Reachout

Thank You from Hillcrest

Here's a thank you note we along with other churches in our community received for our participation in the Hillcrest Walk for the Homeless. People from Restore where out on race day handing out waters and surveying the community.

Dear Platte County Churches:
 
I wanted to personally thank all of you who participated in the  2009 Walk for the Homeless.   Because of you, 400 Walkers & volunteers raised over $51,000 to help move homeless families back to self-sufficiency right here in Platte County.  
 
96% of the 48 Platte County Churches contacted fully participated in helping us distribute over 7,000 church bulletin inserts letting members know about the walk.  Most mentioned the walk in their own communications vehicles as well including newsletters, mid week bulletins and websites. 
 
Many of the walkers and much of the money raised was thanks to efforts by your church and it's members.
 
Thank you for your service to the homeless of Platte County.
 
You make a big difference!
 
Mike Cole
Hillcrest Board Member, Volunteer

www.hillcrestministries.org

Celebrating with the Salvation Army

Restore is going to be recognized for all of the work we did with the What if the Church project at the Salvation Army Bellefontaine Center.

If you had anything to do with the What if the Church project I'd encourage you to go.

Here are the details:

Download Neighborhood Celebration Flyer

The Difference Between Partnerships and Alliances

Partnerships are relationships between individuals or groups characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility in order to achieve a specific goal.

An alliance is an agreement between two or more parties made in order to advance common goals.

So much of what we talk about in Reachout is around the idea of partnerships. But maybe I am wrong?

What about you? What are you doing in your context?

Progress?

Friday afternoon I met with the members of our Northwood Hills Community focus group. We spent time celebrating all of the activities we did in support of the Northwood Neighborhood adjacent to Southeast Elementary.

All of us agreed that the community block party we hosted in October was a success.

The parent training night we had in February worked well, although we would have loved  the turnout to be better.

A representative from the Kansas City Police Department informed us that the neighborhood had done a 180 degree change. Calls to the area are down. Instead of being called when neighbors are arguing--the old way--they are now being called for real issues.

We talked about doing something in the summer. But the Park Hill School District, the city, and the community have plenty of programs planned for the summer. Parents of school-age children at Northwood have many options. They don't need us to offer them something else.

We may do some sort of backyard program for kids (something like a character club) although we need some things to fall into place for this to happen.

We will conduct a school supply drive at the end of the summer. (I am thinking of asking some local churches to join us?)

I tell you all of this because it really feels like our little community partnership has made progress in Northwood. As we debated what had changed, we kept coming back to that block party in October. It was the real catalyst for change in this community. We simply invited the residents to a neutral space and asked them to start talking to each other. They've done the rest.

Could it be this easy? Could it be that all we needed to do was to give this community an opportunity for people to break-through the invisible barriers they had erected between themselves? Did we really help transform a community by encouraging people to talk to each other?

It's got me thinking about the power of one catalytic event; it's got me thinking about simple service; it's got me thinking that this serve, love and change thing is working.

Hillcrest Walk for the Homeless Tomorrow

I am really excited that Restore is going to help at the Hillcrest Walk for the Homeless at Zona Rosa tomorrow. We have a team that is going to hand out bottles of water to all of the participants. Another Restore team will ask people to take our 2009 Community Needs Assessment.

Registration starts at 8AM and the walk begins at 9AM.

This is a great opportunity to support one of our partners.

Hope to see you there!