 I think this is your first time to come to Miami. Everybody, so it used to be an elementary school. Right, so it's a refit, and it's an incubator. Right, for new businesses, small businesses, to better your business, economic development, so nice space, it used to be the cafeteria and they should be free to come, right? So it just seems really a great, at least for me, a great idea that happens kind of conversation. I don't want what it was, an elementary school or something. Because we're talking about refitting tonight in a sense. We're talking about how we do partner, how we do the work we need to do better. So again, welcome. We start pretty much on time, as an act of compassion and respect that you've gotten here early on time, others will probably be coming. And in fact, we're still hoping for two conversation starters, but we're gonna start with what would happen. So the restrooms, which are real obvious, are right over here in your art cups by the water families, if you need it, any time to go do that. You're all on your own, we have no breaks, you just do what you need to do. So our basic process of conversation, how many folks, this is your first conversation like this? So we've got some experience in the room, that would really help. There are three rounds of questions, one question each. And our conversation starters, we're right here in the center, so you feel like you need to relocate, so you're closer and you can see them or whatever. They're kind of in a fishbowl, about to put the pressure on. But there's a question, and they talk about it for a while. And then that same question goes out and you won't get to talk about it for a while. And then we come back to the center circle again and there's a second question, they talk about it, and then everybody talks about it. And then there's a third question, they talk about it and everybody talks about it. And then we hear back from everyone. So that's the basic process. So I hope that you benefit from the process, but I'm also hoping that we're gonna learn, we always have, and so that's exactly what we're here, to learn from each other and move forward. This is part two of a four part series on poverty. The first one was in October and it was called Mining the Gats and we looked at economic segregation as well as geography and what were those gaps in terms of poverty and the geography in our city. And we're gonna be looking at the number one outcome from that a little bit, but it brought us to part two, which we're calling Building the Bridges, because the number one thing they talked about at part one, the thing that we needed to do was work together, collaborate, partner, partner, partner. The only way we're gonna make a shift in what's happening is that we've got to work together. So that's what brings us tonight to the Building the Bridges and the Bible steps to span those poverty gaps and economics in our city and services. So I'm gonna introduce our conversation starters. Name is kind of Wade, so Chris is with Equal Public Relations and her conversation ad for the night. So I want you to be thinking about your conversation ad. What do you bring specifically from your life experience that adds to the conversation? Hers or that building that community through design, conversation in the digital world. We've tried to put some conversation starters together that all do community, all do partnering, all do collaboration, they've done it in different ways. Thank you, Chris for being here. Derek Wilson, he's gonna wave. Thanks for being here. He's visiting us from Ireland, where he's done a lot of peace and justice and restoration work. He's a visiting Fulbright fellow at St. Philip's College. Again, reconciliation and restored to practices. And you can probably imagine what that has been for him in Ireland. For a very long time. How long have you been doing that there? Oh, 54 years. There you go. So yes, a little experience. Edward is gonna raise his hand and I had the privilege of still working with him. He just not in the same office as he was with human services, with the city and with myself. And so he also has a lot of experience in terms of partnering. The Migrant Resource Center is a really good example in this last year. So there's this extensive cross sector partnering that he's been doing. And Leonard isn't here yet. I hope he comes. And just this last week, breaking news, he like shifted. So he was up until whatever we can have to go. The former president CEO of Westside Development. And then this last week, he started working with Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. So I don't know who we're gonna see tonight. He might be really busy because there's lots of happenings there. If he shows up, and I'm hoping he does, has had conversation and his economic development at the urban communities. And we have Patty Braydon. We could ask the question, how many people here already know Patty Braydon? This is me. So do I need to send more community organizing for the systemic change? And she has a lot of, and how long have you been living and doing this work in that spot? I've been living in this community. There we go. So, and the show told me that he was coming late because he had another engagement, but he's done this before. So he's just gonna slide in and start talking once he gets here. But he's the guy behind Dream Week. So you probably know more of that from him. But the Mike and Brenda Visioning and Branch Building Tolerance Act. Equality, and I'm so used to doing the equity thing. Equality of diversity in community. So these are their conversation ads. I'm gonna ask the first question of them. And I really like the number. Oh, Sister Denise. It's my sister. Sister Denise Lerach has the Intercrate Welcome Coalition. I don't know