Who can guess the source of this statement on poverty and church?

E) Poverty – In spite of general affluence in the industrialized nations, the majority of persons in the world live in poverty. In order to provide basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, and other necessities, ways must be found to share more equitably the resources of the world. Increasing technology, when accompanied by exploitative economic practices, impoverishes many persons and makes poverty self-perpetuating. Poverty due to natural catastrophes and environmental changes is growing and needs attention and support. Conflicts and war impoverish the population on all sides, and an important way to support the poor will be to work for peaceful solutions.

As a church, we are called to support the poor and challenge the rich. To begin to alleviate poverty, we support such policies as: adequate income maintenance, quality education, decent housing, job training, meaningful employment opportunities, adequate medical and hospital care, humanization and radical revisions of welfare programs, work for peace in conflict areas and efforts to protect creation’s integrity. Since low wages are often a cause of poverty, employers should pay their employees a wage that does not require them to depend upon government subsidies such as food stamps or welfare for their livelihood.

Because we recognize that the long-term reduction of poverty must move beyond services to and employment for the poor, which can be taken away, we emphasize measures that build and maintain the wealth of poor people, including asset-building strategies such as individual development savings accounts, micro-enterprise development programs, programs enabling home ownership, and financial management training and counseling. We call upon churches to develop these and other ministries that promote asset-building among the poor. We are especially mindful of the Global South, where investment and micro-enterprise are especially needed. We urge support for policies that will encourage equitable economic growth in the Global South and around the world, providing a just opportunity for all.

Poverty most often has systemic causes, and therefore we do not hold poor people morally responsible for their economic state.

Seeing people. . .refusing to turn away

Paul Quinn College deserves our attention and support!

Conversion to the neighbor, part 3

Christians have not done enough in this area of conversion to the neighbor, to social justice, to history.  They have not perceived clearly enough yet that to know God is to do justice.  They still do not live in one sole action with both God and all humans.  They still do not situate themselves in Christ without attempting to avoid concrete human history.  They have yet to tread the path that will lead them to seek effectively the peace of the Lord in the heart of social struggle (page 49).

Gustavo Gutierrez

Spiritual Writings

A Night to Remember 2013. . .25 years!

Conversion to the neighbor, part 2

Conversion is a permanent process in which very often the obstacles we meet make us lose all we had gained and start anew.  The fruitfulness of our conversion depends on our openness to doing this, our spiritual childhood.  All conversion implies a break:  "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:37).  To wish to accomplish it without conflict is to deceive oneself and others.  But it is not a question of withdrawn and pious attitude.  Our conversion process is affected by the socioeconomic, political, cultural and human environment in which it occurs.  Without a change in these structures, there is no authentic conversion.  We have to break with our mental categories, with the way we relate to others, with our way of identifying with the Lord, with our cultural milieu, with our social class, in other words, with all that can stand in the way of a real, profound solidarity with those who suffer, in the first place, from misery and injustice.  Only through this, and not through purely interior and spiritual attitudes, will the "new person" arise from the ashes of the "old." (page 48)

Gustavo Gutierrez

Spiritual Writings



Conversion to the neighbor, part 1

A spirituality of liberation will center on a conversion to the neighbor, the oppressed person, the exploited social class, the despised ethnic group, the dominated country.  Our conversion to the Lord implies this conversion to the neighbor.  Evangelical conversion is indeed the touchstone of all spirituality.  Conversion means a radical transformation of ourselves; it means thinking, feeling and living as Christ--present in exploited and alienated persons.  To be converted is to commit oneself lucidly, realistically, and concretely to the process of the liberation of the poor and oppressed.  It means to commit oneself not only generously, but also with an analysis of the situation and a strategy for action.  To be converted its to know and experience the fact that, contrary to the laws of physics, we can stand straight, according to the Gospel, only when our center of gravity is outside ourselves (page 48).

Gustavo Gutierrez

Spiritual Writings

Diana Ross coming to CitySquare next Friday night, September 13!

We still have a few seats remaining!  

To buy your tickets click here.

