Visions

Minutes, November Annual Meeting

2011-11-22T06:37:00.000-08:00

Visions Board of Directors Annual Meeting

November 3, 2011

Present: David Alberts, Joni Carter, Sissy Crowther, Jean Duggan, Lindsy Gardner, Tom Gosse, Torrence Harman, Margaret Nost, Bill Pennell, Ken Rioland, Jack Russell, Alison Towles, Marilyn Warren

Lindsy Gardner called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. A motion was made to approve the minutes from the previous meeting in August. Minutes were approved as submitted.

Director’s Report

Joni Carter, executive director of Visions, introduced herself. She stated the office is set up with phone service and wireless internet. She gave out the office phone number as well as her cell phone number and encouraged board members to stop by and take a look. The physical address is 266B N. Main Street; the mailing address is P. O. Box 78, Kilmarnock.

Joni has started a stakeholder survey with area nonprofits to assess needs and perceptions, which she passed out. She has done six so far, but is finding the nonprofits she has spoken with have similar needs and issues. They need more funding, there is a gap between supply and demand, and communication among them and with the public is limited. She is in the process of converting this survey into an online version and will send it to all board members and committee members. She asks that all please reply. Alison Towles will be helping by going to selected area churches to do the survey.

Joni will be attending a strategic planning for nonprofits class in Richmond this month. She is taking Lance Barton, director of the Northern Neck Food Bank, with her since he identified that as a problem for him.

She has also met with the superintendent of Lancaster County Schools about a community service requirement for graduation. Northumberland County Schools, Christchurch School, and all of Maryland schools already have requirements. Joni felt that the timing on this request was positive, since the Lancaster county schools are initiating a RISE program in which the “S” stands for service. She has spoken to the counselors and is meeting with the principals of the schools next week. She has been talking to Cindy Balderson, director of Northern Neck Connection, about ways to utilize that electronic database and social media to alert teens to volunteer opportunities. Although the requirement would not be in place this year, she feels that it could begin next year. Community service would allow students to better connect to the community, build self-esteem, and provide area nonprofits with bridges to the schools.

Joni has begun exploring the idea of a print resource directory. She is using the Catalog for Philanthropy to help her identify local nonprofits for the survey, but the audience for that directory is potential volunteers. She envisions the resource directory as a short document directing people in need to appropriate contacts for help and services, such as food, shelter, etc.

Joni reported that the Community Resource Forum will restart as a monthly brown bag lunch meeting in January. The first or second will involve representatives from the radio station and newspapers, as well as Northern Neck Connection, discussing ways to communicate their message and needs to the public.

Joni has also become an active member of the Economic Development Committee and serves on the Northern Neck Leadership Committee. She has met with Jerry Davis and Lisa Hull of Northern Neck Chesapeake Bay Regional Partnership and is meeting with Kenny Eades and Ronnie Jett, along with some Visions board members, in Northumberland at Macedonia Baptist Church next Monday, November 7^th.

Staff Report

Alison Towles reported that the application for nonprofit status was returned by the IRS with specific requested changes. Mat Terry made those changes and the final application was submitted on October 24^th. There is no further action needed on this end, we are just waiting to hear from the IRS at this point. Lindsy added that she and Paul Sciacchitano are working on the insurance and account side.

Committee Reports

Nominating Committee

The nominating committee was made up of Lindsy Gardner, Margaret Nost, Ken Rioland and Tom Gosse. They presented a slate of proposed board members, suggested terms for current advisory board members and new members, and a slate of officers.

The nominating committee approached Lillian Waddy as a potential board member, but she declined. Reverend Dale Bunns accepted and Reverend Rose Currie is considering. Lindsy suggested that the board vote to accept her for now and then revisit a further nomination if need be. She also pointed out that there will be two vice-presidents, one for Economic Development and one for Community Development. She foresees that the latter will become a working committee in future.

Torrence suggested a one year term could be offered to Rose Currie is the three year term was too much.

The slate, terms and officers were accepted by unanimous vote. The officers are:

President - Lindsy Gardner

Vice President, Economic Development - Paul Sciacchitano

Vice President, Community Development - Kenneth Rioland

Secretary - Marilyn Warren

Treasure - William Pennell, Jr.

Visions Team Members by class include:

Class of 2012 - Torrence Harman, Thomas Gosse, Marilyn Warren, Kenneth Rioland

Class of 2013 - Lindsy Gardner, Margaret Nost, William Pennell, Jr., Paul Sciacchitano

Class of 2014 - Elizabeth Crowther, Jack Russell, Dale Bunns, Rose Currie (pending acceptance)

Economic Development Committee

In Paul Sciacchitano’s absence, Bill Pennell reported that Jack Russell is working on a vision statement. He noted that efforts are being made to involve the Northern Neck Chesapeake Bay Partnership and Northumberland county representatives in the Economic Development Committee. Bill noted that, because of changing demographics, Lancaster and Northumberland are in danger of losing their designation as HUB Zones. This would negatively impact businesses like MTEQ, who might be forced to relocate. The Economic Development Committee will need to keep an eye on that situation.

Lindsy Gardner congratulated the committee on their successful lobbying to get funding from the Kilmarnock Town Council for the new RCC site. Sissy thanked everyone for their help.

Northern Neck Leadership

This committee has been working on developing a curriculum through RCC to train area leaders from various fields in the community. The targeted individuals in the first class will be about 20 people who are recognized as influential, thereby lending the leadership class “cache” that would later translate into more perception of the program as worthwhile and important. They will meet once monthly for a day-long session over a 9 month period. The class will be expected to complete a group project of their choice over the 9 months. The committee has the outline for the sessions and is currently working out details and budget. They hope to begin in January, 2012.

Youth Works

Lindsy Gardner reported that 62 area youth from 5 counties participated in Youth Works last summer. Of that 62, 33 students were new to the program. The financing for the Lancaster and Northumberland county youth came from the DuPont Fund. Rusty Bragg and Jason Perry of RCC were creative in finding funding to include teens from 3 more counties. Of the 62 students, only 2 did not complete the program. Lindsy said that 33 Career Readiness Certificates were awarded. The post program survey indicated in an increase in confidence level in participants over last year.

Joni has asked Jason to include speakers who exemplify local success stories in future Youth Works, as suggested by participants in the Visions Community Conversations last year.

Tom Gosse and Jack Russell spoke up to praise RCC’s administration and dedication to this program.

Northern Neck Connection

According to Alison Towles, Cindy Balderson has indicated the new website should have a soft launch within the next month. Selected people will be invited to review the new website and provide feedback for any improvements or revisions. The hope is that the hard launch will be in January. There will an event to celebrate or mark this, but Cindy does not have details on that yet.

DuPont Report

Mark Constantine was here in October for the Donor’s Forum, which is sponsored by the Community Foundation. He continues to reiterate that the trustees see a negative trend in the future of the Northern Neck economy. He also shared their disappointment in the outcome of the Northern Neck Family Maternity Center, which closed its doors within less than a year of opening, and in the closing of SAIF Water. He stated that the duPont Fund is unwilling to finance any new projects in the community.

Torrence Harman said that SAIF Water was a very different situation. It was closely associated with one individual who is retiring for health reasons. It had a 21 or 22 year history of very effective work in the area and had essentially run its course. Future efforts to build nonprofit capacity should and will include attention to sustainability as part of the analysis.

Sissy Crowther stated that, after Mark Constantine recommended that RCC find a duPont eligible four year college partner rather than a church in seeking funding for infrastructure and technology needs for the new Kilmarnock location, she met with officials at Mary Baldwin College. This college very actively works with RCC and accepts as much as 90 hours toward a Bachelor’s degree from the community college and will be offering classes at the new site. Mary Baldwin indicated that they had a grant proposal called “Learn Local” in process with the duPont Fund. It would allow them to offer more to the Northern Neck and Southwest Virginia. There has been no further word on this proposal. Jack Russell pointed out that RCC is a very important key in moving away from short-term or “band-aid” approaches into long-term solutions like increasing educational and economic opportunities.

There was a brief discussion of the new organization, The Link, which would help churches work together in providing services to people in need. There are 17 area churches that are duPont eligibles, in addition to other churches that have been active in developing this clearinghouse approach. The coordination and funding will need to come from member churches.

Ken Rioland reminded the board that Visions was developed in a model supported and encouraged by the duPont Fund several years ago in Jacksonville. Hub organizations can help them better understand the area and its needs. Much of what Visions has been able to accomplish is because of that model. Our organization has become an umbrella which results in better coordination and communication.

The board felt it would worthwhile to include the duPont Fund in emails of minutes to help them stay better informed of progress in the Northern Neck. Lindsy Gardner pointed out that the bottom line was that we need to report to them frequently, but also look beyond the Fund for financing of future efforts.

Smart Beginnings Update

Tom Gosse reported on Northumberland Lancaster Smart Beginnings, an early childhood education and intervention program designed to help children be ready for school and funded by the Wiley Foundation with assistance from Virginia Early Childhood Education Foundation in Richmond. It has been in existence for 1 ½ years. However, the Smart Beginnings branded program is essentially an urban model that did not connect well with the Northern Neck’s rural nature and did not allow for much, if any, adaptation to better serve this area’s different needs.

The Leadership Council and Coalition have voted unanimously to carry forward without the Richmond funding and structure. The name will need to change away from Smart Beginnings, which is branded. A number of children have already been identified as needing assistance and the Wiley Foundation will fund any programs they develop to intervene with these children.

The Leadership Council has some interest in potentially connecting with Visions in future as an additional piece. They are not interested in becoming a separate nonprofit.

There was some additional discussion of the loss of federally funded programs in the area like Head Start. Torrence Harman suggested that the Family Development Center in Warsaw, which receives some assistance with funding through St. Mary’s Whitechapel, might be a helpful model in early intervention with children and families.

Departing Board Members

Lindsy Gardner thanked departing Board members Dave Alberts and Jean Duggan for their service throughout the development and transitions of Visions. Dave will continue to serve on the Economic Development Committee and it is hoped that Jean may be willing to serve on a committee in future.

Annual Report

Marilyn Warren suggested that an annual report would be useful. Alison will work on scheduling some time for Lindsy Gardner, Joni Carter, and Marilyn to meet with her in writing this report.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Alison Towles, Visions Project Coordinator

Introducing Joni Carter, New Executive Director of Northern Neck Visions!

2011-09-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

Joni Carter has jumped right in as the Executive Director of Northern Neck Visions, beginning earlier this month in making her strategic plans for the next six months.

In her own words, Joni has worked for the last twenty years with senior level clients, as well as government and advertising agencies to design new social outreach services, conduct needs assessments and test communication ideas. Her clients have included the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Fairfax County Economic Development, Virginia Community College System, VDOT, VDRPT and the Virginia Department of Business Assistance.

Joni states, “My most gratifying work has been with social outreach programs including clean air initiatives, Chesapeake Bay improvement and healthcare awareness initiatives.” In addition to her business degree (BS in Business Administration, UNC Greensboro), she has started graduate work at the VCU Non-Profit Learning Center.

Joni has lived most of her life in Lancaster County and brings her experience and understanding of key social issues that the Northern Neck faces to this new position.

Joni has already begun meeting with her staff, the board, the Economic Development Committee, and with Mark Constantine of the duPont Fund. Additionally, one of her first tasks will be to ready the new office of Northern Neck Visions at 266B N. Main Street in Kilmarnock for the work ahead. She is a very welcome addition to the Visions team!

Richmond Times-Dispatch article

2011-09-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

An article appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on September 4, 2011 entitled "On Northern Neck, Fighting the Fade." Census figures show that Lancaster County is the "oldest" county in Virginia, with a median age of 54. Northumberland County is right behind with a median age of 53.6. All four counties of the Northern Neck are experiencing "natural decrease" in population, which is a phenomenon in which there are more deaths than births.

