LETTER FROM
E X E C U T I V E
D I R E C T O R
November 4, 2009 is the date when a handful of folks gathered for Haywood Street Congregation’s first Wednesday worship service. We spent the next two months pulling clothes off a giant pile to build a closet that communicated grace, welcome. A crockpot simmered on the back pew for several Wednesdays in February. And in March 2010 we celebrated a hot lunch in the dining room, the first of 300 Dowtown Welcome Table lunches to-date. It’s been a busy and rewarding six years. We are pausing now to publish our first annual report, which includes narrative from longtime companions and fresh insights from newcomers; facts and figures on the core programs; and a snapshot of our financial condition based on Haywood Street Congregation’s first full financial audit, covering the 2014 calendar year. Its purpose is both celebratory and informational. Enjoy!
Laura Kirby, UMC Deaconess / Executive Director
Our mission is to be a transformative open
community of Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, creating opportunities to serve and be served so that all who participate are empowered to claim their identity as a child of God.
LETTER FROM
F O U N D I N G
P A S T O R
It began inauspiciously in the summer of 2009 with no salary, no staff, and no congregation. A simple calling to incarnational ministry, to be in solidarity with the disenfranchised of downtown, to welcome the derelict Christ, to be in relationship with street siblings and blood brothers more holy than myself. A few lay people stepped forward who were long on vision, restless about mission and eager to re-imagine church on the margins. No long range planning committee or church strategy commission could have anticipated what would happen next. Neither could we. If faith is a verb, then Haywood Street refuses to be a noun. A congregation most comfortable in the places of discomfort, most at home among the homeless, most orthodox in orthopraxy. While doubtful in our debut, we now approach the year of jubilee ever more convinced about our calling, even more adamant about the kingdom come in Asheville. Brian Combs, Pastor
VISION AND
S T R A T E G Y
Our vision is to create a community where each person recognizes him or herself as a child of God worthy of love and grace. We recognize that it is through relationships and mutual service that people can begin to claim that truth and encounter the living God.
Whose child are you?... God’s child!
S T R A T E G I C
1
Increase the number of people experiencing communion at HSC by expanding small groups and adding a second service.
2
Ensure that all at HSC successfully find a place to serve.
3
Improve financial stability.
G O A L S
4
Ensure that the campus is a safe place for everyone.
5
Stabilize each existing core ministry area with leadership and resources.
In 2014 a strategic planning process took place. It began with 175 community members and external partners providing input to help answer the question, “Where is God calling us?� Data from the survey combined with several Board planning sessions resulted in a new strategic plan to guide us from 2015-2018. *Full strategic plan can be accessed at http://www.haywoodstreet.org/missioncore-values
6 Ensure that all who are part of the community understand the theology of HSC and how the core programs operate.
THE DOWNTOWN
W E L C O M E
T A B L E
The Downtown Welcome Table rests on the assumption that food is a primary means of grace, a way to love and connect. It is an intentional gathering of disparate folks, a fork and spoon invitation to prince and pauper alike. We’ve served up 65,000 plates over these past five years, using resources donated from Manna Food Bank, Trader Joe’s, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Sams Club and local growers. An innovative partnership with local restaurants brings additional resources plus the incredible talent of many of Asheville’s top chefs. Besides providing food to those that are hungry and offering a platform for relationship, the Downtown Welcome Table delivers a message we all need to hear: God’s love is extravagant, abundant, and available to everyone. There is always enough.
Every week, I see small acts of love being shared in countless ways. Love is shared as Friends plan and prepare delicious food, beautifully arrange it on serving platters, and cheerfully dish up seconds and thirds. Love is shared in the setting of the tables with china dishes and fresh flowers that signify the dignity and importance of all who will share a meal. It is shared as Friends pass food and engage in conversations. ~ Karen Cavagnini
PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS Black Mountain Ale House Bouchon / Creperie / Lafayette Chai Pani / MG Road Chestnut / Corner Kitchen Cucina 24 Curate / Nightbell FIG Bistro French Broad Chocolate Lounge Green Sage Cafe Luella’s BBQ Marco’s Pizzeria
Rhubarb Rosetta’s Kitchen Strada Italiano Sunny Point Cafe The Barleycorn The Bull & Beggar The Junction Ultimate Ice Cream Vinnie’s Neighborhood Italian Wicked Weed Brewing
These fine local restaurants prepare and serve lunch at the DWT on a rotating monthly basis.
HAYWOOD STREET
R E S P I T E We welcomed our first Friend to Respite in January 2014 and since then have had the privilege to be in community with more than 160 others. As with all other Haywood Street ministries, relationships are recognized as a source of transformation, restoration and healing in the Respite.
99%
of those who completed their stay at HSR attended first follow-up appointment with primary care provide.
80%
of Friends have gone somewhere other than the streets or camping upon departure. Some have enrolled in residential recovery or treatment programs.
C O L L A B O R A T I N G ABCCM Blue Ridge Community Health Services Charles George VA Medical Center Community Care of WNC Homeward Bound WNC MAHEC
83%
of Friends self-reported improvements in health / mental health status upon departure.