In addition, you still have time to become an event sponsor by going here.

What are we doing to prevent and end homelessness in Dallas?

CitySquare has five programs aimed at preventing and ending homelessness in Dallas County.

Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) – CitySquare deploys a team of workers that walks and drives the streets in and around downtown Dallas’ central business district to locate and engage individuals who are homeless.  HOT workers get to know these individuals and their unique situations.  Individuals are diverted to the services of various CitySquare programs, as well as the services of other community partners.  Services include food assistance, housing, health care, and case management, including the arrangement and coordination of transportation to cities of origin for the purpose of reuniting with families.  In 2012, CitySquare’s HOT team recorded 2349 encounters with homeless individuals and was successful in connecting 726 individuals with resources for food, housing, health care, and/or transportation.

Rapid Rehousing – In 2013, CitySquare received federal grant funds through the city of Dallas to house 45 homeless individuals.  CitySquare provides support services, including case management which connects individuals to services within CitySquare, as well as to our partners in the larger community. CitySquare’s case management focuses on working with individuals to provide short-to-mid-term assistance while helping individuals towards greater self- sufficiency. The Rapid Rehousing team and the Homeless Outreach Team work together to place some of the most service-resistant individuals from the downtown Dallas area into stable housing.

Destination Home – Since 2004 CitySquare’s Destination Home program has housed over 2,000 individuals who were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Through U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants, Destination Home provides permanent support housing and case management services to an average of 200 individuals annually. These individuals receive counseling, drug and alcohol treatment, job support/training and a variety of other services designed to stabilize their lives and establish a pattern of healthier behaviors.

Transition Resource Action Center (TRAC) – TRAC provides a “one stop” assessment and referral facility for youth “aging out” of foster and juvenile care in the 19-county, Child Protective Services North Texas region.  TRAC brings together community resources and intensive case management services to benefit these special needs young people.  TRAC is the only program in North Texas that exists to comprehensively address the needs of this population which is at high risk of homelessness.  Annually, TRAC works with over 800 of the most challenged, at-risk teens and young adults in the region.  Participants craft an individualized life plan and acquire skills needed to survive on their own after”emancipation” from substitutionary care. TRAC provides transitional housing for many of the program’s most vulnerable youth.

CityWalk@Akard – CitySquare’s 15-story building in downtown Dallas is a unique and diverse vertical neighborhood housing over 200 low-income individuals, over half of whom were formerly homeless, or in grave danger of becoming homeless.   In addition, CityWalk provides much needed quality affordable housing for low-income wage earners who work Downtown. CitySquare Community Life Team provides counseling and case management services to a majority of the individuals and families who live at CityWalk.

Could hell be any hotter, good news any sweeter?

Thursday, August 29, 2013
4:09 p.m.

Just left the Corner where the temperature on my Jeep read 111.

If hell is hotter, I don't want to go!

The crowd of neighbors at the Corner was the largest to date.

Everyone was hot and thirsty.

Wendy, my friend, rushed me as I got out of my car wanting to know if I had the papers needed to get a copy of her birth certificate. We've been working on this project for a while.  If you've lost all of the documents proving you are who you say you are, how to you move forward?

Without the papers I can see how I might begin to think that in fact I'm nobody.

I worked down the list on the papers that I received from the state that instructed her as to what she would need since she had no documents proving who she was.  It is complicated.  No one could do this alone, including me.  Reality for the poorest of the poor.

Attitudes out on the Corner amaze me.

A smiling white dude in a cowboy hat walked up, shook my hand and replied to my inquiry as to how he was doing saying, "If I was any better, I couldn't stand it!"

He then begin to talk about his faith and his walk with God.

I thought of the church folk who are so quick to ask me if any "ministry" takes place in our work.

I'd say it does.

Except it's the homeless poor ministering to me, every single time.

At one point as I looked across the red hot pavement of Malcolm X Boulevard, I spotted a homeless black man assisting a blind, Latino man to the bus stop.  Community defined by compassion.

Preaching broke out when Robert, a regular at the Corner, told the story of Jesus and the woman caught in the act of adultery.

