Memphis ‘sets the table’ for its gifts

John McKnight, Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann

to join community conversation

Typically, institutions committed to a community’s well-being begin by asking what’s wrong with a place.

But the three thought leaders to join an upcoming Memphis conversation — John McKnight, Peter Block and Walter Brueggemann — choose not to take the route of problem-solving.

Instead they ask questions such as: What have we got to work with? In what way is God already present in a community? What do people care enough about to act on?

Jay Van Groningen is executive director of Communities First Association, a national body co-sponsoring the Nov. 14 event hosted by the Memphis-based Center for Transforming Communities (CTC).

The institution as savior paradigm no longer works and most likely never did. It is clear Jay, John, Peter and Walter agree on this belief.

When institutions become so busy making participants through their programs the very people they are looking to help seem to lose their ability to consider themselves co-creators in their own places.

“They don’t do life together. They wait for an agency or an institution to solve a problem for them, as opposed to coming together and discovering what can we do together,” says Jay.

But the approach John, Peter and Walter speak for is one that gives people a chance to step up, to be engaged in their own community’s story, “to be actors in this stage that they live on as opposed to being observers and recipients,” says Jay.

This is possible first and foremost because the people acting as catalysts for this approach believe that residents in every community, have gifts and interests and are willing to give their time and energy and skills to make life better in their own neighborhood. Often all that is needed is for somebody to “set the table” where their gifts can be shared.

The approach is highly relational. It is literally embedded in neighbor-to-neighbor conversations. And it is deeply rooted in geography. It is a story about place, a neighborhood or a community.

Community development efforts that begin with this focus on assets, commitment and place are already at work in Memphis, through the catalytic support of the CTC.

As CTC has acted as a “spark” for change, there are now eight neighborhoods in Memphis where people are voluntarily coming together, deciding what they want to make happen in their area and taking action.

Jay, who has visited many of these neighborhoods and had conversations with the residents, says he has seen first-hand the hope, ownership and sense of community coming to life as a result.

These results, he suggests, stem directly, from the fact Amy Moritz, director of CTC, and those who work with her, are in the business of setting that table to which people can bring their gifts.

The Nov. 14 conversation with John, Peter and Walter could be considered another “table” to come to, where there will be ample opportunity for conversations between Memphis residents and also between the residents and the three men.

Jay says he is very excited about the synergizing of the Memphis community with the three thought leaders.

As someone who could be considered an outsider looking in, Jay notes one of the most profound outcomes he would be excited to see happen is that more people from Memphis neighborhoods come forward and say, “This is what we want to do together. Can you coach us?”

The Center for Transforming Communities is a member of CFA, an alliance of about 300 individuals or organizations across the U.S. also committed to asset-based community development.

To learn more about the Nov. 14 event, click here.

Feel free to comment on this story below, or e-mail michelle@axiomnews.ca.

Building hope for new Americans

Welcoming a stranger is a calling of faith in Binghampton

When Cam Echols thinks of her work as the executive director of the Refugee Empowerment Program (REP), she speaks of a calling that motivates her to open arms to strangers planting new roots in her Memphis neighborhood.

Welcoming a stranger is a calling of faith, she says.

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares,” reads Hebrews 13:2. The people Cam serves may have entertained the angels, but a great many have also seen the darkness of this world.

Most are from war-torn regions of Africa — places like Burundi and Rwanda where some of the worst ethnic conflicts of the modern era have shattered countless lives.

When she meets them, they are starting from scratch in the United States, filled with a mix of hope and uncertainty.

“To come to a new country not knowing the language, the culture, the transportation or educations systems; it’s just frustrating, and to have some friends — some people that are passionate and want to help you — is so important,” Cam says.

REP was one of the first partners to become part of the network of nonprofit organizations and ministries working out of The Commons on Merton, the old United Methodist Church building that has been transformed into a hub of community transformation in the Binghampton neighborhood.

When refugees settle into the neighborhood, they struggle with the basics of life in a new land, but Cam points out their internal struggle to deal with the traumatic experiences of life in the face of brutality has traditionally been left untouched by service organizations.

