To demonstrate Christ's love to an under-resourced community by elevating and improving the quality of neighborhood life through empowerment and partnerships.
In 2002, Oasis of Hope began partnering with a forgotten neighborhood north of downtown (view map and directions). Few Memphis communities have faced harder times. Crime rates, economic decline, and infant mortality are among the highest in the country… education, employment, and annual income, among the lowest. This is the area made infamous by the rap lyrics from Three 6 Mafia:
"North Memphis where I’m from, I’m 7th Street bound / Where people all the time end up lost and never found."
It doesn’t happen overnight, but today hope is spreading across this community in North Memphis. Thanks to God and the genuine efforts of many people, life-on-life relationships are being built. Oasis of Hope is changing hearts and lives by creating an “oasis” in the center of an urban neighborhood. Hundreds of volunteers, supporters and neighborhood families are helping to demonstrate Christ’s love.
Together we’re improving the quality of neighborhood life and rebuilding the community through empowerment and partnerships… together, we’re making sure more don’t get lost.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
There are 3 things that Oasis of Hope MUST be about in order to bring true Christian community development to North Memphis: