Minutes from Jan. 19, 2013

     Community Outreach:  People leading people with a purpose

                   By Keyon Jackson-Malone

     Colin Powell once said, “Leadership is about taking an extra step.”  This fit well with the theme presented by Dr. Andrew Calhoun, pastor of Grace Fellowship Church at the Community Outreach Leadership seminar.  Dr. Calhoun emphasized that a leader is a “person with a purpose leading people.”  Each person in the group was challenged to identify the characteristic of leadership that he or she displays: 1) a detractor, one who is claims that it could have been done better but only offers help if someone asks.  2) a by stander, one who is always there but does nothing; 3) an onlooker, one who looks on from a distance; 4) or, a stakeholder, one who is inspired to make a difference in the community.  Stakeholders are the core group of people who work together with a common purpose to lead people.  This was one of the concepts that individuals had to grasp in order to become an effective team.  The exercise used to demonstrate this was a group of five individuals who were placed in a circle and needed to smoothly and with great coordination pass a ball without dropping it in a certain direction and within a certain time frame.  

     The group discovered the difference between in-reach and outreach.  The goal is to eliminate the self-inflicting wounds that hinder development internally which would ultimately lead to the ability to reach out into the community.  Through discussion and interaction the group learned that overcoming the five dysfunctional factors of an organization are possible through building trust, calling out issues as they are, and being comfortable with one’s vulnerability.   This enables the in-reach team to become effective in its analysis of its community through quantitative and qualitative means to determine the specific needs, weaknesses, and strengths of its community to deliver in its outreach the services to populations who might not otherwise have access to them.

     In addition to this, participants were enlightened that the in-reach core group is responsible for framing and providing definitions of its community based on its research. At this point, Dr. Calhoun gave each leader an open picture frame and asked for two volunteers to come to the front of the group and allow the audience to see them through the frame.  He then solicited descriptions from the group and asked each person to determine whether what each saw was an assumption or a reality, an opinion or a fact.  He then asked the volunteers to show their profile in various ways through the frame and then repeated the exercise and questions.

     By the end of the seminar, the group had a working vocabulary essential to breaking the disconnect between funds and services that exist and the community’s needs, a sense of confidence in building stronger organizations as well as an appreciation of the various personalities and dynamics that may exists within in order to identify the different committees, position, and/or roles members of the organization may serve.

 

     Thanks to the distribution team:  Betty, Elsie, Reggie, Samuel, Churchill,Gracelyn, Officer Osiewalski, Rick, Pastor Calhoun

     Thanks to Pastor Calhoun and Grace Fellowship, Betty, and Bentley World Packaging for refreshments and cutlery and to Gracelyn and Grace Fellowship for supplies. 

     Thanks to Keyon for writing the summary for this month's meeting and Claudia, Betty, Pastor Calhoun, Churchill, Keyon, and Tracey for set up and take down.