“What we’ve not been good about doing in this city is (addressing) the post-traumatic stress syndrome, and how we deal with that is being neighborly and friendly,” Cam says.

“I think of the language of love — you don’t have to speak the same language but people understand when you care about them.”

The Commons brings people of all backgrounds together in the spirit of community, Cam says, and she finds great inspiration in this connectivity and the shared sense of purpose pulsing within the old building.

“It goes back to being what America was originally founded on: a melting pot; a true melting pot where all people of different ethnicities, colors and genders all have one community within the building,” Cam says.

By Kristian Partington, Axiom News

The truths of poverty framed through art

Focus for the Good capturing community transformation

through a lens

Courtesy of Focus for the Good

Their faces are honest and raw, at times looking withered and worn beneath the many lines of worry and sadness, but glints of hope sparkle in the corners of eyes that have witnessed the hardships of life on the streets.

They are the Forgotten Faces of Memphis, captured through the lenses of Bill Piacesi’s cameras, and in their stark realism the truths of poverty are captured with an authenticity that calls to memory photos of the 1930s American heartland.

Bill operates Focus for the Good out of a studio in The Commons on Merton, putting his one-man nonprofit organization in the heart of the quest to make the community better for a host of marginalized segments of the Memphis population.

He trades his services in exchange for the space and in doing so captures the work of his neighbors in ways only a professional photographer could. In his photos, we see the Refugee Empowerment Program at work alongside the Door of Hope, which offers paths for homeless people to discover the potential of a better future.

Through art, the missions of all partners within The Commons overlap, and the possibilities of a regenerative community shine.

“A lot of us kind of draw from the advantages of knowing each other within the building and it’s a unique experience,” Bill says, as he considers how the Center for Transforming Communities, which operates The Commons, has brought so many people together under one roof.

“It’s a unique experience as opposed to your typical business office where you can have five or six businesses in the same area that are totally disconnected and have nothing to do with each other.”


As the sole-proprietor of his operation, the benefits of being part of The Commons and intimately knowing the partner organizations are many, Bill says, because the struggles of marketing his work and ideas are lessened through the network he’s built there.

His ultimate goal is to catalyze social change through his art by telling the untold stories from the streets of Memphis. Like the photos from the time of the Great Depression or the height of the civil rights movement that first drew him to photography when he was a teenager, Bill’s pictures are a powerful means of bringing truth to light.

“Not only were those images incredibly artistic but they were also powerful social messages that took what was going on in one part of the country and helped spread that notion to a wider community, and ended up leading to social change,” he says.

His hope for similar change is what he pours into the Forgotten Faces of Memphis and the work of Focus for the Good.

By Kristian Partington, Axiom News

‘Our diversity is a gift,’ says Rev. Billy Vaughan

Collaborative spirit spills into streets of Binghampton

The collaborative spirit among partners at The Commons on Merton is a wonderful thing to be a part of, says Rev. Billy Vaughan, but what really excites him is when he sees that spirit spill out onto the streets connecting all sorts of people and families in the diverse neighborhood.

“There’s a spiritual thing that takes place in the neighborhood because of what’s going on in the building,” Billy says. “You’d be amazed if you’re in the neighborhood for a few days, some of the ripple effects you see.

“The ‘us and them’ stuff begins breaking down, not only within The Commons, but within the larger neighborhood. You see so many different types of people in and out of there, out in the parking lot, interacting in the streets; it just has really a spiritual effect on the neighbourhood.

“It says our diversity is a gift. It’s not something where we need to be suspicious of each other; it’s a real gift of grace.”

A fall Saturday in McMerton Gardens

This is how a true community is built, he says, pointing to the first of a series of community gardens that have sprung up in the neighborhood as an example of what this new collaborative spirit looks like in tangible terms.

The garden was originally in the parking lot of The Commons overlooking a duplex building across the street and a vacant lot that was never very well-kept.

The people organizing that modest little garden called the duplex’s owner and offered to care for his property in exchange for use of the space to plant a garden for all to use.

“The owner shrugged and said, ‘Oh, what the hell, go ahead and do it,’ ” Billy recalls.

