Last Updated October 1, 2011Neighborhood Ministry House

Our mission is anchored in our model of establishing Neighborhood Ministry Houses in under-resourced communities.

Neighbors utilize these safe havens as gathering places, resource centers, and centralized locations for volunteer engagement and community organizing. TBPM has been developing this model since our inception in 1995, based on our own experience and the tenets of the Christian Community Development Association (a national association of practitioners doing similar work throughout the country).

Our long-term vision is to establish five (5) ministry houses in Boston by 2020.

Our Pilot House - 15 Elmhurst Street

Founders Paul and Glenna Malkemes moved onto Elmhurst Street in the Codman Square neighborhood of Dorchester in 1996. Their move was not part of a strategic plan designed by themselves, rather it was rooted in their desire to relocate within the community where they worked and worshipped. A friend from Dorchester Temple Baptist Church had an apartment available and within a month they were the new neighbors.

Between 1999-2003, The Boston Project rented an apartment as a base of operations in the same house where Paul and Glenna lived. Then in 2003, the opportunity became available to purchase the house next door (right) for the ministry.

Today, this house is a thriving place for the community. Paul, Glenna, and their family live here with additional space in the house used for neighborhood meetings, a drop-in homework center, office space, and more!

The staff and volunteers who serve at this house are committed alongside neighbors to seeing the Talbot-Norfolk Triangle neighborhood become a strong and healthy community.