Tuesdays Together Resident Leadership team in Action

Listening to the immigration experience of the Segovia family revealed afresh the pain around immigration that exists in the community.  It was amazing to see how many people who come to our weekly Tuesdays Together gatherings have a family member or friend who are experiencing deportation or have complications with their immigration process.  What is clear about these individual experiences is that in each case, residents are challenged to find good support and legal advice that they can trust and afford.  Consequently, the leadership team at Tuesdays Together decided to organize a mutual support session specifically focused on creating an awareness and surface resources on Immigration.

On June 14^th, the leadership team hosted an immigration mutual support event at our weekly Tuesdays Together gathering.  The team invited Michelle Mendez and Loide Jorge, immigration Attornys, who joined us at Tuesdays Together to respond to residents’ questions and concerns about immigration.  The dialogue was attended by over 45 residents who were able to ask questions and find out more about how they can use a list of resources recommended by Michelle and Loide at the event.

Wheaton Ambassadors

On a freezing evening, residents of the Ambassador Apartments, along with network members, resource partners and community connectors met at CASA de Maryland’s Wheaton Worker Center for a Neighbors Exchange. Many thanks to our amazing host Fernando who not only opened the doors for us, but let us know about valuable CASA services and told us a funny story about a fat cow!

Cordelia, Mavis and Fernando listen to Edward share his story

Throughout the course of the night, we got to know 13 of the apartment community’s “ambassadors” — residents who shared their reality, encouraged us all to keep moving forward and offered information about community resources. We were joined by network members as well. They helped us by modeling in our mutual support circle and showing our new friends how we build the network.

Here are some of my highlights from last night:

• Edward sharing information about a job removing snow and his experience as a retiree.
• Emma — who beat us all to the punch by suggesting her neighbors visit Montgomery Works to find job resources. And she suggested looking for jobs at hospitals since she herself found a job at Holy Cross.
• Seeing Malik and Lexi again — Rosa and I had door knocked them on Saturday. Lexi is interested in helping us teach English at Tuesdays Together and she is going to take Emma’s suggestion and visit Montgomery Works! And Malik found out about the dental program available through Montgomery Cares and asked his neighbors to continue eating (so he can stay employed at Safeway!).
• Rachelle sparking a spirited conversation among the group about the benefits of attending Montgomery College.

We hope to keep meeting with these great “ambassadors” in other spaces in Wheaton, especially Tuesdays Together!

The ladies in black -- Emma, Maria and Ravindri

 

A Night of Support and Exchange!

More than 20 Long Branch residents participate in Network Night!

More than 20 residents (representing more than 9 countries of origin!) were in attendance at the Long Branch Network Night held at the TESS Center on January 13th. Newcomers and regulars came together for another evening of getting to know one another and practicing how to care for each other through mutual support.

Network Night kicks off with greetings in the "Hello Circle."

In the mutual support circle, people are given an opportunity to either request support, make an offer, or share an announcement. It is a moment of authentic exchange that works best when everyone puts energy into brainstorming for those requesting support and effort into finding opportunities to utilize and share offers and announcements.

Viviana shares into the mutual support circle.

In the circle, Viviana (originally from the Dominican Republic) shared that she and her family are in need of affordable housing. They are currently renting a home that is more than $2000 a month. They would like to buy a home, but the expensive real estate market and the need for large down payments make this a difficult dream to realize. Yemny, a Community Connector at the TESS Center, provided information on a program with the Housing Opportunities Commission that might be helpful. Brian, a Takoma Park resident, suggested that she consider buying a home that would also have space for her to take in a boarder and generate rental income. Genet, originally from Ethiopia, requested support around helping a friend secure a much-needed winter coat. Viviana offered that Progress Place has a Clothes Closet that provides winter clothing to men, women and children.

Participants browse info on available jobs and apartments.

Carol, a Takoma Park resident, had an offer and a request. She is a volunteer at the Electric Maid which bills itself as a community storefront. She shared that the venue would like to provide space for community meetings like the Long Branch Network Night, but is in need of more volunteers.

All of the mutual support moments provided opportunities for residents to receive from the pool of collective community knowledge and to give to that pool as well. El Salvador native Mario said, “I’ve lived here for 10 years and I’ve never been to a meeting like this!”

Neighbors Bear the Cold for some Great Food and Mutual Support!