if you're familiar with their work, but Welcoming Migrants. And it's through the bus station and airport, but really an important component in the migrant search that we had. But partnering across faith lines and community lines and sectors has been her real good. But also I think visioning and inspiration to people. We could add that as well. So could I get everybody else's? We're gonna do a lot of three things tonight. So I'm gonna bring up the first question and I'm gonna ask the conversation starters not to talk yet. I want you to really think about the question. I'm gonna give you three minutes. So that you have your answer. Cause some of the things that happen when we get into the conversation, we start morphing our answer. And I want your best answer so that you can share that. But while they're doing that mulling for three minutes, I'm gonna invite all of you to find two other people that you've never talked to before. So you will be in threes and you will have exactly three minutes to tell each other what you bring to this conversation. Okay, but not yet. So here's our first question. Well, first we're gonna look at this was what came out of our first conversation in October. And there were about 10 items that kind of surfaced but this one was repeated over and over again that we need to have explicit and intentional connective work across between all nonprofits, congregations, governmental entities and community which basically means everybody. To work together to collaborate. And so tonight we are specifically talking about working together, collaborating as community. What does that mean? From some people to network. Okay, so the first question and conversation starts just think of your answer. Give our ad, your conversation ad, your life experience to this conversation, name one of the most essential and effective explicit and intentional methods in bridging work across lines and sectors of community. Name one really important, essential, explicit and intentional thing that must be done so that we can partner better across different lines and community. Does that make sense? All right, now, three minutes. Everyone else find two people you've never talked to before. Find a spot, I'm going to time it and you need to share with each other what you have conversations that are so ready. So the question again, name one of the most essential and effective explicit and intentional methods in bridging work across lines and sectors of community. So Edward, you said you would go first. I think going first, there's no long answer, right? What immediately came to my mind is the word inclusiveness or inclusivity, right? And I want to spend a little bit kind of explaining what that means to me and why it's important. So I think most of you all have seen those, the difference between being in the middle of a conversation being inclusive and not being inclusive, right? So I think this is a perfect example of any of them were being inclusive, right? So it's one that is participatory from everyone that's invited. I think there are times where we're approaching problems or solutions or anything that we do collaboratively. People tend to think that just getting invited or inviting the right people or the certain people to be on the invite list is enough, but it's not. I think making sure that everyone has the same access to be able to provide input into that process. That's really what it means to me. And I think that's what builds the best collaborations in terms of the work that I'm trying to accomplish. So not only being invited to the dance, but being asked to be in front of us before being asked to actually dance, right? So everyone here was asked to participate in a conversation. And I think that was kind of a perfect example of being inclusive and getting the most impact from things that we as a community want to accomplish together. Who would like to go next? I like that, because I heard you 100% and wholeheartedly on that and taking it a deep step further into it. I feel that one that we definitely need to focus on is cultivating message sharers and encouraging message sharers to move beyond the boundaries of a situational side of it. San Antonio has a lot of them. When I was asked to participate in this, I don't know how I got my name, but Susan just walked over to me. So Susan gave her my name. I've only met Susan like one time and we're Facebook friends, and she found that I would be a great addition or some sort of an addition, and I'm gonna say great. It's been a day. I mean, I've never been in addition to this discussion. So she just cultivated the message sharer and myself at the same time. On sharing this event, I put it in the group called Black Girls Rock, right? And all of them wanted to know, what is this compassion? What is this office? What is this interfaith? They had not been introduced to it, so I became a message sharer. And that's very important that we, one, identify with people that we don't normally are or specifically identify with and then share the messages of information that we have with them and encourage them to now continue that message sharing. Telephone our development. Thank you. I think the most effective thing, one of the most effective things I think that we have done at Inner City Development, which is a small nonprofit, less than a life from here, is to invite people on a personal level, not when they use group, to come to the center and meet the people who are there, people of poverty, most of our staff, our people from the community. I think it's, you know, a lot of people do a lot of good things for our center, but I think it starts to change lives and starts to connect people when they can connect to the person that is engaged in making changes or helping to make changes