To read the entire article, see this link:

www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/sep/04/on-northern-neck-fighting-the-fade-ar-1284371/

Working in Teams and Collaborations Workshop

2011-07-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

COMMONWEALTH 0f VIRGINIA
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES

July 18, 2011

Dear Community Partner:
The Virginia Department of Social Services' (DSS) Office on Volunteerism and Community Service (OVCS) are collaborating with Virginia Community Capital (VCC) to offer local nonprofit and faith based organizations a day of interactive leadership training, networking, and resource sharing on Tuesday, August 9 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Grace House at Grace Episcopal Church, 303 South Main Street, Kilmarnock, 22482.

This interactive session based on Patrick Lencioni's material from The Five Dysfunctions of a Team will create lively discussion and take-away tools that promote trust, encourage healthy conflict, invite commitment, ensure accountability, and achieve results. If your organization is interested in operating at a higher level of effectiveness and building strong relationships to achieve greater results, you will want to attend the Working in Teams and Collaborations - Partneringfor Success workshop.

There is no fee for the workshop; however, registration is requested to assure adequate materials and handouts for participants. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. and the workshop presentation will begin at 9:00 a.m. For your convenience, a copy of the agenda is enclosed.

DSS believes that healthy communities result from "people helping people overcome poverty, abuse and neglect to shape strong futures for themselves, their families and their communities." Healthy communities are dependent upon collaborations, effective partnerships, and the full participation of faith-based, volunteer, private, and community organizations. Because VCC shares our commitment to partnerships and collaborations, we are pleased to be a part of the VCC Learning Initiative. To learn more about this initiative and other capacity- building workshops, visit their web-site at www.vacommunitycapital.org.

We hope that you will consider attending the August 9 session in Kilmarnock. To reserve your space, please register online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MZQ7L52 or by calling Cathy Walker at 1-800-638-3839, option #3, by Thursday, August 4.

Sincerely,

Nikki Nicholau, Director
Office on Volunteerism and Community Service
801 East Main Street· Richmond, VA 23219-2901
http ://www.dss.virginia.gov • 804-726-7000 • TDD 800-828-1120

Working in Teams and Collaborations - Partnering for Success
Agenda
9:00 am Welcome and Purpose Overview—Defining and Making the Case Partnering Simulation Self-Assessment

10:30 am Break

10:45 am Partnership Best Practices—Panel and Discussion Relationships Information Accountability

12:00 pm Networking Lunch/ Creating a Personalized Action Plan

12:45 pm Funding Partnerships that Work Current Trends Deliverables: Making Choices that Make Sense Relationship Management

2:00 pm Debrief and Adjourn

Position Description - Visions Director

2011-06-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Background

In 2006, representatives from the Northern Neck attended a conference initiated by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund to explore building assets of individuals, families and communities in order to reduce poverty. The team, now called Visions, has successfully completed a planning grant to build a brand for the organization and to hold community conversations around poverty in Lancaster and Northumberland Counties.

Responsibilities

Promote collaboration between organizations with similar goals
Build the capacity of existing nonprofit organizations
With the Advisory Board, develop grant opportunities and other funding strategies
Supervise the Community Actions Director and an administrative assistant person
Reports to the VISIONS Advisory Committee and the fiscal agent

Project Assignments

Conduct a needs assessment with organizations who serve people in need to determine best ways to increase capacity and/or service areas

Collect output measures and other data from non-profits, and promote/leverage collective local dollars and volunteer hours to bring more resources and volunteers to the non-profits

Organize training and workshops to strengthen capacity of non-profits

Organize a resource fair for non-profits to recruit volunteers and donors

Explore a source of revenue from the vendors who sell products to non-profits through a convention type event or summit.

Work with other affinity groups (economic development, education, etc) to develop asset building strategies
Work with the Community Action Director to bring action to strategies generated by the conversations and to recruit volunteers for non-profits
Work with the fiscal agent, Rappahannock Community College, and appropriate advisory board members to administer the YouthWorks program

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree required, graduate degree preferred; at least 10 years of professional experience in a general management role, ideally in a rapidly evolving institution; knowledge of Lancaster and Northumberland Counties and existing organizations serving those in need.

Highly organized and ability to wear multiple hats in an ambiguous environment;
A successful track record in setting priorities and shaping processes
A consummate team player with a flexible and creative approach
Excellent communication and coalition building skills with an ability to balance, negotiate, and work with a variety of people; high level of knowledge and understanding, especially as it relates to program replication, connecting programs to funding, creatively generating other resources, and building strategic partnerships
Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and a commitment to VISION’s mission

Compensation

This is a full-time grant funded position with the flexibility to work some hours from home. No medical or retirement benefits available at this time.

Application

Please send cover letter with salary requirements and resume to Lindsy Gardner, President of the Visions Advisory Board, at lgardner@lancasterlibrary.org by July 1, 2011. For more information on Visions, go to http://visionsinnnva.blogspot.com/.

Minutes from the May 18, 2011, Advisory Board meeting

2011-05-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

Meeting was called to order by Lindsy Gardner at 9:00 a.m. Minutes from previous meeting accepted as written.

Those in attendance included Lindsy Gardner, Chair, Alison Towles, Secretary, David Alberts, Jean Duggan, Tom Gosse, Torrence Harman, Margaret Nost, William Pennell, Jean Poole, Paul Sciacchitano, and Marilyn Warren.

Lindsy announced that the implementation grant was approved in full by DuPont. This amounts to $276,182 over a three-year period.

Nonprofit Status

Mat Terry has started on the Articles of Incorporation and will help us with the legal side of incorporating. Alison and Lindsy have started the application for 501(c)(3) status. Dwight Clarke of Dehnert, Clarke, and Company will look that over and help to complete it.

Jacksonville United Way Notes

Lindsy spoke to Melanie Patz of the Jacksonville United Way. She hoped to learn more about structure, but Melanie actually shared more information on how to get buy-in from local organizations. She suggested that we include more heads of nonprofits on our board. Paul Sciacchitano shared his experience with the Hampton United Way board, where they had an advisory board made up of heads of nonprofits. Melanie also suggested that we appeal to businesses, asking them to partner with nonprofits in providing services such as financial literacy education. Jean Duggan said that Bay Aging has a financial literacy education component.

Economic Development

Bill Pennell and Paul Sciacchitano updated everyone on the progress of the Economic Development Committee. The Lancaster IDA (soon to be EDA) approved all three proposals put before it, providing funding for the Kilmarnock TLC, the Visions Youth Works, and the RCC satellite location. The Town of Kilmarnock is also supportive of the RCC project and may provide some assistance. The difficulty of getting more Northumberland County support was discussed. Bill will be talking to Kenny Eades, the county manager, within the next week. Sissy Crowther was planning to talk to some people. Sherry Magill indicated in April that the DuPont Fund would approach them about being more involved.

Paul pointed out the need for public education on economic development and why it is vital to the area. Sissy, Jack Russell, and Bill are working towards preparing a position paper that documents what will happen to the economy without pursuing growth. This paper could be presented to various groups. It is important that it is a compelling argument.

Jack and Bill are meeting with Senator Warner about Free Virginia, Virginia Free. Julian Patterson is being approached about joining the Economic Development effort, as well.

Connect

The DuPont Fund agreed to pay for the technology to rebuild the network and upgrade the website out of an administrative budget. They are in the loading data stage with that. The main thing that may impede progress is the name. There is some question as to whether they can use “Connect” in the name. Richmond Connect had agreed that they would draw up an agreement allowing that, but there will be a delay with that. The next board meeting for Connect will address that. They will use “Northern Neck” in the name somehow. Bill Pennell pointed out how important it is to brand this area with that name, as many do not know what it means. Jean Duggan asked for clarification on the scope of Connect. Paul indicated it would still be available for use in all 6 counties, but they will focus their efforts more on the 4 counties north of the river.

Northern Neck Food Bank

Paul also shared that Sherry Magill visited the site of the NNFB when she was here in April. She asked why they did not have more equipment and was reminded that they had only received partial funding for the first year. Sherry asked that Torrence Harman write the fund a letter requesting the needed money, which she did. The result was that the Food Bank received another $22,000 for a walk- in refrigerator, pallet shelving, etc. Jean Duggan will see that a link to NNFB is added to the Bay Aging website. Bill Pennell will do the same with the county website. Lance Barton is now working on ways to partner with local farmers for excess produce. Trinity Episcopal will sponsor a nutrition education program.

Youth Works

Students met Monday night and they are very excited about starting their work experience. Fewer students indicated that they planned to go to college, but this program historically has build confidence that they can juggle the demands of work and school.

New Grant Business

Advertising for, interviewing and hiring new Director. Lindsy formed a subcommittee to engage in search for the new director, including herself, Paul Sciacchitano, Marilyn Warren, and Jack Russell. They will present final candidate(s) to the full Board for approval. A tentative first meeting was set for Tuesday, May 31^st, at 3:00 p.m.
Office location. Many suggestions were made, including the YMCA, the adjacent RGH rehab space, and several others. Bay Aging no longer has any office space in Kilmarnock. Dave Alberts volunteered to look into this and Susan Cockrell, assistant town manager for Kilmarnock, will be asked to help.
Accounting. The grant allows for this to be outsourced. The director is not expected to do the bookkeeping.

Bylaws

Tom Gosse and others made several corrections and suggestions. After some discussion, the following changes were recommended and adopted:

The decision was that the fiscal year would be July 1 to June 31.
The treasurer’s duty section needs to include audit.
The annual meeting would be when committees are assigned. Committees should be appointed by the Board Chairman.
This meeting could be at the beginning of the fiscal year, but many prefer it after the audit so they can be notified of results.
The bylaws need to have language to stagger board members’ terms.
The section on Executive Committee needs an additional sentence or two to define powers and responsibilities.
The articles on funding and on Robert’s Rules of Order were removed.

Gaining More Support

There was some additional conversation on ways to involve Northumberland. Paul Sciacchitano agreed to see if he could enlist Monty Diehl of Omega Protein in Economic Development Committee meetings, with the hopes of later including in larger Visions efforts. He will ask Sissy Crowther to approach Dr. Clint Stables as well.

Jean Poole will approach someone from RGH about joining Economic Development, since they are the largest area employer. Alison will email her the minutes from the last few meetings to help her better pitch this.

Visions will continue to work in close association with the River Counties Foundation.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:45 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Alison Towles, Visions Project Coordinator

Great news on the implementation grant!

2011-05-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here is Lindsy's beautifully written press release:

The duPont Fund recently announced the approval of funding in the amount of $275,000 over a three year period for Visions, a local organization formed to build assets and reduce poverty in the Northern Neck. A series of community conversations on poverty, sponsored by Visions, actively involved area citizens in dialogues that resulted in thoughtful and innovative ideas and strategies to improve lives in our community. "This grant, funded by duPont, directly addresses strategies raised in the community conversations," said VISIONS chairman, Lindsy Gardner. "With this generous funding from DuPont, Visions will hire a full-time director who will oversee future work to build the capacity of existing non-profits, to broaden community conversations around poverty, to leverage local philanthropy dollars to bring more financial resources to the area, to work with an active economic development committee, and to begin a leadership training program," Ms. Gardner continued. Additionally, duPont sponsors the ongoing work of Vision's YouthWorks Summer Employment Program, an initiative that promotes career readiness skills in youth through summer employment opportunities.

And a new year begins for VISIONS Youth Works!

2011-04-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

The new year has begun for the Youth Works program! This is the second year of the duPont three year grant and the third year for the program.

In February, RCC staff and Virginia Extension Agents combined forces with members of the Visions team to stage a poverty simulation. Open to anyone interested in participating, it attracted over 50 people. Each hour represented a week in the life of a family living in poverty, so participants experienced a month of struggling to make ends meet in different scenarios. It was an eye-opener for all concerned. In future, this experience will be offered to employers in the program to help them better understand the challenges their employees face.

