From Cleaning Clothes to Cleaning Souls

Richard Bartley grew up in Slavic Village, a once prosperous, thriving, ethnic community on the southeast side of Cleveland during the last part of the nineteenth century. Once upon a time immigrants from Poland, Czechoslovakia & other European countries imigrated to the area to work in the prospering steel & textile mills.


Families grew, businesses developed, churches were built and living became ideal. But by mid-twentieth century mills were closing & suburbanization was the rule. Unemployment in the village rose as did the rate of poverty, single parenting and crime. By 2007 Slavic Village could claim the highest rate of home foreclosure in the country and gang activity, drug trafficking and prostitution took over.

Rich Has Change of Plans for Retirement

Rich retired from the Navy and began teaching and coaching at his old high school. Rich had a heart for his students and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their way. When he retired from teaching, his wife, Reida, thought their lives would be carefree and ‘on the road’ but Rich had other plans.


He knew his retirement would include the kids in Slavic Village but he wanted to be sure he had the tools to make a difference so he attended seminary to become a minister. Rich Bartley became Pastor B.

Village Grace Mission is Born

As Rich was finishing seminary he & Reida helped with a program at their church filling shoeboxes with toys and small gifts for needy children at Christmas time. The first year 35 “Treasure Boxes” were delivered. What a difference these small boxes made in the lives of those children, the only gifts most received for Christmas. As the program grew the Bartley’s were asked to run it and they agreed.


That was the start of Village Grace Mission Center. In 2008, 1,685 treasure boxes were delivered to underprivileged children.Village Grace Mission Center officially needed a location. Finally, an old dilapidated former dry cleaner on Lansing felt ‘right’ to the Bartley’s. It was located next to a bar, the windows had bullet holes and the homeless lived in the basement.


The Mission was not welcomed in the area. Run-ins with gang members, condoms left on the doorknobs and broken windows were the norm but Rich and Reida persevered. When their neighbors realized they were not going to be driven away, relationships slowly began to develop.


Within two years the mission was regularly holding barbecues for the locals and had gained the trust of gang members and the bar owner and patrons. The mission hosted programs for the area’s children & offered counseling for families. They were touching lives in a supernatural way and Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli asked them to start a food pantry and so their ministry expanded.

Old Dry Cleaners is Now Beacon of Light

Village Grace Mission Center has become a beacon of life and light in an area of darkness. Reida sits in her office and wonders if this is all worth it as she shivers from the cold and aches from working long hours. She thinks of long forgotten and lost retirement plans and sighs as she looks around the old dry cleaning business in the 110-year-old church building where the mission now resides.


The furniture is beat-up and donated as is the ancient computer. In her reverie she sees two small faces through the dirty window. The tiny girls wear third-hand clothes, hold a small, scraggly bouquet of flowering weeds and enthusiastically scream “These are for you!” Reida is abruptly reminded of why she is here and that yes, it is worth it and yes, it all makes a difference.
As a matter of fact, there is nowhere on earth she would rather be…

To donate to Village Grace Mission click here for their website