Despite the freezing temperature last night, we had 27 neighbors come out for our Long Branch Neighbors Exchange at the TESS center ( 8513 Piney Branch Rd Silver Spring, MD 20901)!!!

At the Neighbors Exchange, neighbors from Silver Spring, Takoma Park and all over the world came together for dinner, mutual support and getting to know their neighbors.  We also had wonderful resource partners from CASA de Maryland, YMCA, TESS Center, Mary’s center and Park Montgomery offering information about emergency, health, immigration and employment services. And that’s not all!…. We also has all of the members of IMPACT’s Long Branch Neighbor Corps–a diverse group with members from more than 9 different countries, come out for the Neighbors Exchange also! Thank you to all our wonderful neighbors, Long Branch Neighbor Corps and our community resource partners for braving the cold and coming out!

So some of you may be wondering, what in the world is this mutual support you are talking about? Well, it is a wonderful loving and caring community building tool where neighbors get together and share an announcement, offer support or ask for support and the circle of neighbors is there to listen and contribute any ideas they have about what was shared.  Interested in joining us for free hugs, dinner and mutual support? Come to one of our Neighbors Exchanges ( Please note our next meeting will be after the holidays) every other Thursday from 6:30-9 p.m at TESS Center ( 8513 Piney Branch Rd Silver Spring, MD 20901)!!! Free Childcare provided.

Pictures coming soon from our wonderful Neighbors Exchange!!!!

Also a special thanks to Alicia Lopez for cooking our delicious dinner!!!

Long Branch Neighbor Corps Kicks Off!

The Long Branch Neighbor Corps kicked off with an orientation and retreat on November 12th and 13th. The Corps is comprised of diverse Long Branch community residents, service providers and business owners who have come together to create a community-based network built on the principles of exchange and mutual support and accountability.

Friday night’s orientation was a chance for Corps members to get to know each other better, learn and share about the concept of “network,” and understand the trajectory of the Neighbor Corps project. There were 16 participants at the orientation representing more than 9 countries.

Solomon (from Botswana) and Hibret and Emye (from Ethiopia).

During the orientation, participants shared examples of times they’d experienced a real sense of “community.” Gannet from Ethiopia recalled that her mother always opened their home to the community and welcomed everyone to make it their own. Briggitte’s Peruvian grandfather was a community leader who fought and died for the rights of workers. Maureen, who is originally from Ecuador, remembered her mother as a community defender and organizer who helped elderly neighbors repair their neglected home in the face of threats from the county.

Although the attendance was a bit lower for Saturday’s retreat, the energy was just as high. In keeping with IMPACT’s belief that relationship building is at the core of bringing diverse people together to work collaboratively, the majority of the day was devoted to creating connections through personal sharing.

Alicia shares about her life through the manila folder exercise.

The “manila folder” exercise had participants tell about the areas of family, fun, community, and work in their lives. Angela told of the childhood memory of surviving an earthquake while growing up in Yalta, Ukraine. Hibret shared that when he lived in Brussels, inevitably upon learning that he was from Ethiopia, natives would always ask the loaded question: “When do you plan to go back?”

During the retreat we had a special guest, Alma Couverthie of Lawrence Community Works (IMPACT’s sister organization in Lawrence, MA). Alma brought a wealth of information on network organizing. Her participation in the retreat was part of an ongoing exchange of information and ideas between our two organizations.

Retreat participants prepare to greet each other in the "hello" circle.

The retreat ended with a strategizing session. On November 18th, Neighbor Corps members will be joining with two other community groups at Clifton Park Baptist Church for a meeting. The church (which has a largely African immigrant and African American congregation) is in the heart of Long Branch and wants to be more connected to the surrounding community. Church members comprise one of the groups meeting on the 18th. The other group is made up of the members of a mostly Latino home-based church. The gathering of the three groups will boast of more than 60 diverse participants representing many cultures, races, and socio-economic classes. Retreat participants considered these questions: What can be learned during such a gathering? What can be shared?

Long Branch Neighbor Corps "Road Map."

After discussion, the Neighbor Corps members decided that this upcoming gathering is not only a great opportunity to share our team’s message of community, but also a chance to hear about how others are creating community. A smaller planning committee will meet early next week to finalize the meeting details. But there was one thing that Neighbor Corps members were adamant about . . . people should bring their favorite foods to share!

Check out this blog again after November 18th to find out what happens when these three diverse groups get together!

Future Neighbor Corps members!

