Community 4:12

Planning for 2040

Went to a great meeting this morning.  The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is traveling all over the metropolitan area conducting community meetings to gather input to create a vision and plan for a prosperous region by 2040.  I love this concept, because it implies that no city is an island, and that it will take Naperville and Aurora and Chicago and other surrounding cities working together to develop a thriving region.  East Aurora is not going to become all it can be if the surrounding communities are not also committed to improving it.  And it is totally in their best interest to do that, so I've never understood the idea that each city needs to "fight for itself."  Anyway, disappointingly there were not a lot of people who came out for the meeting on a Saturday morning, but those of us that were there had a great discussion on things such as education, economic development, civic engagement, and immigration.  One of the keys we focused on in all of these areas is that we need to capitalize on and celebrate the beauty if the Hispanic culture and influence that is so predominant in East Aurora.  There are unique business and educational and cultural opportunities we can create here for the entire region if we would look at the assets of the community instead of the flaws.  We even got to talking about the Idea of "The Lighthouse" and people were so excited about the idea of a cultural and community center coming to Aurora. 

I have to say I was not necessarily excited to go to this meeting this morning, but I walked away feeling like it was the best use of two hours I've spent in a long time!

Life's Toughest Questions

We are coming up on one of my favorite things we do at  Community--feature a series that allows members of the congregation to pick what we talk about from stage.  But the only way this works is if people (YOU) actually tell us what you'd like to hear about!  So, if you have a "tough question" you'd like our teaching team to answer from a biblical perspective, click here and let us know what it is!  And if you don't have a burning question, might I suggest asking something about God's view on social injustice?  (I guess this would be considered stacking the deck, huh?  I won't tell Eric B. if you don't!). 

All Kids Are Our Kids

Have been reading this fascinating book.  My friend (I think I can call him that) and innovative real estate developer, Perry Bigelow gave me this book and said it would be foundational as we think about creating a community center for youth.  I think he may be right.  I'm not far into it, but it has already got me thinking about a lot of things . . . both from a ministry standpoint AND a parenting perspective.   It reveals the 40 Developmental Assets  all kids need (according to Search Institute findings) in order to thrive and be able to resist the barage of peer pressure to engage in "high risk" behaviors such as sex, drugs, alcohol, and crime.

Many of the 40 are things I would have predicted, or at least expected based on my psychology background.  But there are two so far that have really struck me.  The first is that all young people should have a regular, positive and supportive relationship with at least three adults outside of their parents.  And these relationships should be long-term.  That of course screams for the need for more mentoring programs in at-risk communities.   But, it also got me thinking about whether my own kids have that.  Since we've moved to Aurora, we spend so much of our time trying to provide that "positive adult influence" for kids in the neighborhood.  And of course our boys are involved in all those things, but that's not doing much to foster relationships with OTHER adults!  It is not as easy or automatic to find those influences in our neighborhood.  Maybe we better find some mentors for our own kids!

The second asset that struck me was that youth should be involved in 3 or more hours/week of Creative (arts, music, drama, etc.) practice or activity.  Search has also found that of the 40 developmental assets, this is the one that the highest percentage of kids lack.  That just totally reinforces my feeling that we have to get some School for the Arts programming going around here, because the kids around here are certainly not getting that at school or through private lessons!

If you work with youth, or have kids of your own, I would highly recommend this book!

The Lighthouse Vision Dinner

I am really excited about the energy and momentum we are gaining with our work in East Aurora.  This week I sent out an invitation to everyone on our Neighborhood Team at Community inviting them to join us for a vision-casting dinner at this building.  We still have a lot of researching and networking and praying to do before we can decide whether or not to actually pursue this building as the future home of The Lighthouse, but it sure will be fun to gather there on April 6th to dream and pray with others who are excited about showing light and hope and the love of Jesus in Aurora.  

Family Fun at Brady

I had such a fun time at our annual Family Fun Day at Brady Elementary yesterday.  It is so much more low-key than our Christmas Gift Mart, so there is more time for just enjoying and connecting with volunteers and people from the community.  We had a tremendous response for stuffed Easter Eggs, cupcakes, and volunteers, and Myra Melanson (who was filling in for our usual event planner, Beth, who recently had surgery) did an incredible job of organizing everything and leading the great planning team.  So, thank you everyone who contributed!!

We tried something new this year and added a Craft Fair to the event.  Some of the moms from the community set up booths to sell their homemade crafts and food items.  The crafts were a moderate success, but Maria and Marcela's "restaurante" was a HUGE success.  These women must have been up all night cooking, but they came in with piles of authentic Mexican food and I am quite sure they sold almost all of it.  This will be a definite addition to future events!

If you were there yesterday, let me know what you thought of the day!