P A R T N E R S
Mission Hospitals Pisgah Legal Services RHA Smoky Mountain Center WNCAP WNC Community Health Services
Connecting Friends with community supports is a key piece of work at Haywood St. Respite, one that can contribute to improved long-term health and housing outcomes.
96%
of Friends had at least one community support in place upon leaving HSR.
It is the God that I have come to know at
Haywood Street that has taught me to care more about the people I see rather than the things I do. The people I have seen in this place have allowed me to be a small part of a grand healing process. ~ Davis Johnson
This Holy space is a place of solitude and grace in the midst COMPANION
M I N I S T R Y
of the chaos which we embrace as the Spirit fills the hearts, minds, and souls of all who gather here all God’s children. ~ Carol Church
At Haywood Street, Companion is used as a substitute for the word Volunteer. This is to invite a deeper step into relationship and also an intentional move away from the notion that some people are givers and others simply receivers.
A dozen fruit trees and bushes have been planted in each of the last two years, ensuring an ongoing supply of apples, plums and blueberries in a garden tended entirely by Companions.
More than 200 individuals call themselves Companions at Haywood Street. It is not just people of privilege but people struggling in poverty, including many who live on the streets or in shelters, who serve as Companions.
A small room below the sanctuary was, early on, a library where folks were invited to leave a book or take a book. In 2015 the room was transformed into a beautiful and peaceful chapel where Companions gather weekly to pray for the community and with those who are holding burdens that are too big to carry alone.
Companions logged more than 1,400 hours in the ‘Haywood Outfitters’ clothing closet this year, unloading and sorting donations, tidying the space, and arranging the clothes in a way that communicates love. On average, 75 Companions work in the kitchen, dining room and dishroom each week to make the Downtown Welcome Table happen.
Story Circle is a place where Companions and newcomers gather weekly for friendship, support and encouragement using a storytelling format.
I first entered the doors of Haywood Street in summer 2011 with my daughter and her youth group. I sat and cried like a baby as I watched the fellow behind me dig in his backpack and drop a handful of coins into the offering plate - my world had been shattered, rearranged, and put back together in the most beautiful way never to be the same again. ~ Angie Haigler
W O R S H I P Before God, we are all children, infants crawling about in desperate search of sobriety in the throws of addiction, lucidity in the pangs of mania, selflessness in the culture of selfishness, life in the midst of death. Worship is the place where we drag all of that to the altar to encounter the living Christ and leave as transformed adult apostles. Our tradition began with Wednesday worship, at the suggestion of a houseless brother. For five years strangers and charter congregants alike have pressed and cajoled for an additional worship service, specifically on the weekend. The timing now feels spirit-led and we are poised to launch a Sunday evening worship service in early 2016. Aware that communion takes place at both altar table and dinner table, we are committed to offering Sunday supper at the Downtown Welcome Table alongside sanctuary worship.
We began in 2009 in the soup line, under the bridge, staying overnight at the shelter, and loitering downtown with our ear bent towards the cracks of poverty, listening for the voice of Jesus among the disinherited. And what He said was offer me a congregation of absurd grace, a meal of scandalous abundance, a kingdom glance of heaven on earth. ~ Rev. Brian Combs
HOLY
C H A O S
What is Chaotic about Haywood Street and what makes it Holy? The Holy Spirit can’t be contained. The Wind of the Spirit blows where it will. It cannot be ordered or put in a box. It is unpredictable. What looks like disorder (chaos) on the surface may be order beyond our comprehension. Expect the unexpected. Sometimes it is a meal from one of the best restaurants in the city that has offered out of a generous heart to come, bring food, and cook for our Welcome Table. Sometimes it is two small goats being blessed in worship as they join the barnyard menagerie behind the church. Expect roles to be reversed. If you are coming to give, you might be asked to receive, to simply sit and have lunch with a group of strangers and share the food and the fellowship. If you are coming to receive, you might be called upon to serve.
Check your labels at the door. When we enter the Haywood campus, we don’t look at the outside of our fellow Companions or those attending worship. Instead we learn to look into one another’s faces and see that we are Children of God and that He dwells within each of us. Uncomfortable in a good way. The fear you feel, that gnawing acknowledgement that you are out of your comfort zone, causes you to move through the space with your eyes wide open instead of just going through the motions. That invites the Holy. The Chaos here is reminiscent of a huge family reunion with the attendant meal where joy is abundant, voices are loud, and there is a lot of laughter.