Towards the end of this month, the interview process begins for student applicants to Youth Works. Because the program has been so successful, using funds remaining from previous years, many more slots are available, up to 52 from 40 last year. Students who are accepted to the program will be tested for their Career Readiness Certificates in May. They will go to work full-time in June.

This year, there will be two college visit field trips for the participants, up from one in the past. As in the past, Bay Aging will provide support via their Community Service Block Grant funds. To help youths with transportation needs, they will either give them gas cards (if they have a car) or Bay Transit tickets (if they don't).

The Youth Works program is an opportunity for local students to learn important work skills and to experience the world of work in all its many facets. Employers get a "free" employee for the summer in return for mentoring that student.

For more information, contact Rusty Bragg, Program Manager, Workforce and Community Development at Rappahannock Community College, rbragg@rappahannock.edu

VISIONS Youth Works program concludes for 2010

2010-09-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

2010 VISIONS Youth Works program staff, supporters and student participants. (Photo by Tom Martin)

VISIONS Youth Works Summer Employment program concluded for this year with a ceremony at Northumberland High School on Tuesday, September 14th. This employment program is financed primarily by the Jesse Ball duPont Fund and is made possible with the cooperation, funding and support of VISIONS, Lancaster Community Library, Bay Aging Community Action Partnership, Rappahannock Community College, Lancaster and Northumberland High Schools, Macedonia Baptist Church and local employers.

Forty students were involved in the Youth Works program, twenty from Northumberland and twenty from Lancaster County. Each student was matched with an employer, with the grant providing funding for the actual wages earned. Rusty Bragg, program coordinator of the Workforce and Community Developement department at Rappahannock Community College, acted as program director. Project coordinator Bonnie Davis and tutors Alex Stickler and Jovity Kelly worked with all the students to assess and develop job readiness. Bonnie Davis reported that 37 of the 40 students completed the summer employment program.

At the ceremony, those students who completed the program were honored and presented with Career Readiness Certificates. Thanks to a matching gift from Bay Aging CAP, students also received gas cards. Employers and family came out to enjoy these students' wonderful accomplishments.

Rusty Bragg notes that Youth Works develops the workforce from our community. "We have some talented and responsible young people in our area who would love the opportunity to contribute to their home community. This program gives them the chance to do just that."

DuPont has funded VISIONS Youth Works for a three year period, so this program will continue for the next two summers. Students will continue to have the opportunity to learn important skills and behaviors that will allow them to experience success in the working world.

The year in review!

2010-08-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Lancaster Community Library VISIONS YouthWorks Program

2010-06-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

The program initiated last year, then called the Summer Jobs for Youth program, has been funded for the next three years by duPont and renamed the YouthWorks program.

The program summary for last year, prepared by Lindsy Gardner, is linked below:

http://tinyurl.com/33kzvcy

Report to the Northern Neck Housing Study Group

2010-05-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

The Northern Neck Housing Study Group has asked that we make the Report, prepared by czbLLC in partnership with Virginia Tech and presented in March of 2009, available to all on this blog. This housing study, made possible by the duPont Fund, was an effort to assess the situation in the Northern Neck with an eye toward possible solutions.

http://tinyurl.com/22tdhlk

Please be warned that it is quite long and it may take a few minutes for the pdf image to sharpen up to a readable level. Patience, please!

Summary report on evaluation results

2010-05-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

“I am so proud of our community for doing this and proud to have participated. Thank you!”
The first round of Community Conversations on Reducing Poverty in the Northern Neck concluded with an Action Forum on March 27, 2010. This was just one of many positive statements made on participant evaluations at that meeting.

In collecting data from participant registrations and from these evaluations, we can make some observations about who chose to commit to this dialog-to-action process – and, more importantly, who was not included.

The registration forms indicated that we had more than 50 people who signed up formally, although more actually participated. About 60% were female, and 40% were male. They ranged in age from 22 to 80+ years, with a remarkably even distribution between the age range of 40 to 60 or more. However, very few participants were younger than 40, resulting in a mean age of 59. In response to a question about racial/ethnic background, about 25% identified themselves as African American and 75% as Caucasian. The religious affiliations were diverse, with 11 different religions or churches represented. Their stated political views also showed variety. “Moderate” views dominated, with even distribution of conservative and liberal stances.

All but one participant had some college or more education, with 14 having graduate or advanced degrees. Many of them indicated they engaged in volunteer and political activities and, not surprisingly, they were very involved in the community.

Most telling of all the statistics was the annual income. Only two reported incomes under $25,000 per year. The largest number of participants came from the range of $25,000 to $100,000 per year. A few even reported higher incomes.

What does all this mean?

It means we need to get more people who actually experience poverty directly into our conversation. It means we need to recruit more African Americans to contribute. And it means we need to hear from younger people.

But it also means that we were able to get about 60 people to care enough about poverty in the Northern Neck to commit 2 hours a week for 5 weeks! And the surprising thing is that many of them said that wasn’t enough time, they wanted more. Their ideas were presented with passion and energy, and many had comments to share about the process and the problem. Most of all, they wanted to see changes.

“I will be very disappointed if some action to ameliorate poverty in the Northern Neck does not occur.”

Some sample comments from the evaluations!

What they liked:
• Hearing others viewpoints, ideas and opinions
• Open communication
• Getting to know people they might not have known otherwise
• Enthusiastic, concerned people willing to work on the issue
• The opportunity to discuss a vital topic
• Atmosphere where everyone’s views and ideas were valued
• “Involving so many in this grassroots discussion is excellent for its educational value as well as ‘buy in’ value when solutions are implemented.”
• The intensity of the conversations, the ability to have some really difficult but meaningful conversations.

What they didn’t like:
• Not enough time, not long enough, needed more meetings
• Needed to delve deeper in the issue of race.
• Shock at the extreme level of racism still openly present in our community, on both sides.
• Not enough diversity, not a good cross section. Poor, poorest were not included.
• Did not differentiate between short-range and long-range projects.
• Not enough emphasis on action, need more time to talk about actions and going forward. Strike while the iron is hot!
• Really need a mechanism to welcome and include more marginalized people.
• Need to change the word “poverty” – Very negative and will not attract the voices we need to hear from.

Discussion guide:
In general, they liked the discussion guide, with some reservations. Very few had negative ratings, but many were neutral responses.

Facilitators:
They loved their facilitators! Very few negatives and neutrals, overall agreement that the facilitators did a good job of making them welcome, did not try to influence the group, and explained the process well.

Overall evaluation:
Despite their comments otherwise, they rated the length of each meeting, number of meetings, and number of people in their group “just right” most of the time. The overall rating of the program as a whole was an astonishing mean of 4.4, with 5 being “very good” and 4 as “good.”

Last, but not least, of the Lancaster proposals!

2010-04-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

One of the things to remember as you read over this one is that some form of an integrated resource directory for the Northern Neck is something that many groups have suggested and sought after. This proposal could be a part of several of the other suggestions for a more centralized or coordinated approach. Again, in the Lancaster Community Conversation group's own words:

Action Item
INTEGRATED DATABASE OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES
(Lancaster Visions Group: Proposed 3/27/10)

Goal:
To establish a comprehensive and accessible database of community resources (services & programs)

Reasons needed:
To match community resources to community needs
To encourage cooperation, collaboration and communication among providers
To assist in identifying gaps in services/programs
To decrease duplication of services and programs

Implementation
1.Identify what’s already in place and/or in development such as:
Connect Rappahannock
Visions Resource Sharing meetings
Northumberland/Lancaster Interfaith Services Council (has gathered
information with assistance from St. Andrew’s on 30-40
resources/providers)
Other organizations such as Bay Aging, DSS, CRS, etc. also have information
2.Determine contents/categories
3.Gather information of resources/programs
Specifics on service/program
Contact Person (ex. for future updating)
4.Create database
5.Maintain database including updates

Questions:
1.Limit to Northumberland and Lancaster Counties?
2.Leadership/task force to develop and implement?
3.Who will be responsible for compiling and maintaining the database?
Skilled volunteers to research and input data?
4.How to market this resource and make information available?

Financial Implications:
1.Part-time Database Project Coordinator (paid or volunteer)
2.Web Page design and maintenance (webmaster)

NOTE: This Action Idea may be a “stand alone” project or integrated into the Clearinghouse model Action Idea also proposed by the Lancaster Group.

"I Can, I Will" proposal from the Lancaster group

2010-04-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here is another thoughtful proposal that came out of the Lancaster Community Conversation.

Action Item
“I CAN, I WILL”
Visions Lancaster Group: Proposed 3/27/10

Goal:
To form a grass roots partnership between Bay Aging and residents of local communities/neighborhoods, connecting Bay Aging Options Counselors with individuals and/or groups who desire to become empowered to advocate for and obtain resources in order to achieve and sustain self-sufficiency.

Description:
Options Counselors would identify trusted and natural leader(s) (patriarch/matriarch types, for example) in a neighborhood or local community who would be engaged to gather together those in the neighborhood/community with like needs and concerns. The counselor and local leader would develop a plan offering effective strategies to gather potential participants for exchange of information on resources at local gatherings. Gatherings would take place in the leader’s home (think “Tupperware parties”) or other accessible, friendly location with the leader as convener.

The desired outcomes would include: self identification of needs and ways to achieve self sufficiency; development of skills and knowledge for advocating for themselves or for a neighborhood/local community’s needs; effective and respectful partnering of providers and those seeking services. The local participants would have ownership of and control over the process. The concept is one of empowerment.

Background:
Bay Aging currently has Options Counselors who provide counseling and assistance to consumers through an emergency services program. The funding for this program ends in this fiscal year.

Bay Aging has noted success in a paradigm that sends Options Counselors in some cases into homes and local communities, partnering with the local resident(s) or family to assist in determining needs and goals and then helping match them with services.

The project proposed in this Action Idea would use and build on an already established and trained base at Bay Aging and their past experience in a process that appears to offer promise for the grass roots partnering we propose.

Financial Considerations:
•Partial funding for Options Counselors
•Stipends and expense reimbursement for local leaders
•Transportation made available to participants, as needed through Bay Transit or some other provider

Next Lancaster Community Conversation contribution

2010-04-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

At left, Cathy Hemans goes into more detail as the rest of us listen carefully.

The Lancaster group had some great ideas. Here's another in their own words:

Action Item
NORTHERN NECK COMMUNITY ENRICHMENT CENTER
(Lancaster Visions Group: Proposed 3/27/10

Description:
The Center will be a centralized gathering place, initially for women and their children under school age, where Moms can meet and interact with each other in a comfortable environment. The Center will be a place to visit with each other, form support groups and participate in programs and planned activities, targeting needs and interests determined by participants. The goals of the Center include networking, building support systems and helping people who desire to improve their lives and the lives of their families. The Center will serve as a central resource to provide information concerning area events and programs that will enrich and enhance the lives of those coming to and participating in the Center as well as offering programs and events on site. Supervision, care and enrichment activities will be available for the children during parent participation in adult programs.

Programs and information may include, for example, such topics as:
1. How to start and develop a business
2. Education planning (how to prepare for and get a GED; becoming a CNA; exploring other certifications and/or technical programs; educational opportunities at the community college level, etc. including identifying sources of funding, etc.)
3. Resume building; interviewing techniques; job related issues.
4. Parenting
5. Nutrition; meal planning/preparation
6. Arts, crafts, photography, gardening
7. Budgeting; credit and debt issues; home acquisition planning.
8. Matching volunteer mentor and/or coaches with those interested in one on one or group mentoring/coaching.

Location:
A suggested location might be the former Sears Roebuck store in the Lancaster Shopping Center which could be leased and divided into various spaces depending on type of use. Another possibility might be the development of such a center as an adjunct to the local library.