Spinning

Ever feel like this?  Like the world is spinning by, and you're just holding on for dear life?  That's kind of how my week has felt--hence not much posting lately.  It's been a blast, but I'm looking forward to being able to see clearly again!

Spent a few days in Ohio with a great leader in Community 4:12, Lynne Filipiak, visiting some model programs so we can continue to learn from others and not reinvent any wheels as we lay out a plan for The Lighthouse.  Spent a day in Columbus with Jim Swearingen of City Vision.  That man knows community development.  He did some incredible things in Columbus and now works as a consultant helping to develop ministries all over the country.  He's going to be a tremendous resource for us as we move forward.  Then drove down to Cincinatti to spend a day with Dwight Young of The Bloc.  They have an interesting model of setting up "youth hubs" in different neighbhorhoods to help move youth off the streets and away from drugs and violence.  Their focus is more youth ministry than community development, but still some great learnings.  In between visits got to spend some time with my friend and mentor, Sharon, without whom I would not be doing what I'm doing!

And thanks to the blessing (and curse) of technology, while I was away, I was able to juggle the balls of tieing up loose ends for our big Brady Family Fun Day and Craft Fair which happens on Saturday, plan for a Neighborhood Team dinner and all day vision meeting slated for early April, plan for an 8 week camp we'll help with at Brady this summer that will bring some Arts to the community, begin planning for probably our biggest event ever that will take place in August, and schedule about 10 meetings on about as many topics over the next couple of weeks.

By the time I got home tonight, I was more than ready to get off the spinning wheel.  Nothing like having two excited boys to greet me and an evening of game playing and cuddly book reading to help slow the pace down at least for a little while!  But, I'm sure by tomorrow, I'll be screaming "Spin me! Spin me!" again!

Seeking Community Input

Continuing to seek community input for The Lighthouse community center in Aurora, yesterday I talked with the group of Parent Mentors at Brady, who are representative of the exact population we would most like to reach through the center, and they had some brililant ideas.  Some were things we've been thinking about, but many were great new ideas.  The dreaming just keeps getting more and more exciting!

• A cyber-cafe like they had in Mexico--kind of a coffeehouse and computer lab in one!
• School for the Arts type classes--specifically ballet Folklorico (Mexican dancing), guitar, and martial arts.
• Classes for moms/women:  exercise/aerobics, English AND Spanish, cooking, cake decorating, sewing, basically a lot of skill/craft development opportunities for women that I sensed would be as much about the fun & social connecting time as the learning
• Safe place for kids to play kickball and softball all winter without worrying about breaking windows.
• A rock climbing wall
• A mazy/gym climbing kind of thing like you'd find at Odyssey Fun World
• Lots of gym space for kids and teens to hang out and play in a safe, supervised setting

Information Central

One of the things we've been doing in preparation for creating a business and strategic plan for "The Lighthouse" we dream of opening is talking to people and organizations in the community to learn more about what they do and to get their input on what is still needed in Aurora.  Had a great meeting yesterday with some folks from the Aurora Youth Services Department.  I had no idea about all the stuff they offer.  And that, they said, is the biggest problem and need in the city----having one central place where people can go to find out all the different youth services available in the community.  And a place where all the different groups and organizations who are working on sports or mentoring or tutoring can go to learn about and from each other.  This fragmented duplication of services is not effective for anyone, and certainly can't be the best use of limited resources.  Years ago I thought about opening a Volunteer Clearninghouse so that people interested in volunteering could go to one central place to learn about the various opportunities available for serving in a community.  I'm wondering if there might be a way to provide a kind of "central services" office that would provide a clearinghouse for volunteers looking to serve and residents looking to find services.  Hmmm.  I can't wait to see what other ideas are sparked from talking to people and groups who know about and are invested in the kids and families of East Aurora.

Sharing the Model

I had the priviledge yesterday of presenting a workshop at the Missions on Your Doorstep Conference in Wheaton.  They asked me to share with other church leaders the model of what we are doing in East Aurora.  I did a basic overview of Community 4:12--Who We Are, What We Do, Where We Do It, Why We Do It, and How We Do It.  The bulk of the time was spent on the "How."  Maybe I shouldn't have been, but I was surprised by how many people found our "hand-up versus hand-out"/"development versus charity" model so unique.  I always feel like such a novice and so inexperienced in our efforts to bring Community Development to East Aurora, because I know there are so many places that are doing so much more than we are.  But, I guess it is a continuum, and for people just starting out on the journey of bringing "externally focused" ministries to their church, there are some things we can share.  It was also very encouraging to hear Bob Roberts, founder of GlocalNet , and author of Glocalization and Transformation, talk about their similar strategy in their global and local ministries.  It is so exciting to see churches really trying to figure out how to wholistically impact communities.