Many people know the story of how Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic came to be born, how it sprang from the words of a pastor who cast a bold vision from the pulpit of the big stone church at 34th and Central. What might be less known is how the roots of the Clinic reach deeper into time, to the 1960s, when an all-white congregation refused to submit to white flight. Or even further into the past, to the 1920s, when a downtown church saw an emerging neighborhood as an opportunity for outreach. As such, Tabernacle Presbyterian Church’s seemingly out-of-the-blue decision to start a legal clinic decades later was not so out-of-the-blue at all, but rather, wonderfully consistent with its history.

In 2008, College Park Church forged a partnership with Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic to help improve and strengthen the Brookside neighborhood on the near east side. We have enjoyed the grace they bring to our community through their efforts towards justice. And we support one another in offering love and care to our neighbors in need.

On her office wall hangs a poster with a Dave Ramsey quote that says, “A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” For Angie, a huge part of what she does is to convince people that they can actually live like that. “My job is showing people their financial reality,” she says. “It’s kind of a pre-goal setting. You might think of it like triage as if you were at a hospital. Let’s see where you are right this moment and where you want to go from there.”