Fall Unity Works Schedule – sign up today!

The goal of Unity Works is to help congregations and individuals understand challenges faced by those trapped in poverty, particularly those who are homeless or at-risk for becoming homeless. During this eight week series of workshops, participants will become more familiar with how the faith community can help prevent homelessness by working in partnership with faith-based and community organizations. In addition, participants will discover their unique call and the assets within their own communities that can help to address some of the unmet needs in our city.

Through careful study, experienced facilitators, guidance from formerly homeless individuals, and opportunities to develop transformational new friendships, participants will discover that unity really does work.

Embrace Richmond’s Unity-Works program offers individuals an opportunity to live their faith by participating in transformational experiences, careful study, and by creating unique and lasting relationships. If you are interested, please contact Tiffany Hall at tiffany@embracerichmond.org or 804-343-5008.

Date:  Thursday’s, September 24^th – November 12^th
Time:  6:30-8:30 PM
Location: Brandermill United Methodist Church
Cost: $75 (book, binder, printed materials & t-shirt), scholarships are available

For location, Brandermill United Methodist Church
4500 Millridge Parkway
Midlothian, VA 23112
804-744-3661

Date: Tuedays, September 15th – November 3rd

Time: 10:00am-12:00 pm

Location: Embrace Richmond

Cost: $75 (book, binder, printed materials & t-shirt), scholarships are available

For location, Embrace Richmond

1125 East Commerce Road

Richmond, VA 23224

804-343-5008

Want to go deeper? Check out our Unity Works site

The goal of Unity Works is to help congregations and individuals learn more about the issues facing homeless and at-risk individuals and families in Richmond and develop a strategy for how they and/or their congregation can best serve the poor in our city.

Embrace Richmond’s Unity-Works program offers individuals an opportunity to live their faith by participating in transformational experiences, careful study, and by creating unique and lasting relationships.

To learn more about Unity Works visit www.unity-works.org

This summer we will be continuing the Unity Works conversation by asking some tough questions and by exploring some challenging books that will help us better understand the issue of poverty, the role of people of faith, and the theological basis for a faithful response to the needs around us.  We will begin our conversation with “Reclaiming Youth at Risk”

 

Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future by Larry K. Brendtro; Martin Brokenleg; Steve Van Bockern (Paperback – Dec 1, 2001)

We encourage you to get a copy and join in the conversation at www.unity-works.org where you will find a complete list of books we will be reading this summer.

A Second Installment of the Adventures of Koni and Lindsey

In my one month of work I have learned a lot. I have had to confront my own thoughts and biases about poverty and homelessness. In college the concepts of poverty and homelessness are studied but that’s it, they are concepts not people. It is one thing to discuss and theorize in a classroom about something but it is quite another to see it in real life – to apply the idea of “feminization of poverty” to individual people and their families is harder than talking about it.

The same is true of social class. Social class can be several chapters of a soc textbook. It can spark discussions by people who don’t really have any experience outside their own group. In fact, there is an episode of Sex and the City dedicated to the topic entitled, “The Caste System”. In my own life I had a small amount of experience with people richer or poorer than myself. It is easy to fake knowledge/ worldliness because of exposure to documentaries and the news etc. but until one is faced with it directly it is easy to pretend the issue doesn’t exist.

I hope my time with Embrace will help me to broaden my perspective and teach me understanding and compassion.

Fall AmeriCorps Openings

This fall we will be expanding our efforts in our three targeted communities of Hillside, Fairfield/Mosby, and Gilpin Courts.  We will be working with faith based groups and congregations across Richmond to develop missional communities to help us in these communities. 

To assist with the expansion of this program we are looking to bring on several AmeriCorps members who have an interest in and a commitment to community development in these areas.  The ideal candidate would possess experience in community development, urban ministry, small group ministry or missions.  In addition to finding members with relevant work experience, we are also seeking to bring on members who currently reside in these communities.   All positions are part-time.   If interested, please send resume to Wendy McCaig at wendy@embracerichmond.org.  We will begin interviewing for the positions in mid-July with the goal of filling all the positions by September 1st.

