All in the family

Special Issue | What started with care for foster children has branched into more than a dozen programs ministering to people in each phase of family life | Allie Cook

FAMILY ATMOSPHERE: Top left: Young-Brown (left) and site director Betty Boone at the Chickasaw apartments; participants in the Women of Empowerment program (left, above) meet and share prayer requests.

NEIGHBORHOOD CHRISTIAN CENTER

The sound of pounding rain mingles with the chatter of women's voices inside the apartment-turned-classroom at Chickasaw Place. With the Bible study just ended at an inner-city apartment complex, young women with young children talk with grandmotherly figures. Some refill glasses of peach iced tea, with fresh mint leaves dangling on the edges of their plastic cups. Others grab a banana or cookies and place them on purple, pink, and orange striped napkins.

The women gathered in this white, spacious room participate in Women of Empowerment (WOE) classes put on by the Neighborhood Christian Center, Inc. (NCC). Participant Phyllis Young-Brown talked of the diversity in the room: "I get to meet women in all walks of life. I'm finding that all of us have the same basic complaints and problems, but there's hope."