Let's Build Something Together

One of the projects I've been working on this fall is a a part-time contract with Austin ISD and TAP (The Austin Project) to develop and manage a Family Resource Center at Dobie Middle School (IH-35 & Rundberg).  When it's operational, this center will help bring a laser beam focus on resources for families and create a productive alliance between the school and community.

The first step is to physically create the space for this center.  This will involve two steps: painting the walls and then, furnishing and decorating the center to be a warm, inviting environment for families.  If you've been following this blog, you know I've been talking about this project for some time, but now it's time to "pull the trigger."  So, next Monday night, October 26, I'm inviting you to attend a meeting in the same portable (#3) where we'll be constructing the center. Here's a map to Dobie Middle School. (When you turn into the parking lot on the west side of the school, drive all the way down to the portables at the north end.  Ours is the nearest one.) We'll meet at 7:00 p.m. and end at 8:30 with a plan of action to complete this center before Thanksgiving.

From the very beginning I've been hearing from Christian friends from all over Austin (and beyond) about their desire to participate in this project.  Now, here's your chance.  Just send me an email and let me know you're "all in" and if you'll be able to attend the meeting (so I'll know how many to expect next Monday night).  This project will involve some time and expense, but the more people that contribute, the less it will burden any one of us.  And the more rewarding it will be for all of us.  Are you in?

Without A Word

"Proclaim the gospel always, and, if necessary, use words."

(St. Francis of Assisi)

So, here's what the Family Resource Center at Dobie Middle School looks like now - a typical portable classroom.  Our hope is to transform it into a gift to this community from Christians in Austin that will reflect their devotion to God and to the families of Dobie Middle School.  In other words, a gift that will convey the riches of hope and love in the midst of poverty and despair.

Now, take a look at another picture.  It's from the Family Resource Center at Pearce Middle School.  This past year a small group of Christians in Austin transformed it from an ordinary classroom to a warm, inviting place to find help and hope.  It's neat, isn't it?  The moment you walk in the room you can just feel what it conveys about the love of God that always provides the best.  Those that created this center wanted it to reflect Jesus' call to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  And it certainly does.

Right now, we're trying to assemble a team that will help us transform the Family Resource Center at Dobie from an ordinary classroom to an extraordinary haven of hope.  Of course, the most important transformation will be in the relationships that are created and nurtured in this center, a transformation that, we believe, will eventually impact the entire community.  And it begins with a modest makeover that silently, but eloquently, proclaims the gospel to this community.  Who wants to join us?

"In the same way, let your light shine before others,

that they may see your good works

and glorify your Father in Heaven."

(Jesus in Matthew 5:16)

On the Job Training

So, there I was, trying to learn everything I could from two of the most effective community organizers in the city of Austin - Allen and Julie Weeks.  In the St. John's community where they live and work, a slow, but steady transformation has been taking place as they have brought together community partners, including churches, businesses, nonprofits, schools and government agencies, to produce positive change in this neighborhood.

Thankful for their gracious instruction, I asked if I could just tag along and watch them work.  My intention was to take what I learned and apply it in the Northgate neighborhood where I have been working for the last year. Then they invited me to join them in a project funded by a grant through The Austin Project (TAP) and Austin ISD to help create one of four Family Resource Centers in Austin ISD and I eagerly agreed.

So, now I'm working as the part-time director at the Dobie Middle School, on Rundberg Lane just east of IH-35. My new office is a portable behind the school, shared with the Parent Support Specialist, Mrs. Elisa Quintana.  It's been an exciting and rewarding challenge so far.  The purpose of these centers is to bring a laser beam focus to providing resources to struggling families to help them stabilize and move toward self-sufficiency.  This reduces the mobility rate for families during the school year which, in turn, dramatically improves the odds that students will succeed in school and schools will succeed.

There's a lot to learn and experience on this journey, so be sure and check in with me on a regular basis.  I hope to be blogging several times a week. Better yet, subscribe to this blog and the updates will come to you automatically.  I'll be interested in your comments and encouragement.  And happy for your company along the way.

Celebrating Community and Caring

Saturday, October 10th
  Reagan High School
   9:30 AM - 3:00 PM



It's Hope Fest '09, a celebration of community and caring in the St. John's neighborhood.  If you've never attended this grassroots festival, you owe it to yourself to go.  It's this Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Reagan High School.  Not only is it "family friendly," with all sorts of fun activities and music for all ages, but it's educational and empowering as well. Last year over 4,500 people were helped by service providers from all over the city of Austin.  

If you want to see what neighbors can do to show God's love and make a difference in the community, come join us for this exciting day!   

A Setback...and a Challenge

As soon as we accepted the challenge of participating in the summer feeding program last month, we submitted a grant proposal to the local food bank to help us with some of the start-up expenses. Our submission was rather late in the process, but we were confident that it had a pretty fair chance of being funded. Then we received word last week that our grant request was denied. They didn't give us any reason(s), but I suspect it had to something do with such a late submission and, of course, the current economic crisis. This was a major disappointment and setback for us. You see, apart from recruiting the volunteers that help distribute the lunches, the major expense of this program is the personnel to administer it up to the standards of the Texas Department of Agriculture and the USDA. And for our organization, that personnel is me.

