Today we started by discussing our class projects for this course. Everyone shared what they were planning on writing about. It should lead to a lot of good work in cities all around the world. I am planning to write about transformational mentoring in Pittsburgh based on the eight transformational leadership perspectives of BGU. I will incorporate a lot of what we have learned this week into the project about Pittsburgh.
After our time of discussing projects, we attended the rest of the Fresno City Summit. Noel Castellanos from CCDA shared about what it means to love a city from a Latino theological perspective. It's always great to hear from so many different types of leaders, and Noel's thoughts really helped me to see Christian community development from a different perspective. For the remainder of the day I attended workshops about different methods of community development that should prove to be useful with some of the things I'm involved with in Pittsburgh.
The city summit was good, although a lot of the concepts were pretty basic. That was intentional, however, because the leaders who organized the event wanted to set it up as an onramp for Christians who are interested in reaching people in their city. They wanted to involved a lot of young people in the event, and it looks like they hit their key target audience. I met young people from all over the city of Fresno who had some great ideas about how they could impact their communities and neighborhoods. Randy had told us ahead of time that the material would be pretty basic, but to look at how the event was organized and how we might set up these types of events back in our own cities. I have some good ideas of some things that might work in Pittsburgh.
In terms of application to my context, I was really able to get a good understanding of asset-based community development from the time that I spent in the workshops. That methodology involves building on the assets in troubled communities instead of on needs and problems. For instance, in Homewood there are many needs that I see as I spend time their and interact with kids and their families. But, there are also a lot of assets in Homewood. The kids are resilient and resourceful. Homewood has a great library that is a tremendous resource to the community. The Homewood-Brushton YMCA is a huge asset, and I have already been involved over there with Tuesday night basketball (my wife and I also work out there... it's the best work out facility for the money in Pittsburgh!). The Faison Primary School is a huge asset in Homewood because it is a relatively new building that serves as a hub of activity for the community. I am so thankful for the partnership that North Way has with the Faison Schools through LAMP, and even our mentoring matches serve as assets in the community. There are many, many assets that can be discovered and built upon in Homewood, and I'm looking forward to being involved in that work for a long time.
This course in Fresno has been amazing! I will miss all of my new friends and colleagues, but I am also ready to see my family and friends back in Pittsburgh. God is moving in Fresno, but he is also moving in crazy ways in Pittsburgh. It's honestly a fun thing to be a part of... to watch as God does things in my city that only he can do. I am leaving California refreshed and energized. I'm ready to jump back in to the good work that is going on. I'm ready to love my city!
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