Staffing
Initially, one or two paid positions: Director, either full time or part-time. Part time would work if center initially open only on designated days. Part time assistant could be helpful. Develop and use volunteers for some functions. Community members with special areas of expertise used for programs.

Other Considerations
Parking
Transportation
Food Availability

Another Lancaster Community Conversation proposal

2010-04-07T09:11:00.001-07:00

Again, the Lancaster group put a lot of thought and effort into their proposals and I'm going to respect that by including them verbatim. This is the second of their five proposed strategies.

Action Item
CENTRALIZED RESOURCE CLEARINGHOUSE FOR LANCASTER & NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTIES
Lancaster Visions Group: Proposed 3/27/10

Description

To establish an “umbrella” service organization for area churches in Lancaster & Northumberland Counties to serve as a clearinghouse to match county residents seeking services and programs to community resources. *

The purpose would be to coordinate and/or utilize church resources (money, volunteers, programs) targeted to social service needs and to provide an effective, coordinated process of interviewing and connecting people with resources. The clearinghouse would work in partnership with all components of the local social services infrastructure, including the local Departments of Social Services.

The clearinghouse could offer satellite intake locations on designated days to accommodate client access. Suggested satellite locations are feasible in locations near or adjacent to where County Courthouse/County DSS are located (for ex. Heathsville for Northumberland Co, Lancaster Courthouse for “Upper” Lancaster Co.).

Current effective “Clearinghouse” models/organizations exist all around the U.S. Examples include: ACTS in Richmond, VA; ACTC in the Baltimore, MD area; LOVE, Inc. in multiple locations, etc. Other models may vary as to emphasis : 1) simply connecting needs and resources; 2) providing some services (ex. Food Pantry, Thrift store) directly on-site; 3) facilitating/offering “relational” ministries/programming.

Provision of financial and programmatic resources as distributed by government funded agencies such as local Departments of Social Services (DSS) have criteria which limit accessibility, dependent on the funding program. Other non-profit organizations (ex. Bay Aging) that utilize government grants/funding also have limitations placed on distribution. A “privately” funded clearinghouse organization has greater flexibility to assist those who fall outside the “criteria” required by government funded programs.

Some features of the Clearinghouse Model:
The program would include a paid Director (part-time or full time). It would utilize trained volunteers:
To interview and screen clients
To manage and maintain computerized data base
Of clients and use of services
Of available resources (see Lancaster Group Action Plan re Integrated Data Base)

The duties of the Director would include:
•Train and coordinate volunteers
•Oversee data bases
•Maintain contact/communication with other public (i.e. DSS’s) and private service organizations
•Serve as liaison with churches and clergy
•Develop/implement marketing and publicity strategies
•Manage operations budget, subject to Board

Funding
•From grants
•From participating churches who are able to provide funding
•In kind provision of space by churches and of volunteers

Reasons Needed

•Churches who have financial resources to distribute to people in need and people desiring assistance to help them achieve financial stability could benefit from the coordination and centralization of certain functions that make screening and distribution most effective. It is a time consuming process when decentralized fraught with concerns that our distribution from church to church may not be reaching the people who are really in need and who desire to move into longer term financial stability.
•It is a way for smaller churches, less financially able, to participate in a network of service provision and be an integral part of the connection of area residents to services.
•It offers an opportunity for all the churches, whatever the denomination, whatever the population they serve, to come together, to develop relational ministries and to serve the common good.
•It eases the access challenges for potential clients, who at this time, go from church to church, service organization to service organization, as they seek assistance.
•The ministerial associations (Lancaster and Northumberland) have identified a need to examine some form of centralization of certain functions and greater coordination of identification and distribution of church and community resources.
•It would help reduce the overuse of financial assistance by those individuals who utilize the system to perpetuate a dependent lifestyle and model such to continuing generations.
•It would better assure that the limited financial resources are distributed in a way that would more effectively impact poverty in the Northern Neck and assist those who desire to achieve financial stability and independence.
•It could help decrease overlap and/or duplication of services.
•It could help identify gaps in services/programming that may be needed for area residents and stimulate the development of such.

*Alternative would be to develop this model within an existing non-for-profit organization, such as Church Resource Service (CRS) or Lancaster/Northumberland Interfaith Services Council

The first of the Lancaster Action Forum plans!

2010-04-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Lancaster group, facilitated by Torrence Harman and Lorraine Justice, came up with a number of very well thought out plans. Because they put so much effort into communicating their ideas and suggestions, I am going to post just one, in their own words, each day. My hope is that this will allow time to read and really absorb what their strategies involve. It's the best substitute I can make for their actual presentation.

Action Item
FROM POVERTY TO PROSPERITY
(Lancaster Visions Group: Proposed 3/27/10)

Goal:

To create opportunities for those in poverty (especially young people) to be exposed to/interact with role models who have moved from poverty to prosperity with the goal to motivate, inspire and support those in poverty towards productive lives and financial stability.

Implementation:

Identify local community persons who are knowledgeable about families and individuals who have prospered here and whose children are employed and working in various capacities successfully in other areas to come and share their success stories at the local level.

Through Guidance Services at the local high schools that track young people whose backgrounds suggest poverty but have achieved success by attending community colleges, four year colleges, vocational training programs, armed services, apprenticeship programs – thus leading to successful careers and meaningful lives.

Through Departments of Social Services who have familiarity with those persons/families who have availed themselves of employment and educational opportunities leading to more stable life styles.

Through local churches who have direct access to families they have helped financially as well as spiritually to a better life – one no longer in poverty speaking to interested groups in their churches.

Identify and establish opportunities for the above to share their stories (motivational – from poverty to prosperity) with young people in this area. For example:

*At Career Days at the local high schools.

*Through church sponsored events targeting those in youth programs in local churches.

*Reinforce and support youth motivated to make good decisions about education, health and employment with programs such as:

Local health personnel, willing to lead discussion on the values of maintaining good health and the dangers of young ladies having babies too early for themselves and their young children.

Local employers and others willing to speak with people of limited means and potentially stunted employment futures giving them pointers to possible employment opportunities and ways to advance in their companies. Other speakers providing pointers on resume building, interviewing advice, dressing for employment, etc.

*Reinforce and support families/parents motivated to encourage and support their children in their efforts towards education, training, financial stability, independence and good decision making with efforts such as:

Programs on availability of scholarships and other resources to enable continuation of education and/or achievement of certifications

Programs on effective parenting, child and youth development and motivation

Background & Rationale for the Proposed Action Plan

Poverty has many definitions. The U. S. Census stated that in 2005 the poverty line for a family of four was $19,350 per year and for an individual, $9,750. Living on less than this means living in total poverty. Poverty can lead to dependency, hopelessness and despair. Generational coping methods can perpetuate the cycle of poverty and dependency.

The Northern Neck has its share of poverty. Poverty here stems from many things. There never seems to be enough income to insure a decent living. People in poverty suffer from economic deprivation and therefore poor quality of life. To understand how people feel, the following areas should be examined with the question “What it is like . . . .

1. To be hungry?
2. To be homeless or living in substandard homes?
3. To have inadequate or no health care access?
4. To experience poor educational quality?
5. To be in an environment where labor market opportunities are lacking with a high percentage of adults in rural areas unemployed.?
6. To live in a neighborhood with a poor quality of life and few or no role models to demonstrate ways to better their conditions of life?

The list could be expanded with statistics showing more than 1 in 6 persons in rural areas listed as being poor.

Question: Is there a proven method to move from poverty to prosperity? The answer is “Yes!” There are people from this area that have succeeded despite all odds. As former first lady, Hillary Clinton stated, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Education and meaningful work opportunities are paths one must take and use to get out of poverty. The key is to help motivate our young people to see that such paths are within reach and achievable by being exposed to real life success stories who share what is needed to reach the goals of an improved, stable and prosperous way of life.

The Commonwealth of Virginia’s Poverty Reduction Task Force states that learning and skill development is a cumulative, lifelong process. Thus, preschool intervention that helps develop cognitive and socio-emotional skills have a higher return on families’ movement out of poverty than trying intervention later. Quality education beginning in pre-school or earlier makes the path into life learning and the way out of poverty much more likely.

People in poverty must buy into the concept that education and work leads to a better, more productive life. Parents, in particular must guide their children to accept the role of education as their way to a better life. Even if it appears that education hasn’t helped their parents, children must be taught to buy into the concept that a better life comes with being prepared academically. Families who have been able to help guide their children to use education and skill building as their road map to a better life in our area have been successful. Many of these families have children who completed high school, attended community colleges, four year colleges and graduate programs, joined the armed services obtaining training in various skills needed in the world of work, attended vocational schools and apprenticeship programs as well as on the job training, etc. Many of these persons who return to visit family members and some of these same people who now live and work in this area may be willing and would be very effective to speak with groups of people, especially young people, to demonstrate ways they used to move from poverty to prosperity. These people need to be people willing to help people in poverty to move to prosperity without making those in poverty feel like second class people. People in poverty must feel and understand that those trying to help are sincere and focused in their desire to help.

More from the Action Forum

2010-04-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

The White Stone group was a large one. They met on Saturday evenings, sharing a meal, and then split into three smaller groups. Each group made one recommendation. Lance Barton, one of the facilitators, presented those ideas.

One group suggested a publication cataloging resources available in the Northern Neck. This would be used as a guide by churches and other organizations to direct individuals to these resources based on their needs.

Another group proposed a centralized food bank warehouse in the Northern Neck that would support existing food banks. It would provide food to area food banks at very little cost, organize food drives, and help with basic logistics for running a food bank (dry goods and cold storage). This Food Bank Warehouse would provide food to individuals on a referral basis, but its primary function is to support new and existing food banks.

A third group would like to see the organization of a panel/community conversation made up of individuals who have come out of poverty and a comprehensive report of the results.

Dave Alberts and Marilyn Warren co-facilitated a Community Conversation in Kilmarnock. Dave presented their report. It is posted here in its entirety.

VISION

We are a caring, compassionate, diverse community working together to build hope and prosperity for all.

ISSUE

Each of the many organizations in the Northern Neck serves a clientele segment but sometimes competes or overlaps with other organizations or efforts. These varied individual efforts of organizations need to come together to better coordinate and extend their services.

IDEAS

•Support the efforts of the churches through the Interfaith Council to coordinate their services to those in need

•Develop a broadly inclusive universal community resources “catalog”, website and contact centers; i.e. a Clearinghouse

•Supplement volunteer-run programs with part-time trained staff

•Support the expansion of broadband communication as a resource for on-line learning and job searching and sharing of community resources. Along with this is the need for more technical training to new or minimally experienced users of the Internet.

•Expand the Youth Summer Jobs Program to include those needing to develop more consistent work ethics. This should be operated year-round and be supported by prospective employers.

mjw & dla
3/22/10

VISIONS would like to thank those organizations that hosted a conversation group, Macedonia Baptist Church in Heathsville, Trinity Episcopal Church in Lancaster, the Lancaster Community Library in Kilmarnock, and White Stone Church of the Nazarene in White Stone.

The Lancaster group presented last. Their suggestions were extremely well thought-out and detailed, so I'll be posting them one at a time over the next few days.

Action Forum held March 27. 2010

2010-03-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

The final event of the first round of Community Conversations on Reducing Poverty in the Northern Neck took place on Saturday, March 27th. Paula Fisher, with the Visions steering committee, acted as moderator. She thanked Susan McFadden and Open Door Communications for all their work developing our logo, our promotional and recruitment mailing material. Paula went on to open the meeting with these quotes from The World Bank PovertyNet: "Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom."

"Poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and the wealthy alike -- a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities." Paula added, "Community, Community, Comm u-ni-ty, Comm – Unity. This is why we have come together today... to move from dialogue to action in designing a plan to reduce poverty in the Northern Neck."