"'Who among you is without sin?' is what Jesus asked," the street preacher said.  "And everybody started mumbling and finally said, 'I'll catch y'all tomorrow.'"

"Yep," I replied, "they all started dropping rocks!"

"My favorite story, my very, most favorite!" Robert said.

Ministry, indeed.

Ice cold water,

Gatorade.

Snacks.

Someone to simply pat my back, tell me that I matter and urge me to be careful. Sincere thank yous tossed back into your heart.

Good news, in a very limited way, but good news just the same to the poverty in all of us.

Love this photo. . .who are these men?

In the battle. . .

This clip from Henry V could be applied to our battle against the forces, the seemingly unrelenting forces of poverty, despair and oppression.

Still, the speech by Henry calling his band of brothers to fight, against all odds the battle they were called to fight, fits well with our own struggle in the city.

As Matt Lair, board member with Urban Connection--San Antonio, who sent this to me said, "We few.  We happy few!"

Stars align for historic August 28, 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom

Facts for thought

Adjusting the effective minimum wage that YOU pay. . .

I've tried to imagine what it would be like to attempt to build a life on the earnings of the current, national minimum wage which is $7.25 an hour.  No matter how you slice the challenge, providing the necessary support for a family or even for an individual while earning at the minimum is impossible.

Every few years we debate the issue in an attempt to adjust the baseline upward.  The debate is so predictable that I'm not going to outline it here again.

I've got a better idea.  Let's have the debate.  Let's raise the minimum to a more appropriate level (Australia's minimum wage is $15.96).

But let's do something today about the low reward for labor among the poorest of our friends.

Here's my suggestion:  wherever possible, when you purchase goods and services, calculate the value of the labor expended to bring you what you value enough to purchase.  Once you've thought through this value proposition, pay off the unrewarded "value wage" of your transaction.  In many retail settings this won't be possible or even necessary.  But in many situations your "wage supplement," some will call it a "tip," can be determined and passed along with gratitude and affirmation of the worker who meets your needs.  We say that we value labor.  We want people to work, right?  But how much do we really value labor?

For example, waiters usually earn minimum wage or less and count on gratuities to fill the wage gap.  But there are many other places where I can adjust the minimum wage that I am willing to pay based on what the goods or services mean to me.  How much do I value what is delivered to me?

Earlier this week I took my car to the tire shop for the repair of what was becoming a flat tire.  In East Dallas at Carroll and I-30 you can get your tire repaired for $10.  The afternoon was blazing hot.  The young man who repaired my tire worked hard at the task at hand.  He took pains to remove what appeared to be a fiberglass chard from the tire, allowing me to inspect the reason my tire was on the way down.

As he worked, I began to calculate the cost of his labor to his employer.  With a unit of service in my case  costing $10, I thought of the value that I placed on the service and the delivered product.  I came up with a number well above the set price.

My equation was simple:  set unit value + time required to deliver service + quality of service delivered + overall satisfaction with the service + what the service meant to me in terms of my need = value added gratuity or "wage adjustment."

Bottom line:  I adjusted this young man's wage for my transaction.

While this doesn't solve the problem or move forward a solution to scale, it does provide me a meaningful way to do my part in engaging my economy for the sake of fairness and equity.  By treating a worker at a time with fairness and equity, I proactively recognize the value provided by the working people who meet my many needs.

You can adjust the minimum wage paid laboring people today.  Give it a try.  I can tell you it definitely builds community and inspires working people.

50 years ago today. . .candid footage

Helpful comments

Across the years of my "blogging life" I've gone back and forth on moderating comments.  For most of the time that I've posted here, I've allowed any comment to be posted on this site.  Occasionally I've been forced to remove comments due to their highly offensive nature, but such action has been required on only a handful of occasions.  It has always been my policy to remove commercial comments.  In addition, I've welcomed comments from my "anonymous" friends and readers.

However, over the past couple of years the tone of a few readers has changed.

