Applying Community Development

February 17, 2010 Leave a comment

Within the past year there has been many happenings in community development in Long Beach, so here are just a few highlights that Kingdom Causes Long Beach has been involved in. I was able to work in Linden Avenue between Market and South Street as an AmeriCorps worker. Through the Atlantic Corridor Project, I trained two interns from Victory Outreach and St. Athanasius Church in Asset Based Community Development. Together we surveyed the neighborhood to find out the top concerns of the neighborhood.

At the first neighborhood meeting we reported back to the neighbors and placed in their hands what they would like to do about things. The neighbors decided to attract more neighbors to the meetings by hosting a neighborhood clean up. The eighth district, Rae Gaeblich’s, office sponsored the neighborhood clean up. Several neighbors donated their time, treasure, touch, and talent into the clean up. The clean up started at eight o’clock and by 9:30 AM the industrial sized dumpster was filled to the top. It was encouraging to see neighbors come together for the betterment of their neighborhood.

In Downtown Long Beach, Somatra (another AmeriCorps worker) has been convening a group of neighbors along 9th Street between Atlantic Avenue and Martin L. King Jr Street. Neighbors met, many for the first time, during barbecues at a local church parking lot. From there the neighbors starting a neighborhood meeting. Together they decided to work on neighborhood safety and wanted to become a registered neighborhood watch block. First they had their local beat police officer share about the neighborhood. Just recently, Lisa, coordinator of neighborhood watch for Long Beach, orientated the neighbors on neighborhood watch. The neighborhood is finally an official registered neighborhood watch block!

These are just a few stories from the two neighborhood Somatra and I are working in. There are so many more stories of individuals and relationships developing through our involvement with these neighborhoods. Community development is difficult work. There is no set structure, hours, or boundaries because you work where you live. It takes lots of time, commitment and love. But it is so rewarding! The relationships that I have built with my neighbors is irreplaceable. The growth within my neighbors is encouraging to witness. I get to share life with them and see them take responsibility and ownership of their neighborhood. They have great commitment and care for the community. Sadly my time with AmeriCorps is coming to an end, but my time within my community is just beginning.



Kingdom Causes Long Beach is looking for an individual who would like to work with a neighborhood in North Long Beach as an AmeriCorps worker. If you have a heart for community development, bringing neighbors together to work toward a better community, then please contact us! To learn more please see the job description at the Kingdom Causes Long Beach website.

Susana Sngiem

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When Worlds Need to Collide

February 17, 2010 Leave a comment

Sometimes we need have our worlds collide to learn what it means to “act justly and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). We often think that giving to a cause, or feeding a homeless, or writing a letter to a congressman will suffice, but to really live out Micah 6:8  we need to interact with the people who are suffering from injustice, we need to show mercy by really being with a homeless person, we need to walk with our God by walking with our fellow human being.

At LifeLine we try to make those opportunities possible. One example is our Bus Boutique, a converted school bus that has new and gently used clothing and travels to various communities.

The Bus Boutique was a dream to bring clothing to under-resourced communities where the community members can barter (exchange the clothing) or volunteer in exchange for the goods. Manned by community volunteers the bus would provide clothing for families who often struggle with making ends meet. This opens doors for conversations and interaction with neighbors.

Radio Merced donated their former “Bear Bus” to LifeLine. John and Jim checked the bus and equipped it with the clothes racks.

Many volunteers donated clothing, while others washed and mended them. Sorting, storing and hanging are done by volunteers.  And then in the process we build relationships, because when you work together the barriers of ‘them’ and ‘us’ are broken down and all of a sudden the drug addict is no longer ‘them’ but is becoming a friend and we find out her story. We realize that the lack of justice and mercy in her life brought her to this point. We walk with her and we learn from each other and as we ‘walk humbly with our God’ we get to do life together.

The bus was painted as part of a worldwide community service for a major bank in the US. 6 members come out to paint the bus. They did an amazing job in several hours.  Last week we started with the final part, decorating the Bus Boutique. It was so much fun to see a young woman who cannot find a job (but has incredible artistic abilities), a single mother (who has the most organized mind and a passion for the success of the Bus Boutique), a homeless man (who has a master’s degree, is great with people and very creative), a welfare parent (who has a very giving heart and a dream to break the chain of poverty) and a number of students (all with their own stories), get together to decorate the Bus. People who never thought they could draw created a beautiful piece of art; people who thought they had nothing to give gave life to each other.

We create venues where people can do life together and we learn again what it means to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. Because when we build relationships with people, when we hear their stories, when we learn about each other, then we can live out Micah 6:8.

