A Cincinnati pastor is walking 46 miles across Hamilton and Butler counties this week to draw attention to what he calls a growing crisis facing homeless youth and children in foster care. Peter Matthews, senior pastor at New Vision United Methodist Church in Paddock Hills, began the five-day walk on Oct. 19 and will finish on Oct. 23, stopping at 25 organizations that serve young people across Greater Cincinnati.
Matthews started his walk at the Isaac M. Wise Temple, also known as the Plum Street Temple, in downtown Cincinnati. His route ends at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati in West Chester, a deliberately interfaith path from a historic synagogue through the city and suburbs to one of the region’s largest mosques, with churches and service agencies in between.
The walk is organized by Global Village 513, a Cincinnati affiliate of the Dayton Equity Center. Matthews founded the Equity Center, and the walk is built around listening as much as marching: at each of the 25 stops, he sits down with community leaders and asks them the same three questions about the children they serve.
Those questions are: What are you seeing in the children you serve that the rest of this city does not see? What would change tomorrow if the village showed up in a way that it should? And who else should be walking with us today? Matthews told The Enquirer the answers will help each group get a sense of what people are going through and how they can be better advocates.
The timing is not accidental. The walk ends less than two weeks before Hamilton County voters decide a children services levy on Nov. 3, and Matthews is making the journey while that debate is in front of the county, arguing that the challenges facing homeless youth and foster children deserve a place at the center of it.
When the walking ends, the work of compiling begins. Matthews will gather the answers collected at all 25 stops and present them at a symposium titled “State of Our Children: Now or Never” on Oct. 24, the day after he reaches West Chester, turning a week of conversations into a public report on what front-line organizations say Cincinnati’s children need.
For the organizations hosting stops along the route, the visit is a chance to put their daily reality in front of faith and civic leaders who may never otherwise walk through their doors. The walk continues through Oct. 23, and residents who see the group along the way are part of the point: a village, Matthews argues, has to show up in person.
Photo: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0