“Now there is this wonderful community garden there and it draws some of the kids from the refugee program, some of the African-American kids from the neighborhood and volunteers from Rhodes College and the University of Memphis’ graduate program in nutrition.”

The interaction among this group is a beautiful thing to witness, he says. 

They’re sharing chores and vegetables, stories and experience, and whether or not they know it they’re sharing space in the transition to a new economy of hope, built upon the gifts of all community members.

By Kristian Partington, Axiom News
Photos courtesy of Focus for The Good

Youth find common ground in The Commons

Program overlaps benefit organizations serving families

In Tennessee, more than 150,000 children are indirect victims of crimes committed by close family members. When a loved one goes to prison, they are virtually lost to their family, and the impact of that trauma is a very real burden upon communities.

For more than 20 years, Families of Incarcerated Individuals (FII) has been helping families come to terms with the challenges they face when a loved one is sent to prison, either through direct support with health care or food access or through mentoring programs.

The group works out of The Commons on Merton, a shared space that brings together a range of community-building nonprofit organizations under one roof, led by the Center for Transforming Communities.

The close relationships among the groups working out of The Commons have a number of positive impacts on the work they do, says FII executive director Marquetta Moore-Nebo.

“The whole concept of The Commons is to bring in other nonprofits and . . . we all can mesh in some areas and benefit from one another,” Marquetta says. “It’s great because it’s almost like having everything in-house.

“It’s almost like the whole feeling of program sharing, where you can’t do everything so we all work together to make sure all the pieces of the puzzle are put together.”

She sees the benefits of this collaboration on a regular basis, especially in terms of the young people served by the different organizations within The Commons.

She recalls youth events hosted by FII involving young people connected to the Refugee Empowerment Program, and she says such events are a great example of how the various groups interact.

“We invite some of those youth to help them get acclimated, not only to America, but to our neighborhood as well,” Marquetta says, noting it provides all children an opportunity to mingle outside of classrooms and learn from each other. 

All of these young people are dealing with some form of trauma in their lives and within The Commons, a common ground is found and the young people strive to overcome hardships to grow and succeed in designing a better future.

By Kristian Partington, Axiom News
Photos courtesy of Focus for the Good

Sowing the Seeds of Community

Bonds are formed in a community garden

Part way through an interview discussing his experience with urban renewal and community building, Christian Man, puts the journalist on hold.

During a learning unit on Fall production.

“I’ve just got to deliver these groceries,” he says, and in the muffled distance he can be heard discussing the upcoming harvest feast with a fellow named Walter, who must be part of the Green Leaf Learning Farm’s community garden project.
 
Walter is on the hook for some sweet-potato pie, it seems, and in both of their voices rings the sound of enthusiasm.

The harvest feast is shaping up to be a pretty good time where the community can come together and honor each other’s hard work and the relationships that have been sown in the neighborhood’s garden.
 
Christian is very much looking forward to it.
 
As an eager student, Christian has been working with Rev. Marlon Foster and Knowledge Quest, which has operated the learning farm project since 2010. Through this work, he is connected to Communities of Shalom and the Center for Transforming Communities.
 
His undergraduate studies focused on community economic development, but his real learning has come through the friendships he’s forged through his work in south Memphis.

Times are tough for people in the neighborhood where Christian walks, but in them he sees resilience and a capacity through togetherness that speaks loudly of possibilities and community transformation.
 
He’s come alongside these new friends as he tills earth, breaks bread, and learns what it means to come together for a common purpose.
 
The co-operative spirit grows in the garden alongside fresh vegetables, and though purse strings are tight for many people, among their neighbors they find an abundance of generosity and connectivity.
 
“There’s a history of this; I’m involved in the most recent chapter but in no way is this my thing,” Christian says.
 
“It’s our thing.”
 
The garden has become a gathering point for people to share their stories, he says.
 
“It's a physical space that helps generate reflection about what’s actually going on and then what that activity reminds us of, historically, and that bonds us in some way.”

On Oct. 20 about 75 people will come together to share a meal and the bounty of the relationships they’ve built, and Christian is thankful to be a part of it.

