FAST (Faith and Action for Strength Together)

Faith and Action for Strength Together (FAST)
in Pinellas County

For a Church Convention or Meeting

Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with those who take counsel in the Joshua Assembly for the renewal and mission of your Church. Teach us in all things to seek first yo8ur honor and glory. Guide us to perceive what is right, and grant us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
- Book of Common Prayer, pg. 818

Events on the Horizon

St. Thomas' FAST Team Mtg.
Sunday, May 17th, 2026 after the 10 o'clock service
Guild Room

Joshua Assembly
Monday, May 18th, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.
Location:
Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church
13255 118th St, Largo, FL 33770

Justice Ministry Conference
Tuesday, July 21st - Friday July 24th 2026
Location: Orlando, FL
Scholarships available!

Elevator Speech:
Faith and Action for Strength Together (FAST) is a grassroots inter-faith organization gathering people from more than 40 congregations in Pinellas County to lobby local politicians to act on specific issues. For 2025, those issues are affordable housing and water quality. Like all faith-based work, the effort is deliberate and unfolds in God's time. The power of this ministry lies in people of many different denominations and faiths coming together under one roof for one purpose: to serve the community.

Nehemiah Action 2026

In the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matt 25:45). Our baptismal vows bind us to our brothers and sisters. Wherever they are, we reach out to meet their spiritual and material needs. At St. Thomas', we focus on corporal works of mercy. We serve others as though we are serving Christ himself by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, visiting the sick and the incarcerated. We work to address the causes of suffering in society, for example, by joining with other people of faith in our community to change local policy. By word and example, we promise to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ.

St. Thomas' has been partnering with St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, a sponsor of Faith and Action for Strength Together (FAST). This grassroots organization gathers people of faith together to lobby local politicians to act on specific issues. For 2025, those issues are affordable housing and water quality. Like all faith-based work, this is slow work which unfolds in God's time. The power of this ministry lies in people of many different denominations and faiths coming together under one roof for one purpose: to serve the community.

For Social Justice
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, and especially the hearts of the people of this land and Pinellas County, FL that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatred's cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
- Book of Common Prayer, pg. 823

One might rightly ask, "What returns do I get for my investment in FAST?" Well, here are some examples:

Bringing people together across racial and faith lines: FAST brings together African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian people from diverse religious backgrounds to build relationships around shared values such as wanting safe neighborhoods, good schools, and access to jobs.

Education

Pushed Pinellas Early Learning Coalition to provide funds so that all low-income children in Pinellas County can attend a full-day pre-k program. From 2005 to May 2018, 12,794 four-year-olds benefited ($19 million value).
We got the School District to create a new policy requiring principals to get approval to give out of school suspensions to primary school students and to being implementing restorative justice practices. (Also for upper school students it required principals to get approval for an out of school suspension of more than 3 days.) There have been significant year-over-year decreases in out-of-school suspension since we began pushing for this in 2014. As a result, there have been over 70,000 less out-of-school suspensions in Pinellas County.

Jobs

In 2011, St. Petersburg College responded to the concerns raised by FAST by creating the Workforce Institute to provide affordable short-term training opportunities to help people find good-paying jobs in Pinellas County. Since 2011, the workforce institute has served over 30,000 participants. Moreover, as of March 31, 2019, over 9,000 industry certifications and licensures have been awarded. St. Petersburg College can track that there were over 4,500 successful job placements for students who participated in over 60 SPC Certificate Programs. With grants, St. Petersburg College has invested $5.6 million in job training programs.
In 2015, we convinced the City of St. Petersburg to pass the Disadvantaged Worker Ordinance to ensure that for construction contracts of over $2 million, 10% of work hours will go to ex-offenders or people who have been on public assistance in the last 12 months. As of May 2023, nearly 64,000 work hours had been worked by disadvantaged workers. The City of St. Petersburg continues to include this requirement in their request for proposals for all large construction projects even though the state legislature has tried to nullify the original ordinance.

