Jericho Partnership plans to remake Spring Street

The thing that surprised Carrie Amos is that people from all around the region – including from Ridgefield and other high-end towns – had heard of Spring Street. They knew it as the home of the Dorothy Day Hospitality House homeless shelter and a place where drug dealers and prostitutes hang out.

Amos has been talking about Spring Street over the past several months because she, and the Jericho Partnership of which she is executive director, are planning to reach out to criminals and other troubled people there, and attempt a heroic transformation of the neighborhood into a more livable place.

The Jericho Partnership has leased St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Spring Street for the next 30 years. The Lutheran congregation will continue to worship on Sundays and use the 250-seat sanctuary. Jericho, which has been running youth basketball programs at St. Paul’s full-size basketball courts, will now occupy the rest of the church as a base of more operations.

Amos noted that even though Jericho’s headquarters are on nearby Rose Street, “we felt like visitors on Spring Street.” Now they will be residents.

For someone outside the organization, the main question might be, “Why?”

“We’ve been talking and praying for the past year about the future of Jericho,” Amos said. “We increasingly felt called to do something more sustainable.”

Jericho, founded in 1999 by local businessman Bill Beattie, operates nine ministries in Danbury and partners with more than a dozen congregations in and around the city. For information about one of Jericho's ministries on Rose Street, click

Although Jericho already counts 1,600 volunteers, Amos said she will be looking for as many as 1,000 more to help take on Spring Street, perhaps calling on each volunteer once or twice a month. “You can burn out easily when you work on a street like Spring Street,” said Amos, who is trained as a social worker. “It’s about investing in our volunteers as well.”

While Jericho has pledged to remake Spring Street, it has not fully worked out its plans.

“I’m not committed to saying what we are going to do except be present for the moment,” Amos said. “Our plan is not to take over, but to collaborate and partner with others who want to see the city transformed.” She said officials at Dorothy Day and in the mayor’s office have offered support.

“We’ll start with the physical plant, walking the street every day,” Amos said. On a recent stroll, she collected 43 empty alcohol bottles lying on the road. “Maybe it starts with a daily street cleaning. Maybe the people will take more care in cleaning up themselves – I don’t know but it’s worth a shot.”

Jericho has hired Jim Wiley to be ministry coordinator based at St. Paul’s. Outreach will include people who live in the houses in the neighborhood, a grocery store, legitimate home-based businesses and two other churches on the street, as well as residents of Putnam Towers, senior housing run by the city Housing Authority at the corner of Spring and Beaver streets.

Amos is adamant that Spring Street will not be cleaned up at the expense of other neighborhoods.

“The homeless are not going to move to another street,” she said. “We all want to see the street improved and transformed.”

Jericho has been hosting monthly Samaritan dinners to talk about its Spring Street initiative and to raise money. A partner, Maranatha Foundation, pays administrative costs, including salaries, so all money raised goes to people served by Jericho’s ministries, including Spring Street.

Jericho is now seeking volunteers for its Spring Street outreach teams. Prayer and training sessions will be held on March 10, 17, 24 and 31 at 5:30 p.m. A dedication, prayer vigil and ministry launch is planned for April. For more information, contact Jericho at volunteer@jerichopartnership.org.

The Connecticut Choral Society will present a concert to benefit Jericho Partnership at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 10, at the First Congregational Church on Deer Hill Avenue in Danbury. Tickets are $20 and are available at Jericho’s 13 Rose St. building or by calling (203) 206-7186.