Comments often have nothing to do with what's been posted.  Often comments display hateful attitudes that provide no helpful thoughts or useful content.  Most of the offenders use my every post to lash out with  political statements having absolutely nothing to do with what I'm discussing.

As a result of this change in comment content on the part of a few readers, I've decided to change my editorial policy.

Beginning today, all comments posted to my blog will be moderated/reviewed before being allowed on the page for everyone to read.

As always, comments posted in opposition to ideas contained in what I post will be welcomed.  Honest, respectful debate will be encouraged on any subject or statement that I make or post here. Comments far afield of the subject at hand will be blocked.

In addition, hateful, disrespectful, outrageous and/or offensive comments will not be allowed onto my page.

While I encourage all readers to post their names to the comments offered, I will continue to accept anonymous comments which pass the test outlined here.

Thanks for following the conversation here.  I will do my best to release all of your helpful comments and ideas in a timely manner.

To build "the whole"

In short, no pattern is an isolated entity.  Each pattern can exist in the world, only to the extent that is supported by other patterns:  the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller patterns which are embedded in it.

This is a fundamental view of the world.  It says that when you build a thing you cannot merely build that thing in isolation, but must also repair the world around it, and within it, so that the larger world at that one place becomes more coherent, and more whole; and the thing which you make takes it place in the web of nature, as you make it.

 

Christopher Alexander, et. al.

A Pattern Language:  Towns, Buildings, Construction, page xiii

(New York:  Oxford University Press, 1977)

Flying without a net. . .

One of the real "upside" factors of my work is the board of directors serving and providing governance to our organization.

These wonderful men and women give so freely and sacrificially of their time, talent, money, ideas, commitment and encouragement.  I recognize how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to work alongside such an amazing group of people.

At virtually every meeting of our board something encouraging, insightful, surprising and challenging comes up or is said.  Most of the really exceptional stuff just arises out of the context of our work and our conversation.

Last night at our regular quarterly meeting the discussion turned intense as we laid out challenges, amazing opportunities and a sense of progress and momentum.

Craig Spaulding, an incredibly accomplished senior housing developer, fly fisherman and financial genius, spoke up to say, "Larry, it must be hard flying without a net for so many years."  

Never before had I thought of my work in quite those terms.  However, as I pondered his comment, made in the midst of his explanation of a very creative idea to provide relief for ongoing cash flow issues, I saw his point and had to agree.

We do fly without a net a good bit of the time around here!

As our meeting went on, I couldn't stop thinking about his metaphor.

Then, it hit me:  "We fly without a net around here whenever we have to because the people we love so much live without nets almost all of the time."  

The intermingling of ideas, values, helpful engagement and passionate concern for and connection with "our people" never ceases to amaze me.

In fact, this is the essence of CitySquare.

The Neighbor

Love Your Neighbor

The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self–to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.

Barbara Brown Taylor

Source: An Altar in the World

Detroit and hard lessons. . .

[The demise of Detroit, Michigan provides a fairly terrifying story for other large urban areas to consider, study and evaluate in view of local challenges.  This is certainly true for Dallas, Texas as we search for a new City Manager, Housing Director and City Attorney.  

The following essay from Joseph E. Stiglitz offers much food for thought.  

As always, I'd love your reactions.  What does Detroit have to teach us all?  LJ] 

The Wrong Lesson From Detroit’s Bankruptcy

When I was growing up in Gary, Ind., nearly a quarter of American workers were employed in the manufacturing sector. There were plenty of jobs at the time that paid well enough for a single breadwinner, working one job, to fulfill the American dream for his family of four. He could earn a living on the sweat of his brow, afford to send his children to college and even see them rise to the professional class.

Cities like Detroit and Gary thrived on that industry, not just in terms of the wealth that it produced but also in terms of strong communities, healthy tax bases and good infrastructure. From the stable foundation of Gary’s excellent public schools, influenced by the ideas of the progressive reformer John Dewey, I went on to Amherst College and then to M.I.T. for graduate school.

