Pictures of Transformation
| Telling stories of community transformation in one community is a daunting task. So writing a story of transformation for a large region like the South West could be considered a bit of a pipe dream. But through out the region I see pictures of transformation especially as it pertains to leaders. | |
Building capacities for transformation requires community champions. Champions engage their neighbors in improving their neighborhoods. Community champions need coaches or people who are willing to nurture them. In the South West region I see people who excel at serving community champions. They are focusing on building a core group of community leaders who have passion for learning. In Southern California Terri Larson has been working at convening leaders and developing an environment for mutual learning. Terri Larson has direct influence with more than 40 community champions. Each leader is a catalyst for creating a learning environment in their community. |
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In Arizona a 74 year old trainer/facilitator Stan Rowland has less than two years of work and has discovered a way to engage church leaders and members alike in the process of building capacity for community transformation. In a recent training Stan did, I met a leader from Tucson. Ted is a
church leader, older and from a military background. He is zealous for
community transformation. He is enthusiastic about church leaders
leaving their church agenda behind and collaborating with community
residents. |
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Ted and his Pastor Tim have spent the last five years helping their 1500 member congregation move from being congregationally focused to being more externally focused. Along with helping their church they have also spent the last five years connecting to neighborhood leaders. They are now collaborating with community residents on ways to impact community transformation in Tucson. Their leadership has inspired other pastors to develop a strategy called For Tucson. In that strategy several churches are collaborating with neighborhood and city leaders in to improve the 29th street corridor. It is a 5 neighborhood area in an older part of Tucson. Stan Rowland is helping by providing training for church members and community residents building a community transformation process. In the cities of Tucson, Phoenix, and Flagstaff Stan has started a training of launch teams that will begin to train others. | |
Other leaders working in the South West Region are Jose Rayas in El Paso, Juan Arjona in Escondido and Walker Moore in Waco. They are leaders who have a passion similar to Terri Larson and Stan Rowland. It is a vision of catalyst leaders who engage their neighbors in creating a new and preferred reality in their community. Jose Rayas has a handful of leaders who also engage in raising other leaders. Juan Arjona is working in older part of Escondido. He is a pastor and city employee. In both roles he is working on raising leaders in the community. |
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Walker Moore working in Waco is just beginning to organize leaders in the city of Waco. He is working with one neighborhood association but my hope is that he will impact all the associations in the city of Waco. Most of the associations are in the city are poorly attended and have not been very active. Walker and the association he is with have begun work with residents and apartment owners and their work has begun to have a positive influence in the community. Building capacity for transformation requires leaders who are passionate about transformation. Through work of the leaders mentioned in this story, I am seeing pictures of transformation. | |
