Meet Board Member Jeff Bass!

Oct 11, 2017 | UA News

Article and photo by Urban Alliance staff.

When founding Urban Alliance, our leaders looked at three organizations to understand their models of ministry and how that could apply to the landscape of the Greater Hartford community. This is how we came into relationship with one of our board members, Jeff Bass.

After 8 years of serving as the Assistant Director of Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC), Jeff became the Executive Director in 1999 and oversees the ministry that served as one of the models for Urban Alliance’s work today.

Having served at EGC for 26 years, Bass has relevant ministry and organizational experience to offer Urban Alliance as a growing organization; but, after all these years, personal relationships with our staff drew him to get more involved.

While Jeff was on a trip with his team to our office in East Hartford recently, Dave Brooker, UA’s President and CEO, asked him to join the our board of directors. Initially, Jeff thought the distance and his current responsibilities would be a hinderance; however, after considering it more deeply, he accepted the invitation and began serving in September 2016.

“I believe UA and EGC have a lot to learn from each other, so I can help UA grow but also UA can help me and EGC grow. So far, at least, this has proven true,” shared Bass.

Appreciative of how thoughtful Urban Alliance is with community partners and engaging with them, Emmanuel Gospel Center has recently taken some notes on Urban Alliance’s work, including but not limited to our collaboration with World Vision to enhance some of their own Boston Public Schools partnerships.

Jeff is excited about future collaborations and looks forward to learning more about Urban Alliance and the work that is happening here in the Greater Hartford area. He is also looking forward to his drives to and from board meetings, seeing them as a time to get what he calls “a few hours alone in the car to think and pray about things”.

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The staff at Urban Alliance are familiar with Pastor Frank because he is a regular attendee to many of the trainings Urban Alliance provides on subjects like domestic violence, addressing childhood trauma, and better counseling techniques. “That’s been so valuable to me to be able to bring that back, not only in my counseling but also in my teaching and preaching ministries, “ shared Termine.

Pastor Frank was also one of the original members of the Micah group, a group of pastors that meets at Urban Alliance to discuss and strategize about challenging issues that face the church today. One of those earlier discussions on justice, incarceration, and returning citizens was particularly memorable. “We all lamented the fact that these men and women were coming out of prison into our churches and just kind of being thrown there,” said Termine, “We could do better than this.” That discussion planted the seeds that eventually led to the creation of Second Chance Churches – an opportunity for churches to provide support and mentoring to returning citizens that continues today.

When we asked Pastor Frank what he would say to another church that was unaware of Urban Alliance, he said, “If you are looking to get out in the community and make a difference in the community, Urban Alliance is a super way to do it. We’re a small church … we can’t do everything. Urban Alliance is a pathway to get our people involved in ministries that are already doing it, doing it well, and just need extra volunteers.”

Pastor Frank Termine’s story embodies many things we are trying to accomplish at Urban Alliance: supporting organizations in the communities they serve with training, resources, and opportunities to make a difference. Pastors and non-profit leaders face a wide range of challenges and, therefore, need a wide range of help and resources. Your support can help turn stories of struggle into stories like you find at Calvary Church.

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