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 Unfortunately, the Rappahannock Record does not archive their articles and the link that was posted here is no longer valid.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.