ABOUT FAITH LEADERS MOVING FORWARD

OUR PURPOSE

Faith Leaders Moving Forward (FLMF) is an Inter-Faith spiritually based organization established to foster holistic socio-economic unity and growth for Blacks.  Faith Leaders Moving Forward looks for and connects with the growing number of Blacks, including our youth, who are ready, willing, and able  to harness their humanitarian energy  and  move forward to empower the Black community on all available levels-spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical with the ultimate goal of enhancing the “sense of community” in our neighborhoods, while developing our work ethic, educational attainment goals, employment skills and “future driven values” so that  ultimately the community becomes one comprised of individuals who live in harmony in God’s presence.

Faith Leaders Moving Forward recognizes that Black people have made significant in-roads and achievements over the years from a faith and political perspective. FLMF acknowledges that historically speaking, this country was built on the backs of Black people for the benefit of a select few. Our vision is that   now is the time for Black people to move forward and use more of our divine energy to take care of our families and communities instead of pleading and waiting for others to do what our Creator has ordained that we do for ourselves. “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1Timothty 5:8, NIV) Here in lies the challenge at hand: 

According to the Pew Research Center reports: “much has changed for African-Americans since the 1963 March on Washington (which, recall, was a March for ‘Jobs and Freedom’), but one thing still has not changed: the unemployment rate among Black Americans.  It is still almost double that of White Americans, as it has been for most of the past six decades (60 years)! 

In 1954, the earliest year for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has consistent unemployment data by race, the white rate averaged 5% and the black rate averaged 9.9%. Last month, the jobless rate among whites was 6.6%; among blacks, 12.6%.  From 1954 to the present the unemployment rate for blacks has averaged about 2.2 times that for whites.”

Lasting economic solidarity has evaded Black people. For various reasons, there has been and continues to be a systematic effort to keep

the Black community economically depressed.  This effort shows itself by the submission of some (Black or White) to their appetites of greed regardless of whether their actions are conscious or unconscious.

Sadly many of these persons believe they are “entitled” to exploit Black people for their gain. “The Lord said, ‘I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey’…” (Exodus 3:7-8, NIV).  In this text the Creator has intervened in human affairs for the sake of the oppressed. Faith Leaders Moving Forward believes that our Creator in now intervening on behalf of Black people to raise us “up and out” of oppression in this land and ultimately around the globe.  Our Creator intends for the human family to exercise freedom, justice, and equality for ALL. 

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FLMF Initiatives and Activities

In light of the longstanding plight of our people FLMF is advocating that the Black Community

move forward in a concerted manner to “Divinely Do for Self”. Therefore, the initiatives and

activities sponsored are an effort to demonstrate and

enlighten the Black community on:

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• issues it should be attentive to,

• problems that need to be resolved

• expectations that should be held for “leaders” of the community;

• methods to hold leaders accountable for their decisions

• methods by which the community can exercise or demonstrate their support of

       decisions they make or are made on their behalf

• opportunities to develop and exercise economic opportunities.

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Thus, FLMF has as its goal for all activities to educate the Black community on how “to do

what our Creator has ordained that we do for ourselves.” “…work with your hands, just as

we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be

dependent on anybody” (I Thessalonians 4:11-12)

FLMF ACTIVITIES OR PROGRAMS: A SAMPLING

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2013-2017

• Affordable Care Act Forums/Sessions

• Technology Boot Camp Forum

• Virginia Advanced Studies Strategies (VASS) Forum

• “The House I Live In” Presentation

• “Building A Better Community” Forum

• Voter Empowerment Rallies*

• S.O.S. “Saving Our Sons” Community Event*

• African American Lecture Series - “State of Black America Address – Postlude –

State of the Black Family & Black Child”*

• “Saving Our Youth” - Youth Forum

• “Moral Monday – Virginia” Rallies*

• African American Family Initiative – “Child Support in Virginia: The Good , The

Bad and The Ugly”*

• “WE’VE COME TOO FAR TO TURN BACK NOW!”

• “Kwanzaa In Daily Living” Black History Program

• “JUSTICE OR ELSE” Movement

*Denotes Co-Sponsored Events