Our mission is to walk with women beyond the boundaries of poverty and neglect and assist them in finding their purpose.

In 1977, a Stanford University psychologist studying group dynamics, Albert Bandura, found that groups whose members were confident in the group’s abilities or likelihood of success were in fact more successful.

Duh.

This sounds a lot like what we have all been told by parents, teachers, coaches, and influential adults. “Have some self-confidence and you’ll do great,” or something to that effect. But there is more to it.

Bandura named this observation “collective efficacy.” Collective Efficacy Theory has since been applied across numerous disciplines including education, corporations, and criminal justice.

In a landmark study in 1997 led by Robert Sampson, a Harvard professor and past president of the American Society of Criminology, Sampson studied the impact of collective efficacy on reducing crime. What he found is that neighborhoods with a high crime rate and a low level of cooperation with law enforcement had little to no collective efficacy. Said a different way, neighbors did not believe that working together they could make a difference in their communities. But why?

For collective efficacy to form there must be social cohesion. Social cohesion involves having shared values and norms, social and institutional trust, a sense of belonging, cooperation, and equality and inclusion. When these pillars exist in a group, a business, or a neighborhood, they produce confidence among the group members that together the group can be impactful.

This is what we believe we have accomplished at My Cup of Tea, though the work must be ongoing and nurtured. Perhaps more importantly, collective efficacy is what we desire for Orange Mound, and the community is ripe to achieve it.

Factors that promote social cohesion

There are some basic elements of social cohesion that Orange Mound currently possesses or had in the past that it is capable of realizing in the future. They are:

·         High level of home ownership – Orange Mound has a previous history of home ownership that has waned. Today, home ownership is less than 50%, but still higher than many zip codes in Memphis and there is a legacy to build on. Others believe this too, as evidenced by the new home construction happening.

·         A core of stable, long-term residents – Mary Mitchell, the matriarch of Orange Mound and keeper of its history comes to mind. Among the My Cup of Tea ladies, Cheryl was raised here, left, and moved back. Bretta wasn’t raised in Orange Mound but has lived here for decades. It is true that many exited when crime rose, but there are still deep roots.

·         The presence of extended families – Some have extended families still in the neighborhood, but more high-quality housing options can help nurture that dynamic.

·         Close friendships among neighbors – This is difficult in every community in this age of communicating digitally and avoiding direct contact with other humans. However, our Neighborhood Watch, plans for a farmers’ market, and the intentionality of nonprofits JUICE Orange Mound and Red Zone Ministries to build relationships block by block are critical pieces of the puzzle. Also, the rich history surrounding Melrose High School and the connection people feel to it is another leveraging point.

·         Good schools – The schools within the Orange Mound zip codes are graded D or F on the state’s report card. Primarily this means that the vast majority of students are not reading or doing math on their grade level. But, Arise to Read, volunteers from My Cup of Tea, and others for Second Presbyterian Church are tutoring at Hanley Elementary.

·         People who attend local centers of worship – There are churches in Orange Mound that have been long-time anchors like Beulah Baptist Church, Mt. Moriah Baptist, and Mt. Pisgah CME. It has been our experience that many of the parishioners of these churches live outside of the neighborhood and those churchgoers in the community attend church outside of the 38111 or 38114 zip codes. There is much more work to do.

·         The use of amenities such as parks, recreation centers, and libraries – The Orange Mound Community Center has long been a gathering place for residents, Red Zone Ministries is providing a gathering spot with various opportunities for youth 9-18. There was a time when Orange Mound had one of the best parks in the city complete with an impressive swimming pool.

There are both historic and tangible building blocks in Orange Mound to attain social cohesion again, but it will take time and effort. The good news is that community efficacy at some level is not dependent on achieving the maximum level possible of social cohesion. What does that mean?

The small group that gathers on our porch to plan and implement our Neighborhood Watch can help lower crime on our block. That’s a start. To substantially lower the crime rate across the entire neighborhood requires more “true believers” who will join the movement as homeownership increases, schools get a little better, and they make friends with a few neighbors.

It means a small group of “true believers,” like our family at My Cup of Tea, who have confidence in our abilities, trust in one another, and by the grace of God can make a difference.

Eight times in the Bible we are told to love our neighbor. It is one of the Bible's most repeated commands.  Jesus summarized all of the commandments telling us to love God and love our neighbor (Matthew 22:40) “On these two commands hangs the whole law and all the prophets.” 

 Sadly, it’s difficult to love our neighbors on our corner. Orange Mound neighborliness is sparse, scant, and in short supply.  There is a flow of short-term neighbors in residence among the four houses our property adjoins.  Most of the properties within our view at The House in Orange Mound are rundown, weathered, warty, and dingy. Whitewash has been applied over the mold and peeling paint beneath. There is no landscaping or shade. Our neighbors stick to themselves but welcome multiple visitors who come and go and park on the front yard. We have shared tea and cookies with some, acknowledging that they consider our hospitality suspect and never reciprocated. We don’t know our neighbors. Everyone sticks to their own affairs. It is very hard to love neighbors that don’t want to be known.

Single moms and grandmoms are our workforce at My Cup of Tea, and ten of them live in similar surroundings as I have described just a mile or two away from our corner. They don’t know their neighbors either.  Their unceasing sense of anxiety shaves away any sense of security due to someone renting at the exorbitant rates they pay.  Their roofs leak, their plumbing fails, their floors buckle and sag, their storm doors are cracked but double bolted, and boards replace the missing windowpanes.   