Today, fewer than 8 percent of American workers are employed in manufacturing, and many Rust Belt cities are skeletons. The distressing facts about Detroit are by now almost a cliché: 40 percent of streetlights were not working this spring, tens of thousands of buildings are abandoned, schools have closed and the population declined 25 percent in the last decade alone. The violent crime rate last year was the highest of any big city. In 1950, when Detroit’s population was 1.85 million, there were 296,000 manufacturing jobs in the city; as of 2011, with a population of just over 700,000, there were fewer than 27,000.

Click here to read more.

Tiresome

I've got it good.

I have a place that I refer to as home, complete with running water, bathrooms, a kitchen,  comfortable beds and lots of furniture, electricity, books, televisions; you know, the list goes on and on.

I can never remember going hungry, unless it was one of the very few times I've fasted intentionally.  Like everyone else, I get hungry everyday.  But, going hungry?  Not me!

I have cars.  Not just one, cars.  Whenever I want to go somewhere, I go.  Often, I fly.

I have plenty of clothing in closets--again, not just one.  My sock drawer is running over, sort of like my closets.  I did mention multiples, right?  And shoes?  Too many for one of my closets.

I've had lots of education--informal and formal, with degrees and future options for more.

I have a great family, lots of colleagues and crowds of friends.

I'm welcomed almost everywhere I go.  I get lots of invitations to join folks for fun, interesting events.

People accommodate my needs, my mistakes, my selfishness and my expressed desires, almost all of the time.

When I mess things up, people pull around to compensate, to make up for the ground I've lost.  Or, they confront me with my poor performance, while doing whatever it takes to get me back on track.

I am loved.

I am cared for.

I am encouraged.

___________________________________

 

Last Thursday, as I stood on the red hot sidewalk out at "the Corner," I watched scores of homeless friends stop by for a cold drink of water or Gatorade, a piece of fresh fruit and a snack. 

 

One guy stood out.

 

He was not exceptional in any way, really.  If anything, he was typical.

 

But, somehow I really saw him.  Know what I mean?

 

My hunch is he is younger than me, maybe mid-50s, but he looked much older.

 

His shoes were broken down, run over and about shot.

 

He was barely limping along. 

 

He was so very hot.

 

His brown jeans were filthy, as was his white shirt.

 

He seemed in a daze, not due to the abuse of any substance, but likely induced by too much "street" time in  the heat. 

 

I have no idea why he stood out to me.

 

As I directed him to a cold beverage and a snack, I was overcome with emotion. 

 

My life circumstance flooded over me, as did what I imagined of his. 

 

I had to brush back tears. 

 

This is Dallas.

 

This is the street.

 

This is slow death.

 

This is injustice.

 

How I respond to that one man is the ultimate test of my faith, my life and my heart.  

Press Release: CitySquare wins state award!

CitySquare Receives Governor’s Volunteer Award for Community Leadership for Its Food on the Move Program

Dallas, TX. August 5, 2013 --- The 30^th Annual Governor’s Volunteer Awards have been announced with CitySquare being named as a recipient in the Community Leadership category. These awards allow the State of Texas to recognize individuals, organizations, corporations and public entities that truly embody the Texas tradition of community service.  The Community Leadership category recognizes an individual, group or organization for strengthening their community through outstanding partnerships, service and volunteerism. Community Leaders understand the importance of service and develop connections between groups and individuals to help them craft collaborative solutions to local needs. They exhibit a dedication to their communities that inspires those around them to serve.

Food on the Move provides over one million meals in a mobile feeding program targeting youth at low-income apartment sites, churches, nonprofits, and summer camps.  Funding for the food comes through the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program. Food on the Move takes a stand against childhood hunger statewide, offering mobile feeding programs in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. Through an innovative collaboration with AmeriCorps, the program has delivered meals and provided enrichment to thousands of children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has hailed Food on the Move “a model for the rest of the nation.”

“Both the kids we serve and our AmeriCorps members benefit from Food on the Move,” says Dr. Keven Vicknair, Director of the Food on the Move and AmeriCorps programs at CitySquare, “We are proud to be recognized with the Community Leadership Award especially for a program that is helping to shape young people into community leaders.”

