Plans for the New Year

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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!

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.