Each group had an opportunity to share their experience, their process, their vision and their recommendations.

The Heathsville group, represented by Joe Thompson, shared the following report:

Vision:
Communities working together to move from poverty to prosperity
Purpose:
To develop an action plan for reducing poverty in Northumberland, Lancaster and other surrounding counties of Virginia
Background:
Thirteen (13) members and four (4) facilitators participated in five (5) conversation sessions of two hour durations where
a. poverty was defined, and quantified in our communities at 10%
b. problems facing the poor were identified
c. available assets were listed
d. a list of possible actions was developed, analyzed with a consensus reached recommended Action Plan

Recommended Action Plan:
Our recommended Action Plan contains three (3)elements; a Community Coordinator, a focus on jobs and a focus on education.

1. Community Coordinator: We believe our communities have both the people and the assets to reduce poverty, except for a funded Community Coordinator who will develop, coordinate, manage and measure our poverty reduction efforts. For example; we have banks, churches, schools, businesses, etc. who could work on projects; but would need someone to coordinate, organize and measure”collective efforts” full time… a Community Coordinator. Our cost estimate for one person, transportation, telephone, computer and space is $100,000 per year, which we hope would be funded initially by a grant or foundation. Further, this Community Coordinator will need an Advisory Board to guide him/her. Without someone dedicated full time to this effort real success cannot be achieved.

2. Focus on jobs! More jobs..Less poverty, period! Some opportunities are:
1.Establish a Clearinghouse for Jobs/Skills……people looking for work/people seeking jobs. 2. Create a website for free listing. 3. Establish a physical location for connecting.

3. Focus on education! Expand the use of Rappahannock Community College in providing training for jobs (Example: Austin CC “Construction Gateway Program” www.austincc.edu/bct/gateway.php and www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1543) Expand Warsaw VoTech program to adults. Provide counseling for success in work with volunteer counselors. Help people gain literacy skills for further college or skills training. The Community Coordinator will promote children’s mentoring, reading partners, etc. with churches, civic organizations, etc. to help children’s education.

Prepared by Joe M. Thompson 3/24/2010
Presented by Joe M. Thompson & Tom Price

I'll continue to post the plans and recommendations over the next week, so that everyone can give each some attention. Each report represents hours of work by our many volunteers in this process. Thanks to all of them, and a special thanks to our facilitators: Torrence Harman, Lorraine Justice, Jessica Jordan, Kathleen Watson, Dave Alberts, Marilyn Warren, Lance Barton, Jason Hughes, and William Smith.

Community Conversations on Reducing Poverty

2010-03-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

VISIONS was successful in organizing four Community Conversations on Reducing Poverty, all full, with one so large it had to be split into 2 or 3 smaller groups. The weather was our biggest obstacle, setting us back in beginning 3 of the conversations until mid-February.

The winner of the "weather dodging" award goes to our Lancaster conversation. Facilitated by Torrence Harman with some help from Lorraine Justice of Bay Aging, they managed to start right away and got in 6 meetings and still finished before everyone else! Trinity Episcopal Church on Mary Ball Road in Lancaster hosted.

The largest group was our White Stone contingent. They had to break up into 3 groups to have their discussions. They met on Saturday evenings and shared a meal. This was a younger group who needed childcare for the 12 children of the participants. Lance Barton organized and oversaw this circle, which met at the White Stone Church of the Nazarene.

The Heathsville group, led by Jessica Jordan and Kathleen Watson, had some lively conversations from the sounds of things. This is the only circle we were able to organize in Northumberland County, so we hope to expand in this area in the future. Our thanks to Pastors Rioland of Macedonia Baptist Church for hosting this conversation.

The Kilmarnock circle met at the Lancaster Community Library on Wednesday nights. Dave Alberts and Marilyn Warren facilitated this conversation. I look forward to hearing about their thoughts and ideas, as this group experienced the most fluctuation in membership and attendance.

All of these groups will come together this Saturday, March 27th, at 10:30 a.m. for the Action Forum. We will be meeting at the Upper Lancaster Ruritan Center on Route 201 near Lively. The Action Forum will provide all of our Community Conversation groups a chance to share their experience and their ideas with the larger group as a whole. Lunch will be provided and participants will have an opportunity to complete an evaluation form with their thoughts and feedback on the dialogue-to-action process.

The Action Forum is open to the public. Please let me know if you plan to attend at 577-8421 or visions.lcl@gmail.com

January events

2010-01-25T13:22:00.000-08:00

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.

Plans for the New Year

2009-12-30T12:01:00.000-08:00

During October and November, Ken Rioland, Marilyn Warren and Merthia Haynie facilitated a pilot Community Conversation. Participants included Lorraine Justice (Bay Aging CAP), Sandy Griffith (Grace Church Outreach), Torrence Harman (Priest, St. Mary's Whitechapel and Trinity Episcopal Church), Jean Poole (VISIONS advisory board), Wardell Carter (Boys and Girls Club), Jessica Jordan (Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck), and Belinda Gaskins (Social Worker). They met on Monday nights for 5 weeks. Although the Community Conversation process would normally involve 6 weeks, the final week is an Action Forum meeting when all groups come together to share their ideas with each other. Since there was only one group, they could not do the final step.

The feedback from the group was that it went well, that participants were willing to invest the time needed, and they were able to identify some tangible goals. Specifically, this group wanted to develop programs to reduce teen pregnancy and find better ways to mentor children. They felt better mentoring would provide role models and promote higher goals. They also discussed the issues of financial barriers to getting drivers licenses and GED's and were concerned about high school graduation rates.

Towards the end of this process, Lindsy Gardner and Merthia Haynie got together with some people to begin the work of recruiting facilitators for the February-March round of Community Conversations. The training for those facilitators is planned for January 16th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church in Lancaster. Gwen Whiting will be on hand for that training. We hope to recruit at least 15 facilitators; some of the participants in the pilot indicated a willingness to train to facilitate other groups.

The Communications group (Susan McFadden, Marilyn Warren, Paula Fisher and I) have continued to meet about every other week. Susan and her team at Open Door Communications have been enormously helpful. They developed a logo for us and will be producing all the materials for a mailing early in January. We are close to finishing a packet of materials that will go out to churches, social service departments, and other agencies at that time. The packet will include a cover letter, explanatory information, poverty fact sheet, mini-poster, and registration forms. In addition, to promote the activities of VISIONS, I have set up a Facebook presence which we hope will increase interest and reach a wider demographic.

Cindy Balderson (Connect Rappahannock) and I have continued with the Resource Sharing Forum for Lancaster and Northumberland Counties. We held one in October and one in November, but were unable to meet in December because of holiday conflicts. We will meet again on January 21st at 9 a.m. at the Lancaster Community Library. Although we feel we have made a good beginning, we are disappointed that there has been so little follow-up use of Connect.

The Kick-off Event for the Community Conversations on Reducing Poverty will take place on January 23rd at the Ruritan Center on Rte. 201 near Lively. All participants and facilitators will be invited to attend this two-hour event and we hope to take this opportunity to assign participants to groups and ascertain any specific needs that we will need to meet to help participants, including childcare and transportation. The groups will meet from late January to early March and will conclude with an Action Event to share their ideas and strategies. Those ideas and strategies can then hopefully be incorporated into an implementation grant.

Please visit the VISIONS Facebook and become a fan! I will continue to post news here and on Facebook, as well as on Connect Rappahannock.

Progress Report

2009-10-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

Since the last meeting of the advisory committee in October, we have continued to make progress in a number of areas.

Cindy Balderson of ConnectRappahannock and I hosted the first Lancaster/Northumberland Resource Sharing Forum meeting on October 15th at 9:00 a.m. in the Lancaster Community Library meeting room. We had a good turnout of about 20 people representing a wide variety of organizations and agencies. We gave each participant a chance to tell the rest what their mission or function was and to share any materials they had brought. I discussed the goals of VISIONS briefly, and Cindy discussed how Connect can help all these organizations, agencies, and nonprofits stay in touch and be aware of what others are doing. We passed around sign-up sheets for the Connect affinity email groups. We assigned the "homework" of inviting at least one representative of a group that had not participated in this first meeting, but should. Our next meeting is Thursday, November 19th, same time and place.

Cindy has since added the participants to their desired groups and to the general Connect list. I have followed up with a thank you email to participants with a reminder of their homework. Cindy and I hope to attend a meeting of the Gloucester Resource Council, our model for this group, next week.

Communications (Marilyn Warren, Paula Fisher, Susan McFadden) has met several times. Since one of the recommendations that came out of their initial meeting was to develop a website, I have been meeting with them as well with the idea that I might be called on to develop and maintain that website. We have focused on communication around what we had been calling "study circles" but will in future refer to as community conversations. The communications group feels that VISIONS will become better known as the entity sponsoring this conversation process. We have a preliminary logo and Susan is checking into website costs. We are developing a "fact sheet" to introduce the community conversation process and aid in recruiting.

Recruitment (Merthia Haynie, Ken Rioland) has done a great job of inviting people to participate in a pilot Community Conversation. Their next task will be to recruit facilitators for training in January.

The pilot conversation started Monday at 7:00 p.m. Marilyn Warren and Ken Rioland facilitated and will continue to do so for 4 more meetings, three of them scheduled for Monday nights at the same time. The additional meeting they will schedule as a group. They had 8 participants and expect to add 2 or 3 more next week. They are meeting at Net Cruisers Cafe in Lancaster. The owner, Holly Ransone Pleasants, has very kindly agreed to host this pilot group and is opening the cafe on Monday nights just for them.

The advisory committee will meet again this Monday, November 2nd, at 8:30 a.m. at the Lancaster library.

Advisory Board Meeting on October 5th

2009-10-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

For those of you who couldn't make the meeting yesterday, here are my notes. I apologize for their length; we covered a fair amount of ground. Believe it or not, I left out some! (Sorry, Jack, I know it all comes down to education and jobs and it was an interesting conversation, but I'm just going to focus on the nuts and bolts.)

There was a handout which you can view at this link:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20714739/VISIONS-Advisory-Committee-Handout

In the sidebar of the handout, one of the agenda items was the executive committee's decision to rename the steering committee. The name Advisory Board or advisory committee seems to more accurately describe the role this group plays. We would like this group to be active in advising and promoting the dialog-to-action process that VISIONS has decided to sponsor in seeking community involvement and conversation on potential strategies to reduce poverty in the Northern Neck. Please take a look at the handout.

We have identified 4 core committees to work toward this process.

Marilyn Warren, Paula Fisher and Susan McFadden have begun the work of Communications. Marilyn and Paula reported on their meeting with Susan last Wednesday. They are grappling with some of the communication problems and issues. They recommend moving away from "building assets" to improving lives and building community. They feel that the term "study circles" does not really describe in a positive way what we are sponsoring and felt the term "community conversations" did. They recommend that we develop a fact sheet for media, a short bulletin piece for church newsletters, and a poverty awareness fact sheet. Susan feels strongly that VISIONS needs to develop its own website, with links to the blog, a Facebook link, media links, and so on. The domain name northernneckvisions.org is available and the cost to register that for three years is $159.95. We may need to seek sponsors for the website. In the meantime, the focus of communication will be on the community conversations VISIONS is sponsoring or facilitating. They will meet again tomorrow.

The Recruitment committee, spearheaded by Merthia Haynie and Ken Rioland, will continue to work toward gathering a group for one pilot community conversation to take place in October and November. It would be on Monday nights, probably 7:00-9:00, beginning October 19th and going for 5 weeks. Marilyn Warren has agreed to facilitate, Ken is willing to co-facilitate when he is available, but we still need one more facilitator and 10-12 participants. The pilot group will help us better understand the process and anticipate planning needs for the larger round early next year.