Meanwhile, just to the South of us, and within view, a new day is dawning. Seven new houses are under construction and are for sale. Four of them are the houses on the land we donated and have told you about many times. The other three are across the street and the work of private developers.

The ladies of Orange Mound are my beloved neighbors and in confession of that, my love for them is compelling me to give all I can in treasure, talent, and time to shoe them into the new houses underway. They are collectively and individually unconvinced. Borrowing from the blog posted here two weeks ago, they are inert. None of the ladies in her adult life has had a neighborhood where her children could safely play in the front yard. They’ve missed curtained windows without bars to be opened for a spring breeze. Most have forgone the rich aromas of dinner warmed in an oven that works. Functioning washers and dryers have been a rare luxury.  Growing flowers by the front door in a flower bed and sharing stories and laughter on a porch swing are in their distant memories when they were children in less troubling times.

Shelby County has between 100-200 neighborhoods depending on how you count them. Memphis has as many as forty-eight neighborhoods. Children and old people especially need neighbors. Loving your neighbor becomes symbiotic, for we all have needs, and we all have ways to meet the needs of others.  I chose to work in Orange Mound because I was confident Jesus was already at work within its boundaries. He has brought safety, encouragement, and fellowship to our friends who work at the tea company, and now He has brought new homes within view of our front porch. 

 I am sure knowing the companionship and trust among the ladies and the possibility of living in proximity to one another on this block could be the next step in obeying the command to love our neighbors.  We are committed to being stakeholders, and we are praying and willing in the adventure of establishing a community that will rival and revive the original Orange Mound of a century past. Loving our neighbor compels us to model without My Cup of Tea what we have done within our walls. The original residents of this historic neighborhood knew each other, worked together, and invested in each other with their time, talent, and treasure. I’ve heard the stories of those who grew up here recalling the many moms and dads who kept them in line as children, and who had cookies and lemonade for all in the kitchen after playtime. I have longed for this for them again. This will be a Shalom neighborhood again, and neighborly love will be the cement in the foundations of all of the new homes still to come.

In physics, inertia is “the property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force.”

An example apropos to our setting is that of stirring a cup of your favorite tea to incorporate honey, lemon, or cream. The tea continues to swirl in a circle for a time even after you have stopped stirring because of inertia. The external force of the stirring has compelled the tea to change from stagnant or jiggling (That's a scientific term) in the cup to swirling.

None of us at My Cup of Tea were physics majors, but we know a little something about inertia. The inertia we witness is physical, mental, and emotional – the kind that is prevalent in those stifled by the effects of generational poverty and trauma. Human inertia is not laziness or a salty disposition. In fact, people can desire to change their circumstances but lack the compulsion to execute the necessary steps.

Consider someone afflicted with clinical depression (some of the ladies are). That person may realize that sunshine and fresh air might improve how they feel on a particularly miserable day. They might think a distraction – a new project, upbeat music, or a favorite pastime – might lift their spirits. However, they are incapable of, despite the possibility of feeling better, crawling out of bed. It often takes an external force like words of affirmation from a loved one, someone physically taking the person by the hand and pulling them out of bed, or medicine and therapy to overcome this moment.

For over a decade, we have seen the impact of inertia on the women we serve but in varying degrees. There are those who simply needed a job opportunity and a fair wage (the external force) to improve their lives and become more stable. Others required the fear of a negative consequence to play the role of the external force – obtaining custody of a child, the threat of eviction, or the discovery of a serious health issue, for example. Those fears or consequences compelled those ladies to take hard but necessary steps to change their paths. Then there are those who struggle mightily to lift the boulder of inertia off them though they recognize the benefits that may accrue to them or the suffering likely to vex them.

Adequate housing, as you already know, is a persistent problem for the ladies at My Cup of Tea. As the new rent-to-own homes down the street spring up, we have remained vigilant about guiding and supporting the My Cup of Tea ladies to make applications and be in a financially sound position to qualify. We have flooded them with various versions of financial literacy training including requirements to secure a mortgage. Volunteers with financial skills have worked one-on-one with some of the ladies to navigate credit reports and housing applications. Some have helped prepare budgets, dispute inaccuracies in credit reports, and carefully list the documents required to apply. Yet, some of the women, though seemingly desirous of a better home have not, will not, or cannot take the steps they must take personally to make this dream a reality.

Admittedly, the housing process can be overwhelming for anyone, but we have seen inertia’s impact in relation to car repairs, school applications for children, entrepreneurial opportunities, and more. And, money is not the issue in most cases because we have accessed our emergency fund and relied on the generosity of volunteers to absorb many of these costs.

So, what should we do? Here are two thoughts:

First, we Americans expect things to happen quickly. In the age of instant gratification, we’re expecting the heart or thumbs-up emoji to magically appear in our text threads within seconds, or at the most minutes, of pressing send.

Conversely, the women we serve have been waiting for years for a dignified opportunity, a safe place to work, a fair wage, and simple justice in the daily affairs of their lives. And not just them, but their parents, grandparents, and ancestors, too. While they waited, disappointment, suffering, and injustice have been the “rule” not the “exception.”  Exhaustion, cynicism, and lived experience cannot be changed by us overnight. Like the cup of tea, we can stir it, but eventually, it will come back to rest and remain there until roused by another external force.

Second, inertia is not a condition exclusive to the My Cup of Tea ladies or people dealing with poverty and trauma. Inertia, in a sense, is the human condition. We are inclined toward uniform motion like a train on a straight track traveling through sin, disappointment, grief, and despair. It is the external (and internal) force of Christ that derails us from this destructive course.

For now, we continue to patiently and graciously stir the tea and wait on the One inertia cannot resist.