Hunter Hambrick
Editor's Note: This article is part of a series featuring the 2020 Sacred Sector Fellows. Each Fellow received a host site placement, where they are conducting an organizational assessment and implementation plan, and then will apply the “Three P’s” -- organizational best practices, public policy, and positive engagement -- at their host site.
In the fall of 2008, a group of families set out to learn what it meant to truly love their neighbors in downtown Denver, CO. After years of providing quality relief and charity services for under-served single parents, children, refugees and individuals leaving incarceration, they started to pursue a more sustainable vision of economic justice.
Rather than asking, “How do we help someone in poverty?” they began wondering, “How do we help someone out of poverty?”
In 2014, CrossPurpose was born. CrossPurpose, a church-based 501(c)(3) located in the heart of Northeast Denver, seeks to abolish relational, economic and spiritual poverty through career and community development. They do this primarily through a holistic, highly supportive and integrative, six-month-long school for personal and professional development.
Their program offers participants a full scholarship, a stipend, access to professional training in a trade apprenticeship or skill certification, as well as a loving social network comprised of staff known as “coaches,” volunteers called “allies,” and fellow “leaders” (program participants) aptly named because they “lead their own change.” By the end of the program, graduates emerge with a career that pays at least $15.00 per hour with room for benefits and promotion.
Their results are extraordinary. In Denver, 350,000 people live in economic poverty. In the short six years of their existence, CrossPurpose has helped over 726 people out of poverty with 323 graduates from their program generating $8,910,428 back into the local economy.[1] As of 2019, 89% of their graduates are still employed and currently earn average wages of $16.85 per hour.[2]
The Three P’s
Public Positioning
This faith based organization’s mission encompasses much more than job retention or creation. It hinges upon their public positioning as a distinctly Christian entity in the city.
CrossPurpose founder and CEO, Jason Janz, says, “We’re not just here to get people jobs; we want to re-weave the broken fabric of a frayed society by building and empowering leaders in the neighborhood. We want to unlock their potential that is there from the day they were born with the image of God upon them.”
This shared, collective vision for the common good requires strategic partnerships with trade unions, local colleges, legal representatives, healthcare services, government providers, small business owners, neighborhood stakeholders, financial donors and community advocates.
Public Policies
Their sacred witness as a public player within the economic ecosystem of Denver directly informs their policies and practices. From an internal perspective, this means awareness and implementation of current legislation regarding religious staffing and nondiscrimination. From an external standpoint, CrossPurpose partners with both public and private and religious and secular service agencies, foundations and initiatives for the greater benefit of the communities they serve.
Organizational Practices
As an institution, CrossPurpose has clearly defined their faith-based mission as one that is concentrated around a detailed statement of faith, extensive employee standards for integrity and excellence, seven core values, five core behaviors and a singular vision for multicultural, multiethnic and multi-class ministry.
My Role
My primary learning goal for this project is to gain a greater understanding of how CrossPurpose’s organizational behaviors do or do not align with their beliefs. By the end of the summer, I plan to create a cultural playbook that brings their practices up to speed with their priorities in two or three targeted growth areas.
This resource will contain the nonprofit’s “culture code” and help to clarify and reinforce their already articulated values, mission and vision for current and future employees, donors and stakeholders alike as they continue to grow and expand their services in the Denver metro area for years to come.
As I work to support and strengthen CrossPurpose’s organizational identity and practices, my main desire during my time as a Sacred Sector Fellow is that I would know fully and truly what it means to love my neighbors as well.
“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:7).
[1] CrossPurpose Career School, “CrossPurpose 2019 Impact Report,” December 22, 2019, https://youtu.be/nhl7eA9CLs4.
[2] CrossPurpose, “CrossPurpose 2019 Impact Report.”
Hunter Hambrick is a second year Master of Divinity student at Denver Seminary and a member of Providence Bible Church in Denver, Colorado.
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