When the Reverend John Perkins visited New Song a year ago he had much to say that was good about our progress since his last visit some 10 years earlier. He saw the two hundred plus homes Habitat had completed, the new school we had built, the jobs program, etc. Much had indeed been accomplished in a decade and he was delighted to be sure. But he also said that he found it sad that upon rising in the morning, he could find no place in the community to get a morning paper or a cup of coffee much less something to eat. He remarked that as good as the progress New Song had made was...it was time to take the next step. He said, "you've all heard it said that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. That if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime. But I say that if we are to be truly successful in making this a viable community...we must own the pond the fish live in".

The Voice of Calvary Ministries (VOCM) in Jackson, Mississippi has taken that next step. It should be noted that Perkins started VOCM before moving on to start the CCDA. Two examples are found in VOCM's housing and economic-development initiatives:

The group got into housing in a big way shortly after the Perkins' came to Jackson, when they discovered that 6,600 houses in the city were dilapidated but considered suitable for rehabilitation. They began to acquire these houses at very low cost -- sometimes as little as $2,500 -- and renovate them using volunteer labor and "sweat equity" for an average of $18,000 in costs. After repairs, these houses could be sold for $25,000 -- generating a $5,000 return to the ministry for future acquisition or rehab costs. That's still low enough to be affordable to a family earning as little as $8,000 a year, with a $300 down payment and mortgage payments (partially subsidized) around $200 a month for 15 years. The group also negotiated with banks to make mortgage money available to families that wouldn't normally qualify. New homeowners also receive instruction in basic home repairs and other home-ownership skills to help them keep up their properties.

VOCM's economic-development venture, Thriftco Inc. (now spun off as a separate, non-profit organization) was established in 1980 with two goals: To make decent, low-priced clothing available to residents, and as a legitimate community economic-development venture. Initially housed in a commercial building purchased with donations from churches and a loan from the Southern Cooperative Development Fund, Thriftco seeks donated or low-cost clothing "seconds" from commercial suppliers like K-Mart; its staff of seamstresses and volunteers clean and repair clothing that the commercial firm considered "unusable," then sell it at prices about one-third below competitive retail stores. There's a commitment to quality -- "junk" clothing is discarded, not sold -- and to keeping costs low. Thriftco has now grown to three retail outlets in Jackson and nine independent branches (locally owned and managed) in surrounding rural counties. The three Jackson stores employ seven people and gross between $200,000 and $300,000 per year. Thriftco's surplus from operations (the non-profit equivalent of a commercial business's profit) is distributed creatively: About two-thirds of it comes back to VOCM as operating revenue; the remainder is distributed as grants to other community development agencies that will use it for education projects. A success by any standard, Thriftco's revenues for 1990 totaled almost $320,000, yielding a $39,120 surplus after all expenses were paid.