A word from Barbara Garvey

Hello all,

Community Conversations continue. Let’s reflect for a minute on why we came together in the beginning. We came together to network, meet new people, engage in new thinking, new ideas, find new opportunities to engage with others in shared visions and shared projects and to make our community a vibrant, healthy, connected place to live in and be a part of.

You are invited to come to the next Community Conversation on Thursday, July 16 from 9 to 11:30 at the Prescott College Crossroads Center. We will reflect on where we have come in the past 8 months. We will create, with the voices of all, the next year for the Community Conversations. At the May Conversation there was much energy and enthusiasm for being an active part of the process. We are asking for all your energy, voices and ideas to be part of the July 16th Conversation so that the Community Conversations in the coming year will reflect the interests of all.

We will be using the Technology of Participation methods of Consensus Workshop and Action Planning to elicit and organize ideas of what people want to see come out of the Conversations in the next year. Come and have your ideas put into action.

We have an opportunity to move forward and together create a forum in which we can respectfully be together, learn from each other and collaborate with each other. The Yavapai County Community Foundation has become a partner with the Institute for Sustainable Social Change in sponsoring the Community Conversations and has offered to sponsor a few speakers in the coming year. Who would you like to hear, what would you like to learn? Come tell us your thoughts.

In our community we have tremendous assets, strengths and resources. Wonderful things can be achieved if we focus on the vision of the kind of community we want and on discovering these assets, strengths and resources collectively.

Put July 16th on your calendar and plan to attend. Thoughts, comments, ideas and RSVP to Barbara Garvey  or call 928-713-6255.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

On Tuesday, JUNE 16 from 10 – 11:30 at the Prescott Public Library in the Founders Room A and B There will be a meeting of two focus groups:

1. Community Resource Focus Group group host Frankie Reynolds 
See Community Resource Focus Group.

2.”Surviving in Troubled Times”Resource Fair set for October 24th needs more help. Would you like to be Logistics chair??? Or just help out.
Muriel Haverland  See UW Resource Fair further down the page.

TWO DATES TO REMEMBER!!!

TUESDAY, JUNE 16TH 10 – 11:30 at Prescott Public Library Focus group meetings

THURSDAY, JULY 16TH 9 – 11:30 AT Prescott College Crossroads Center

Community Focus Group

Community Conversation
April 14, 2009

 Focus Group:
Identify Community Resources and Create Collaborative Community Partnerships

 Discussion Summary:

The group agreed that a centralized community resource directory would benefit both the local non-profit community and the general public in our area. It was decided that we would begin work on this project by collecting all existing directories in Yavapai County. A list of known directories and the people responsible for obtaining them appears below under “Action Items.” Anyone else who knows of additional directories is asked to bring them to the next Community Conversation gathering. At the next meeting, the focus group will review the materials and begin to formulate a database for the information collected. The Prescott Public Library made a commitment to house the resource directory and manage/update the data regularly. A representative from the library will be asked to attend the next focus group meeting to discuss the particulars of the project. Doug Arthur from The Color Factor expressed interest in assisting with the printing of the hardcopy version of the directory.

The group identified the following issues that should be addressed or considered as the resource directory project moves forward:

• Assure that the focus group’s work is integrated with the vision of the broader Community Conversation group

• Include all of Yavapai County in the resource directory and make sure that it is accessible county-wide

• Find a way to include individuals in the resource directory

• Make certain that the directory links to the extensive online resources at Yavapai County Community Health Services

• Focus on the usability of the resource directory (make sure there is a print version, make sure the online version is indexed and accessible county-wide, include visuals and program-related information, etc.)

• Remain open to other options besides the library for data management (United Way, chambers of commerce, etc.)

The group also expressed concern about continuing to connect similar groups with each other for potential collaboration. We are expecting this to be accomplished incrementally during the broader group sessions, but the focus group could take on leadership in this area if a larger block of time is allotted for it at each monthly meeting.

 Action Items:

Frankie will make sure that a representative from the Prescott Public Library attends the next focus group meeting to discuss the details of the resource directory project.