At first, it was difficult for me to make sense of everything I was
experiencing. As time went on, I slipped into a space where I felt useful and grateful to be needed - in the dishroom. There was a whole lot more going on, though, and I was encouraged to move out of my comfortable place. So I stretched a little and then a little more. The people I met were so much like me and again so different. I began to fully understand that the sameness and difference were the true design and I slowly began to live into that. ~ Susan Schott
Partner churches that have provided financial support for Haywood St. ministries
2010 - 2015 Abernethy UMC Acton UMW Asbury UMC Barnardsville UMC Bell UMC Bethel UMC Biltmore UMC Brooks Howell Home Cathedral of All Souls Centenary UMC Central UMC Asheville Central UMC Canton Covenant Community Church First Presbyterian Church of Asheville First Congregational UCC First UMC Brevard First UMC Hendersonville Fletcher UMC Francis Asbury UMC Givens Estate Groce UMC Longs Chapel UMC Maggie Valley UMC Montmorenci UMW Mt. Zion UMC Myers Park UMC Salem UMC The Rock Church of Asheville Sharon UMC Skyland UMC Snow Hill UMC Spruce Pine UMC St. Timothy UMC Trinity UMC Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville Weaverville UMC
Thank you!
WHERE THE MONEY C O M E S
F R O M
Understanding the experience of surviving on the streets is a key goal of Walk of Awareness, Haywood Street’s signature fundraising event. In 2015, the event expanded to include Golf of Awareness.
HAYWOOD STREET CONGREGATION SOURCES OF INCOME Mission Giving From Partner Churches UMC Conference/District
Grants Individual Gifts & Tithes
Events/Appeals/Corporate/ Earned Income
We obtained a full financial audit for the fiscal year ending 12/31/14 – a significant year financially as the first year of operations of Haywood Street Respite. Respite funding includes grants from Mission Health, AshevilleBuncombe United Way and the Community Foundation of WNC.
T H E H AY W O O D STREET C O N G R E G AT I O N Detail from Supplemental Schedules
(As of December 31, 2014)
Assets
Congregation
Respite
Consolidated
Current Assets, incl. Cash & Receivables
$ 207,439
$ 183,626
$ 391,065
Long-Term Assets, incl. Property & Equipment
$ 21,943
$ 181,243
$ 203,186
Total Assets $ 229,382 $ 364,869 $ 594,251
Liabilities & Net Assets Current Liabilities, incl. Payroll & Accounts
Congregation $ 14,957
Respite $
0
Consolidated $ 14,957
Net Assets $ 214,425 $ 364,869 $ 579,294 Total Liabilities and Net Assets
Support & Revenue
$ 229,382
Congregation
$ 364,869
$ 594,251
Respite
Consolidated
Contributions $ 293,254 $ 123,449 $ 416,703 Grants
$ 20,000
$ 68,082
$ 88,082
United Methodist Church (WNCC)
$ 63,482
$
0
$ 63,482
Fundraising Events
$ 24,227
$ 10,371
$ 34,598
In Kind Contributions
$ 15,000
$ 15,213
$ 30,000
Total Support and Revenue
$ 416,176
$216,902
$ 633,078
Congregation
Respite
Consolidated
Staff Compensation
$ 200,322
$ 168,303
$ 368,625
Facility and Office Expenses
$ 62,279
$ 34,470
$ 96,749
Food & Supplies
$
$ 12,559
$ 70,509
Insurance & Professional Fees
$ 18,880
$
7,886
$ 26,766
Other Program & Event Expenses
$ 23,500
$
2,496
$ 25,996
Expenses
Independent Auditor’s Report & Financial Statements by: Corliss & Solomon, PLLC
57,950
Total Expenses $ 362,931 $ 225,714 $ 588,645 Change in Net Assets During Year
$ 53,245
$ ($8,812)
$ 44,433
Net Assets at Beginning of Year
$ 161,810
$ 373,681
$ 534,861
Net Assets at End of Year
$ 214,425
$ 364,869
$ 579,294
2015
B O A R D
O F
Every time I come to Haywood Street, something happens
D I R E C T O R S
to me thatI cannot rationally explain. My Spirit soars as I anticipate the day’s activities. I am excited to see familiar faces and glad to greet folks coming for the first time. ~ Dell Dillard
Susan Barnes
Odell Irby
Keith Bryant
Jeanette King
Kelly Davis
Jack Leachman
Michael Delude
Sharon LeDuc
Dell Dillard
Linda McCracken
Lora Downs
Ann Merritt
Ward Griffin
Steve Noblitt
Bill Haggard
Stacy Shelley
Beth Hook
Allison Spruill
Mitchell Watson
A witness to include the most excluded, Haywood Street not only welcomes each child
of God - especially sisters and brothers of every mental illness and physical disability, addiction and diagnosis, living condition and employment status, gender identity and sexual orientation, class, color and creed - but we celebrate your presence, certain that the kingdom of God is coming closer because you’re here.
Haywood Street Congregation was founded in 2009 by Rev. Brian Combs, a United Methodist pastor responding to a call to reach out to men and women living on the margins with a message of acceptance and belonging. The ministry has grown rapidly and today between 400 and 500 gather each Wednesday for table fellowship and worship. Those who eat and worship together are individuals carrying all their worldly possessions in ragged backpacks as well as privileged professionals, stay-at-home moms, students and the working poor.
Haywood Street Congregation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. 297 Haywood Street Asheville, North Carolina 28801 (828) 575-2477 www.haywoodstreet.org