inCOMMON Community Development
March 2010 eNewsletter
Recent News
heART through HEart Art Auction -
Art Auction and Live Art highlight local artist’s capacity to give of themselves.
inCOMMON would like to salute Amber Keller and Sami Jones for a fantastic job organizing heART through HEart, an art auction that took place on Saturday, February 13th. The evening featured a variety of local artists and mediums including living art pieces; hair-art and live music. Among the many who contributed creatively artist Benjamin Freeman composed and performed a piece entirely during the session from the loft. There were headphones draped from the loft for people to listen in to his creation.
Keller says (of the show), “I want to thank all of the artist that agreed to be a part of the heART through Heart. The reason I had asked every one of you is because I saw something in your work that I really believe in, something more than just aesthetics; I saw heart, and that is exactly what the world needs.”
Keller and other contributing artists emphasized the importance of genuine and distinctive art. The space was crowded, and both inCOMMON staff and Keller commented on the positive feedback. Thank-you artists, guests, and donors for making this show one of the most fun inCOMMON has ever hosted. This art auction helped raise very important funds for inCOMMON.
If you are an artist and would like your pieces shown in an inCOMMON art auction, OR you would like to curate your own show, please contact us – info@incommoncd.org
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The Listening Project – Forming Our Collective Voice
On February 10th, a group of interested community members met to discuss and brainstorm how active and intentional listening can help build community. Based on the principles designed by the Rural Southern Voice for Peace (RSVP), a small non-profit organization from Burnsville, North Carolina working to promote peace, justice, and the environment in the rural south, inCOMMON staff will partner with neighbors, faith communities, and organizations to listen to all neighbors living in or near Park Avenue and Leavenworth neighborhoods.
Some ideas that were shared at the first brainstorming session included;
“This Listening Project will be a learning process for everyone involved.”
“The Listening Project will allow us to look at our neighborhood and neighbors with a new and informed perspective.”
“During the Listening Project we will want to be mindful of power dynamics and how we tell stories that are not our own.”
“When you listen be open to the outcome, even if it is conflict.”
Our second meeting will be on Thursday, March 4th 7:30-8:30PM at McFoster’s Natural Kind Café. If you are interested in getting involved, or donating to help this project please contact us, info@incommoncd.org. We appreciate your support!
Also on the radar, a Listening Project Training facilitated by RSVP will be held in May 2010. Stay tuned!
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inCOMMON Volunteer Workshop - Skills Building for Community Engagement
Laura Shennum and Brittany Hanson led a workshop open to all inCOMMON volunteers on Monday, February 22nd at First Lutheran Church. The workshop included large and small group discussion about Poverty, Agency, and Faces of Oppression. There was a great turnout! The group included frequent volunteers and other new faces creating diverse perspectives and experiences. While in small groups participants asked difficult questions such as; How do we foster/harm community relationships? What are some of our fears or assumptions? Can actions meant to be helpful also harm? Throughout the Workshop participants were invited to share openly and honestly about their thoughts and experiences.
inCOMMON would like to thank everyone who participated for providing great feedback, and we hope to hold another Volunteer Workshop in the future. Stay tuned!
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Leavenworth District Community Plan -
What does holistic Community Development look like?
inCOMMON’s Brittany Hanson alongside other neighborhood leaders helped discuss the importance of holistic community development at the Leavenworth District Community Meeting in February. The Leavenworth District has been meeting for approximately one-year with the help of Destination Midtown’s Rebecca Walters and Jaime Grayson-Bergland. Rebecca Walters of Destination Midtown comments, “This is an exciting time for this area and there are many leaders who have been willing to put in their time and energy into continuing to make this a great place to live and work.” The goal of the Leavenworth District is to “continue the efforts that are being made to foster an environment of community engagement.”
According to the Destination Midtown webpage, The Leavenworth District is comprised of the area east of Interstate-480 to 19th Street with St. Mary’s on the North and Marcy Street on the South.[1]
This month the Leavenworth District organized into small groups to help gain representation from all community members. Each group will represent a demographic in the neighborhood including; artists, faith leaders, residents, landlords, business owners, social service providers, etc. If you live in the Leavenworth area and are interested in joining the community discussion please contact Rebecca – Rebecca@destinationmidtown.org
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Park Avenue Community Meal –
Youth and Young Adults interested in local service, and the intersection of faith and poverty will join the Community Meal in March.
This month inCOMMON is excited about collaborative partnerships with youth and young adults in our area!
First, on March 6th the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Youth Leadership Mission will join the Community Meal by cooking for the neighborhood. Education Project Director Jessica Gall leads the ADL Youth Leadership Mission. The Mission’s goal is “to connect the lessons of the Holocaust to contemporary issues and offer modern day examples and role models for standing up against bigotry.” Gall expressed that the Youth Leadership Mission is excited to get involved in their local community.
Also in March, the Interfaith Youth Service Project, a new endeavor from Project Interfaith will feature the Community Meal as one of its service sites. The project was started to, “provide an opportunity for youth of different faiths and belief to consider what their own faiths or belief systems say about serving others, to serve community members in a helpful, intentional way, and to reflect on and share with the community the impact that service has on their faith and/or beliefs.”
