Effective ministries know that friendship is a powerful poverty-fighting tool.
In today's welfare reform climate, as greater responsibility for needy families shifts from the public to the private sector, churches need to reassess their own outreach strategy. They can learn much from a recently published collection of short essays by Octavia Hill, a nineteenth century social worker who spent her life befriending poor people in London's slum districts. Her efforts transformed numerous troubled communities and her model was replicated throughout Britain, on the Continent, and in America. Her life infiuenced not only the have-nots but also the haves, for Hill attempted to redirect the misguided and indiscriminate charity of the middle and upper classes. Hill always insisted that the residents pay their rent in full and on time.