Address

New Horizon Community Church

3315 Summit Avenue

East St. Louis, IL 62205

History of Organization

New Horizon Community Church was established in 2006. The founding members of New Horizon help the community “Reach Higher by Empowering.” As a fledgling church, they formed a partnership with the Mt. Zion Church and were allowed to borrow Mt. Zion’s building and facilities until November 2009 when they were able to relocate to the former St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. St. Patrick’s Catholic Church was built in 1956. The campus (school and church facilities) had been abandoned. Since the November move in, New Horizon is working hard to reach out to the community. They have already had some great successes. They had an exciting Chili Cookout and Street Party which drew positive community attention and support to the new church. For Thanksgiving, over 200 people were served dinner and the church also reached out to those in need by sponsoring a clothing drive and Christmas dinner. The church has had a community violence prevention forum (with over 400 people in attendance!). They continue to be the front-runner in bringing peace, nonviolence education and gang prevention and awareness to the Metro East communities.

Currently, Reverend Ranodore Foggs leads New Horizon’s congregation which numbers close to 100 active participants. Reverend Foggs speaks highly of this congregation noting that “we’re not great in number yet but we aim to have a great impact.” Truly, for this dynamic and dedicated church, “the sky is the limit!”

Reverend Foggs is a retired law enforcement office from the Illinois State police as well as being an active spiritual leader. He is an advocate of education and study to get to a higher power. Reverend Foggs wants to continue to use the ministry of New Horizon Community Church to strengthen family values and help offer positive alternatives to East St. Louis communities. This church is dedicated in being cut from a different mold. Although it is a relatively new church, they have partnered with JC Penney, the state department, and 42 district churches including New Salem Baptist and Mt. Zion.

They are currently applying to be 501-C3 and hope to use their new campus to reach out and engage youth in the community. Reverend Foggs expressed a desire to start young adult tutoring and services at the church and feels that a computer lab could be the launching point for such an endeavor.

Organization’s Priorities for Implementation of Technology

New Horizon Community Church is a new community which is open to getting new programs, new members and new technology. Reverend Foggs has expressed a desire to reach out to young adults and provide some extensive young adult services at New Horizon Community Church. He aims to enhance self-esteem through programming that will help congregation and community members develop life skills such as better abilities to fill out applications, conduct successful job searches and interviews as well as improved connectivity to the larger world. The computer lab can be a central point to enhance the training and evolvement of community members.

New Horizon Community Church has expressed a desire to have Office Suite applications which are compatible with home/work computers. A handbook (tutorial) and some basic community computer training will be a fundamental assest to ensure the sustainability of a successful community computer lab. The computer lab is not the end of the gradual improvement that New Horizons is hoping to kick start. Reverend Foggs hopes to utilize the gym and start both youth summer programs and after school programs.

New Horizon has limited funding but is dedicated to accomplishing this change which whatever means they can. The church already has a small wireless network in the office. There is hope that this network will be able to sustain the eventual computer lab. Some preference has been given to having Microsoft compatible software.