 The following existing directories will be obtained by the individuals noted. The directories will be collected and reviewed at the next focus group meeting.

•  Catalyst Infoshop (Dhara)

• Prescott Community Garden (Dhara)

• YRMC, Prescott (Dhara, Frankie, Mary)

• YRMC, Verde Valley (Gwen)

• Chambers of Commerce, Verde Valley (Gwen)

• Chambers of Commerce, Tri-Cities (Frankie)

• You Win-United Way Info Network (Gwen will talk with Michael Whiting)

• Big Kids Book-Kiwanis/Yavapai County Community Foundation (Gwen)

• AZ211-Parenting Arizona (Gwen will obtain directory and info on their software, too)

• Cornucopia, Verde Valley (Gwen will contact Harvey Grady)

• Colleges Online-Prescott, Yavapai, Embry-Riddle (Frankie)

• DES & Child Protective Services (Mary)

• Retiree Connection (Mary)

• Family Resource Center (Mary)

• AZIP (Rabia)

• Little Kids Book-First Things First (Rabia)

• Prescott 2050 Mental Health Group/Granite Mountain Psychological Society (Rojean)

• AWEE (Vicki)

• Senior Resource Book (Debbie Stewart? No formal commitment on this one)

Notes Submitted By:

Frankie Reynolds, (928) 443-8520

Please call with any corrections. Thank you for your commitment to this group!

 

 

A quick plea

If you are sending something that you would like to be on this blog, please make a note of that to me. I have gotten several emails in two days that never made an attempt to let me know why I was getting the email. I assumed the senders wanted the contents were to be placed on the blog…..I posted the emails….if not….MY BAD.

 

A note from Muriel Haverland

Hi Everyone: 

I wanted to contact you to attend our 1st official meeting of those interested in helping with the United Way and Partners Resource Fair scheduled for Saturday, October 24, 2009.  The 1st Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 21st at 4PM at AWEE, on the corner of Whipple and Walnut (across from YRMC on Whipple)778-3010.  There is parking in the lot right in front of the building. 

 

Attached is the most recent draft of the plan.  We have three chairs identified:  Sherry Cornett for Health; Mary Topero for Volunteers, Molly Beverly (assisted by Sherry Cornett) for Food Demos.

 

We still our looking for chairs (tentative chair for Mental Health identified but not confirmed) for:  Financial and Economics; Mental Health; Jobs, Career and Small Business; Budget; Logistics Coordinator, Youth Activities, and Sponsorship Coordinator.  If you are interested in chairing any of these processes, please let me know.  You don’t have to do all the work, you contact the suggested presenters and see if they will commit and then you will set up the schedule for the presentations.  The others will manage their process working with volunteers and booth participants to schedule programming around those times.

 

We hope at this meeting to refine and finalize and offer suggestions to help those working on the processes.  If you know others that would be interested in volunteering, presenting or having a booth please have them contact me to get themselves on the list.

 

Remember this will be FREE to everyone attending and presenting!!!!  We will soon get some sponsorships to help defray any costs we may incur.  Bridgeway is looking into making some funding available.  Our sponsorship coordinator can help us with other funding options.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has donated the facility!!!! 

 

We are open to your suggestions as you will be our Partners in this collaborative effort sponsored by United Way of Yavapai County.

 

Please feel free to contact me with questions.  I look forward to seeing all of you who can attend.  Regards.

 

United Way Resource Fair

UNITED WAY of Yavapai County and Partners SPONSOR A

COMMUNITY RESOURCE FAIR

“SURVIVING and THRIVING IN TROUBLED TIMES – YES, WE CAN!”

Saturday, October 24, 2009
9 – 4PM
(Donated facility) Church of Latter-Day Saints
Sandretto, Prescott, AZ

FREE to Partners and Attendees

United Way of Yavapai County and its Partners (Boy Scouts of America, AWEE, ….) are sponsoring a FREE Resource Fair featuring local experts speaking on subjects vital to surviving in troubled times. Local non-profit agencies and governmental entities will also be featured and booths available for individuals and families to get questions answered and learn about how to receive vital benefits.

