May 2009 Hired the project coordinator, Alison Towles, who immediately began working with the Visions team to plan the conference scheduled for June.June 2009 Representatives from Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland Counties came together at a conference on June 11th. Citizens, county administrators, educators, pastors, social service and many other interested parties discussed the problem of poverty and began the process of a community-wide conversation on ways to alleviate it. Jean Burkhardt and Gwen Whiting facilitated and the Visions executive team led the way.
August 2009 Gwen Whiting led a two night introduction to a curriculum called Thriving Communities, provided by Everyday Democracy. Gwen demonstrated how Thriving Communities would generate dialog and action around poverty.
September and October 2009 A small group of enthusiastic volunteers, led by Rev. Torrence Harman and Marilyn Warren, engaged in a pilot “community conversation” to try the process out.
October 2009 Alison Towles and Cindy Balderson (Connect Rappahannock) held the first Lancaster – Northumberland Resource Sharing Forum, which has met monthly ever since.
November and December 2009 Communications committee worked with Susan McFadden of Open Door Communications on logo design and mailing packets to promote participation in Community Conversations on Reducing Poverty. Those packets went out to nearly 70 churches and agencies in January 2010.
Also in January 2010, the first facilitator training was provided by Gwen Whiting and the Kick-off Event for the Community Conversations was held. Participants were organized into what ultimately became 6 groups.
February and March 2010 Community conversations met in Heathsville, Kilmarnock, Lancaster and White Stone for 5 weeks.
March 27, 2010 Action Forum was held and all participants came together to share their ideas and thoughts.
April 2010 Evaluation and analysis of results of the Action Forum shared with advisory board and drafted into preliminary report.
Financial report indicated further funds, so….
June 2010 Gwen Whiting provided training for more facilitators, so we can continue the conversations in September, while working toward presentation of an implementation grant to the DuPont Fund.
In short, a productive and informative year that has included more than 120 people in the effort to find meaningful, innovative and effective ways to reduce poverty, build assets, and improve lives.
