Walltown Ministries Celebrates Anniversary
Partnership with Duke Divinity School is helping neighborhood raise its quality of life
Friday, January 12, 2001
"The quality of life in Walltown is rising, built on the spiritual foundation of the churches there," according to Mel Williams, pastor at Watts Street Baptist Church.
Walltown Neighborhood Ministries is a collective of five local churches committed to improving support for families, eliminating impoverished housing and increasing home ownership, caring for the elderly and fostering vigorous congregational life. The group grew out of three years of conversations between three Walltown churches - St. John's Missionary Baptist Church, St. James Missionary Baptist Church and Northside Baptist Church - and two nearby churches, Watts Street Baptist Church and Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church.
Walltown Neighborhood Ministries joined forces with the Duke Divinity School in 1999 as partners in the Walltown Families and Children Initiative, a faith-based neighborhood service effort funded by The Duke Endowment. The Charlotte-based charitable trust gave the organization a $300,000 grant last year and has awarded a similar-sized grant for the initiative's second year.
Wayne Weathers, executive director of the Walltown Ministries, described the organization's activities for youth and seniors and increased Walltown resident participation at a Thursday night dinner for the organization's partners and supporters at the N.C. Mutual Insurance Company.
"Community support is steadily growing," said Weathers, who administers the program with the Divinity School.
Highlights of the Walltown Families and Children Initiative's first year include:
 About 100 Walltown youngsters attended a new, free, daily, six-week summer day camp that included field trips, meals, crafts and Bible instruction. "It brought kids together in productive activities, both spiritual and secular-based," Weathers said. "It also gave college and high school students the opportunity to be employed as well."
 During the school year, about 75 neighborhood children are attending after-school programs at Northside Baptist and St. James Baptist churches. The churches have computer labs and offer assistance with homework five days a week.
 Four Duke Divinity School interns are living in Walltown and serving as community chaplains to work with churches and support their ministries.
 Walltown seniors are receiving transportation services for grocery trips and appointments. A neighborhood senior citizen club that had disbanded after the death of a key member has been re-created with support from Walltown Ministries.
 Child and Parent Support Service, a local organization, is offering support and education for parents of young children.
 A former neighborhood grocery at 1307 W. Knox St., which had become a magnet for drug and criminal activity, was transformed into administrative offices for Walltown Ministries and four intern-chaplains from the divinity school. Purchased and renovated in 1999 by the Self-Help Credit Union through a grant from the Duke University Office of Community Affairs, the one-story, brick building is being leased to Walltown Neighborhood Ministries for $1 a year.
 Parish nurses based at each of the neighborhood churches are being trained to provide residents with health education, nursing care and spiritual support through a health and nursing ministries program established by the divinity school and the Duke School of Nursing.
Cleo Bell, a retired nurse and former Walltown resident who attends St. John's Baptist Church, will start field training in the program this spring.
"I felt God had something else for me to do," she said. "I believe the Walltown Ministries and The Duke Endowment provided that opportunity. As a nurse for 38 years, I saw we were getting into a lot of physical needs and not spiritual ones."
Walltown Neighborhood Ministries is part of a larger revitalization effort in the historically African-American neighborhood bordered by Trinity Heights and Duke's East Campus on the south and Northgate Mall and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics on the north.
Recent changes in the neighborhood include the renovation of the former Walltown Elementary School, which is now home to St. James Baptist Church and Carter Community School, a new charter school. Self-Help Credit Union, with help from a $2 million loan fund established by Duke University, has renovated and sold more than 30 Walltown homes to low-income residents and has plans for another 30.
Durham Habitat for Humanity also constructed 11 homes in Walltown, including one with funding provided primarily by Duke.
Walltown is one of 12 partner neighborhoods in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative. The initiative is a collaborative effort between local neighborhoods and Duke that includes community and economic development, strengthening public education, mentoring programs for local youth, health care and affordable housing.
