Who we are

In partnership with Brevard County businesses, churches and organizations, the Brevard Neighborhood Development Coalition(BNDC) is providing hope and opportunity for the county’s most impoverished areas.

Established in 2001, BNDC has helped to implement solutions for the revitalization of low-income communities. BNDC is a faith-based grassroots group that channels the efforts of individuals---resident leaders, government officials, business people and church members---into the realization of peace and prosperity for all communities.

Our efforts in the past have primarily focused in the Booker T. Washington neighborhood, Melbourne’s poorest community and an area plagued by crime and drugs. Here, 85% of families have incomes of less than $15,000 a year. The children in this neighborhood have many temptations and few places in which to play.


In this troubled community, BNDC opened the Dorcas Outreach Center for Kids, or DOCK, in 2004. Our drop-in community center is a safe haven where neighborhood youngsters can find love and guidance, thanks to a small dedicated staff and the dozens of volunteers who daily mentor these children academically, emotionally and spiritually.

The DOCK emerged from the vision of the late Sister Irene Summerford, a long-time resident leader and an extraordinary woman.

In 2007, the DOCK moved from a temporary facility in a public housing apartment to its current 3,5000-square-foot building made possible by community donations.

Each day, children and teens stream into the DOCK after school, eager for a healthy snack, help with homework, computer instruction, art classes, faith lessons and recreation. In this “home away from home.”

Across the street from the DOCK is our Greater Heights complex, an 18-unit affordable apartment community for the working poor and the elderly. Completed in 2009, Greater Heights stands on the site of the former “Bottoms,” once infamous for criminal activity.

BNDC recently partnered with the Powell Subdivision Neighborhood Watch, Congregations for Community Action and the City of Palm Bay to revitalize a corner grocery that has fallen prey to crime and blight.

Evans Center will result in a multi-use model neighborhood market and community gathering place, service residents with staple products, laundry and deli. Area youth will benefit from vocational training on-site.

In 2009, Florida Today honored BNDC’s efforts by naming it Brevard’s Organization of the Year.

BNDC is a young organization, but we have already had a significant impact in making Brevard a better place for all families. BNDC is proof that when ordinary individuals work together for the common good, extraordinary things can happen.

IRENE SUMMERFORD (1946 - 2006)

In 1957, a little girl named Irene Summerford moved into the Booker T. Washington neighborhood. She grew up, married, and raised her family there. Her love for the community, and her influence in it, ran very deep.

Irene could have allowed the racism she encountered, or her poverty, to define her life and harden her heart. But she chose instead a life of offering grace and love to others. She became a mentor, friend, pastor, and apostle to more than one generation!

As host of the local radio show “The Electrifying Gospel Hour” (1986-1994), she inspired many. Also, Irene earned a degree from Morris Business College and worked for NASA for many years. Sister Summerford was ordained in 1996.

Wherever she was, Sister Irene shared the most precious gift available to those she encountered… the gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

She was especially passionate about the plight of the children. She fought to help children overcome the temptation to lose hope, quit school, or succumb to the lure of drug dealers.

Sister Irene served as the Director of Project Light, a sidewalk ministry, providing faith lessons, food, and clothes for anyone in need. She was also the visionary and first Director of BNDC’s DOCK, which seeks to fulfill her dream of a safe haven for children and teens, a place where they can get off the streets and be nurtured academically, spiritually, and socially.

“Let the children come unto me”, said the Lord. Because of Sister Irene’s vision and hard work, children’s lives are being valued and saved.

In 2009, the City of Melbourne honored Sister Irene’s memory by naming the street near the DOCK and Greater Heights “Irene Summerford Way.”

Thank you Sister Irene for pointing us all to the Way; for helping us rest in His love and light.