Childcare will be provided so that parents of young families may attend. There will be activities children to learn what they can do, small things to take the pressure off families at home.

 The Fair will include subject matter and information on the following (running concurrently and repeated in morning and afternoon):

 Financial and Economics (suggested resources: City of Prescott, Chambers of Commerce, Economic Development folks, Local Banks, Local Realtors or Assoc of Realtors, Financial Planners, Local Accountants, Yavapai College Instructors, others)

 

 

Chair:

• How to create and live on a budget
• Credit Counseling (suggested Consumer Credit Counseling in Prescott)
• Financial Planning for retirement
• Retrofitting retirement for already retired
• How to apply for a loan you can afford
• Mortgage foreclose/refinancing
• Buying a foreclosure
• The State of the Towns and City (Economic Development Folks)

 Health: (suggest resources: YRMC, Nutritional Counselors, Well Woman’s Clinic, others)

 

 

Chair: Sherry Cornett

• Exercise and Nutrition: Moving and Eating to stay well
• How to buy smarter at the grocery store
• How to cook for less and eat better (including food tasting)
• Providing health care-giving for elderly
• Disability and Long Term Care (New Horizons and Yavapai County)

 Mental Health (suggested resources: WYavapai Guidance Center, local counselors, instructors, Natural community; Marc Center; Bridgeway, others )

 

 

Chair

• How to talk to your kids about money or lack thereof – Lisa Blythe suggested
• Yoga, meditation, relaxation and stress management
• Prep dialogue for retirement – Ollie, Sr. Connection

 Jobs, Career Management and Small Business (suggested resources: AWEE, DES, NACOG, SBDC and SCORE and other private practitioners, others)

 

 

 Chair

• How to look for a job
• Returning to the job market after retirement
• Living with less hours and less pay
• Looking for more in a job and settling for less (for now)

 Child Activities

 

 

Chair

• Do you understand?
• How can you help?
• What do you need?
• Recreation activities (Parks and Recreation Department)

Anticipated Resources: Agency Support; Prescott Area Leadership; Chambers; Government entities; local private business; Colleges (Dennis Garvey for retirees – OLLIE programs, etc)

 Keynote Speaker: Ken Bennett (confirmed)

Childcare: suggested resources: Red Cross (?) and Girl Scouts (confirmed)

Video for Cable Access 13 (participation on their part)

Passport with prizes (donated gifts)

 

 Logistics coordinator:

Boths numbered and placed into sections by Breakout Topics

 

 Volunteer Coordinator: Mary Topero

Girl Scouts; Boy Scouts; Prescott Area Leadership; Retiree Connection; Jr. Rotary

 

 Food Demos: Molly Beverly, Prescott College; others

 

 Sponsorships Coordinator: Suggested: APS – Mike Johnsen; Unisource – Hector; Chambers; YRMC

 Insurance: Require (& secure) “liability Waiver”

 Entertainment:

Jumper for Kids
Dominique and John Jewett
Sapphire86301@yahoo.com
928 778-4117

 PR: Stewart Communications – Debbie Stewart

Press Releases to Seat of Your Pants

•  Budget and Gantt Chart (timetable) – Suggested Sharon Thompson from Catholic Charities

• Agencies: Table, presentations (if invited); to invite their mailing list

• NO Direct Sales other than food – Info only May have sales info on table.

• EMT volunteers and defibrillator

 

 

 

A word from Barbara Garvey

Greetings to all who attended Tuesday’s Community Conversation,

It was an intense morning at the very least. To some it was energizing because it gave them a chance to really take charge and direct the meeting in a way that they saw fit and really “get something done”, to others it was a breach of a trust that they felt was developing in a community of which they wanted to be a part. Whatever your reaction or feeling we are at a new place.

I find it useful to reflect on experiences such as our most recent meeting and to use the knowledge gained through such reflections to plan the future. It is the Intent of the Institute for Sustainable Social Change to create Community Conversations to be a forum for all members of the community to come together to share ideas and resources to better our community. Are we better as a community because of our meeting? Have we made progress toward getting something done? Are we clearer about the direction in which we are headed? We will probably differ in our answers to these rhetorical questions.

