Entering into a room of strangers sometimes takes a great deal of courage. Differences are often the first thing we focus on. Or the first thing we see. We’re taught to cling to them in so many ways.
But this was a Community Renewal Capital Area event.
Differences are not what we emphasize as a first step. Our capacity to connect and care is. After that, differences can be used as things to celebrate, not separate.
So we gathered together folks from different parts of the region, asked some questions central to the foundation of our work, broke up into small groups to share our thoughts and the results were more significant in potential impact than any academic “think tank” could have produced. And, most importantly, we all left feeling connected to each other and to a way toward healing our city, our region and… with time…. our world.
Please see the responses below. On this quiet Saturday afternoon this small gathering was the start of a needed change toward kindness and care in our region. Our first of such gatherings has already launched new relationships, expanded the We Care Team, deepened relationships and intentions in our targeted neighborhood for Friendship Houses and begun the Haven House programming in the city.
If you want to join in this effort (and we would love you to!) contact us at info@communityrenewalcapitalarea.org and let’s arrange it.
What kind of world do we need to become the best human beings we can become?
What kind of city makes possible that kind of world?
What kind of person makes possible that kind of city?
What kind of neighborhood environment makes possible that kind of person?
What do we have to do to make possible that kind of neighborhood environment, to make that kind of person, to make that kind of city, to make that kind of world?
The answer to this final question lays in the hearts and commitment of those gathered in the room. This wonderful group of new friends are now ready to take on the call toward making our capital area a caring region. Either through taking on the commitment of care through joining the We Care Team, connecting their neighbors by training as Haven House leaders and reaching out to their friends and family to bring them into the Community Renewal movement. We can do this. Together.
Thank you to the Salvation Army’s Solomon G. Brown Corps Community Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave for supporting this event