Serving Our Neighborhoods

Relationships Through Dance Fitness

March 14, 2019 Jennifer Saldivar Neighborhood Presence, Serving Our Neighborhoods

Music, movement, fitness, and fun! When you go into a Latin Dance Fitness class you can expect to have fun and break a good sweat. What you don’t expect are the relationships that are built through time spent in the class. With common interests such as the love of music, dance, and exercise, there are so many ways to connect with others. Not only that, but dance fitness is an outlet for mental wellness. Most participants are able to share the happiness they feel while taking the class and are worry free during the hour long session. This one hour of dancing allows them to take care of themselves physically and mentally. It is also a shared space with others who have the same fitness goal.

Mapping Your Hood – July 19th – 2pm

July 2, 2018 andrewfeil Serving Our Neighborhoods

Come to learn how to use some of the best tools & maps to discover what is going on in your neighborhood and how to make decisions based on real-world data!

This will be an interactive session so bring your computer or tablet!

Look for the ENP banner when you pull into Parc Grove.

Presenters :

Andrew Feil – Every Neighborhood Partnership, Associate Director
Joe Prado – Fresno County Public Health Division Manager
Germán Quiñonez – Every Neighborhood Partnership, Neighborhood Coordinator

Register

Luis Palau Series 2: Theology of Place

June 13, 2018 Germán Quiñonez Community Outreach, Luis Palau Series

Every Neighborhood Partnership is partnering with the Luis Palau National group to create a six-month series that describes our work in the city. Below is the second post in the series from the Director of Neighborhood Development, German Quinonez.

Theology of Place: ENP’s Neighborhood Development Work

Last month Artie Padilla set a platform on our work in Fresno and how we use the Church as an anchoring lever for all the work we are actively engaged in. This month we zero in on the work that is happening in our neighborhoods through Theology of Place.

We will first look our methodology, then we will share some practical examples of how this plays out.

Addressing ACEs as a Social Transformation Initiative

March 28, 2018 andrewfeil Serving Our Neighborhoods

This post first appeared on Aces Connection.com, March 14, 2018, here.

Addressing ACEs as a Social Transformation Initiative: An Invitation to Nova Scotia and Canada

In 1998, the ACE Study was published, outlining extensive lifelong effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences.

I had been accessing mental health support for 12 years before I heard about this study. After reading Bessel van der Kolk’s book The Body Keeps the Score in 2014,[i]I started talking with other people about this research, trying to muster excitement and engagement with addressing this prevalent social issue.

The resistance I met was explained after watching Dr. Nadine Burke Harris’s Ted Talk explaining ACEs. She belied not being able to get people excited about addressing the issue as well, and concluded that it isn’t because it doesn’t apply to many of us. We’re resistant because it’s all too familiar. [ii]

Neighboring Like Jesus with Shalom

January 19, 2018 Germán Quiñonez Neighborhood Presence

With the busyness of the holiday season behind us, I want to encourage us to stop and reflect. Many of us move at light speed with our New Year’s resolutions. So, do this reflection in order to not lose sight of the implications of the Christmas story. In particular, let’s reflect on the advent of Jesus, as recorded in John’s gospel 1:14 where it says “he came to dwell among us”. Jesus intentionally enters human history and re-introduces the concept of shalom. Shalom can best be described as the idea of justice and peace. It is justice and peace which encompasses the reality of restoration and reconciliation of humanity. Underpinning this radical theory of shalom is love, which binds all these together for true transformation.

I Love My City – Peoples Church

November 8, 2017 Becca Gottselig Community Outreach

Two of our core values at Peoples Church are to love others and love sacrifice. These two values are at the heart of what we were able to do as a faith family with ENP at I Love My City!

Sometimes though, I find that it’s easy to get distracted by the day to day and forget the heart behind what each of us as Christ followers are called to do.

Healthy Neighborhoods are a Community

November 6, 2017 andrewfeil Serving Our Neighborhoods

Healthy neighborhoods foster and create a sense of community. These neighborhoods utilize the skills and assets of those that are a part of them. Our goal at ENP is to be a part of creating and supporting healthier neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, many neighborhoods in our city are not healthy. People and institutions are disconnected and distrustful of each other. Relationships become transactional instead of transformational.

As we seek to serve others in the city and be a part of neighborhood transformation, we realize that we need to build a new form of community. Communities that can combat the complex problems that affect our neighborhoods.

This idea is most easily understood through an example:

Say your church begins serving in a neighborhood and you realize that access to food there is an issue. So you start a food pantry. The church is very excited about this, and many members drop off food to pass out. Several members even volunteer to lead the pantry. But, since you are holistically minded, as you begin the project you open your eyes, start asking questions, and thru listening to others, you realize that…

Loving Your Neighbor – 2 Free Resources!

October 20, 2017 andrewfeil Neighborhood Presence

There is a growing movement across our nation to something that is both incredibly simple yet extremely difficult. Loving Your Neighbor.

It is one of the two key commands Jesus gave, but in our mobile 21st-century context we have lost the art of loving (or even knowing) our literal next door neighbors. God has uniquely created you and placed you to be His connection to a disconnected world. You are sent by God to be a light to your neighbors.

Several local churches have created resources that they want to make available to you to help make this happen!

God’s Calling… Reasons and Encouragement to Answer

September 11, 2017 Becca Gottselig Neighborhood Presence

Have you ever had a feeling that you’re being called to something? Something that might be beneficial (for you, for your community, for your family, for God’s Kingdom, etc.), but something that might be challenging, time-consuming or daunting?

About two months ago, my husband and I relocated from North Fresno into the Jackson Neighborhood. My new neighborhood is not as “desirable”, by most standards, as my previous neighborhood. If you had told me a few years ago that I’d make that move, I’d have said “Sorry, I think you have the wrong person.”

Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice: A Vital Skill for City Work

August 18, 2017 Grace Spencer Community Outreach

Since 1982, the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) has been bringing victims, offenders, and involved community members face-to-face to restore wholeness to those affected by crime. Through our restorative justice process, the injustice is recognized and made as right as possible, trust is rebuilt, and the relationship restored. The process holds offenders accountable for their actions, providing them an opportunity to hear how their actions affected others. It also empowers victims, offering them a voice as the parties decide how the offender can rebuild trust, restore equity, and implement necessary changes to ensure a better future. Once the parties reach an agreement, mediators follow up with victims and offenders to confirm that the agreement has been met to the victim’s satisfaction.