The Adventures of Koni and Lindsey!

As promised, we will be blogging about everything that we see, feel and experience here at Embrace. So here is the rundown on our first few weeks.

I think the best place to begin is at the beginning, which for us means what people said when we got our positions here. The initial reactions were positive of course, and then we told them where we would be working and that we would be walking the government housing neighborhoods within the city. It is interesting though, because from our brief time here so far, we have realized that a lot of the people that live in the projects get there in a variety of different ways and for different reasons. It could be that someone lost a job and had no place else to go. We have also met some wonderful women who were victims of domestic violence and had no place to go and no family that would take them in, so they became, in effect, homeless. I think that both of us have really come to see that there are lots of causes for homelessness and how anyone can end up there.

Koni and I both have also really enjoyed working here so far. We have met some really cool people and lots of great kids. Everyday it becomes more clear that people are just people and we have a lot more in common with the homeless population and the people living in public housing than suburban people might realize.

Koni had never seen a project before she started working here. It is kind of hard to know what to expect if you haven’t seen one. She thought it would be in progress since it’s called a project. She was surprised to find lots of little finished houses and apartments lined up on streets that wind around one another just like in every other neighborhood.

I was familiar with the projects, but only to the extent that I volunteered a bit in Mosby Ct. when I was younger. I would never have been exposed to that if I hadn’t had a youth minister who made sure I knew what was out there and how all people in all walks of life live. Even so, Koni and I both were surprised by the number of kids that we have seen outside when they should be in school. It’s pretty easy to spot school-age kids, and we have seen lots of them hanging out long before the school buses come to drop anyone off. In an effort to keep kids in school, the City of Richmond instituted TRAPP five years ago. The basic idea was “to create a visible presence throughout the city to identify and intervene effectively with truants and their family to improve school attendance.” (According to the pilot proposal which you can read here). They decided to target three neighborhoods in which high rates of truancy and crime were a problem, so they chose Mosby, Hillside, and Highland Park. The program is a great idea, but it looks like greater efforts are still needed to make a difference.

I had a really emotional moment on Sunday when Koni and I did our first House Blessing. The Blessings happen once a month, and we do work in the warehouse, help a family pick out furniture, and then move them in and pray with and for them. It’s an amazing experience and something I would recommend to any kind of group that would be willing to be a part of it. At the end, one of the guys who works in the warehouse told his story of addiction and recovery. It really affected me because I have a family member who struggles with addiction, and his words gave me comfort that I can’t fix it, and the hope to pray and be prepared if he decides to come around and  make a change some day. According to the Mayo clinic, 19.5 million people over the age of 12 use illegal drugs in the United States, so I know lots of people are in the same position, but I think we don’t talk about it enough.

So that’s pretty much it for our first few weeks here. We are going to do our best to update on our experiences weekly, so be on the look out for more from us!

A Few Quotes From Reclaiming Youth At Risk

Here are a few quotes from the book we suggested reading to start a conversation this summer. We pulled a few of our favorites, and we invite you to comment with your favorites as well, or discuss the ones we have put forth here. And if you haven’t purchased the book yet,  click on the photo of the book below to go to Amazon where you may purchase it.

Pioneer educational psychologist G. Stanley Hall wrote of the powerful idealism of adolescence, and William James proposed harnessing this spirit of service to society as “their moral equivalent of war.” …This potential [is] still untapped as young people [are] crying, screaming to be used in some demanding task. P. 17

 

Anthropologist Ruth Benedict criticized our culture for excluding youth from responsibility only to blame them for their irresponsibility. P. 25

 

“Millions of children are not safe physically, educationally, economically, or spiritually….The poor black youths who shoot up drugs on street corners and the rich white youths who do the same thing in their mansions share a common disconnectedness from any hope or purpose.” Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund p. 34