The Interfaith Youth Service Project consists of eight young people, age 16-19, of different backgrounds and beliefs.[2] These young adults will offer hospitality at the Community Meal, and record their reflections online through personal video journals. If you would like to check out the participant’s reflections, and join in the conversation visit, http://www.projectinterfaithusa.org/page/youth-service-project-main
Rev. Robyn Fickes of First Christian Church organized an Ecumenical Young Adults Group to focus on Hospitality and Friendship during Lent. On Saturday, March 20th this group will offer hospitality and share a meal at the Community Meal. For more information, contact Robyn at robyn.fickes@gmail.com
Finally, students from the University of South Dakota (USD) will connect with us for a Saturday-Sunday retreat at the end of March. These students recently traveled to Chicago to work with an organization for a service-learning project, and are interested in community development.
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New Technology to benefit inCOMMON – GoodSearch Toolbar
The inCOMMON Community Development “GoodSearch Toolbar” is an easy way to support inCOMMON from your computer. It works by donating to inCOMMON through two pathways (1) Every time you shop at one of the more than 1,300 participating stores using the Toolbar, a percentage of what you spend will be donated to us at no extra cost to you AND (2) Every time you search using the toolbar about a penny is donated to us.
Simply visit this link http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/incommon-community-development and follow the instructions to download the toolbar onto your current browser. There is no registration required for using the GoodSearch Toolbar. Please consider helping inCOMMON by personally signing up for this free service (and advocating to your friends, family, and groups to do the same)!
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Ways to Get Involved This Month
CommonLife – Looking for Individual and Group Volunteers for Monday Night Meals
CommonLife Director, Katie Ursini has requested more volunteers for attending and making meals for Monday nights. If you are interested please contact Katie – Katie@incommoncd.org
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Neighbors United – Looking to Schedule Roundtable Discussions at your Faith Community!
Neighbors United members are interested in sharing their stories and experiences with new and/or current volunteers at your faith community. If you are interested in learning more about Neighbors United, or discussing ways in which you can engage, organize you group and we will come to you! Please contact Brittany Hanson for more information – Brittany@incommoncd.org
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(New!) inCOMMON Book Club –
In February and March, inCOMMON Executive Director Christian Gray started a book club covering When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. The book’s website describes the text as, “Churches and individual Christians typically have faulty assumptions about the causes of poverty, resulting in strategies that do considerable harm to poor people as well as to themselves….When Helping Hurts directly addresses these assumptions. The book provides foundational concepts and clear principles for helping the poor without hurting them. It then presents proven interventions and relevant applications for churches to use when ministering to the poor both at home and abroad, including advice about short-term missions programs. Many of the principles in the book are from the Chalmers Center’s highly regarded “Foundations and Principles of Holistic Ministry” distance learning course.”[3]
The Book Club meets at Scooters Coffeehouse on Maple Street and Interstate-680 every other Wednesday @ 6:30PM. The next meeting is Wednesday, February 10th. Anyone is welcome to join the last few meetings. For more information please contact Christian – Christian@incommoncd.org
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Staff Reflection
Accepting Silence
My reflection this month is inspired by a thought that followed me after attending the Volunteer Workshop. This thought we pondered together at the workshop was the presence of silence in our interactions. We considered what happens when we approach another person (perhaps hoping to engage) and the response is silence. I began to think of many times when this happened, and the silence was awkward or uncomfortable for me. In some of these situations I can recall feeling put off, or leaving in anger or frustration. I’m not quite sure why I felt this way, or where the feelings came from, unless it was because I expected something else. Or even more, because I approached another person expecting a certain response. I approached another person demanding something specific from them, and when they responded outside of my expectations, the ground beneath me shifted. This approach to interaction now seems very deleterious to open and honest engagement, and reveals my personal inflexibility.
Some Saturdays at the Community Meal I sit at a table and find silence. Some Saturdays I am worn, tired, or overwhelmed by the amount of people in the room or a personal situation, and I can only give silence. Other times I experience anger or tugging at my heart when I see or hear about suffering, and I respond with silence. Once in awhile I approach a table and find an individual sitting with their head down, or another individual focused on their meal without looking beyond the plate. Standing in line for my lunch, I might say hello to the person behind me or in front of me. Sometimes these moments shake me up, because I want to overcome the silence, rather than exist in it… stew in it … and come to accept it.
After attending the Volunteer Workshop on Monday I feel supported by others to practice silence, letting it be what it is. I feel challenged to go even further by trying to embrace silence whenever I come upon it, rather than turning away. I see now that my inability to accept the silence of others may reveal the moments when interactions between myself and another (or more) are not focused on everyone involved, but rather on myself – my expectations, and how I would like the interaction to play out, and that perhaps this is not an interaction at all.
By: Cait Caughey, Community Advocate
[1] Taken from the Destination Midtown webpage, www.destinationmidtown.org
[2] Taken from the Project Interfaith webpage, http://www.projectinterfaithusa.org/page/youth-service-project-main