Monika Grasley

www.lifelinecdc.org

Filed under Betterment to Development, Stories Tagged with , , , , ,

Transformation Through ESL and Financial Literacy

February 17, 2010 Leave a comment

Over the last six month community members have been gathering at the Spanish Baptist Church for ESL classes and to learn financial management.

One person who has excelled in both is Bertha Guerrero. Her language skills have improved from a level one to a level 3 in less than a year. In addition to this both she and her husband have put into practice what they have learned. His business is turning a profit for the first time, and their personal finances have improved to the point of almost being debt free. They expect to be debt free within a couple of years.

Another Success story is Eva Macias. In the past both she and her husband, have been financially strapped. But after learning how to manage their money and be good stewards of God’s blessings, they have created and implemented a financial plan that is helping them get out of debt. They have gone from being in the red every month, to being able to save $100 dollars a month on average. In addition to this, Eva has been using what she has learned in the ESL class to help her children in school and to tutor other neighborhood children.

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The Importance of Being Needed

February 17, 2010 Leave a comment

Virginia, known to most people in Westside neighborhood of Austin as Cookie, could not keep from smiling as she walked home from Spencer elementary school with a packet full of papers.  These papers had been given to her by the school requesting that she become a regular volunteer for the third grade classroom. Cookie is fifty-eight years old with a history of drug and alcohol abuse, the victim of multiple accounts of physical abuse, has been unemployed for over a decade and is one of the most well known and loved person in the neighborhood.  Cookie has never felt very useful or had a sense of purpose.  But on the day when the school asked HER to be a permanent volunteer she knew she had found her purpose.

At eleven o’clock on Thanksgiving night I heard a loud knock at my door.  It was Cookie standing there in the cold with the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face.  She just had to tell me her news, she had tried two other times but I had not been home.  She told me the story of how she accompanied her niece’s son to school one day because he was having so many discipline problems in his classroom.  She stayed with him for the day and the teacher was delighted at the difference it made.  After talking with the principal the teacher then asked Cookie if she would be a regular volunteer in the classroom and gave her some papers to fill out.  Standing at my door Cookie announces that she now has a reason to get up in the morning, she now has a purpose. I hugged and congratulated her seeing first-hand the importance of being needed.  Cookie has been on the receiving end of the “need equation” for most of her life, now was a time for her to be the solution to a need.

As I said goodbye to Cookie that evening I was extremely honored that she had such a strong desire to tell me her news.  She did not want to tell me her good news because she knew I was a pastor or because I could have anything to do with her volunteering. She wanted to tell me because we had spent hours talking and sharing together, she wanted to tell me because I am her neighbor.

Filed under General Stories, Stories Tagged with , , , ,

Cold Eggs and Reconciliation

February 17, 2010 Leave a comment

“About a year ago, I beat somebody up really bad. Like really bad.” 

Kenny, the big, tattooed guy wearing a bandana and leather sitting next to me was reporting on “signs of transformation” he had seen since the last meeting of the Homeless Task Force, a group of Christians from several different congregations in Bellflower, who work together to love our homeless neighbors. Kenny, who had been homeless himself for many years before coming to know Christ, now serves weekly, building relationships with our homeless neighbors.

The transformation happened after the previous week’s breakfast. At the end of the weekly meal where we serve 40-50 neighbors we had left over eggs and beans. We were about to throw away the excess when Kenny offered to load up his Harley and bring them down to the riverbed. As he walked down the embankment near the intersection of the 605 and the 105, the first person he encountered was this man with whom he had brawled a year back. Tensions were high as you might imagine, but as Kenny reached out and handed him the cold left over eggs reconciliation happened. This simple act of love and concern melted whatever conflict had remained between these two former enemies.



I am constantly humbled to be involved in the story of God’s Kingdom work in Bellflower. I get to see God use people who most would consider too far gone, or damaged to minister his love and peace. I am blessed to see the Body at work, with our many gifts and backgrounds, all working in symphony as God uses us in His ministry of reconciliation.

Ryan VerWys

Kingdom Causes Bellfower’s Blog

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The Second Annual ATLAS Christmas Store

February 17, 2010 Leave a comment

We were so excited to open our store again this Christmas season!

Here’s how the store worked.  Several days in December, we transform some of our office space into a place where people can come to shop for their families. The store is stocked with new items donated from churches, groups, businesses and individuals. Items are bargain priced, somewhere between a garage sale and a wholesale price. Families who feel that cash flow will still be a problem have been given the opportunity throughout the year to volunteer work hours in exchange for store credit. Revenue generated from the sale of the items is invested back into the store.

