TAMJPA HEIGHTS, Fla. — Back in 1972, Metropolitan Ministries was born from 13 different churches as a sandwich ministry in Tampa Bay.
Over the past 50 years, they've expanded their mission, but a lot of what they do comes back to Tampa Heights.
The campus off of Florida Avenue is dubbed Miracle Place.
"The changes that happen in individual's lives, that they go from a hopeless situation to being home filled—and what we hoped to provide for families is an opportunity to become fully self-sufficient, and we celebrate that, with the longevity of our engagement here in the Heights," explained Tim Marks, CEO of Metropolitan Ministries.
Marks said their major expansions usually happen during "really dark economic times," such as the Great Recession in 2007-2009.
"It's in 2010 that we said that we were going to revitalize our campus to care for more families, build a beautiful childcare center, build a brand new school, and nothing was coming out of the ground in the Heights," he said. "There were lots of people willing to help us build the project because there just wasn't a lot of work in Tampa in the construction industry in 2010."
Metropolitan Ministries has on-campus housing, education for kids, job placement and various outreach missions.
"We are really turning ourselves inside out because gentrification is happening in the Heights, right? And a lot of the housing projects are being torn down and rebuilt," Marks said. "So we've launched a new project called Neighbor Hope, which is to go into hardest hit zip codes in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties."
Marks said it's incredibly important to be in these neighborhoods to help families navigate their moments of crisis.
"We're in 15 different public schools now working side by side with school social workers to help meet the social services needs. While the school district works with the social-emotional needs of a child, we're there to help provide social services right in the school," he said.
Regardless of location, Metropolitan Ministries remains a mission of helping people through crisis.
"The Metropolitan Ministries Tampa Heights campus really is our ground zero for all the services that we do, really hitting four counties," Marks said. "It becomes a community resource, a Tampa Bay resource."
For the 100 families and their kids who call Metropolitan Ministries home, it's where their future begins.
"I love that our families get to take advantage of Armature Works. I love that our families get to take advantage of all the wonderful things on the Riverwalk, and they're not pushed to the outskirts of town," Marks said. "The Heights is a great place to live. And I'm glad that 100 families are working their way out of homelessness in the same space."
