Church in the Streets 2026 Kickoff: 250+ Neighbors, 16 Organizations, and a Movement Taking Root in East Winston-Salem

On a Friday afternoon in late March, something rare happened in East Winston-Salem. More than 250 people — children, teenagers, young families, and seniors — gathered at Rupert Bell Recreation Park at 1000 Mount Zion Place. They weren't there for a concert or a rally. They were there because 16 organizations showed up in their neighborhood to meet them where they are. No appointments. No waiting rooms. No eligibility barriers. Just presence, resources, and the kind of trust-building that most institutions can't manufacture — because it has to be earned, one encounter at a time.

That was the Church in the Streets 2026 Kickoff Event. And it was just the beginning.

By the Numbers: What March 20 Produced

250+ total attendees. 16 participating organizations. 5 age groups represented — from children to seniors. 50 health screenings conducted. 80 food and resource distributions. 40 trauma-informed care engagements. 130+ community contacts collected for follow-up. And 15 neighbors who signed up on the spot to be part of whatever comes next.

Those are not abstract metrics. Each number represents a real person in East Ward who left that park with something they didn't have when they arrived — a referral, a resource, a relationship, or simply the knowledge that organizations in their city see them and are willing to come to them.

Why East Ward — and Why It Matters

The Mount Zion Place corridor in East Winston-Salem is not a neighborhood that has been overlooked by accident. It is a community that faces compounding social determinants — median household income of $28,000–$35,000 against a county average of $52,000; poverty rates of 28–35% compared to 14% countywide; unemployment running two to three times the county average; 30%+ of residents uninsured or on Medicaid; and a food desert with no full-service grocery within walking distance. Holland Home Senior Residential Community sits directly adjacent to the event site. Mount Zion Baptist Church sits diagonally across the street. The Sunrise Tower anchors the corridor.

This is exactly the kind of neighborhood where Church in the Streets is designed to work — not because it is a problem to be solved, but because it is a community with assets, relationships, and resilience that have been systematically under-resourced. LVCM CDC's inside-out approach does not bring programs to East Ward. It builds the infrastructure for East Ward to build its own.

16 Organizations. One Ecosystem.

Thirteen organizations registered formally. Three joined on the day of the event — which itself says something about the kind of energy CITS generates. The organizations that showed up on March 20 represented every dimension of community health: healthcare, early childhood education, food security, mental health, workforce development, Medicaid navigation, trauma-informed care, Alzheimer's research, hospice support, and organ donation. This is what an integrated ecosystem looks like in practice — not a health fair, but a curated, coordinated response to the full spectrum of what a community needs.

Trauma-Informed Care: Glynis Bell, Derek Pender, and the Winston-Salem Trauma Resilient Communities

One of the most significant contributions to the March 20 event came from Glynis Bell and Derek Pender of the Winston-Salem Trauma Resilient Communities — the Center for Trauma Resilient Communities. Their presence was not ceremonial. They brought an evidence-based framework for understanding how traumatic experiences shape community health outcomes, interpersonal behavior, and the institutional distrust that so often prevents residents from engaging with the very systems designed to help them.

In a neighborhood where elevated ACE exposure, community violence, and generational poverty create compounding behavioral health needs, trauma-informed care is not a supplemental service — it is foundational infrastructure. Glynis and Derek's countywide and multi-county work builds the regional TIC framework that CITS depends on. When faith leaders, community organizations, and residents learn to see each other through a trauma-informed lens, the relational trust required for systems change becomes possible. That is the work they brought to East Ward on March 20.

Forsyth Wins: Bringing Gun Violence Prevention to the Table

Also at the table on March 20 was Forsyth Wins — an initiative of Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods — one of the most critical organizations working in Winston-Salem today. Forsyth Wins is a gun violence and shooting prevention initiative that works directly with high-risk individuals using the evidence-based 22-to-22 model: a focused, data-driven strategy targeting the specific corridors and individuals most at risk of becoming perpetrators or victims of gun violence in order to reduce killings and shootings in those areas.

Their participation in the Church in the Streets Kickoff was not incidental. In a neighborhood where community violence is a documented social determinant of health — creating trauma, destabilizing families, and generating the institutional distrust that blocks access to care — organizations like Forsyth Wins are not peripheral to systems change. They are central to it. When a gun violence prevention organization and a trauma-informed care team and a faith-based community health initiative all sit at the same table, you are not looking at a health fair. You are looking at the early architecture of a community safety and healing ecosystem.

Health Screenings, Food Security, and Medicaid Navigation — On the Block

Cone Health and Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center deployed an on-site health screening team — conducting 50 blood pressure checks, wellness assessments, and primary care referrals. AmeriHealth Caritas NC connected residents to NC Medicaid plans, Healthy Opportunities benefits, and wraparound service navigation. Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC distributed food samples, SNAP outreach materials, and information about their culinary school — critical in a neighborhood classified as a food desert. ArchWell Health served the senior population, including Holland Home residents who are literally adjacent to the park. The Alzheimer's Disease Research Division at Atrium Health WF Baptist engaged the 55+ cohort about clinical trials and brain health resources.

An Early Childhood Pipeline Built in One Afternoon

Four education and early childhood organizations — Child Care Resource Center (with bilingual support from Elena Romero), WSFCS Preschool Department, Smart Start of Forsyth County, and the Pre-K Priority Coalition — created a complete early childhood resource pipeline at a single community event. This alignment was not coincidental. It directly reflects LVCM CDC's Family, Friend & Neighbor Child Care Alliance strategy, and it serves a neighborhood where childcare desert conditions affect a disproportionately high concentration of families with children ages 0–5. Forsyth Tech also brought higher education and workforce enrollment resources, reaching the young adult cohort — the 25% of attendees ages 20–31 who represent the working families this community depends on.

"Not a church. The Church." — What Church in the Streets Actually Is

Church in the Streets is not a revival. It is not an outreach event. It is a strategic, integrative platform for addressing the Social Determinants of Health through cross-sector collaboration anchored in faith, trust, trauma-informed practice, and community ownership. It moves the Church from behind its four walls into the neighborhoods, streets, parks, and public spaces where people actually live — and it addresses all 10 dimensions of health: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Social, Economic, Educational, Environmental, Family & Relational, Civic & Community, and Cultural.

Since its launch in July 2023, CITS has engaged 64 faith partners, 67 community organizations, and reached over 98,000 individuals across 19 North Carolina counties. March 20, 2026 was not a beginning. It was a new chapter in a story that has been building for three years.

What Comes Next: September 11, 2026

The return date is confirmed: Friday, September 11, 2026 at Rupert Bell Recreation Park, 4:00–6:30 PM. The goal is to move from Coordination — organizations showing up together and building initial trust, which is what March 20 achieved — to Cooperation: cross-referrals, shared outcome goals, and co-facilitated community planning with East Ward residents. The 15 neighbors who signed up on March 20 are not just contacts. They are potential neighborhood co-designers. Planning for September will engage them as partners.

The CITS Systemic Change Framework moves in three stages: Coordination (March 20 — achieved), Cooperation (September 11, 2026 — target), and Collaboration: co-designed, co-funded, co-delivered programs representing full systems change by 2027 and beyond. East Winston-Salem is not waiting for systems to change. Church in the Streets is building the infrastructure for the community to change them together.

Want to bring Church in the Streets to your neighborhood, congregation, or organization? Contact LVCM CDC at info@lvcmcdc.org or (336) 925-4045. The next event is September 11, 2026 — and this time, you're invited to help build it.