Adam Meyerson, President, The Philanthropy Roundtable
"Barbara Elliott has a genius for identifying America’s most effective faith-based healers of troubled souls and troubled neighborhoods."

Jim Towey, former legal counsel to Mother Teresa of Calcutta
"Street Saints powerfully portrays the difference that faith-based groups are making in the lives of those in need in America."

Marvin Olasky, University of Texas, Austin
"Barbara Elliott unites knowledge and eloquence, an all-too-rare combination."

Bob Buford, author of Halftime and Finishing Well and founder of Leadership Network
"Barbara Elliott is a hands-on hero."

Book Description
Street Saints is both a book of motivational stories about unsung heroes and a sociological study of the "faith factor," documenting faith-based programs that are treating social maladies in America. Based on eight years of hands-on experience and more than 300 interviews, Barbara Elliot takes readers on a tour of communities and institutions where faith-based initiatives are making a difference. She offers inspiration, role models, and guidelines for people who would like to give back to their own communities.

About the Author
Barbara J. Elliott is the founder of the Center for Renewal in Houston, which serves faith-based organizations, particularly those working in the inner city. President George W. Bush gave her the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights in 2001, honoring her work with refugees and the poor. She has served President Reagan in the White House, the Heritage Foundation on Capitol Hill, and the Hudson Institute as a Senior Fellow. A former international correspondent for PBS, she is the author of Candles Behind the Wall: Heroes of the Peaceful Revolution that Shattered Communism, and scores of articles on civic renewal. She is a philanthropic advisor with the Legacy Group and an Associate Fellow with the Sagamore Institute.

SYNOPSIS

Street Saints is both a book of motivational stories about unsung heroes and a sociological study of the "faith factor," documenting faith-based programs that are treating social maladies in America. Based on eight years of hands-on experience and more than 300 interviews, Barbara Elliott takes readers on a tour of communities and institutions where faith-based initiatives are making a difference. It offers inspiration, role models, and guidelines for people who would like to give back to their own communities.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Marvin Olasky

In this book Barbara Elliott unites knowledge and eloquence, an all-too-rare combination. Barbara introduced me to some terrific groups in Houston; now she is introducing the entire country to what she has learned. Take advantage of her understanding by making it your own. — University of Texas, Austin; editor of World magazine, author of Compassionate Conservatism and The Tragedy of American Compassion

Bob Buford

Barbara Elliott is a hands-on hero. With the mind of a first rate policy analyst, she has a heart as big as Texas and she's not afraid to get out amongst 'em as the 300 interviews in Street Saints attests. — author of Halftime and Finishing Well and founder of Leadership Network

Deal Hudson

Street Saints is a compelling look at what's right with America. No stranger to the political world, Barbara Elliott takes us deeper than political remedies can reach: the human heart. Faith works, she demonstrates in a plunge tour of our cities that it is not only inspiring, but persuasively researched. — publisher, Crisis magazine

Michael Sweeney

Mother Teresa of Calcutta held that poverty in the United States is more severe than anywhere else in the world because, in this, the wealthiest nation on earth, poverty is not only acute, but also humiliating. In this engaging book, Barbara Elliott shows that American poverty is right now being addressed in our neighborhoods and cities in an American way -through faith. Read it and be heartened by what is occurring under our very noses; read it to discover what works, and why. — Rev., O.P., President, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, CA

Jim Towey

Street Saints powerfully portrays the difference that faith-based and community groups - as well as faith-filled people - are making in the lives of those in need in America. In an era of cynicism and anxiety, Street Saints offers inspiration and hope and shows how lives are being transformed by, as President Bush would say, America's 'armies of compassion. — former legal counsel to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

ACCREDITATION