Visit Facebook for more information about the party.

By Kristian Partington, Axiom News
Photo courtesy of Focusforthegood.org

Linking the hopes of communities, cities and society

Revitalizing a cross section of the United States through co-operation

It’s completely reasonable to step back and view the Memphis neighborhood of Binghampton as a microcosm of the United States as a whole.

It’s as diverse a community as you can find anywhere; a place where refugees from war-torn nations in Africa try to find footing in a new land of opportunity; a place where affluence and poverty cross paths on the street; a place where faith fuels hope, even in the midst of struggle.

Barbara Vann's Interview

 

At the center of this cross-section of American society is The Commons on Merton, where the ministries and non-profit organizations working to enhance the community converge in a shared space — an old United Methodist Church building once reserved for one congregation and one linear vision.

The Center for Transforming Communities has brought together a range of partners within the building to sustain its operations and combine efforts to build a new future for the neighborhood, the city and society itself.

Barbara Vann sees great possibility in The Commons, and she’s watched it evolve through the transformation of the building itself from that single-congregation church to a building that glows with a sense of co-operative community that shines into the neighborhood.

“What I’ve noticed is the way the ethos of the co-operation of the building use moves out into the community,” says Barbara, a lay leader with the Binghampton United Methodist church.

When she thinks about the co-operation among the partner organizations, she talks of the gears of change turning through their overlapping purposes and how everyone connected to these groups begins to move past thinking individually to thinking collectively.

“Maybe it will move us past thinking about our homes as our home,” Barbara says.

Home is the community.

When asked for a practical example of this in action, she recalls an inspirational chain of prayers and hopes linking together the diverse populations of the neighborhood — that microcosm of the United States.

Some time ago a group from The Commons visited Caritas Village a few blocks away, another place where community members gather and share common vision for community enhancement.

“We asked the community people to write their prayer requests on a slip of paper, and we made these paper slips into a big chain,” Barbara recalls.

“As a parade they brought that chain from Caritas Village up the street . . . and into the building where it was placed on a tree — it still sits there today.”

People saw this chain travel the streets, many knowing it contained the prayers of so many individuals, now combined as one single collection of hopes and dreams.

“I saw the tide shift,” Barbara says, allowing herself to imagine a similar chain linking the hopes of society itself.

This is representative of the The Commons in her mind and an example of the many possibilities that emerge when people work together towards community transformation.

By Kristian Partington, Axiom News
Photo Courtesey of Focusforthegood.org

Honoring all voices in community transformation

Community organically happens in South Memphis

When all voices carry equal weight in the rebuilding of community, and everyone’s assets are valued, remarkable things can happen.

South Memphis Shalom Zone Team (Marlon Foster - right)

For more than two years, a groundswell of community-building efforts has been building in the streets of South Memphis, led by a team of dedicated volunteers who choose to look at the abundant gifts on offer in the neighborhood beyond the many challenges there.

The team is driven by faith and the concept of Shalom, which says the path to well being and peace is paved in efforts to create a better life for one’s neighbor. South Memphis is one of eight Shalom Zones under the Communities of Shalom initiative, a major focus of the Center for Transforming Communities (CTC).

Pastor Marlon Foster of the Christ Quest Community Church influences efforts in the South Memphis Shalom Zone, and says what drew him to the effort was belief in the transformative power possible in taking the heart of ministry beyond the walls of a building and into the streets and neighborhoods.

They don’t impose their sense of what’s needed in the community. Instead they invite everyone to be a part of this transformation, and Marlon testifies to seeing people of all walks of life coming together in the past two years in ways he never imagined before.

So what is the strategy behind the success?

“In many regards it’s being open to not having a strategy,” Marlon says. “It becomes more of a process or a way of being and I think along those lines. It’s the spirit of humility, the spirit of openness, the spirit of being willing to learn — a spirit of wanting to come alongside.”

He’s seen firsthand the wealthy coming alongside the poor to work towards a common purpose of asset-based community development that is beyond monetary economics.

