Healing the Heart, Healing the Hood

Olgen Williams traces his dramatic journey from embittered, drug-using Vietnam veteran tonationally acclaimed neighborhood activist and deputy mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana. His suddenmiraculous orientation from drugs and despair to faith and freedom will inspire all thoseconcerned with the social and personal costs and consequences of illegal drugs anddrug-related crime. In December 2002, for his crime of having stolen less than eleven dollarswhile serving as a postal worker in 1971, Olgen Williams received one of seven pardonsgranted by President George W. Bush. Today, Olgen Williams is firmly grounded in family,faith, and neighborhood in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he served for thirteen years as directorof Christamore House, a community center in the settlement house tradition. He haspioneered and nurtured many programsranging from carpentry to theater, from communitypolicing to parenting and seniors programmingthat serve the diverse needs of a multiethnic inner-city neighborhood. His book is not only the story of an extraordinary life-in-progress but alsoa working handbook for neighborhood activism and transformation.