 

Deprived of opportunities for genuine productivity, lured into consumptive roles, young people come to believe that their lives make little difference to the world. P. 39

 

Research suggests that successful programs involve parents as partners with professionals. But unequal partnerships are seldom effective’ this means that staff must approach parents with some goal other than controlling them or treating them as patients in need of treatment. P.89

 

Volunteer youth service programs are specifically designed to help young people overcome the narcissism of self-absorption. As they find they can make a difference in the lives of others, they validate their own self-worth. P.125

Come Find Us On Facebook

Search for Embrace Richmond on Facebook and join the group. Facebook is an awesome way for us to keep in touch-write on our wall, ask questions on the discussion board, check out our cool pictures and more!

 

Summer Youth Interns Needed

Invest some time this summer in the life of a child.  Embrace is looking for two senior high or college age individuals who will work with the Embrace team this summer to insure the youth we serve have a safe, fun, blessed summer.  This is a volunteer opportunity requiring a 6-8 hour a week commitment. If you are interested, contact Tiffany Hall at tiffany@embracerichmond.org.

Thank You to The Thrifty Quaker

Embrace Richmond would like to thank our very generous friends from The Thrifty Quaker for thier support.  Every month The Thrifty Quaker, gives away thousands of dollars to local charities.  Please visit the The Thrifty Quaker in the Midlothian Station Shopping Center in the Village of Midlothian at the corner of Midlothian Turnpike and Coalfield Road or on the web at http://www.thriftyquaker.com. Everytime you make a purchase at The Thrifty Quaker you are supplying needed funding for a variety of worthy charities. 

Support Hillside Girl Scout Troop 740!

Here’s the letter Leona Baylor, the troop leader, sent out asking for support:

Dear Girl Scout Supporters;

Thank you so much for your support of the Hillside Girl Scout Troop 740. Your support has been a tremendous help to our girls.

We are asking all our supporters to continue to help us encourage our senior scouts (grades 9^th and 10^th) and our ambassador scouts (grades 11th and 12^th). We have five young ladies within both groups whom have excelled this year academically. Three have achieved Honor Roll, one Scholar Roll in addition to being inducted to the Honor Society, and the other has improved her grades tremendously that warrants being mentioned.

I will be traveling to New York City on June 12, 2009, for a gala event for which I am the Key note speaker. I thought it would be wonderful to take the girls for a weekend trip to reward them for their hard work this year. All of these young ladies reside in Hillside Court. They are active members of the Girl Scout Troop. In addition, they all have identified their career goals.  A small sampling; one of our senior scouts has aspirations of becoming an Undercover Law Enforcement Officer. She is currently enrolled in the Richmond Police Department’s Explorers Program. The Explorers Program is a program for youth desiring careers in law enforcement.  It is with great pleasure to announce that some of the other girl scouts are seeking careers in forensics, law, and the medical field. 

Part of my vision is to expose these young ladies to as many experiences as possible and open the world of options to them which is a far cry from Hillside Court.  We are asking for our supporters to make a donation to the trip fund.

These are some of the needs:

•We want  to purchase each girl a Fun Pass- which would allow each girl to ride NYC transit system all day sight seeing ————–$10.00x 2= $20.00 for Friday and Saturday

•We would like to give each girl at least $50.00 dollars to shop for souvenirs

•We also need funds to buy meals for the weekend ———-$ 40.00 each girl

•Hotel nights stay ——————————————    @ $160.00 per night

(one night has already been donated two more are needed)

We will appreciate any and all donations! Hillside Troop 740 is funded by monthly dues.  Dues are $5.00 dollars a month. Many of our parents do not work or unfortunately have been laid off.  In conclusion, Our Wish list is for the Girls to see a Broadway show – The Lion King or the Color Purple. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

To donate, contact Tiffany Hall at tiffany@embracerichmond.org or call us at (804) 343-5008 ext. 403.