“This type of diversity, of socio-economics and many times of race and class that we’re able to experience — this I think really makes it an awesome place,” Marlon says.

“Everyone has voice. Everyone is seen as an asset and has something to contribute. Your voice gives you a sense of power and belonging and place and when that part happens, I think you really begin to start seeing community form.

“It becomes what I feel is a communal gathering of mutual belief, and when you get to that place of mutuality then you’re really at a point where community organically happens.”

By Kristian Partington, Axiom News

Snapshots of a community in transformation

A building at the heart of Binghampton

Transformation is a familiar subject for pastor Billy Vaughan when he considers the evolution of the Everett Memorial United Methodist Church in Memphis’s Binghampton neighborhood.

He’s been tied to the church and the area for at least 15 years and has seen what happens when organizations operate in but remain disconnected from their communities. He also knows the possibilities that arise when organizations extend open arms to their neighbors.

Like many churches, Everett Memorial stared down challenges of declining membership in the face of demographic shifts.

Rev. Billy Vaughan

“This church was in this amazingly diverse neighborhood, one of the most diverse in the whole city, economically, ethnically, racially with folks from all sorts of various countries,” Billy explains.

But the church never kept up with the changing face of the community.

“It tried to maintain an identity that no longer fit,” he says.

“This just wasn’t the church that needed to be here any more,” and recognizing this new reality, a new life for the church was conceived.

The building was given to an organization known as CONECT, which among other facets oversaw an urban ministry program.

CONECT intended to sell the building it owned and move into the former Everett Memorial United Methodist Church building on Merton Street in the heart of the communities these urban ministries served, but when economies tumbled in 2008 all hope for that sale was lost.

This presented a new opportunity to bring together organizations of like-minded purpose. What it needed was strong leadership.

Enter Amy Moritz and the new Center for Transforming Communities (CTC).

Amy was offered the opportunity to direct a new organization that would operate out of the church to draw together the diverse communities of Binghampton.

Amy’s belief in the concept of Shalom, which states that people will individually find peace and prosperity when they contribute to the collective peace and prosperity of their community, is exactly what was needed to breathe new life into the building.

Today, the CTC operates the former church building, now known as The Common on Merton. Its purpose is to connect non-profit organizations as partners in the betterment of neighborhoods and communities.

The Commons is thriving with the life of a diverse community ecosystem, and Billy says he’s excited by the fact that this is only the beginning of realizing new possibilities.

By Kristian Partington, Axiom News
Photo courtesy www.focuseforthegood.org

Creating community in The Commons

Transforming a building into center of revitalization

Three years ago the possibility of the church at the corner of McAdoo and Oxford in Memphis’s Binghampton neighborhood becoming a community hub seemed remote.

Like many of the city’s 2,000 houses of worship, Everett Memorial United Methodist Church no longer felt the graceful presence of a steady stream of parishioners. It needed serious maintenance and upkeep and there was no money in the offering plate — the congregation that passed it around had ceased to exist.

Yet within its mighty walls are the building blocks of community in transformation that is bonding in new and exciting ways, despite the shifting patterns of worship.

Today the Center for Transforming Communities (CTC) connects a range of organizations within the former church in what is now known simply as The Commons on Merton.

What a difference three years can make.

“When the building was donated to us . . . we didn’t even know if it was possible to turn it into a sustainable asset, but we decided to venture into it,” says CTC director Amy Moritz.

“In three years we now have it full of partners, there’s constant activity, and every partner makes a contribution to be here, whether it’s barter or pay.”

It’s this collective agreement among partners that keep the lights on and The Commons maintained, but it’s the other contributions each partner makes that are transforming the community.

Whether it’s the group established to empower refugees from the conflicted nations of Africa or the team helping people heal from the pangs of addiction, there are gifts and assets each organization brings into The Commons.

Amy sees the role of CTC as a connector of these assets, not just within the four walls of The Commons but in the wider community where she sees people craving new opportunities to bond with each other.

Faith is still very much a part of this equation and for Amy the concept behind the CTC is about taking the church outside the walls of a building so faith becomes entwined with the wholeness of the wider community.