For a little over a year now I've been wearing a variety of hats, trying to build networks of collaboration and trust in the neighborhood where we want to live and work. Now that work of cultivation is beginning to bear fruit. We're starting to plan and collaborate with officials in the Austin school district, the local government, some churches and other nonprofit organizations to make a difference in the low-income neighborhoods of north Austin. However, as much time and effort as that requires, there's so much more that's required to keep this organization moving ahead. It's called fundraising.

From the very beginning of this endeavor, I've been solely responsible for raising the funds necessary to start and sustain this organization. Larry James and the good folks at Central Dallas Ministries (our parent organization) have done all they can to help, but they're not in Austin. And the folks in Austin, particularly a few good friends and two generous churches (University Avenue Church of Christ and Iglesia El Shaddai), helped us get up and going that first year...and then the economy tanked. So, we cut back on our budget for 2009 and continued paying all the expenses of this operation out of my salary. Hopefully we can weather this storm with the help of a lot of people giving whatever they can.

The truth is that the strength of organizations like us, even Central Dallas Ministries, is the myriad of individual people that want to make this world a better place. In fact, when I look at the nearly 200 people that have voiced their support of this ministry I realize that if they all pledged $25/month we would be through this crisis and on our way. So, if you're one of those individuals that thinks your contribution won't make much of a difference, let me assure that together we will all make the difference.

Yes, this is a setback, but it's also a challenge - to act on faith and not on fear. A challenge to seize the unprecedented opportunities that this present distress offers us to "show the love of God in word, action and attitude" to our neighbors and invite them into the community that Jesus called "the kingdom of heaven." I hope you will join us in accepting that challenge.

Healthy Meals for Hungry Kids

Last month the director of the Austin office of the Texas Department of Agriculture's summer food service program contacted our parent organization, Central Dallas Ministries, to ask if they would be willing to extend their participation in this program into Austin. Because of budget cutbacks this year, the City of Austin (specifically the Parks & Rec. Dept.) is cutting back on the number of feeding sites they're able to administer in Austin from 84 to 14. (That's a major cutback!) Let me explain what this means.

Every year the Texas Dept. of Agriculture offers a summer feeding program in neighborhoods where at least half the kids qualify for the free and reduced lunch program in the schools. For hungry kids from low-income families this program is a wonderful blessing. However, it requires a tremendous amount of coordination and collaboration to make it happen. Just ask Sonia White, the Director of Nurture, Knowledge and Nutrition for Central Dallas Ministries, whose program in Dallas is legendary for feeding thousands of kids at over 100 sites throughout the year.

So Sonia asked if we would be willing to embark on this project in Austin. Presently, that involves administering about 12-15 feeding sites all over the city that have the potential of offering almost 20,000 meals before the summer is over. And at least one of those sites would be in our own neighborhood. This program also has the potential for expansion in Austin the way it has in Dallas over the last four years. We are grateful for this opportunity to bridge the gap for hungry kids in Austin that might not otherwise enjoy the "three square meals a day" that most of us take for granted.

The free and reduced lunch program began with the realization that it's hard to teach a hungry child. Urban Connection - Austin is participating in this summer feeding program because we recognize it's hard to reach families in neighborhoods where children are hungry and we do nothing to relieve it. If we are to fulfill our mission to "show the love of God in word, action and attitude" we cannot turn away when the children we're attempting to serve don't have enough to eat. It's the only way to "build genuine community in the neighborhoods where we live and work." It's also the only way to "love your neighbor as you love yourself." Won't you help us keep that commitment this summer and fulfill God's command? Just click the DONATE icon on this website and pledge whatever you can to help.

Pioneers

Yesterday I had lunch with some folks that were among the pioneers of our parent organization, Central Dallas Ministries. It started with their small group from church reading about a woman in Dallas that was feeding homeless people off the roof of her car. It might not have seemed like a very efficient method, but it was a start. Following her lead, they began making meals for the homeless and inviting other groups to join them. Soon they had a regular rotation going. From there they decided to start a food pantry and began looking for a place to house it. Someone donated a building and other churches began filling it with food and volunteers. Then a creative, passionate and well-respected minister named Larry James was hired to run it and the rest is history. From feeding homeless people in a parking lot to a $9 million ministry that serves over 30,000 people a year, who could have imagined that one of the ten best charities in Dallas would arise from such small beginnings? Certainly not those who started out just wanting to do something to help.

Then about five years ago Central Dallas Ministries started Urban Connection - San Antonio and today that organization is making a real difference in the Lincoln Courts public housing community, serving over 2,000 people a year. We are blessed to be following in the footsteps of these great two organizations, starting small, as they did, but with great expectations. Now the journey of these two pioneers has come full circle. Having lived in Dallas nearly all their married life, they moved to Austin in 2000, where, once again, they are a part of this dream through Urban Connection - Austin that was launched a few months ago.