Affordable Housing

FAST won an affordable housing trust fund from the county commissioners with an initial $19.2 million, which created 1,469 new housing units for families making less than $40,000. ($19.2 million in a trust fund, plus $152 million leveraged from the private sector for affordable housing).
In 2015, we got an additional $15 million released from Penny-for-Pinellas funds for affordable housing. This alone resulted in about 700 affordable units.
In 2018, we got the County Commission to commit 4.15% of the Penny-for-Pinellas Sales tax for affordable housing. To date, this has produced $85 million of county funds for affordable housing.
In 2024, we got the Housing Finance Authority to change their bylaws to require that any affordable housing units they fund stay affordable for 50 years instead of just 30 years, per the previous policy.

Criminal Justice

Through the FAST Hot Spots campaign, the local law enforcement of the County, Clearwater, and St. Petersburg have, in total, cleaned up over 76 hot spots of drugs and crime in our communities.
We successfully passed a bill by the state legislature to allow 4,000 non-violent offenders to attend locally-based drug treatment rather than go to prison. It is estimated that this saved the state 92 million dollars in prison costs. This leveraged $19 million in federal funding for drug treatment.
From 2013-2018, FAST worked with sister organizations throughout Florida to reduce youth arrests statewide by pushing law enforcement to give children civil citations instead of arresting them. With a civil citation, children still have sanctions for poor behavior but do not get a criminal record. Because of our work, since 2013, over 60,000 children have been prevented from receiving an arrest record. saving the state over $184 million dollars. Because of FAST’s push with local law enforcement leaders, Pinellas leads the state in juvenile civil citation usage. With 95% of eligible receiving a civil citation instead of an arrest.
Additionally, because of our work there are now 17 counties in Florida (including Pinellas) with adult civil citations programs.
In response to concerns about racial profiling, FAST got the St. Pete Police and Sheriff’s office to accept and investigate anonymous complaints.

Healthcare

Through our efforts in 2013, three dental clinics were added, serving an additional 1,900 people annually. In 2015 we got County Commissioners to allocate $900,000 of reoccurring funding into the county budget for dental care to allow 1,600 more people to get access to dental care each year. In total, 3,500 more people get access to comprehensive dental care in Pinellas County each year ($4.4 million saved in emergency room costs since 2013).
In 2018, we heard hundreds of stories from families who were struggling to get mental health and addiction services. In our county, there are over 90 different providers and no centralized way to access them. So, we got commitments from county commissioners and key funders to create a central pathway where anyone seeking mental health or addiction treatment could get access to the help they need. After years of FAST follow up, the county finally launched the Care About Me program. With Care About Me, trained professionals help community members figure out what exact services they need and get them an appointment before they hang up the phone! This program launched in May of 2024, and by December 2024, 897 people had been helped through this service.

One Joshua Assembly highlight was a personal testimony provided by 12-year-old Tovah, a member of Temple Beth-El. She told the crowd that she invited 3 friends to the Nehemiah Action and then decided to ask more. She expanded her circle and invited other friends, family, and her teachers. Tovah also said that her family has brought her to FAST meetings for several years and that they contributed $500; she was so inspired that she invested $20 of her own money in the organization. Mozel tov, Tovah!!

Ms. April Birdsong has been hired as the new Lead Organizer and we wish her well. Music was provided by the Jammin’ Jews and refreshments were served to honor FAST’s 20th year!!

St. Thomas' a Covenanted Congregation in FAST

At the FAST Rally on March 10th, 2025, St. Thomas' was welcomed as a covenanted congregation in FAST! Thanks to the generosity of our congregation, we raised sufficient funding for the annual parish dues to this organization.

Fr. Ryan Whitely, Rector of St. Thomas' provided these thoughts on the culmination of a three-year endeavor:

We at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, St. Petersburg have begun a justice ministry in response to the Lord’s call on our hearts. Jesus invites us to be his hands and feet and provide mercy to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, heal the sick, and visit the incarcerated. But Christ also calls us to advocate for justice, working within established systems to eliminate hunger, poverty, and illness at their source. We welcome the opportunity to add our voices to this coalition of faithful people in FAST to make a lasting and positive impact in our community. By doing so we will be closer to God’s kingdom and a Beloved Community.
We are grateful for the inspiration and assistance provided by St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, particularly Ms. Jan Neuberger, as well as the tremendous support by the FAST Pinellas staff in each step in our journey.

Important Links:
Faith & Action for Strength Together (FAST)
Invest in FAST

Please contact Bill Barns, 757.646.5146 / [email protected] for more information.

Nehemiah Action 2024

Nehemiah Action 2025