Faith Fowler

{{Short description|Detroit pastor and nonprofit director}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}

Faith Fowler is an American pastor and community activist. She is the senior pastor of Cass Community United Methodist Church and the executive director of Cass Community Social Services (CCSS), a large nonprofit in Detroit that serves more than 700,000 meals a year and houses about 300 homeless people per night alongside a day program, medical clinics, and a job center.{{cite web |last=Green |first=Leslie |date=November 13, 2021 |title=Crain's 2021 100 Most Influential Women |url=https://www.crainsdetroit.com/awards/faith-fowler-2021-most-influential-women |access-date=October 28, 2022 |website=Crain's Detroit Business |publisher=}} CCSS was established as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) in 2002.  Prior to that, many of its programs started as a part of Cass Community United Methodist Church.{{Cite web |date=December 7, 2012 |title=About |url=https://casscommunity.org/about/about/ |access-date=April 17, 2023 |website=Cass Community Social Services}}

Under Fowler's leadership, CCSS has expanded its jobs programs and campus. Her original goal was to expand the social services available in the Cass Corridor beyond emergency-only programs.{{cite book |last=Fowler |first=Faith |date=September 8, 2014 |title=This Far By Faith: Twenty Years At Cass Community |location=Detroit|publisher=Cass Community Publishing House |page=xii |isbn=978-1939880703}} Fowler's focus on sustainability and jobs has helped address income inequality in Detroit by creating jobs for homeless people and people under the poverty line, through products like mud mats made of repurposed illegally dumped tires, coasters made wood sourced from demolished houses, and Detroit-branded sandals. Her expansion of CCSS's programs and properties has increased the number of homeless people who have successfully moved into transitional housing.{{cite web |last=White |first=Russ |last2=Watts |first2=Hannah |date=October 15, 2014 |title=This Far By Faith: Twenty Years at Cass Community Social Services with Faith Fowler |url=https://www.mlive.com/environment/2014/10/this_far_by_faith_twenty_years.html |access-date=October 28, 2022 |website=MLive}} Fowler helped create the Tiny Homes Detroit project, Cass Community Publishing House, and Cass Green Industries, which produces the sustainable products sold by CCSS.{{cite web |date=July 29, 2019 |title=Rev. Faith Fowler: Making Disciples in Detroit |url=https://www.umc.org/en/content/rev-faith-fowler-making-disciples-in-detroit |access-date=October 28, 2022 |website=United Methodist Church}}{{cite web |last=Warikoo |first=Niraj |date=August 18, 2016 |title=The Rev. Faith Fowler of Detroit to receive Shining Light award |url=https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/08/18/rev-faith-fowler-detroit-receive-shining-light-award/88818818/ |access-date=October 28, 2022 |website=Detroit Free Press |publisher=}}

Fowler graduated from Albion College and received a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.{{cite web |title=1986 Faith Fowler |url=https://www.bu.edu/sth/profile/faith-fowler/ |access-date=October 28, 2022 |website=Boston University}}

Fowler felt the call to pastorship in junior high, but was told by her church's pastor that she was "wrong". Nonetheless, she studied religion and English at Albion College. To save enough money for a Master of Divinity degree from Boston University, she worked a full-time job at a children's care and rehabilitation facility, and a part-time job at a church youth program.

Fowler has also served as an adjunct professor at University of Michigan-Dearborn, a board member for the Cass Corridor Neighborhood Development Corporation, an advisory board member of the Detroit Area Agency on Aging, and chaired the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority Advisory Committee.{{cite web |date=May 2015 |title=Rev. Faith Fowler |url=https://humanityinaction.org/person/rev-faith-fowler/#:~:text=Article-,Rev.,held%20these%20roles%20since%201994. |access-date=October 28, 2022 |website=Humanity in Action |publisher=}} She is the author of two books.

She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 2016.{{Cite web |title=Rev. Faith Fowler |url=https://miwf.org/timeline/rev-faith-fowler/ |access-date=January 26, 2024 |website=Michigan Women Forward}}