All of the awardees will be honored on September 11^th at a private dinner with OneStar Foundation board members and other dignitaries at the Renaissance Austin Hotel in Austin. In addition, awardees will be recognized throughout the Texas Nonprofit Summit on September 12th and 13th 2013.

CitySquare is one of the largest, most effective faith-based organizations in North Texas, operating a network of services and programs focused on fighting poverty through hunger relief, health care, housing and hope. CitySquare is the third largest summer food sponsor in the state of Texas.  A United Way agency, CitySquare is ranked a 4-star charity by Charity Navigator with more than 92% of revenue going directly to its programs.

                                                                     # #  #  #

For more information about the event and the work of CitySquare, please contact: Katherine Allen at 214.303.2146, kallen@CitySquare.org  or Lou Ann York at 214.343.1599, lapub@sbcglobal.net .

Employment for crew hired off "the Corner"!

I love this photo!

Jerry James (shown here on one knee in front) serves as the "foreman" for our landscape crew.

We hired each of these folks off of "the Corner" where we show up on Thursdays for refreshments, conversation and friendship creation.

Jerry comes from a tough background himself that includes time behind bars.  He works as hard as anyone I've ever known.  His crew follows his lead.

This group of formerly unemployed, homeless persons executed the landscape plan for the Opportunity Center that CitySquare is building at the corner of Malcolm X and I-30.

What you see here is a moment in time on a pathway to renewal and transformation.

This is our work.

Voter ID Laws in Texas

To find out everything you need to know about "Voter Identification Laws" in Texas go here.  

Trees

I'll confess, I've never really thought much about the value of trees.

Oh, I've often been aware of their beauty.

As a kid, I climbed among their strong branches and up their trunks, at times even attempting to construct a house in the air.

Occasionally I've cursed the unruliness of certain varieties.

And, I've enjoyed the shade provided to my mostly all-window back porch.

But as far as the personal, actual value, the utility of a tree, I've been in the dark most of my life.

Standing on "the Corner" changed that for me.

We've been out there most weeks for the past 15 months.

During that time, I've learned to take refuge under a very ugly, unwieldy tree.

But, strangely, the tree has become my friend.

In the rain, it acts as a needed umbrella.

In the heat, it provides more than welcome shade.

Even in the winter, windy cold, it blocks the sting of freezing temperatures.

As I've related to the tree, it has occurred to me that trees are in large part a generous gift to people who have no home.

I truly believe God made trees for people like the ones I meet with on "the Corner" every Thursday afternoon.

Somehow I just can't look at trees the same anymore.

Judged by the music of their songs, I expect the birds agree with me.

We call it "reciprocity"!

Running across a statement of one of the fundamental principles/values of our organization always pulls me up short.  Here is a great restatement of our belief in and insistence upon "reciprocity."  

BreakingBarriers

Breaking down the barriers between the givers and the receivers of aid, between those who have and those who have not, is an essential expression of the solidarity that liberates the privileged from their blindness and the marginalized from their invisibility.

Theodore W. Jennings

Good News to the Poor

Restoring all things. . .

A New Society

The first words about the Christian life are not about what we as individuals can experience, but about the kind of society God intends. The gospel, or good news, is that in Christ, God’s coming kingdom is breaking into the here and now–in the depths of the believer’s heart, but also in the world itself. This kingdom encompasses economic, material, psychological, political, social and spiritual existence.

Charles Moore

Source: "Why I Stopped Going to Church" 

Two men who changed the world!

Word composite

Recently, CitySquare enjoyed working with INSPIRE on a strategic thinking exercise.  The entire process was provided on a probono basis.  We will begin working on action steps in the very near future to activate our new learning about how to better do our work in the city.

During the process, the INSPIRE team interviewed many of our team members and customers to gain insights into our organization.  One of the more fascinating outcomes of this impression tour was a "word composite" of the impressions people reported about CitySquare.

The first image below maps the responses to the prompt, "What are 3 words that best describe CitySquare?"

The second image maps answers to the question, "What are 3 words that best describe your specific program?"

Reactions?