Do we all have our own ideas about how we should work toward getting something done? Yes…think about the pointing North exercise as a metaphor…44 fingers pointing in 44 directions. Is it wonderful to have a multitude of ideas and eagerness to move forward on these ideas? Absolutely…it is dynamic and we are energized and motivated by hearing others’ ideas. Authentic collaboration comes from these energies. Is it important to create a respectful environment where all can feel safe in sharing their ideas and concerns? I feel this is most critical. How are we to be with each other… how can we voice an idea, a concern, a strong feeling in a way that will be heard yet still be respectful that others might not share your particular point of view (their finger is pointing is a different direction north)…how can we get things done and value that others are getting things done too…?

I’ll bet this is not the first time a community has come together and found the direction in which they needed to go was a topic of discussion, or where there was conflict!!??!! In group dynamics the process of FORMING, STORMING, NORMING is classic. Moving forward is the key…creating norms that will allow all voices to be heard and valued…creating a process where frustration and conflict have a place to be expressed. Let’s move forward so that we can come together with the original intentions of …connecting with others to share ideas… developing a sense of connectedness in our Community Conversations and in our communities at large…and getting things done!

In the words of the newly crafted and group approved Vision and Mission statements:

Vision Statement

Promote connections that strengthen and sustain our community.

Mission Statement

Develop collaborative opportunities that enhance our community.

Respectfully,

Barbara

 

New names and tag lines

We are getting a few ideas forwarded for a name for both the blog and the organization. Of course once a new moniker is picked for the group then the blog will be changed as well. How WordPress works is that the name is the address for the blog, so if one changes then the other will change in turn.

If you are part of the group now called Community Conversation you can read some of the ideas…they are posted as comments to any one of the blog posts. Likewise, if you have an idea for naming or a tag line it is simple to post that as a comment for all to see.

Thank you to all for your support and participation in this forum and the process.

 

May 12th meeting

Well gang, it was quite a meeting today at the Ridge Club. In the middle of the first half hour Lise Schoening of Tri-City School of Music jumped up and wanted to see some action, and it was an action packed day to say the least.

The main action initiative was the forming of a Vision statement and a Mission statement for the group.

Vision Statement

Promote connections that strengthen and sustain our community.

Mission Statement

Develop collaborative opportunities that enhance our community.

As many may know this was a giant step forward in the process. Next month I’m sure we will define the focus groups, pick leaders for those groups and more.

Group name / Blog name

It does seem that we might want to change the name of this group and the name of the blog. The idea of the blog was to give us all a voice into the process on the days we are not meeting, to be a link to the member organizations and to raise our internal awareness of the resources we have within the group. This is about using the technology to connect us all online. To that end I will be assuming the leadership for the blog at this point, but will be looking for help in the near future. If we want to change the blog name it is advantageous to do that sooner rather than later, so if you have an idea for the blog name you can make a comment to the blog. All names will be considered. We could also use a tag line, so if you have a good one include that in your comments.

Links

In this blog all links will be appreciated whether it is to a personal website or an organization. These links will appear in the Blogroll which is the right side bar labeled as such. Every link is placed in alphabetical order on the blogroll. We want to make this list all inclusive so if you have a name and web address for a link send it to my personal email…danehammond@hotmail.com.

Of course this blog is an ongoing venture. If you have an organization that you want listed on our blogroll simply send me an email at the hotmail address above. At some point we can make this blog into a portal for other organizations, but for now I feel we need to bring our links up to date.

At some point we will have a calender of events, email list of participants in the organization and lots more so keep an eye on the blog as we grow.

 

Community Conversation April, 14

The Community Conversations continue and the energy in the room on April 14th was palpable…ideas…. projects…. sharing of information…. collaborating…. planning… more ideas…more plans…more opportunities to work together…..

