As I pulled my car up to the curb of the Al-Huda School in College Park’s Edgewood neighborhood, I felt an acute sense of nervousness well up inside my body. I was there on behalf of our student group, the Episcopal/Anglican Terps, to encourage our brothers and sisters from our city's Islamic school to join other College Park faith communities at St. Andrew’s for a roundtable discussion with local law enforcement on public safety. I found myself paralyzed, however, by the fear of being unable to convey this message well enough.

For several minutes I remained in my car, imagining different ways I might address the group of gentlemen whom I saw conversing in front of the building. I was nonplussed by every invitation I formulated in my mind, and pictured every overture I might make culminating in my humiliation as a consequence of failing to speak intelligibly. 

However, I thought, It's not going to happen if we, the students, don't make it happen.  Ultimately, the value of inviting all viewpoints to a discussion and my faith in the value of having faith communities be active participants in community life won out over my reluctance.  Pleased and surprised to discover my willingness to exchange comfort and anonymity for challenge and the risk of failure, I set out for the building with a sense of hopefulness about the outcome of my visit.  

The Faith Community Network of College Park is an organization made up of faith leaders who are passionate about advancing quality of life through coordinated action and prayer. The Episcopal student group began organizing the interfaith community in spring 2009, and in February we held a historic meeting of faith communities with the city's mayor. (The work of the University's Episcopal Campus Ministry is supported by the Diocese of Washington and the parishes of St. Andrew's, College Park and St. Paul's, Rock Creek).

The first meeting we organized took place at St. Andrew's between Maj. Daniel Dusseau, commander of Prince George’s County Police District I (Hyattsville and College Park) and the University Police. We gathered representatives from both the interfaith community on campus and from other faith communities in College Park.

Law enforcement officials told us the interfaith community could do a great deal to support them in their work of keeping College Park a safe and welcoming place to live. From the discussion, a clearer picture of what that collaboration might look like emerged. Specific issues were raised and there was a discussion about how these could be resolved.

Participants walked away from our first faith-based community organizing effort feeling accomplished  and illuminated. For us, the main lesson was that public safety is not a stand-alone issue: it is influenced by education and community life, and this is where faith communities are well-equipped to make an impact.

A team of students continued the work of community organizing last summer, attending meetings, making phone calls and speaking to our brothers and sisters of faith about serious issues that area congregations face – from vandalism of property to increased numbers of people looking for assistance to meet their basic needs. We discussed how collective action has worked to address these kinds of issues, and we challenged ourselves to ask one another whether a solution based in community organizing could work for us in College Park.

With the knowledge of our community’s needs, our faith and a bit of experience in community organizing, our student group's next major victory was persuading Pastor Stephen L. Wright Sr. of the First Baptist Church to host the interfaith community’s second meeting in August. Here we met more people who were interested in the work, and saw some familiar faces, including several from the Al-Huda School and the school's affiliate, the Dar-us-Salaam (House of Peace) community. Wright suggested we move forward as a group to get every faith community involved in the effort. For a nervous and diffident student like myself, the opportunities this work provided for professional development and advancing in my faith were really empowering.

The next major event was an asset mapping evening in October, hosted by Pastor Fay Lundin of College Park United Methodist Church, to identify what community-based programs the city's interfaith community has to offer and to identify any gaps in those resources. An eight-member steering committee was formed to guide the group's work. This group has been meeting about once a month at Hope Lutheran Church to develop our vision, mission, goals and strategies.

The committee recently met with College Park’s mayor, Andrew M. Fellows. He was interested in our work, as he previously worked with the city's interfaith community as organizer of the city’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. We discussed how the interfaith community and the city might work together to enhance quality of life. One popular idea was setting up a fair-trade coffee house in the city. But no matter what the future holds for the Faith Community Network of College Park, we are thankful for the personal growth and relationships that have grown from all that has taken place so far.

Emily Apatov is a second-year University of Maryland graduate student in the School of Public Policy, and an employee of the University's Episcopal/Anglican Campus Ministry. She can be reached at eapatov@umd.edu