve seen the cost and impact of not having affordable dental care in our community really up close and personal,” said Rev. Mallow, missioner for community and Latino ministries at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale.

Father Robés Charles, pastor of the Divine Mercy Haitian Mission in Fort Lauderdale, has seen one too many parents struggle to pay rent to support their families. They are forced to leave their children unattended after school, where they are tempted to get involved with drugs and gangs.

“Right now housing is so expensive that a two-bedroom for somebody is too much. People can’t afford it. They have to do three jobs. They don’t have time for their kids,” he said. “We are obliged as a city. Our county is the worst in taking care of low-income (people) with housing situations. When they neglect these things we all pay for it.”

The two religious leaders and some 800 others gathered last September for the first assembly of BOLD Justice, a grassroots faith-based group modeled after Miami-Dade’s PACT (People Acting for Community Together). Members of BOLD Justice, which stands for Broward Organized Leaders Doing Justice, voted then to make the shortage of housing and affordable dental care their key advocacy priorities for 2008.

At the end of February, nearly 1,600 people from ethnically and racially diverse congregations across Broward County showed up for BOLD Justice’s first Nehemiah action meeting, held at St. Mark Parish in Southwest Ranches. The name “Nehemiah” references a biblical official in Jerusalem who listened to the complaints of the poor and called a meeting where he challenged the rich to act justly.

“We’re doing the same exact thing they were, looking around, listening to the cries and complaints and suffering of poor, low-income families,” said Father Roger Holoubek, pastor of St. Maurice Parish in Dania Beach. Once members understand key issues, “we meet with those who can do something about them.”

The Nehemiah meeting, conducted in English, Spanish and Creole, addressed dental care and housing issues before Broward County Mayor Lois Wexler and representatives of NOVA Southeastern University, South Florida Dental Association, Broward Health, Memorial Health and Broward Regional Health Planning Council.

Apparently some listened. Representatives from the Health Planning Council have established a task force and plan to come back before BOLD Justice with a draft plan of action.

“When you get that many people of faith who cross ethnic and cultural and faith lines, there’s basically some people-power to that,” said Rev. Mallow, vice president of BOLD Justice.

Before BOLD’s establishment, she noted, there was a lack of collaboration among faith communities.

“We all had a sense that Broward County was very fragmented in terms of speaking out for those who are marginalized,” she said. While other interfaith alliances are focused on dialogue, “this group is much more action-oriented in terms of addressing social justice issues.”

Board member Sara Wolfer, a member of the Church of the Little Flower in Hollywood, was particularly attracted to work for the common good with people of diverse backgrounds.

“I thought it was such a wonderful thing we could be working interdenominationally and identify areas in our community that really need to change,” said Wolfer, 73.

As a recently retired nurse, she knows the importance of dental health. “Sometimes it affects your physical health with heart disease, and all kinds of other things can happen,” she said. “I was involved in another job working with a lot of people trying to get them dental care and it’s a very big problem.”

Board member Cesar Romero, 57, attended the February meeting with some 350 other Anglo and Hispanic members of St. Maurice Parish. He is coordinator of Hispanic ministry there and sees persons come to the church daily with exigent health and housing needs.

“This is a first step. The hard part is now, but we are confident,” he said.

Participating congregations will conduct listening sessions in coming months regarding ideas for next year’s advocacy agenda, which will be voted on at the group’s next assembly in October.

Father Holoubek is encouraged by the enthusiasm and thinks the movement will grow.

“It’s trying to make changes to help the poor, and our church has an option for the poor,” he said. “It’s what we’re supposed to do. I believe Jesus had a preference for the poor.”

How it started:

• A core group of clergy began planning the BOLD Justice initiative in late 2005 with guidance from the Direct Action and Research Training Center in Miami.

• Established last September, BOLD Justice is open to all faiths and currently comprises 25 faith communities, including 11 Catholic and one Jewish.

• The group has an operating budget of $150,000, with the largest single grant — $30,000 — coming from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

• For information on BOLD Justice, call 954-987-6595 or visit www.thedartcenter.org/BOLDJustice.html.

What they found:

• In researching health care issues, members of BOLD Justice found that no organization in Broward County is responsible for addressing dental care for the indigent.

• The members also found statistics compiled by the Broward Health Department showing that 18.4 percent of people over 18 in the county don’t have any teeth compared to 7.1 percent for the entire state. “That has all kinds of repercussions from dental and health components to being able to successfully compete for jobs,” said the Rev. Rosa Lindahl Mallow, vice president of BOLD Justice.

• The group also discovered that 42,245 families in Broward County are severely cost-burdened, paying more than 50 percent of their income on rent, according to a study by the Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing at the University of Florida. Among those paying over half their income on rent were 26,864 families who make under $15,600 per household.

• The Broward County Commission had developed a good 10-year plan for creating affordable housing that was never implemented. BOLD Justice is recommending that the county administrator be authorized to develop a three-year plan with funding to address 10 percent of the issues cited in the original plan.

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Interfaith group seeks BOLD Justice

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