General minutes:

We began the morning by introducing ourselves, identifying ourselves as community members, identifying our town or organization if we represented one, our hopes for the morning. We were about 70 members of our community! Who comes to the Community Conversations? We are community members wanting to connect with their community and possibly volunteer with an organization or to find others who are interested in something that they are interested in to connect with, or to find others who might be interested in a project they have been thinking to do but felt they want others to help make that project happen. We are representatives of nonprofits (or more appropriately named Community Benefit Organizations)looking to meet with other CBOs (get it… short for Community Benefit Organization) to further their knowledge of the community resources and to find ways to partner and collaborate with other organizations, businesses and community members. We are representatives from businesses in town also wanting to find ways that they might connect with their community in meaningful ways. We are many people coming for many reasons …

The theme of this Community Conversation was Community Engagement. As I promised I am sending along an article by Hildy Gottlieb from the Community Driven Institute which identifies what is involved in Community Engagement and steps to take to engage the community in the work your organization is doing or the work you are interested in doing….a very valuable article to read!!! (attached as Community Engagement article)

We heard from 5 folks and about what they are working on, important information and projects for the community.

Maggie Garvey, Americorp/VISTA Project Director for Yavapai County talked about an amazing opportunity happening right now (only for the next few weeks, so hurry and contact her) for nonprofits to get a VISTA volunteer for the next year for a very small amount of money. Attached under VISTA INFO you can find more information and find out how to contact her.

Donna Bellina, a current VISTA and coordinator of Retiree Connection at Yavapai College’s Center for Successful Aging, spoke about the very successful volunteer program that they have created. There is great interest in the community for developing a area wide / county wide volunteer bank. Let’s continue to work together and learn from the Retiree Connection. For more info on the Retiree Connection go to the Yavapai College website, under the Lifelong Learner section you will find Retiree Connection.

Tracey McConnell, a community member from Chino Valley, talked about the work that she and her neighborhood or doing to connect with one another and specifically how they are working together and with the Town of Chino Valley to address a flooding issue in their neighborhood. Who ever said a small group, coming together with a goal, with a plan can’t move mountains? (or in this case move a flood river?) We look forward to hearing more of their progress and their connected experience!

Debbie Stewart, creator of By the Seat of Our Pants newsletter talked about her newsletter and about her commitment to the Community Engagement process. If you do not already receive her newsletter you are missing a very valuable link to what is happening in Prescott, Yavapai County, the State of Arizona, the country, the world!!

Muriel Haverland, on the Board of the United Way of Yavapai County talked about a RESOURCE FAIR that she is heading up to be held this Fall. She is interested in having community wide participation from all sectors of the community. She would love to have input and have people who are interested in working with her on this contact her.

We broke into smaller groups, each group focusing on different topics. Attached are the reports from two of the groups:

• Improving Healthcare in Yavapai County
• Identify Community Resources

Plan to join us on May 12th at the Ridge Club for the next Community Conversation!

Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success” ~Henry Ford

 

Our New Blog

This is the first post from the new Communuity Conversation blog. Right now this blog will be open to anyone that is involved in Community Conversation and we are looking for your support.

The idea of the blog was to open up the lines of communication to the participants of the meetings as well as those thinking of becoming involved.

As you all know we are coming into the “vacation season” and some of us will be out of town and unable to attend the monthly meetings. With the blog those traveling will have a chance to stay abreast of happenings within their focus group as well as the group as a whole.

There is a lot to be done for the blog and first we want to present this idea to the group. In doing this we hope that focus group leaders will help keep us all informed on the dialog being opened up in their particular group. It would be nice if the team hosts could provide the admin people of the blog with the information discussed at each meeting.

We will also be looking for people that want to be involved in the working of this blog. It is not at all hard, but does take some getting used to. I can tell you in all honesty that if you can use a word processer then you can post to the blog.

In the very near future we will be looking for links to organizations in the area that will be helpful to everyone in the community. Those links will be added to the blogroll as we move this along.

In closing I would like to say that we all have high hopes that the blog will florish and will help Community Conversation to grow and prosper. We all need to stay connected and we feel that the blog can become an informational hub to keep this wheel turning.