2024 was an impactful year for South Street Ministries! We strive to measure the impact of our work individually — to see how God is moving and growing in the lives of an individual’s story — but story after story begins to add up! In 2024, South Street ReDirection Services:

• Directly supported more than 600 Reentry participants, walking alongside neighbors on their journey toward sustainability and restoration.
• Connected more than 100 adults and 5 young people to meaningful employment, empowering individuals to rebuild their lives and contribute to their families and community.
• Provided more than 93 individuals essential resources like beds and shoes — meeting immediate needs to improve their daily lives.
• Distributed 861+ bus passes, ensuring transportation access to jobs, appointments, and opportunities.
• Assisted at least 245 returning citizens in obtaining state birth certificates, a critical first step toward accessing employment and housing.
• Hosted 10 outreach events, engaging with our community to strengthen relationships and create spaces of connection and hope.

Moreover, the impact doesn’t stop there: Our weekly Tuesday Reentry meetings have seen a 100% increase in attendance, growing from 35 participants in 2022 to more than 70 in 2024! These gatherings are lifelines of support, offering love and community to individuals navigating life after incarceration.

These numbers reflect our commitment to transforming lives, sharing faith, and fostering a supportive community alongside partners like you.

As far as Bike Shop numbers go, what an amazing summer we had! Here are some highlights …

• 203 repairs, 373 bikes distributed, and 616 participants at the Summit Lake AMHA (Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority) site throughout the summer.
• 198 participants across 24 programs at Summit Metro Parks — plus great engagement through our Senior Cycling outreach.
• Sponsored several BMX Jams, as well as the Curtis J. Rhoden III Memorial Ride Out.
• 527+ hours from our incredible Bike Shop volunteers, who gave of their patience, persistence, dedication, and sacrifice.
• Partnerships with Summit Metro Parks and AMHA extended for the 2025 season!
  

The true impact of Bike Shop, though, is measured in a manner much less precise than the numbers above … because it’s measured in tears, successes, challenges, and so many other attributes that just aren’t quantified as easily. 

Thank you for making all this possible through your prayers and support. Your partnership is valued and appreciated!

By Joe Tucker

2024 has been a year full of stories — stories of development, change, and transformation. And you live at the heart of those stories — every life-giving experience that happens at South Street Ministries in partnership with a beautiful community of prayer and provision. 

Because of your prayers and generosity, hope is restored … and our community grows stronger every day because of it. Your partnership makes this work possible, and the whole South Street team is deeply grateful.

As I reflect on the past year and what God has done through South Street in and around Greater Akron, I cannot help but look forward in faith, fully trusting where God is leading our team.

Justice-impacted individuals will find new hope in 2025 … youth will discover their potential … and neighborhoods will be strengthened through faith, partnership, and care. 

As we step into a new chapter of faith-driven, community-sustained ministry in the months to come, your partnership is more critical than ever. Together, we are focused on moving:

1. From government funding to people power: With federal grants winding down, we’re relying on supporters like you to sustain this vital work.
2. From transactional to transformational: Every interaction — from Reentry meetings to youth mentoring — becomes an opportunity for personal and spiritual renewal.
3. From Reentry to ReDirection: Helping individuals redirect their lives toward stability, faith, and a brighter future.
4. From the State to the Church: Strengthening partnerships with local churches to further God’s work in South Akron and Summit Lake.

Together, we can deepen and expand our community-centered impact. But to do this, we are striving to raise $250,000 before the year ends. Thankfully, we’ve made progress toward the goal, but still have a ways to go!

Please stand with us today. Your generous, end-of-year donation to South Street will help to sustain the programs and outreaches that inspire restoration and empower change. 

Your generosity will help neighbors like Thomas, Nate, AiDyn, and Myracle — whom you can read about below — continue to receive the ministry and community they need to thrive.

Together, we will point people to transformation through Christ, strengthen communities, and bring hope where it is needed most. Thank you for your partnership!

By Joe Tucker

Reentry is a Journey

A year ago or so, Thomas* carried himself with the shame, challenge, and hopelessness that comes from having a sex-offense on his record. In his situation, he was connected to Shawn Bonner, who began to enlist a plethora of resources, referrals, and relationships to help with next steps toward sustainability. 

South Street helped cover some of the basic first Reentry steps: identification papers, bus passes, grocery and clothing support. Thomas quickly moved toward employment — but was quickly let go. 

Shawn pivoted to partner with another work-force engagement program, a residential program with 24/7 support and oversight. Thomas was there for less than a month before he decided the program wasn’t for him. 

Through all the ups and downs, Thomas was consistent at the weekly Tuesday Reentry meetings — setting up chairs, serving food, cleaning up afterward. He was consistent in spending time with the South Street team. 

Shawn coordinated some developmental services that seemed to be the best fit for Thomas’s life and situation. Last month at the Tuesday Reentry meeting, Thomas came up front with a loud and proud voice, sharing about what gave him hope: it was this place, this team, this community, this faith. 

This is transformation from the broken young man who came to South Street Ministries some years ago. Although many of the restoration journeys are still unfolding in Thomas’s life, his spirit has been transformed. He has hope, faith, and community. 

“And the greatest of these is love.” And Thomas has that too. Thomas is loved — beyond the trappings of his past, amid the uncertainty of his present, and alongside him in the next steps of his future. With a great love, we thank you for making this ministry possible — for walking with us in faith, hope, and love as we walk in service and community with others. 

*Name changed to protect privacy

Reentry is Advocacy

One of the worst parts of an election year are the political advertisements — especially the negative ones. Regardless of political orientation, returning citizens receive a negative presentation. 

Words like “criminal” are thrown around left and right to demonize the choices, policies, and decisions of the other party. Over the years, the word used to describe individuals returning home from prison has changed: from felon to ex-con to returning citizen and, presently, justice-impacted individuals. These words matter because they are connected to people who matter. They are connected to people who are more than the conviction associated with the worst thing they did.

They are mothers, sons, artists, poets, leaders, fathers, friends. Two recent friends within South Street Ministries have been Monica and Nate. Monica and Nate are regular leaders and volunteers within the weekly peer-to-peer support meetings on Tuesdays at the Front Porch. They are also leaders within the justice-impacted community. They advocate for themselves and for many others for changes in policies that can affect where they work, where they live, and how society perceives those impacted by the criminal justice system. 

For Monica, it has been a journey of self-discovery, leadership, and self-advocacy — using her own story as a platform for systematic change. Nate is earlier in his Reentry journey and has struggled to find gainful employment. He spends his time volunteering, learning about Reentry advocacy, and stepping toward work opportunities as they arise. 

The greatest advocacy of Reentry is the stories (the lives lived out in front of us) of individuals who:

• transcend the challenges of their past, 
• step daily in recovery, sobriety, community, and faith, 
• reflect full and restored lives, 
• and invite others into that journey!

Like Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, they “are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”