250 ACT Leaders Launch Organization Rebuilding Effort
250 institutional leaders from 18 Tarrant County-area congregations celebrated and committed to rebuilding the Allied Communities of Tarrant (ACT).
Said the Rev. Lindsay Woods, pastor at Gethsemane Presbyterian Church, "ACT has allowed us a small church to seek justice. Congregations often do a lot of charity (give food to food bank) or education (explaining what we believe about justice), but our mission sometimes lack the ability to create justice. ACT allows us to be part of a network of different institutions seeking solutions to a common cause."
Read moreCortes Honored at Harvard for Restoring American Democracy
"Ernesto Cortés Jr. has spent nearly 40 years teaching the disenfranchised how to communicate their stories in ways that assert their place in the world.
As co-director of the Industrial Areas Foundation...he has taught thousands of people how to harness and direct their anger by helping them to organize with others to change conditions around them.... For those efforts, the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) presented its annual Robert Coles "Call of Service" Award to Cortés on Friday in the Memorial Church.
Read moreLas Vegas Leaders Reflect on Lessons of 9/11
'Nevadans For the Common Good' leader Rabbi Sanford Akselrad and organizer Robert Hoo appear on 'Face to Face' with John Ralston to discuss the lessons of 9/11.
Read more‘Nevadans for the Common Good’ Praised
"Since arriving in Las Vegas in late 2008, I have witnessed a new spirit that leads me to believe that our valley is determined to become a more caring and compassionate community. If there is anything positive to come out of the economic recession, it is the realization that we must all work together to support one another..."
Read moreWorking Together Jackson
Jackson Free Press
Read more‘Working Together Jackson’ Launches in Mississippi
"Representatives from approximately 50 organizations based in Jackson, Mississippi came together on June 14, 2012 to kick-off 'Working Together Jackson', a community development initiative three years in the making. The well attended event was held at New Horizon International on Ellis Ave., pastored by Bishop Ronnie Crudup. The majority members of the broad-based coalition of institutions in the Jackson Metro Area are churches. However, the remainder of the groups are service oriented, such as Stewpot, Spencer Perkins Center, United Auto Workers, Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliances and Zoo Area Progressive Partnership."
Community Welcomes 'Working Together Jackson', The Jackson Advocate
Read moreVOICE Rises in Oklahoma City
"Founded last winter at a convention that drew more than 1,200 people, Voices Organized in Civic Engagement (VOICE) hopes to get residents focused on what their biggest needs are, and how those can best be achieved at the local and state level.
"We hope to get citizens engaged in conversations that confront our communities, and we will try to hold public officials accountable for their decisions and votes," said Lance Schmitz, pastor of Capitol Hill Church of the Nazarene and an original member of VOICE's earlier entity, the Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee..."
Read more‘Nevadans for the Common Good’ Cuts Video of 1st Convention
"We understand that when people come together and they are of one accord, things can happen....
We want to engage in a process of contagious neighborliness! We want to get to know each other better in our institutions. At the same time we want to enlarge our neighborhoods. We move forward with the knowledge that together we can change the face of Nevada..."
Read moreTogether Baton Rouge Explains ‘Why Transit Reform Succeeded in Baton Rouge’
"On Saturday, April 21st, 2012, the citizens of Baton Rouge and Baker passed a historic election to create a dedicated revenue source for public transit....This was a truly historic feat -- one that many thought could not be accomplished and that succeeded despite great odds. So we want to take a moment to reflect on how this effort succeeded where so many others have failed.
Read more1,500 Leaders Launch ‘Nevadans for the Common Good’
"The first-ever Las Vegas Valley Community Convention for the Common Good aimed to teach, to inspire and to harness the power of faith to better Southern Nevadans' quality of life.
The Tuesday evening event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas student center ballroom drew more than 1,500 people - UNLV President Neal Smatresk noted that it was the "most full I have ever seen this room" - interested in organizing a broad-based, interdenominational effort to address social problems facing the valley...."
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