Planning currently consists of me and Dave Alberts, with some assistance from Paul Sciacchitano. We hope to meet this week. The number one issue for us at this point is finding a venue for the pilot conversation. The library is not available, nor is the Bank of Lancaster Community Room.
Any suggestions would be welcome. It needs to be free and at least somewhat centrally located.

The handout includes a tentative timeline; please look it over.

The final area is resource sharing. Cindy Balderson and I have already scheduled and publicized the first Resource Sharing Forum. At the June conference and at the August orientations, the issue of identifying services already in place and promoting greater collaboration and cooperation came up repeatedly. We plan to hold monthly meetings, starting Thursday, October 15th at 9:00 a.m. with a 2 hour maximum time limit. We have deliberately issued a very broad invitation to any nonprofits, government agencies, and churches who wish to share information with one another to attend. Cindy will be encouraging them to sign up for ConnectRappahannock so their profiles can be shared electronically. Jack Russell and others pointed out that phone calls are our best bet for a good turnout, so Cindy and I will meet and divide up a list of people to call. Jean Poole has agreed to help with the resource sharing effort.

Paul Sciacchitano shared some news from the River Counties Community Foundation. They were able to raise $84,000 through various matching opportunities and have met with the three counties DSS to identify where those funds might best be spent. Each DSS will receive $25,000 as a discretionary fund to distribute as they see fit to people who "fall through the cracks" in terms of the moneys the DSS normally has to give. The rest is going to the Red Cross and to area Food Banks.

Finally, we would like to set up regular monthly meetings of the Advisory Committee. Lindsy will be sending you a Doodle Poll, a free online scheduling tool, through your email, giving some choices for days and times that are possibilities. Please, please respond! It is simple to do and we want to identify the best time for all our members.

Upcoming meetings

2009-10-01T14:26:00.001-07:00

There is a meeting of the whole steering committee coming up this Monday, October 5th, at 8:30 a.m. at the Lancaster Community Library. We hope the steering committee members will be there to hear what VISIONS has been doing and what we hope to do in the months ahead.

Also, join VISIONS and ConnectRappahannock for the first meeting of its kind in our area. Together we are hosting a Resource Sharing Forum on Thursday, October 15th at 9:00 a.m. at the Lancaster Community Library in Kilmarnock. If you are a nonprofit, government agency or church that provides services to people in need in Lancaster and Northumberland County, please join us for this opportunity to share information about who you are and what you are doing in our community.

By connecting with each other, we can be more effective in addressing issues in our area. Bring a business card or any written materials you would like to share with the other organizations, churches and agencies.

As space is limited, we ask that only one representative from each group attend. Please reply to Alison Towles at visions@lancasterlibrary.org or Cindy Balderson at rappahannockinfo@connectnetwork.org

Partners Foundation for affordable housing

2009-08-28T12:27:00.001-07:00

This was a wonderful article 2 weeks ago in the Rappahannock Record on the duPont grant to the Partners for Lancaster County Schools Foundation and the Morattico Baptist Church for their affordable rental housing project for teachers, nurses, other RGH employees, law enforcement, and municipal and county employees. Unfortunately, the Rappahannock Record does not archive their articles and the link that was posted here is no longer valid. I hope everyone read it while they had the chance.

Study Circle Orientation, August 18 & 19

2009-08-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

Approximately 30-35 people came out for a two-night event at the Northumberland County Community Center facilitated by Gwen Whiting. VISIONS plans to sponsor study circles as a way to invite Northern Neck citizens to discuss poverty and to identify actionable strategies to reduce it in our area. Gwen lead the group through activities and discussions to help us better understand the power of the study circles process and the organization required to make them happen successfully in the Northern Neck.

After a review of the agenda, an introduction, and a fun ice breaker activity, Gwen gave us an overview of the dialogue to action process. We then watched a video and heard more about how other communities have used this process to tackle a number of issues. It was interesting to hear that the process was so successful that many of the communities continue to use it to tackle other problems.

We then broke out into smaller groups to get a feel for what a study circle was like. We were given questions that might be asked in an initial study circle gathering. It was surprising and inspiring to find that people in a small group setting can share so much about themselves so honestly.

Lindsy Gardner reviewed the history and progress of VISIONS over the last couple of years and explained the DuPont Fund initiative to reduce poverty in their target communities.

In our large circle, we each had an opportunity to share our hopes for how our community might be improved and what we saw to be the barriers to that improvement. I have had an opportunity to transcribe those hopes and potential barriers and, while they are as diverse as one might expect, there is also a surprising amount of consensus. More than half of the group saw communication and attitudes as being problematic and the hopeful target for substantial change.

On Wednesday, Gwen met with some people who had not been able to attend on Tuesday over dinner before beginning with the large group again. We considered some of the potential racial issues that will inevitably come up in a discussion of poverty. We broke out into smaller groups and shared our personal experiences, our first awareness of racial differences and what impact, if any, it had on us. Again, it was illuminating to hear how honest and straightforward that conversation could be in a small group.

During a break, we were encouraged to sign up for some committees that will do the work of organizing the study circle process. Gwen reviewed some of the organizational needs in planning the study circle process. One of the key areas is communication. Three groups were then formed to discuss ways to communicate with and attract the participation of three separate groups, the been here’s, the come here’s, and the come back here’s. Those ideas were then shared with the whole group at large.

Finally, we had an opportunity to meet as smaller groups around four areas, planning, recruiting facilitators, recruiting participants, and communication. When we all got together as a large group afterwords, it was clear that we had only scratched the surface of what each of those committees needed to accomplish. As a result, it was determined that the planned timeline for implementing the study circles needed to be adjusted to allow for more time to properly organize the study circles for success.

Partners Foundation for affordable housing

2009-08-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Just to add to the previous post with the link to a Virginia Business article on the lack of affordable housing in this area, VISIONS just got some good news from Bill Warren, the president of the Partners for Lancaster Schools Foundation.

That organization and Rev. Craig Smith of Morattico Baptist Church have been working together on an affordable housing project here in the Northern Neck. Their commitment is, in their words: “We will build and operate affordable rental housing for our teachers, RGH nurses and employees, law enforcement, and municipal/county employees.”

Bill recently shared the exciting news that, through Morattico Baptist Church, the Partners Foundation initiative will receive $102,440 over a two-year period from the Jesse Ball DuPont Fund. This is one of the largest and most important grants to date because it gives them enhanced credibility and visibility in the charitable community, according to Bill. He gives Rev. Smith credit for making this possible.

The Partners Foundation has also benefited from a $100,000 grant from the Nettie Lokey Wiley & Charles L. Wiley Foundation and a $20,000 grant from the Lancaster County Industrial Development Authority. Within the last two weeks, they received a $20,000 grant from the Broaddus Foundation and $15,000 from local donors.

The Partners Foundation has raised $350,000 of the $600,000 needed to ensure that the project is “self-sustaining” based on the rents paid by residents. They seem to be well on their way to achieving their commitment to provide affordable housing. This is great news for those of us involved in VISIONS and in the Northern Neck Housing Study. Thank you, Bill, for sharing this information!

Affordable housing in the Northern Neck

2009-08-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Margaret Nost brought this interesting article in Virginia Business to my attention. It refers to the Northern Neck Housing Study financed by the duPont Fund. It also discusses some of the efforts to provide better housing options that are in the works. It's definitely worth reading and adding to our information bank.

Click this link to read the article:

http://www.virginiabusiness.com/index.php/news/article/ending-the-commute/201023/

Study Circles Orientation Invitation

2009-07-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

VISIONS will be sponsoring a round of Study Circles this fall to encourage a diverse community dialogue on ways to reduce poverty in the Northern Neck. Study Circles have been used all over the United States in large and small communities to successfully address the issue of poverty. To learn more about what Study Circles are, please read the blogpost Study Circles Q&A from July 17th. We hope to have as many people as possible involved in those Study Circles, which will run from October through mid-November. We want the whole community to be part of the solution to a problem that impacts the whole community.

To get ready to begin that process, Gwen Whiting will be providing the VISIONS team and any interested parties with an orientation to Study Circles. The orientation will take place on Tuesday, August 18th and Wednesday, August 19th from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the Northumberland County Community Center on Browns Store Road. A light supper will be provided both nights.

We are inviting all our June conference attendees and any other people who are interested in learning more to attend these orientation meetings. We hope that our conference attendees will pass on this invitation to anyone they think might like to attend.

If you would like to attend, please respond to me at visions@lancasterlibrary.org with confirmation.

Richmond Times-Dispatch article and editorial

2009-07-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

The following article appeared in the Richmond paper on July 19th, following the Conversation on Poverty that took place there in Richmond.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/article/POVE19_20090718-222406/280857/

Apparently, one of the participants said that the problem with poverty is that "people don't care." In this opinion piece, the editors of the paper disagreed. Their description of all the people and agencies who do care could easily describe our area. In this editorial they write, "Indeed, the biggest problem facing efforts to reduce poverty is not a lack of concern, but a lack of consensus."

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/opinion/editorials/article/ED-POVER21_20090720-180003/281079/

Both of these articles are worth reading. It's interesting to note that whether the area was urban or rural, lifelong education was identified as a way out of poverty.

Conversations on Poverty, Saturday, July 18, 2009

2009-07-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be worthwhile to share Kathleen Watson's summary of the comments made at the Conversation on Poverty held at Rappahannock Community College in Warsaw on Saturday, July 18th.

Kathleen emails "I am very pleased to report that we had a total of 23 attendees for the Conversations on Poverty event that took place at the Warsaw Campus of Rappahannock Community College this past Saturday, July 18. When I heard that the city of Richmond had about 50 attendees, I thought that 23 was a very nice showing from the Northern Neck, especially on a Saturday morning!"

"Many of the participants were concerned citizens who represented non-profits, state agencies or other local organizations. The theme that kept recurring was that of the importance of EDUCATION (not limited to the classroom, but across the lifespan). Financial literacy education for youth and others came up, as did the importance of job training skills, education about work ethics, and education to help break the cycle of generational poverty. One attendee made a wonderful statement that really spoke volumes about the problem of generational poverty: 'Poverty is not just a lack of funds, it is also a lack of dreams.' "

"The importance of involving parents in the educational system was also cited as a source of improving education, since education is so vital when discussing poverty."

"Other themes that surfaced during the event were:

The need for well paying jobs, and industry to provide such jobs.
The need for better wages
A hungry child cannot learn properly. Therefore, addressing hunger is a priority.
The system should STOP enabling single parents who continue to have babies. The system should START enabling more people to get jobs.
Safe housing and indoor plumbing programs should continue
Conversations on poverty should continue
Discrimination against those with disabilities should stop
Reliable public transportation would get people to work, to school, and to the store.
Lower taxes, and increase charitable giving
We must teach self sufficiency
Better coordination of services
Better health care options

"This is a quote that was left behind, and I thought it was very powerful:

'Until a person believes that they, personally, don’t belong where they are, no lasting change in their position will take place.'

"Thanks again, to all who came out on Saturday!"

Kathleen did a great job summarizing the contributions of the participants. For those who couldn't be there, it started with two video presentations. One was a message from Governor Tim Kaine with his invitation to provide input to his taskforce on reducing poverty. The other was a data overview from Mike Cassidy, Executive Director of the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis in Richmond. You can view both the "Act on Poverty Governor's Message" video and the "Poverty in Virginia Presentation" on the Virginia Department of Social Service website at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/virginiadss/

Both are worth viewing, but the data presentation was a particularly clear overview of poverty in Virginia.

Study Circles Q & A

2009-07-17T08:56:00.001-07:00

Since some of you were unable to come to the meeting on Tuesday and some of you who did had questions about Study Circles, Lindsy and Paula put together a great explanation of the hows and whys.

"Study circles will help us talk about the kind of community we want to live in. No community is doing well where there is poverty. If we work on reducing poverty, we can have a better community. And, by working on making our community better, we can help reduce poverty. These two important tasks go hand in hand.

