January has been a busy month for VISIONS. As promised, Susan McFadden and her team at Open Door Communications produced all the materials for our mailing about the Community Conversations on Reducing Poverty. The only cost to VISIONS was the postage. Susan designed the wonderful poster seen here. The mailing went out the end of the first week in January to about 75 churches and agencies. Lindsy Gardner also promoted the program at a meeting of the Rotary Club and met with Robert Mason, the editor of the Rappahannock Record. The Record ran a great article on Community Conversations on the Thursday before the Kick-Off event.
Gwen Whiting came from Richmond on January 16th to train the executive committee and some volunteers to be facilitators for the Community Conversations. It was a day-long training and gave us all a feel for the entire process. We worked through all five weeks in one day and took turns facilitating each session. It was an eye-opener and we all learned a great deal. The turnout was low, however, so it may be hard to schedule facilitators for the groups.
The Kick-Off Event for the Community Conversations on Reducing Poverty was held at the Upper Lancaster Ruritan Center near Lively on January 23rd. The Ruritans very generously made this space available to us for free, since they felt this effort will benefit the community. Pastor Ken Rioland did a wonderful job of inspiring all those who attended. Delegate Albert Pollard was there and we were able to provide him with information on the dialogue-to-action process we are undertaking. We had a good turnout of nearly 30 people, and there are many more who expressed an interest in participating who could not be there. We are on target to begin four groups in February. We were able to organize and settle on times and venues for all four groups. I continue to get emails and registration forms, so I believe all four groups will be full.
