By Joe Tucker

I’m grateful to be able to share an update with you about the work you make possible through your partnership and prayers …

Once a month the full South Street Ministries team gathers to meet, share ministry hardships and highlights, and pray for things both personal and programmatic.

A recent meeting brought the younger members of the South Street team to the forefront:

• David Shahata has moved into the community through the Discipleship House and brought one of the young house residents with him.
• A dynamic social work intern, from the South Akron community herself, shared from her experience … both academic and personal.
• Bahote “Luch” Griffin joined the team as Youth Prevention Lead, commissioned by Donovan and the Reentry team to engage youth in circumstances and cultures of violence.

It was amazing and encouraging to host and empower a gathering of young leaders and ministers committed to seeking the peace and prosperity of Akron — for such a time as this.

One of the goals of our 25th Anniversary year is to grow the number of individuals that consistently and regularly support South Street Ministries. In doing this, you empower the present team and future generations of leaders to impact South Akron, Summit Lake, the Reentry community, and more.

Today I invite you to become a Bridge Builder by supporting our programs through a monthly donation. In joining us as a Bridge Builder, your monthly gift will empower the South Street team to minister in their giftings and callings:

• Reentry: Assisting returning citizens with employment, clothing, housing, mental health, and much more.
• #AdjustTheCrown: Instilling value and worth in teen girls.
• RICH Kids, Bike Shop, and more: Loving and serving youth in Summit Lake.
• Community: Enabling our staff and volunteers to reach into our neighborhoods as we seek to pray for, minister to, teach, love, and serve our neighbors with the love of God.

As a thank-you for becoming a Bridge Builder, we will send you a copy of Mary O’Connor’s new book, Free Rose Light: Stories Around South Street. The book illustrates the wide-range story of the people and community of South Street Ministries told in the style of the ministry — improvisational, risky, and present — sharing many stories from the life and ministry of Duane and Lisa Crabbs.

The bridges we will build together will empower and support the next generation of stories and ministries — God’s good work for the next 25 years through South Street Ministries.

We look forward to growing more and more in godly love for our neighbors and neighborhoods and bringing renewal to our community … something our $130,000 Restoration Campaign will do.

I am grateful for your support. I acknowledge and appreciate your willingness to show up and show love to children and families who need it. Thank you for serving alongside us in loving the people around us as Christ loves us.

By Marcel McDaniel

I was born on December 19, 1971, in Akron, Ohio to a 19-year-old single mother. My father was absent from the beginning and never played a part in my life, so it was all on my mother to raise me and play the role of both parents.

I developed a love for reading at a young age and my mother tried to cultivate that love by supplying me with as many books as she could. Despite her good intentions, my mother’s influence was no match for the lack of positive male role models in my life and the negativity that is all too common in low-income neighborhoods. I tried marijuana for the first time in the third grade, and by the age of 12 I was smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol on a regular basis.

Simultaneously, I began my life of crime and became a regular visitor to the juvenile detention home. I eventually aged into the adult prison system, and my life was completely consumed by the criminal world.

I existed outside what’s considered normal society. My entire livelihood depended on criminal activity, and all my relationships were with other people I considered fellow criminals. At the age of 30, I was sentenced to 19 years in prison …

And the pain that accompanied that sentence became my seed of understanding. I finally learned who I truly was and who I was meant to be. I developed a value system based on love and compassion.

I’ve been home from prison for a year now and for the first time in my life I feel free, no longer bound by the chains of negativity and criminal thinking.

Your support for South Street Ministries provides a loving neighborhood presence in South Akron and Summit Lake.

Here are a few tax-wise, year-end giving strategies — beyond gifts of cash — you may want to consider taking advantage of by December 31, 2022:

1. Giving from an established Donor Advised Fund (DAF) allows you to claim a charitable deduction in the year you contribute to the DAF while making donations to a ministry like South Street over time.
2. If you are 72 years of age or older, you can use Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) to make direct donations to a charity out of your IRA. This type of distribution can be counted toward satisfying the annual Required Minimum Distribution from an IRA … the amount donated via the QCD is excluded from your income (which helps lower taxes and provides other benefits) … and you do not have to itemize deductions to utilize this strategy.
3. A gift of appreciated securities — like stocks or mutual funds that have increased in value — is one way to avoid capital gains tax on the donated security as long as it has been held for more than one year. This strategy will also help reduce your taxable income because of the itemized charitable deduction.

Contact your financial advisor — or Elizabeth Kargbo at ekargbo@southstreetministries.org or 330-475-3110 — if you have an interest in these or other giving options that will empower children and families in South Akron and Summit Lake. Thank you!