Study circles will work for us because:

People care. They want to make things better.
Problems like poverty call for many solutions.
It takes people from all parts of the community to solve our problem.
When we all join in, we all win.
When we talk face to face, we get to know each other. Trust builds. We can come up with new ideas and plans.

What are Study Circles?

Many circles will
meet at the same time.
8 to 12 people will be in each circle. They will represent the diversity of our community.
Circles will meet together for five two-hour sessions. The first three sessions focus on getting to know each other and getting to know the problem. The last two sessions focus on finding solutions and developing an action plan to reduce poverty.
After the fifth meeting, all of the circles will gather together for an action forum. Each circle will present its action plan to reduce poverty in our community.
Each circle will use a guide book. Two facilitators will lead each group circle.

Why is VISIONS sponsoring study circles?

This approach has been used all over the United States in communities large and small to successfully address the issue of poverty.
We want the whole community to be a part of the solution to a problem that impacts the whole community.
We want realistic actionable
community-driven strategies for our future work to reduce poverty.
In order to help ensure change, we need community investment in the strategies (identified during the action forum) that will be presented in a written proposal to the duPont Fund for implementation and funding."

I've added two videos available on YouTube to give you some idea of what people in Montana who used this process thought about it. After you listen to them, you'll have a better idea of the value of getting a wide diversity of input in this planning process.

Horizons Across Montana, Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6MkBJaWHic

Horizons Across Montana, Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBWhKkB4-Co&feature=related

Summer Jobs Network article

2009-07-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

There's a wonderful article on the Summer Jobs Network grant in the Rappahannock Record this week. Click on this link to read it:

http://www.rrecord.com/news2a.asp

The Summer Jobs Network is another duPont Fund grant to help local students find and keep summer jobs and to help them learn more about work ethics and professionalism. Lindsy Gardner, director of the Lancaster Community Library and a key member of the VISIONS team, helped Jack Russell write and obtain this grant. It is coordinated through the Rappahannock Community College.

Another great article of interest to the VISIONS team is one featured on the Everyday Democracy website. Everyday Democracy is the organization that has developed the study circle process we'll be using this fall. This website is full of great information, the link on the issue of poverty is well worth exploring. The article of local interest is the one on the Virginia Extension Agency efforts in Gov. Kaine's initiative to reduce poverty.

To see this article and explore the Everyday Democracy website, click on:

http://www.everyday-democracy.org/en/index.aspx

2009-07-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

As Paula Fisher reminds us in this postcard, it's been nearly a month since VISIONS sponsored the Conference to Build Community Assets to Reduce Poverty in the Northern Neck.

During those 30 days, school got out for the summer. That's good news for teachers and students who needed a break. But nearly half the students in both Lancaster and Northumberland Counties were eligible for free and reduced lunches through the school. What are they doing and how are they coping?

What about you? What have you been doing? We all left that conference energized and committed to finding ways to reduce poverty in the Northern Neck. Share your news with VISIONS by adding a comment to this post. With the new poverty email list on connectRappahannock, I can get the word out to all who participated or were interested in the conference. Cindy Balderson and I hope to sponsor a monthly open house or forum in which we can do some active resource sharing. I'll use your news to help me generate a list of "stars" for each of those.

Read through the blogposts to get an idea of what VISIONS has been doing. The VISIONS committee will be meeting next week on July 14th at 8:30 at the Lancaster Community Library. We'll be calling our participants and interested people to ask them to commit to some subcommittees. Those subcommittees will be working toward our next big step.

We are excited to announce that we are launching an ambitious program called Study Circles to continue our efforts to gather ideas and energy from as many people as we can. We need diversity and numbers and, as we all realized at the conference, we need to hear from the people who live in poverty. We hope to get that going in the fall. Want to know more about it? Keep your eye on this blog. Want to help? Save these dates: August 18 & 19. We'll be having two evening programs then to orient us all.

Gwen Whiting will be showing us the ropes, guiding us through the process and getting us ready to go. Plan to join us as we continue our efforts, we need you all. At the end of this exciting endeavor, we'll have a dynamic strategy for reducing poverty that all of us can embrace.

Working together, we can make a difference, we can build assets and community and reduce poverty in the Northern Neck.

"Act on Poverty - Conversations on Poverty"

2009-06-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

We have a wonderful opportunity to participate in a conversation on poverty here in the Northern Neck. The description of the program that follows came directly from Kathleen Watson, Extension Agent for Northumberland and Lancaster Counties and one of the facilitators of this conversation.

"If you had just two minutes with the Governor or another elected officials, what would you recommend to reduce poverty, and why?"

On Saturday, July 18, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, Virginians will have a unique opportunity to pitch their solutions to this question in their localities and statewide. Northern Neck residents are invited to "Act on Poverty - Conversations on Poverty" at Rappahannock Community College's Warsaw Campus, located at 52 Campus Drive, Warsaw, VA. The program will take place in the lecture hall.

In one of the largest-ever, simultaneous conversations devoted to the issue of poverty reduction, attendees are encouraged to recommend specific strategies for the Commonwealth's Poverty Reduction Taskforce and local and state officials to consider. Virginia Cooperative Extension agents Marilyn Morris and Kathleen Watson will facilitate the Act on Poverty conversations in Warsaw. http://www.hhr.virginia.gov/povertysummit/

All concerned citizens are invited and encourage to attend. The event is free and pre-registration is not required.

For additional information, contact:
Kathleen D. Watson, MSG
Extension Agent
Family and Consumer Sciences
Northumberland and Lancaster Counties
Virginia Cooperative Extension, Northumberland Office
P. O. Box 400
Heathsville, VA 22473-0400
804.580.5694
Fax: 804.580.9568
kdwatson@vt.edu

I will be attending and hope that other members and followers of Visions: Building Assets and Community will be there as well. Thanks, Kathleen, for letting us know about this exciting opportunity.

Check out the Make a Difference blog!

2009-06-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

The Local Accent is a website offering a comprehensive business directory for the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula as well as local weather, obituaries, and a very inclusive community calendar of all sorts of events. They also host a number of specialty blogs. The Make a Difference blog is devoted to news from charitable and nonprofit groups in the area. To see the VISIONS conference article and picture there, visit http://www.thelocalaccent.com/blogs/difference.php

Another wonderful source of information is connectRappahannock, whose mission it is to "strengthen communities by connecting people to ideas, information, and each other." Director Cindy Balderson has been working hard to help us establish a specialty email list addressing the issue of poverty. Lindsy Gardner, Cindy, and I collected email addresses for that list at the conference and in the days following it. If you have not joined connectRappahannock as a subscriber, please do! It's very informative and interesting and it's a good way to keep up with what is going on in the Northern Neck. To see the article that Cindy posted on the VISIONS conference, go to http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs059/1101514472518/archive/1102604397685.html

We seem to making some headway on getting the word out about VISIONS and its mission, so pass the word on all these great communication and public relations tools.

What comes next?

2009-06-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, June 11th, a number of us got together to discuss the conference and consider the next steps.

Some of the positives that were expressed included the value of hearing that this process takes time and that people will phase in and out, the great outcome of small group discussions, the significant collection of information that took place at the conference, and the importance of identifying a core group of committed individuals. Some of our concerns going forward are the need to diversify and involve more people, keeping up the momentum of the process started by the conference, and identifying ways to apply the ideas and information that we gained.

As has been mentioned before, no one wants to lose sight of the housing study and all that it revealed. It was suggested that it might be more productive to think of the housing study in broader terms, as a source of data or as an economic development tool.

Rev. Edward King filled us in on some of the ongoing duPont Fund activity in the region. Lancaster Partners for Education, through the Morattico Baptist Church, have submitted a proposal for workforce housing that has been invited for final review. DuPont has also funded a planning grant to St. Mary's at Fleeton in Northumberland County for rental housing. Rev. King emphasized the need for VISIONS to take a regional approach, including Richmond and Westmoreland County, and to encourage collaboration between counties and investors.

We discussed the potential value of working with Bay Aging in their new capacity as a Community Action Program.

The importance of strengthening non-profit involvement was another point that was made. Tom Gosse shared that the Wiley Foundation is working very hard to bring a program targeting preschool/prekindergarten children called Smart Beginnings to the area. It will hopefully become a key piece of the education and early childhood strategy.

We will continue to try to keep people informed of the work of VISIONS as we go along. There are any number of ways to do that, either by press release, blog, or email. There was an article in the Rappahannock Record on the conference yesterday, 6/18/09, and a wonderful article on connectRappahannock last week. Cindy Balderson is on board to help us set up a special email list through connectRappahannock as a working communication tool for those interested in contributing to the conversation or keeping up through an email list.

Check out connectRappahannock at this link:
http://www.connectrappahannock.org/

Gwen Whiting, one of our consultants and facilitators, will be leading us through a process of generating greater involvement, a curriculum called Study Circles. It is designed to generate community-wide conversations around a particular topic. In our case, the topic is poverty. As we noted last week, the people at the conference were not necessarily the folks who would benefit directly from building assets and community. Our challenge is to spread the word about VISIONS and our goals to all sectors of the community to lay the foundation for a successful Study Circles program. We hope to be ready to begin them by September.

We'll let everyone know when the orientation for that will be taking place. In the meantime, some of the small groups in the conference have expressed a desire to continue their conversations. One of these, led by Leslie Franklin, would like to tackle the "everyone on the same page" communication piece. We will also continue to explore resource mapping to see what is already in place and how we can coordinate those services. Those people who were on our conference directory list should have received an email from Lindsy Gardner making many of these same points.

This summer, duPont has funded a Summer Employment Network grant, administered through the Lancaster Community Library and Rappahannock Community College. I'll hope to post some information on how that's going later.

Thank you to all our participants for your wonderful efforts! We applaud your willingness to tackle this difficult issue and look forward to the work ahead.

Open-Space Conversations

2009-06-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Finally, at the end of a productive day of great work, Gwen and Jean encouraged those people who were interested in continuing the conversation to stay from 3:15 to 5:00 or to come to the Lancaster Community Library the next day, Thursday, June 11th, at 9:00.

One of the guiding principles of the Open-Space Conversations is that whoever comes are the right people. Quite a few people indicated a willingness to stay that afternoon. They were interested in discussing the recent designation of Bay Aging as a Community Action Program. We were lucky enough to have Kathy Vessely-Massey from Bay Aging with us.

The following summary is courtesy of Lindsy Gardner:

Kathy explained that they had been pursuing CAP designation for some time and were awarded it in May of this year. It will take effect on July 1 and they will receive several hundred thousand dollars in one-time stimulus money to establish the agency and conduct programming. George Morris has agreed to serve as interim director of the CAP. Currently, they are looking for a Development Director who would write grants and seek resources to continue operations once the stimulus money has been expended. When Bay Aging got word that they were going to receive CAP designation, they sent a memo out to local governments, schools, and social service agencies in the eight county area asking for ideas for programming for the summer. Because of the overwhelming response from localities, Bay Aging decide to fund an internal suggestion - a Work Ethics Camp. The concept of the camp begins with recruiting interested children ages 12-20 who meet income and secondary barrier requirements. These children will be guided by Team Leaders for certain geographic areas to do volunteer work for local individuals or businesses. As the children accrue volunteer hours, they also qualify to attend a camp of their choice over the summer. In the future, the CAP will be required to do a community assessment to determine needs and resources in the community. This information will be used to develop future programs.

Kathy went on to describe other programs currently offered by Bay Aging that will benefit from stimulus money including weatherization programs, in-home care programs, Meals on Wheels, to name a few. Bay Aging has also constructed elder housing in Lancaster County, as well as other sites in their service area.

Thank you, Lindsy, for your great notes! We hope that some of the action strategies that come out of the conference conversations and future meetings can dovetail with Bay Aging's initiatives in some way.

