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.