Someday, years from now, we hope to look back on a successful ministry serving thousands of people in Austin and honor those who were with us from the very beginning, the pioneers who supported this vision before it became reality. After all, anyone can support a dream once it's successful, but it takes real faith to imagine and invest in a vision of the future before it appears. That's what we're asking our supporters to do in the months to come, especially in this economic recession. These next few months will determine whether we move ahead in faith or shrink back in fear. As the Bible reminds us, all great pioneers live "by faith."

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. For by it our ancestors received their commendation." (Hebrews 11:1-2)

Community and Connections

In preparation for our trip to Pittsburgh this month, I've been reading the story of Bill Strickland, the founder and CEO of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation and Master Guild. We will be touring their facilities and programs there. It's the story of a kid that grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, but found a dream that transformed his life and the lives of thousands of others in similar circumstances. His book is called, Make the Impossible Possible. It's an inspiring story about a man who believes that a truly fulfilling life is all about giving back.

Strickland believes that poverty is, first and foremost, "a cancer of the spirit" that can't be cured "by defining the poor as people in need of assistance, or by trying to dream up social programs that will fix all the things that are broken in their lives. You cure poverty by understanding that poor folks are human beings before they are 'poor,' and by providing them with access to the fundamental spiritual nourishment every human heart requires: beauty, order, purpose, opportunity - the things that give us a meaningful human existence." "Poverty," according to Strickland, is "all about losing connection with the deepest possibilities of life."

As I read that, it occurred to me that, by that definition, you could have lots of money and own a lot of stuff and still be poor. Which may explain why, when those that have been blessed with opportunities and resources share with those that need them the result is the kind of genuine community that blesses and empowers everyone. At Urban Connection - Austin we are committed to building that kind of community, one person at a time.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3)

Aliens and Exiles

One of the most ironic (and saddest) conversations I ever had with my grandfather was on the subject of immigration. Like me, he was very political and never at a loss for an opinion. On this day he was complaining about all the immigrants that were coming to Detroit and changing the fabric of American culture. He was angry and fearful that they were being granted the same rights as those whose families had been in American for over a hundred years. Something was terribly wrong and needed to change, he argued. Here's the irony of this conversation - his father was an immigrant.

He was born Martin Luther Smith in Herefordshire, England. As a young man, he dreamed of becoming an orchestra conductor, but when he couldn't get into the royal academy he emigrated to Canada (perhaps hoping to become the poor man's Guy Lombardo). He played music there for a while, but when that fell through he crossed over into Detroit and settled there. Like his namesake, my great-grandfather was a dedicated student of the Bible. He was the reason that most of my dad's family came to faith. But like Luther, he also had some deep-seated prejudices that became a integral part of our family legacy.

Growing up in Detroit during the 1960's wasn't easy for white folks filled with prejudice, especially those that were Christians. We had to find a way to nuance or ignore Jesus' teaching that we should treat every other human being the way we would want to be treated. Somehow, for my dad, that teaching, and a series of very painful learning experiences, was his undoing. As much as he tried to resist it, Jesus' teaching took root and he was never the same again. That simple rule of life became one of the bedrock principles of our family, even if we didn't apply it consistently.

Today, immigration remains a "hot button" issue. (The truth is, it has been controversial throughout our entire history.) Now there appears to be the political will to make a serious attempt to resolve this issue. At least I hope so. There are too many hard-working people living in this country that are being manipulated by fear and prejudice to keep them from receiving the same respect and dignity that most Americans expect and receive. We cannot allow that to continue, especially if we are to live out Jesus' command to treat others the way we would want to be treated. Instead, we must begin operating from that simple principle, as we work to resolve this difficult issue and help millions of people that live in the shadows come out into the light to live with us, eventually, as fellow citizens.

"You shall treat the alien who resides with you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were once aliens in the land of Egypt. For I am the LORD your God." (Leviticus 19:34)

A Neighborhood Leader

Anthony Williams, one of our neighborhood leaders, was featured in the American Statesman recently. You can read the article here. I first met Anthony when I attended a meeting of NACA, the North Austin Civic Association, last Spring. Anthony is the President of that organization and, more recently, became the President of the North Austin Coalition of Neighborhoods. I have found him to be a impassioned, dedicated and compassionate community leader.

A couple of years ago, after his favorite grandmother died, Anthony took stock of his life and decided he wanted to make a greater impact in the community. So, he became active in the North Austin Civic Association, an organization of neighborhood associations that covers more than half of the 78758 zip code where Urban Connection - Austin is focused on serving. Soon, he became the President of this organization and immediately began making a difference.

As I have worked with him over the last 7-8 months I have observed in him all the essential qualities of a great leader, including a focus on solutions instead of problems. So, I was honored, and surprised, when he informed me that he was stepping down from his position with NACA to help us in the Northgate neighborhood. We are very honored for him to join us. Anthony will be one of the six community leaders that will traveling with us to Pittsburgh next month to meet with Bill Strickland, the founder and CEO of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation and the Manchester Bidwell Guild. (More on that trip next week.)

The key to our success in the future will be the quality of the grassroots, community leaders that partner with us to restore the Northgate neighborhood. Anthony is typical of the leaders, from all different walks of life, that have chosen to work with us to make this reality. He, and they, are worthy of our support and respect.