How do you say mutual support in your language?
Here’s what retreat participants
told us:

*Ubuntu (Zulu)
*Mano Welto (Spanish)
*Inter Cambio Mutuo (Spanish)

Long Branch: Together we make Community!

Thursdays Together

Have you ever stopped to consider how many people are saying “hello” to each other today in our community, and in how many different languages?

Last night in our Long Branch Neighbors Exchange ” Thursdays Together” our community came together and said hello in their own language, Ha-i, Mar-ha-ban, bonjour, salaam, hola, sawubona, Kamaha and hello to meet and support their neighbors. We had neighbors from Sudan, France, Ecuador, Ethiopia, United States, El Salvador, Panama, Bolivia, Nigeria, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Ivory Coast, Guatemala and Nicaragua.  WOW – This is Community!

 

Mutual support time!

 

Our Impact team Sebastian, Lanita, Noelle, Luis, Noemi, Alicia and Elisabeth hosted the first ‘ Thursdays Together” for the Long Branch community in the Tess Center. We had resources partners from Montgomery Cares, HHS and Catholic Charities to talk about Jobs and health services available for the community and ways our neighbors could access them.

Margaret from Sudan came to the meeting with her neighbor and our Impact Community Connector Alicia to seek support around finding a job and health services  for her daughter and English Classes for her, she came to the right place Margaret will be participating starting next Monday at our Nob Hill Mutual Support English Circles and her daughter will be calling Montgomery Cares to schedule a doctors appointment. Wow this is Community coming together to support each other.

 

Community comes together!

 

Barbara a talented story writer for kids was looking for support to publish a book for kids and guess what, Noelle knows someone in our network that can support her in finding ways to publish her dream book. At the end of the session i asked her how her book was doing and she started sharing parts of the book and i almost stared to cry to see her put her heart and soul on each word that came out of her mouth.

I could go on and on with so many great stories about our neighbors giving and offering mutual support to each other, but the only way to find out about our great neighbors from Long Branch is joining us next week at the Tess Center located at 8513 Piney Branch Rd.

Thank you Impact for all your Love and Support!

Long Branch Team: We did it!

Power and Love: Try it Out!

For most of IMPACT’s twelve year life, we have struggled to find the one phrase that sums up our work.  In the beginning , some argued that we were an “anti-racism effort”. Another group settled on “building bridges across our differences” and yet another thought the phrase “community empowerment” was the correct one.

About five years ago, we started focusing on the word “power” and have most often referred to our work as a power sharing model.  When we use the phrase “power sharing”, we quickly offer our definition of power, saying that power is infinite and can be shared for the good of all.

This summer, almost by accident, I bumped into a relatively new book called Power and Love, A Theory and Practice of Social Change, by Adam Kahane. While I admire Mr. Kahane’s original work and writing, I am especially appreciative of his compilation of quotes and definitions from people like Paul Tillich and Martin Luther King. Please see how each of these great thinkers define Power and Love, stated below.

Paul Tillich:

• Power is the drive of everything living to realize itself, with increasing intensity and extensity. It is the drive to achieve one’s purpose, to get one’s job done, to grow.
• Love is the drive towards the unity of the separated; the drive to reconnect and make whole that which appears or has become fragmented.

Martin Luther King:

• Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose
• Power without love is reckless and abusive and love without power  is sentimental and anemic.

After years of “social justice work”, I am listening to Paul and Martin and Adam: I am clear that to co-create new social realities we have to work with the two fundamental forces that are in tension – power and love. I hope to write more about the practical applications of what this means, but in very simple terms when it comes to the Neighborhood Opportunity Network:

• POWER: We must bring forth the power of residents in determining what they need and want for their neighborhoods and
• LOVE: We must work to connect, reconcile and negotiate these ideas with the well-established solutions flowing from our service delivery and community development systems.

My colleague Mary McCurty and I found this book and these quotes very helpful as we designed and thought about the work we are doing to help service providers, community organizers and resident leaders share power. I encourage you to read Mr. Kahane’s book – it is an easy read.

The chief service provider (Uma Ahluwalia) and an ace community organizer (Megan Moriarty) share power and love in the circle.

Getting on the Same Plane with the Same Destination!

When we first embarked on the Neighbors Campaign (now referred to as the Neighborhood Opportunity Network Initiative), we often referred to the effort as one in which we were building the plane while flying it. Along the way, we discovered that some of us had slightly different (or very different) ideas of our destination and some of us were not even on the same plane.

