We had the good fortune of connecting with Rev. Allison Lanza and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rev. Allison, other than deciding to work for yourself, what else do you think played a pivotal role in your story?

At Be The Neighbor our mission is to teach people how to live lives of love, service, and justice. We work to equip groups, of primarily youth, with the skills, knowledge, and hope to be the neighbor who makes their community a better place for ALL their neighbors who live there.
There are two major decisions we have made that have contributed to our success.
1) Believing that kids and teenagers have the power to make our communities better: If you listen to our culture, you might believe that kids are lazy or self-indulged, or you might believe that our world is bad and getting worse. We know this is not true. Kids and teenagers have the hearts, ideas, willpower, and
work ethic to make change. They have hope that the way it is, is not the way it has to be. They believe that our communities can be a place where everyone is safe, loved, and has what they need to thrive. They are willing to work to make it happen for all their neighbors. Believing in the power of kids to change our communities not in the future, but today, has made our work successful. We give them the tools they need, introduce them to community leaders and experts, show them models for change that have worked before, and then we let them dream, connect them to resources to make their dreams a reality, and cheer them on!

2) The second decision we have made that has contributed to our success is believing that when neighbors are connected to each other, change happens. Our communities are so divided. Most of us usually only interact with people who are like us in background, beliefs, age and resources. Things are set up to keep us siloed from each other. Our decision to break those silos and to help people build relationships with their neighbors who have different life experiences from them has been critical to our success. We know that when we get to know each other, change happens. It is harder to hate and fear each other up close. When we build relationships we find our similarities, our empathy grows, and our commitment to make our community better for each other grows.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I lead a nonprofit called Be The Neighbor. I began this work out of Ridglea Christian Church in Fort Worth 10 years ago. Around the same time, Rev. Mary Lu Johnston began a similar program called Reach Beyond Mission out of University Christian Church in Austin. In 2022, we joined together to become Be The Neighbor. We now lead trips in 15 cities across the country to teach and equip kids and youth to be the neighbor who makes their community more loving and just for all.
We work in Albuquerque, NM, Austin, TX, Bentonville, AR, Brownwood, TX, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Fort Worth, TX, Kansas City, Mayfield, KY, Nashville, TN, St. Louis, MO, Tucson, AZ, Tulsa, OK, and Washington DC. At each of our sites we teach kids how to make change around an issue that affects the neighbors in the communities they’re in, including focuses on: hunger and food security, homelessness and housing justice, refugee welcome, racism and racial justice, environmental care, poverty and economic justice, and more! We are excited that for 2024 we already have over 1,000 people registered to come serve and learn with us.
What makes us different is that many service-learning trips end on the last day of the trip. We see this not as the end but the beginning. Our goal is that their trip is a launching pad for them to go home and make a difference in their own schools, neighborhoods, and communities. We give them resources to make
change at home and have them leave with a specific plan for how they can make their communities better, Then, we check in with them 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months after their trip to see how it’s going and how we can help. Kids have gone home to set up apartments for arriving refugee families, create programs to provide diapers to young families, speak out for change with their local representatives, start formal dress closets to make sure everyone can participate in high school rituals no matter their families financial circumstances, start community gardens, create new partnerships with nonprofits, and so much more!

We are committed to keeping prices for these trips low and providing scholarships to anyone who needs them. It has been a challenge to find money to underwrite the true costs of a trip to make this possible. Personally, going from a congregational pastor to a nonprofit’s Executive Director, I have had to learn about practical pieces of grant writing and nonprofit management. I have learned that when we follow the values of doing everything relationally, sustainably, and in dignity-affirming ways we can do even the hard
things. When we all commit to being good neighbors, we believe that our communities can be made whole again, justice can be realized, and all of us can flourish.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We would begin with coffee at Roy Pope Grocery and letting the kids play at the Sanguinet Park, followed by a walk along the Trinity River. We would then head to lunch at Paco’s on Magnolia and to the Fort Worth Zoo, followed by dinner at Joe T’s. We would take time that weekend to volunteer at a local nonprofit like Neighborhood Needs, WestAid Pantry, Welman Project, Presbyterian Night Shelter, Opals Farm, or Room in the Inn. We would watch local theater, shop at the Market on Ridglea, and enjoy lots of patios!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
At Be The Neighbor we believe that change only happens when we work together and we are able to do what we do only because of partnerships and relationships with others.

We could not do what we do without:

 The congregations in the 15 cities we operate in who welcome and host our groups,
 The nonprofits, community leaders, activists, and experts who do the work of justice, service and
love every day in their communities and who teach, equip and empower our trip participants,
 The college and graduate students who intern with us who lead our groups and share their passions and energy,
 The adult volunteers who bring kids on a Be The Neighbor trip and give up, not just a week of their life to sleep on a church floor, but who commit to guiding them the next year to take what they learned on their trip and make a change back in their own community,
 The many supporters who donate to and help fund our work.
10 years ago, I began a program called Connect Ministries that taught kids how to connect with and love their neighbors. 11 years ago, Rev. Mary Lu Johnston began a program called Reach Beyond Mission that taught kids and youth how to partner with their neighbors and to understand the bigger systemic structures that are causing hurt and injustice for neighbors in their community. In 2021, we realized that we could do what we do better together so after a year of planning with our boards and leaders we joined together in September 2022 to become Be The Neighbor. Since then, we have become better than what we could have been on our own and bigger than the sum of our parts.
I also give a lot of thanks to Kids Who Care Performing Arts. I grew up here and Deborah Jung, KWC’s Executive Director, instilled in me the belief that kids have the power to make change in the world and gave me the practical skills to be a leader for change. This not only helped me to have the belief that I could start and lead a nonprofit, but also empowered me to pass this gift on empowering and equipping kids in what we do.

Website: www.betheneighbor.org

Instagram: betheneighbor

Facebook: Be The Neighbor

Youtube: @betheneighbor.

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