Several people also found their way over to Lancaster Community Library the next morning. One point they wanted to share was that we will need to "make the case" or develop a clear and consistent message that communicates how people will benefit. They also felt it was important to know what assets and resources we have in the community so we can leverage what we have. Finally, they felt it was important to raise expectations, starting with upper elementary and middle school students.

Tomorrow, I'll be posting some of the ideas that came out of the follow-up meeting of the Visions steering committee on Thursday, June 11th.

Selected thoughts from report outs in the afternoon

2009-06-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

After the small group sessions in the early afternoon, each group reported out on the results of their discussions to the group at large.

Group 1 had the theme of involving everyone. Some of their suggestions were that "everyone reads off the same page" and that a PR campaign would be a good way to begin outreach. They thought we should focus on three target areas, individuals or organizations, government agencies and judicial/legal, and the business community. Their brainstorming of groups to target for outreach resulted in an impressive list of individuals and groups, too long to list here, representing some great group work in identifying community resources. Just a few highlights from that list include Boys and Girls Clubs, Habitat, the Ministerial Association, YMCA, food banks, health care providers, county social services and health departments, schools, extension offices, and Chambers of Commerce.

Group 2 was supposed to be the data group, but no one joined that one. As a side note from other discussions, these points were made:
Data can be used to make the case.
Infant mortality rates, low birth weight are important issues.
Prenatal care as an entry point for intervention?

Group 3 reviewed the work of VISIONS in the past and the three-prong approach that was suggested. They felt strongly that the Housing Study completed and presented in March, 2009, had continued merit for use going forward, but that it would need to be condensed or abstracted or some of the information would need to be pulled out for specific use. The key point was that improving housing options would help people out of poverty. The Housing Task Force hopes to meet soon to accomplish some of these goals. In education, the focus of the group was on attracting and retaining teachers and creating programs to increase student success and persistence. The third prong, leadership training, was envisioned by this group as being aimed at young professionals, creating a support network and engaging them with the community.

Group 4 tackled a tough subject, but one that all agreed needed to be addressed - racial and cultural divisions. They were interested in looking back on what came out of the CRS racial diversity study, getting data on the rising Hispanic population, and getting truly poor people in the dialog and giving them a voice. They discussed socioeconomic differences in both black and white races as a divider. They envisioned ways to identify bridge people and bring more people together. This group, I believe, hopes to get together soon after the conference to continue their conversation.

Group 5's theme was jobs, economy, training and mentoring. They identified as problems lack of information, difficulty with zoning ordinances, difficulty in finding qualified employees, low expectations, and the lack of job diversity. This area heavily leans in the direction of a service economy. There are programs currently in place that address some of these issues, like Reality Store and YMCA mentoring. Some other solutions they proposed included attracting businesses that are electronically based, improving broadband infrastructure, taking advantage of our local community college, utilizing Bay Aging as a Community Action Program, and taking a regional approach to economic development.

Group 6 had a conversation around the theme of advocacy and support for people in poverty or at risk. They had a number on concerns, including taking away pride by giving away, the long-term or generational quality of poverty, financial literacy issues, drug problems, lack of transportation, how to help people in transition, including people with criminal histories or with mental health issues. They suggested a number of concrete programs like VIEW and Reality Store, "Hugs and Kisses" from Theatre IV which deals with sexual abuse, and investigating "Justice Circles," a mediation training program. They talked about parental advocacy in school, education about abuse, empowerment programs, and literacy training.

This information is my attempt to abstract the discussions that took place in a way that can be shared with the whole group and with other interested parties who were unable to attend. Since I wasn't in all the discussions, this came out of verbatim notes that each group took. Please comment with any corrections or additions.

Tomorrow, I'll finish up with the conference with the Open Space Conversations.

Still more on the Conference

2009-06-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

After Jereann King Johnson's presentation, Leslie Franklin did a fabulous job of presenting some the data that Paula Fisher and others had collected on poverty in the Northern Neck. Leslie pointed out that 1 in 10 families in the area live below the federal poverty level. One in ten! That's a lot of families who are struggling to get by. She highlighted the power of education and wished we could let young people look into the future to see what a lack of education could cost them. Drop-out rates range from 6 to 12% across the four counties. Without an adequate education, what are their chances? One in five Virginians without a high school diploma live in poverty. Leslie talked about children. It is shocking to hear that nearly 1/2 of the students in Lancaster and Northumberland County qualify for free or reduced lunch. To quote Leslie, "Fifty percent of our children should not have to go hungry without the aid of the school." Finally, she highlighted the issue of housing. People working in the Northern Neck cannot afford to own a house in the county where they work. Even if they could, there is very little available for those with low purchasing power. Leslie finished with an eloquent appeal, a call to action, one we hope to continue to share with people who can make a difference.

To see the statistics handout on poverty in the Northern Neck, check this link:
http://www.scribd.com/share/upload/12840610/5zgjpy1jvzhea8xkj23
My apologies for the disrupted format, please comment on this post or let me know at visions@lancasterlibrary if you would like me to mail you a hard copy. Don't forget to give me your contact information.

We broke for lunch and did some less formal networking over food. At the end of lunch, we were encouraged to share one thing that each of us would like to do to reduce poverty when we left the room at the end of the day.

From 12:45 to 1:45, we worked in 5 smaller groups on some of the common themes we had identified in the morning. Each group had a task, a theme to address. One group discussed the history of VISIONS and the three-part plan for future action. Another group focused on ways to involve everyone in the process. Yet another tackled the thorny issues of race and culture. A fourth group had a spirited discussion on jobs, economy, training and mentoring. Advocacy and support for people at risk or in poverty was the theme for another group. Some wonderful ideas and information came out as each group reported to the conference as a whole, a process facilitated by Jean Burkhardt and Gwen Whiting.

More on June 10 conference

2009-06-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

After our introductory session, we heard from Rev. Edward King, Jr., Senior Program Officer with the duPont Fund. He gave us some history and background on the duPont Fund and their efforts in the Northern Neck. Since Mrs. duPont was born in the Northern Neck, it is one of the five core communities that have been a focus for the fund. Rev. King encouraged us to look for creative ways to reduce poverty. He mentioned the Northern Neck Housing Study Group, presented in March 2009, and the Summer Jobs Network for Youth, which will place at-risk students in summer jobs with mentors to help them succeed this summer. Both of these were funded by duPont.

Prior to our conference, members of the planning committee for this conference had called some contacts in various communities who had successfully discussed and made progress in reducing poverty. All of them had something in common with the Northern Neck, whether it was racial or cultural divisions, rural as opposed to urban, and so on, so we thought they might be able to share some of their experiences. Paula Fisher presented some of the themes and suggestions that came out of those calls. If you want to know more about her presentation, please comment with your email attached and I will send you that information.

Or try this link:
http://www.scribd.com/share/upload/12814958/pdfnloj9vm7g39iscwi
Sharing docs is new to me, so bear with me if it doesn't work!

After Paula's presentation, we heard from Jereann King Johnson, a consultant and community coach from Warrenton, North Carolina. She shared some information about their efforts to address and reduce poverty. She was frank about issues of race and divisions and the need to get a diverse group of people involved. Jereann is a quilter, and the metaphor she gave us of piecing together many types and colors of fabric to present a whole new picture was a powerful one. She emphasized the need to support the young teachers who came to the area by literally helping them get to know the community and telling them "we have your back" in their efforts. She specifically talked about the impact of poverty on young people.
Finally, she reminded us to be persistent in our efforts. Jereann was a dynamic presenter who gave us much to think about.

Visions Conference: Building Community Assets to Reduce Poverty

2009-06-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Visions Conference: Building Community Assets to Reduce Poverty was held on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at the Northumberland Community Center. About 50 participants from 3 counties in the Northern Neck turned out to discuss poverty in this area and to begin to explore ways that it can be reduced. After breakfast and registration, our facilitators, Jean Burkhardt from Minnesota and Gwen Whiting, led us in an introductory activity.

We were asked to form small groups, hopefully including people who were new to us, so we could build some new relationships, share our thoughts and experiences of poverty and people in poverty, and some potential spheres of influence in which we could extend this conversation. In later posts, I will continue to discuss the agenda and the progress of the day. There was a great deal covered and lots of energy and ideas shared.

Meeting tomorrow and conference next week

2009-06-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that the steering committee has a meeting tomorrow, Thursday, June 4th, at the Lancaster Community Library at 8:30 am.

The invitation or confirmation letters for the Visions Conference: Building Community Assets to Reduce Poverty went out on Friday evening. We are getting an excellent response and it looks like we will have about 50 people participating in this important conversation on ways we can reduce poverty in the Northern Neck of Virginia. As a point of clarification, the agenda that went out with the mailing included "open space conversations" from 3:00 to 5:00. These conversations are optional, with people who would like to continue invited to participate. The meeting begins at 8:00 am with a continental breakfast and includes lunch. Jean Burkhardt, our consultant from Minnesota, will be on hand, along with Gwen Whiting from Richmond and Jereann King Johnson from North Carolina. Rev. Edward King with the duPont Fund will also join us.

Invitations for Visions Conference

2009-05-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

We are rapidly approaching our conference date, and plans are very much underway to provide a forum for community participation in efforts to build assets and community to reduce poverty. For that to happen, we need participation from a wide variety of people. I am counting on those members of the committee who agreed to invite participants to get in touch with them and encourage them to join us in this effort. The official name is Visions Conference: Building Community Assets to Reduce Poverty. The conference will run from 8:00 am to about 4:15 pm on Wednesday, June 10, 2009, and will be held at the Northumberland Community Center on Browns Store Road. It includes continental breakfast and lunch. The confirmation letters should go out next week to those who have agreed to be a part of this conference, so let me know if you'll be there or if any of your invited guests will be joining us. The Visions Committee should have gotten an email (or two!) from me on this subject.

I have reviewed the very extensive study reported by the Northern Neck Housing Study Group in March of this year. The amount of information gathered and analyzed was amazing. This conference is an opportunity to address the issues it raised and to get people involved on a number of levels, from business, education, government, social services and many more. I hope all the people who have ideas about this will be able to join us at the conference.

June Conferences

2009-05-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

The VISIONS committee is continuing in their efforts to plan the June 10th conference at the Northumberland Community Center. The focus of this conference will be building community assets to reduce poverty in Northumberland and Lancaster counties in the Northern Neck of Virginia. Committee members are inviting some key community leaders and concerned citizens to participate in this first event of the duPont planning grant. Since I will need to get letters of confirmation out to participants later this month, I'm encouraging committee members to make those phone calls and let me know who will be attending. Just let me know at the email visions@lancasterlibrary.org

In the broader news, a very timely announcement was made by Governor Kaine last week. My thanks to Bill Pennell for alerting us all to this and to the Governor's Housing Forum on June 8th, 9:30-11:30 am, at the Fairfax Government Center in Fairfax, VA. You'll find a link to the Governor's press release below. If any committee members attend the Housing Forum, I hope you'll forward information to me for posting here.

http://www.governor.virginia.gov/MediaRelations/NewsReleases/viewRelease.cfm?id=941

Welcome!

2009-05-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the new VISIONS blog! Using this blog, we can all communicate what's new, what's happening, and what's going on with the VISIONS planning grant for the Northern Neck of Virginia. I'll be using this blog to share information with committee members, the duPont Fund, and any other parties interested in reducing poverty and building assets in our targeted counties of Lancaster and Northumberland. If you have something to add, please comment on the post. I'll check your comments and revise as needed. For now, please just add this to your favorites, bookmark it, or subscribe with your RSS. I'll be adding content over the next week or so. Please be patient with me as I learn this new form of communication!

I have also created a Google calendar for VISIONS, to post events, and have invited our committee members to view or edit as needed. You'll find calendars on the toolbar on the Google main website, and committee members should get notification of any updates. Committee members have the ability to add events, as well.