Hearts for Jesus – 2025
The Hearts for Jesus project in the Southern Illinois District for 2025 is to support the Lansdowne Community Initiative founded by Unity Lutheran Church, East St. Louis, in partnership with the Mission Board of the Southern Illinois District in 2013. Lansdowne Community Initiative is a nonprofit organization to secure vacant properties, rehabilitate existing structures and develop newly constructed affordable housing. The initiative also provides financial and housing maintenance education and support to homeowners and renters in the Lansdowne Neighborhood.
The initiative’s vision is for all families living within the Lansdowne community to be provided with opportunities to advance socially and educationally through the strong community supporting such initiatives.
Organizational Goals and Objectives
Build community pride by beautifying and strengthening the neighborhood.
- Increase community capacity and ownership by starting a new neighborhood association
- Organize community cleanups
- Encourage community pride through beautification of parks and open space, as well as along major corridor
- Reduce crime and improve public safety organizational relationships within the community
Create safe, attractive streets.
- Beautify the major commercial corridors
- Provide amenities for public transportation
- Build curbs, improved sidewalks and gutters in interior streets to improve drainage and to enhance the streetscape within the community
- Increase lighting along interior roads
- Reduce litter and dumping along neighborhood streets
- Improve walkability
- Repair infrastructure
Promote homeownership and historical character of the housing stock.
- Develop housing to attract a mix of income levels
- Repair and resell vacant homes to potential homeowners
- Provide homeownership and home repair to new and existing homeowners
- Remove derelict housing and cleanup abandoned properties
Provide new retail opportunities and other neighborhood amenities.
- Increase neighborhood level retail opportunities
- Provide resources to businesses that would like to improve the appearance of their retail building spaces
- Create opportunities for businesses that will hire from within the community
- Explore job training for new and existing residents
Enhance Jones Park and construct new recreational facilities throughout the neighborhood.
If you or your congregation would like to support this great cause, donation checks can be made payable and sent to our offices with the memo “Hearts for Jesus 2025”:
Southern Illinois District – LCMS
2408 Lebanon Ave.
Belleville, Illinois 62221
