Babcock Center, Inc. Launches the Bishop Project

On the morning of April 12, seven young volunteers from Killian Baptist Church in Killian, SC, began a World Changers missions project at Babcock Center’s Bachelor Street I residential facility. For the next three days, World Changers would clean, prep and paint the exterior of the facility, creating a more presentable home for the four men with lifelong disabilities who live there and receive supports from Babcock Center.

On that same day twenty-three World Changers from Sandy Level Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Columbia began a beautification project at Babcock Center’s Pinevale residential facility. Meanwhile, twenty-seven more World Changers from Spring Valley Baptist Church began their three-day missions project at the Woodtrail home. A few days later, volunteers from Salley Baptist Church located in Salley, SC, would begin their one-day beautification project at the New Market home. This church, led by Reverend Henry Cooper, is the first to adopt a Babcock Center residential home through the Bishop Project.

Twenty-seven other residential homes have been identified to make exterior and interior repairs to beginning June 14, 2004, through the Bishop Project, a grassroots effort initiated by Dr. William F. Bishop to ensure each facility operated by Babcock Center would one day be adopted by a church or community organization in efforts to assist with the ongoing repairs and improvements of each home.

Dr. William F. Bishop was elected to serve as a member of Babcock Center’s Board of Directors in October of 2003. Dr. Bishop is a retired Southern Baptist minister and a consultant for the South Carolina Baptist Convention. He and his wife, Ann, are members of Riverland Hills Baptist Church. Their son receives residential and day supports from Babcock Center. Once becoming a Board member and learning more of the day-to-day operations of the agency, Dr. Bishop shared a vision of involving the local churches and community volunteers in repairing and improving the 100 plus facilities operated by Babcock Center that are located in neighborhoods and residential communities throughout Lexington and Richland county.

The Bishop Project will continue to expand this summer with the help of the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s missions program and other volunteer organizations within the community. On June 14, another eight residential homes will be flooded with young mission teams from World Changers, as they dedicate themselves to impacting the lives of people with lifelong disabilities.

When World Changers began in 1990 the goal was to change the way mission education was approached, to get students out of the classroom and into a hands-on mission experience. The focus was to change the life of the participants by giving them a chance to change someone else’s world. Today, World Changers has become a strategic plan to eliminate substandard housing for many communities through short –term youth mission projects for the spring and summer sponsored by local Baptist churches.

Babcock Center strives to support and protect each person it serves and to help him or her enjoy a meaningful and independent life. Funding to support each individual and to operate and maintain the facilities is received primarily through contracts from the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs (SCDDSN) and SC Medicaid. Babcock Center is a United Way of the Midlands partner agency and receives allocated funds to support vocational services. However, as many local agencies in our community have experienced budget cuts from the State, funding to non-profit agencies, such as Babcock Center, has also been greatly reduced, causing us to look for other resources within our community to meet the ongoing needs of the agency.

The Babcock Center Foundation, formed in 1988, supports the activities and purposes of Babcock Center through donations and fund-raising events. The primary mission of the Foundation is to meet the needs of the people supported by Babcock Center when no other source of funding is available. For more information about Babcock Center or the Babcock Center Foundation call (803) 799-1970.

Anyone interested in participating in the Bishop Project or would like to receive additional information can contact Bill Reese at breese@babcockcenter.org or Dr. Bill Bishop at wfletcher@pbtcomm.net.  To receive a copy of photos of the Bishop Project, please contact Paige Williams at pwilliams@babcockcenter.org.