Why not give the gifts to families? We were challenged by Robert Lupton’s book, Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life to be more intentional about people’s development and dignity. “If we are to rightly care for those in need, the responsibility lies with those with the resources to create systems of exchange built on interdependency rather than dependency.”

The store was a mutually encouraging and uplifting experience for shoppers, volunteers, and donors. We were a little surprised ourselves by how much more positive feedback we received from everyone involved than the years when we gave Christmas gifts to families.

So how can I be involved in the future? Here are some ways: 1. Donate new items to stock the store.  2. Donate time to help organize and run the store in December.  3. Donate work opportunities through your business so that individuals may earn store credit.

www.atlasorangecityarea.com

Filed under Betterment to Development, Stories Tagged with , ,

Holy Scribbles

February 17, 2010 Leave a comment

Okay, okay, it might not look like much to you after a quick glance. But, this bunch of scribbles on an oversized napkin is indeed a very holy document for me and for our community.

It represents dozens of organizations that are feverishly at work seeking to provide housing, support neighborhood connection, advocating for environmental justice and on and on.

On this map are the homes of people in just about every income range. There are multi-national corporations beating Wall Street predictions and small start-up businesses struggling to make it another month.

This is the sketch of a neighborhood we love and showcases a God very much at work.

As I write these blog entries for the practicing church, even if I don’t mention it directly I’m going to be talking about this map because it represents a neighborhood, my neighborhood, and much more importantly, our neighborhood. Our church community has swallowed the “parish” pill, which effectively means that we are interested in joining God of all creation who is active in each square inch of this downtown neighborhood of Seattle. We figure that if we take God’s shalomic vision seriously, then we simply must begin where we are and take our locality quite seriously, the chances of losing security and comfort rise exponentially, but so far, there is nowhere I’d rather be.

Tim Soerens

For more on Tim Soerens church, DUST, visit their website: www.gatheringdust.org

Filed under Building Readiness, Stories Tagged with , , , ,

A Community Comes Together

February 17, 2010 Leave a comment

In December, a week before Christmas, one of our faithful community volunteers, Melinda, and two of her children were volunteering on Saturday at our annual Christmas Store.  Our volunteer has been a real story of transformation herself as she has connected with our AmeriCorps representatives to volunteer for many community events that Hope for the Inner City has been involved in throughout the past year.

We have seen Melinda’s life begin to change as her heart began to change for improving her life and extending her service in her own community.  As mentioned in the opening paragraph, Melinda and two of her children were volunteering at Hope for the Inner City the Saturday before Christmas.  The following day, her son who was with her at Hope was murdered in the Harriet Tubman community.  It was a senseless and violent event that in the past would have set off a reaction of more violence and retribution in the community.  If there is tangible evidence that transformation is beginning to take place in Harriet Tubman, it was seen in the reaction of the community residents toward this tragic event and toward Melinda in the aftermath of the loss of her son.

Our AmeriCorps representatives, along with many of the community residents who have stepped up to serve their community in this past year, came together in an amazing show of love and support for Melinda and her family in a time of tragedy.  The typical reaction in the past may have been more violence or in some cases apathy to an event such as this one.  So many of the residents in the community have supported her in many different ways.  They provided moral support, they provided meals for the family, they provided logistical support for the funeral arrangements as well as transportation for various needs.

A dinner for the family was organized by the AmeriCorps representatives and community residents after the funeral service.  In the weeks that have followed the loss of her son, the community and Hope for the Inner City continue to support Melinda and her family as they deal with this tragedy.

http://hope4theinnercity.org/

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Community Building Intergenerationally

February 17, 2010 Leave a comment

This was a new garden we set up in Monterey Park yesterday to add to the community gardens we’ve started in the summer. The grandmother of the woman who lives at this location mentioned to me that in the 68 (!) years she’s lived in Monterey Park, there have been many gardens grown in her backyard. Ears of corn, squash, tomatoes and all manners of veggies were grown which also helped to feed the 4 kids that grew up at this house.

I also appreciated how the grandmother said with pride about her granddaughter how she was “doing her grandfather right” by growing food again after many fallow years. And that blessing sparked me to think that part of what these gardens do in building community is that they can bring the generations together. They should bring the generations together!

Anyway, when these beds are overflowing with veggies, we’re growing to throw a “harvest party” for the neighborhood…young and old and of course, those young at heart!

Jesse Chang

Visit Kingdom Causes Alhambra’s Blog

Filed under General Stories, Stories Tagged with ,

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