So, in an effort to move closer to a shared vision of change, the key leaders of this initiative spent 16 intense hours together during the month of September, building relationships, sharing specific visions, crafting common goals and outcomes, making requests and negotiating with each other around how to share our power and our love, going forward. (see blog post on our use of a Power and Love framework! I highly recommend it.)

We are making progress! Yes we are!

We are pleased to report that we not only agreed on a common vision and destination, we also agreed on specific milestones we want to reach along the way and on how we will talk about this journey with others. (See the outcomes framework, posted on the blog). This is no small feat, given that the group of 18 people included social services providers from government and three large nonprofits, a faith community liaison, diverse community organizers and a local funder. (see list of participants posted under the resource section of the blog).

We are all committed to and can actively communicate about four outcomes:

1. Residents and Service Professionals are Co-Investors in Neighborhood Opportunity Networks
2. Real and Sustainable Access to Services
3. Thriving Neighborhood Centers
4. Thriving Neighborhood Networks of Mutual Support

Envisioning proposed outcomes in real life; how will it work?

As one of the designers/organizers of these 16 hours, here are some of my reflections. By the way, three others have been asked to share their reflections, each from a different participant perspective.

Some things we did right:

• Insisting on an 8 hour session on a Saturday and insisting on meeting weekly for three weeks – time, space and momentum.
• Asking a sub-team of diverse perspectives to prepare a draft framework.
• Providing a healthy mix of relationship building and taking action.
• Creating welcoming environment for each session, with lots of subliminal messaging on the walls (big grin!).

Some things I would change:

• Participants went door knocking together prior to the beginning of the sessions.
• Neighbor corps graduates and community connectors participated, in some shape or form.
• Holding each meeting in each of the three Neighborhood Center sites.
• Creating better documentation of comments, stories and reflections – as the process unfolded.

My biggest new awareness:

• You can’t expect things from people and institutions if you do not make a clear request.
• People are more capable of opening up than we give them credit for.
• In group process, let everyone speak, going around the room one by one.

My most joyful moments:

• When a key leader and partner on the direct services side said,  I have been moved from thinking it is more about neighborhood networks and less about services.
• When one the people more resistant to the group process said, I really like the posters on the while; they kept me grounded when I couldn’t focus on the discussion.

Iam, you are, we are: Community!

Our fifth Long Branch English Mutual Support Circle was held August 12, 2010 at Nob Hill Apartments with the participation of eleven neighbors from the Long Branch area. Our friend Jose made Dominican food for the group and we all enjoyed before starting our English class.

Alicia lead the our traditional Check – In  she was great from explaining what is a check in to Kenneth our newest member to join the English circle to greeting our Executive Director Frankie Blackburn that was part of and English group.

Irene, Samy and Cesar are leading the groups and having excellent response from Teresa who can now start making sentences on her own. Sonia went to the doctor with her daughter and got on the bus for the first time and asked the driver to tell her when they had to get of at the hospital, WOW! We are so proud of our neighbors.

Its incredible how the group has grown and how much support they are receiving from their own neighbors.

See you next week for our Mutual Support English Circle # 6.

I am, you are, we are: Community!

Neighbors teaching Neighbors!

Long Branch - Nob Hill: English Circle Group Picture.

August 30, 2010 was our fourth Nob Hill English mutual support circle this time with a record number of 16 neighbors from the Long Branch area.  Two hours of non stop mutual support and English teaching between neighbors. We had 3 groups with their own teachers supporting their neighbors on how to communicate at work in English.

Samuel teaching Jose.

After our traditional Impact Check – in we divided our neighbors in three groups, Andre a student from Montgomery College, Irene a neighbor from Nob Hill and Samuel a regular student at our English circles took over and started teaching their own neighbors English in a very special and supportive way.

Irene teaching their neighbors!

It was incredible to see how everyone supported their neighbors , Samuel opened his back pack a took out an English book and stared teaching Jose English, Irene made up a song with the days of the week and had all her group sing it WOW!

Next Monday is a holiday but the group is so motivated that when we mentioned that there would not be classes they all said lets do it any way, we felt so good to see them willing to learn and have their neighbors learn as well that we agreed to have classes on a holiday.

We invite you to experience our English mutual support circle and meet our neighbors in Nob Hill every Monday from 7:30 pm to 9:00 and some times a little bit later…