Seeing the old building alive with purpose and vibrant with activity warms her spirit, and as each connection among the partners grows stronger, The Commons becomes all the more entrenched in the new possibilities for community rejuvenation.

By Kristian Partington, Axiom News
Photo courtesy www.focusforthegood.org

CTC to Spark New Story

Three weekly news stories to focus on gifts and possibilities

Starting today, stories exploring the gifts and possibilities of Memphis neighborhoods will be posted on this site three times a week.

Amy Moritz, director of the Center for Transforming Communities (CTC), says stories of transformation abound in our local neighborhoods. Working alongside church and community members in Memphis, Amy sees what happens when people shift their focus from deficits and problems to gifts and possibilities. It is those stories CTC will be sharing.

Stories will show how people and organizations came together to create The Commons on Merton. These stories will follow how the organizations in The Commons, all with different mission, are working together toward the common good.

A second theme of stories will follow changes in eight neighborhoods connecting through Communities of Shalom activities.

“I’m hoping that some larger momentum or energy comes from us sharing these stories,” Amy says. If stories aren’t shared we won’t know what other possibilities might be sparked in the greater Memphis community,” she says.

CTC is working with Axiom News, a team of generative journalists who are also committed to the gifts and possibilities narrative. The two organizations were connected by Peter Block, who will be visiting Memphis in November. CTC invited Block and his colleagues John McKnight and Walter Brueggemann to host a conversation about building community capacity in neighborhoods. The gathering on November 14, 2012 is already getting more attention than organizers had expected.

Axiom News works alongside organizations and communities throughout North America to explore and amplify their strengths and dreams through high-frequency news stories. The company shares stories between communities so people can learn from and inspire one another.

“Having a partner who can hear our story through the lens of the principles we seek to nurture in community is such a complement to what we are doing,” Amy says.

“We connected instantly with CTC’s values,” says Peter Pula, Axiom News. “Our hope is to provide an easy way for CTC connectors to get their stories told. So many people are doing amazing things. Usually they are so busy doing those amazing things that they don’t get around to writing or publishing stories. That can be hard work unless you are doing it all the time. Our gifts are in that domain.”

Peter anticipates new people will also come forward to co-create media and stories.

“Whether its individuals, journalists, photographers, videographers, social media activists, or organizations with their own story-telling capacities, by working together we can co-create many stories and weave them into a new narrative,” he says.

Peter expects the community will soon find ways to sustain a possibilities narrative independent of Axiom’s involvement.

“When that happens we will continue to point people to the stories of Memphis neighborhoods for inspiration.”

If you know someone who has a gift and whose story could be told please get in touch with Amy Moritz at the Center for Transforming Communities, 901-324-3005, or write to Kristian@axiomnews.ca.

CTC Radio Interview about Block, McKnight and Brueggemann

     
On September 29, 2012 Amy Moritz, Director of Center for Transforming Communities (CTC), was a guest on the Lipscomb Pitts Breakfast Club (LBPC) Radio Show. With the host Jeremy Park, Amy discussed what shalom means to her, CTC and the various communities that are part of the Memphis shalom network. They also discussed the goals of the Communities of Shalom (COS) initiative and the principles at the heart of sustainable, neighborhood transformation.

In addition, Amy and Jeremy discussed and invited listeners to attend “Engaging Community. Narrating Change.”  The event is hosted by CTC and will be held on November 14, 2012 from 8:30am to 4:30pm at Rhodes College in their McCallum Ballroom.  The event features three keynote speakers: 1) Peter Block, author of Community: The Structure of Belonging, which offers methodology for shifting conversations from one of problems to one of possibilities; 2) John McKnight, who co-authored The Abundant Community, which offers practical wisdom and experience to building communities from the inside out using local resources, capacities, and relationships; and 3) Walter Brueggemann, author of Journey to the Common Good, which offers a deeper understanding and commitment to neighborhoods.   The event will be very experiential in nature, weaving contributions of the speakers with the contributions of those gathered for the event through small group conversation.  Register online at www.ctcmidsouth.org.
 
Click Here to Download the Audio Segment