FaithActs

FaithActs for Education

📍 Bridgeport, Connecticut
👤 Founder: Rev. William McCullough
👥 Founding Executive Director: Jamilah Prince-Stewart
💰 Annual Budget: ~$3 million
🗓 Founded: 2014

What happens when Black churches lead the fight for educational equity?

In Bridgeport, Connecticut — one of the most underfunded school districts in the state — FaithActs for Education is proving that faith communities can be a political force. Founded by Rev. William McCullough, with Jamilah Prince-Stewart as its founding executive director, FaithActs organizes clergy, congregants, and families to push for better public schools, fairer funding, and stronger civic engagement.

They’ve:

• Registered thousands of new voters, boosting turnout in neighborhoods long left out of policy conversations.

• Won tangible education victories, like preventing school bus cuts for 2,300 students and helping secure additional funding for Bridgeport schools.

• Trained parents and clergy to become advocates, watchdogs, and leaders — at school board meetings, at the ballot box, and in the Capitol.

This is power-building, not charity. A model that fuses faith, organizing, and local political influence — and it’s gaining attention.

Looking ahead, FaithActs is preparing to train other communities in how to adapt their faith-based organizing modelto local challenges — not just in education, but in any issue where communities need to build power and demand change.