St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center brings jobs, resources to Flint residents for more than two decades

After more than a decade at St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center, Head Seamstress Olivia Young has helped dozens of women reclaim their self-worth and their potential. But first she had to help herself.

Young came to the program during one of her lowest moments, she said.

“Jobless, no money and bills to pay. That’s what brought me here,” Young said. “Once I started working, things were just looking up. When I got in the program, it gave me the opportunity to get a steady job, steady income and to start building on that.

“I always hated getting up in the morning to go punch a clock. But when I started working here, I looked forward to it. It just changed my whole perspective in life. Knowing that I was doing something productive and helping myself, along with others, to make life more bearable meant a lot to me.”

Young is one of eight seamstresses working at St. Luke. Over the years, several hundred women — and two men — have been trained through the sewing business, the center’s best-known social enterprise.

Launched in 2002 — originally to serve north end women — St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center helps individuals further their education and provides life-skills and workforce training to empower them to become self-sufficient. It operates three social enterprises and a food pantry that serves more than 1,000 people each month. It also offers a variety of community services, including crisis intervention, tutoring, child care and literacy programs.

Since 2009, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has granted more than $785,000 to support the work St. Luke does in the community.

How it started

The dream and vision for what St. Luke is today started as a street ministry in the 1990s.

Sister Judy Blake, who passed away in 2022, and Sister Carol Weber, co-founders of the ministry, knew in their hearts there was more they could be doing to help residents, especially women, who lived on the streets or needed a helping hand. Their outreach began as a way to help Sister Carol’s niece with her confirmation project, which focused on collecting and distributing blankets and clothes to Flint residents.

But Sister Judy and Sister Carol didn’t want to stop there. In 2000, they began working with St. Luke Catholic Church to provide a street ministry that offered clothing and food to people in Flint without housing. And as they learned more about what the women needed, they did their best to gather resources to meet those needs.

In 2002, the program found a permanent home in an old school building by the church. The co-founders invited women who had been involved in the program’s food bank to meet and discuss how they should use the building. Forty-three women showed up.

“The women came up with hundreds of ideas for this building, but in their conversations, it seemed that there were three that surfaced,” Sister Carol said. “And that was they needed a safe place to meet, they needed to increase their self-esteem, and they needed to grow in their education because they did not have their high school diploma. So those were the pillars that we built our three-year Program of Life Change on.”

It was important for Sister Judy and Sister Carol to start the conversation off with, “What do you need?”

“I’ve never walked in their shoes. As a woman who’s dedicated her life to the church, I have no idea what it’s like to be homeless,” Sister Carol said. “I can’t even begin to decide on a program for someone else because I’ve never been there. So that’s why we asked them, ‘What do you need?’ And we still do that.”

The first program started with 12 women who were ready to improve their lives. But that was simply the beginning.

Continued growth

After six years of operating the Program of Life Change, they were seeing positive outcomes in the women’s lives, including reliable employment or college enrollment after earning a GED. But in 2008, when the country was going through a recession, the women — and many others in the community and across the nation — were struggling to find jobs.

“We decided that we either had to give up our mission, or we had to start a business. And so, we started a business,” Sister Carol said. “We knew the people we served needed more than skills. They needed an opportunity for a job.”

The organization’s first social enterprise was the sewing business. Baker College helped the staff create a business plan, and Sister Carol and her team worked to find funding for the program. The Mott Foundation granted $15,000 in 2009 to help launch the enterprise and purchase 20 sewing machines, many of which are still used today.

At first, seamstresses started making scrubs and gowns for local medical facilities. Over the years, they made lab coats for Powers High School students, teddy bears for local law enforcement officers to give out and other products as requested. During the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Luke was asked to make face masks, and the seamstresses rose to the challenge, making more than 19,000.

In 2016, Stormy Kromer, a Michigan-based apparel company known for its winter caps, vests and jackets, approached St. Luke to help make vests for the company. About 360 Stormy Kromer vests are completed each month, and those made at St. Luke receive an additional tag, so customers know where it came from.

St. Luke has always made creating a safe place for women a top priority, but they also knew there were men in the community who needed their help.

Partnering with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Community Ventures allowed St. Luke to expand its mission to include a men’s work-development program and a second social enterprise — a lawn maintenance business. It originally started in 2011 as a way to eliminate blight around the center.

Bob Nelson, director of operations, joined the St. Luke team in December of 2019 and helped grow the business to train and employ even more men in the community needing job skills and a fresh start.

In partnership with the Genesee County Senior Services Division, men in the program are maintaining over 140 lawns this season, Nelson said. They also contract with the Ruth Mott Foundation to maintain parts of Applewood Estate and provide two staff members in seasonal support for their horticulture operations. In addition, the St. Luke team works with the Flint Housing Commission to maintain two properties.

A third social enterprise was launched in 2018. The center purchased a hoop house that has been used to teach participants how to plant, grow and harvest their own food. This year, a small group of women will be planting and caring for flowers that eventually will be sold at the Flint Farmers’ Market.

“It’s really exciting to see so much growth. The goal for our programs is to help get people on a path of self-sustainability and create momentum. We’ve created a safe space for them to come to, to ask questions, to find assistance,” Nelson said. “We’ve created a pathway for them to get their GEDs and grow in their education, or at the very least we’ve got them back into the rhythm for them to get long-term employment to help support their families — and eventually their community and their neighborhoods.”

One day at a time

Nelson and Sister Carol will continue to develop more community partnerships and identify more employers willing to work with residents that enter St. Luke’s employment program. But whatever the future holds, Sister Carol says they will continue to listen to what the residents say they need.

“We literally have to take one day at a time. I don’t want to just focus on what we’re doing well. I think that we need to look at whatever the future calls us to,” Sister Carol said. “I’m positive the direction we’ve taken so far has certainly been directed by someone beyond any of us. So, we just need to keep staying awake and open to that direction. I think it will take us deeper into the lives of the people that we are part of.”

The current building has 24 classrooms, and all of them are being used. Within the next few years, Nelson and Sister Carol hope to open a new building next to the current center to house the social enterprises, donation center and garage space for equipment.

“Let’s see how we can leverage our resources to make that individual impact, just one person at a time,” Nelson said.

Young is proof of that impact. She says St. Luke helped her find her purpose.

“The love of my job has kept me here. That’s it. I wanted to learn everything so that I could teach people everything. That was a joy,” she said. “St. Luke is the best place that I can tell you to be in. Anything that you need help with, they are here to help you. It’s just so mind soothing. Whatever you need, you just let them know, and they will work it out for you.”

To learn more about St. Luke and its programs, visit stlukenewlife.com or call 810-239-8710.