with the community. I think it's more valuable sometimes to come and get to know the little girl who needs the shoes almost more than giving shoes. Give the shoes. But how much more valuable it is when we personally connect with people who just like to do want to help. I think the filming bridge is one of the biggest things that I've seen is just like meeting people, like finding out who people are and what people do and to be able to say, hey, we have this me, you know, and just ask people. Like when we had all those immigrants coming, like we eat lunches or we need a place through there and you just keep asking people, you know, do you know anybody for this? You didn't know anybody for that and people help you make other connections. You know, I think of how many people I've just met through doing that. Things happen, you know, and the city comes more and all that and we have all those people. But, you know, I just randomly left people messages and churches or emailed them and said, hey, you know, we need volunteers or, you know, we need help and, you know, are you interested? So, you know, how many of you get a response from? But we do get a lot of responses, but it comes from meeting other people, you know? And what you were saying, I like that point, because there's so much about meeting the people who need to, you know, I think that in a fake book, this was like, how do we help people who can't be there to still meet people? You know, because it's that personal connection and interaction. I go to Nuevo Laredo once a week and like, people don't know what's going on with people on the other side of the border. So, how do we help them meet them? You know, we can make context to meet someone else ourselves, but, you know, getting the letters from the people while there's stories and then trying to share that. So, even though they can't meet you and say, oh, what do you mean? You're like, oh, gosh, your situation's really horrendous, you know? They can't hear that from you, but at least being, you know, a vehicle of helping other people meet each other, too. Thank you. I think for me, it's, when you bring all these organizations together, there's not a lot of equals around the table. There's a lot of status around the table. And then there's also, if this is group work, people who will be forgotten, people who don't have a voice, people who need listening to, so it's mostly the fundamental principle to argue for and stand for is that each person is a gift, not a problem. And that means that then, the police officer can contribute, it means the dad can contribute, it means the young person can contribute, in a different way to only the ways that they think the office will allow them to do. And it also means that people in the community exercise their voice. For me, that's just an around-clad principle. And then people become human with each other, because if each person is of value, then each person has a voice and they can exercise their agency, their possibilities to make change. For me, that's the fundamental story point. And sticking to it, if anybody doesn't treat the other person and give them their place, you hold them accountable for that. Nothing moves until they treat them well. And I think that sense of that dignity and respect for everyone is really the basis of the whole thing. Because we all have our prejudices and biases. Hopefully we're not all racist. But we all have those, and there's such that lack of awareness. And maybe you say something, you do something, and you're kind of like, oh, you know. And it's so easy to just go with that and to judge that other person that does that thing. Well, there's a reason why you feel that way. And to take that opportunity and ask a question, to be curious. You're like, I understand where you're coming from. Because obviously, you have a reason why you, you think the way you do. And it's not just, I'm right, in my perspective, it's the only one. But I think that curiosity is getting to know other people and have those conversations on it. I really love what you say about the value of people in there, which is value, which is value per second. I do want to talk on patterns of the availability to reach messaging in a fire of different understanding to see things from different facets from outside of the paywall. Sometimes it's being accessible to information, which is saddest, or to decision makers. It's expensive. It's really expensive, and they would buy game look tickets. I was talking about, which is pretty good point of view. Game looks easy, just going to get us to make almost $2,000 on just being able to walk around and to take a look around some dry chicken and some rice. And, you know, it's an expensive movement. And I see I look around rooms and there's not a lot of people that look like me in those rooms. And I can only imagine how many women, black women, women in America that are business partners, women that own businesses, are outside of those spaces, wishing and hoping for the type of access that I had because I can purchase a ticket, or because I can pay for a year's supply of information from the business journal. I can put a strategy on the types of sectors and lines and communities that I can engage with. You know, there's a ton of information out there that allows people to access an ability to partner, but then again, it's sitting behind a paywall. And we really don't know how welcoming that community is because we don't have any idea what's going on behind those closed doors, a lot of the times. So a lot of, I find that I identify with a lot of the business owners, whether they look like me or not, whether they've had the same upbringing with me, or not, however, there's an outside culture that will believe that, you know, there's bias viewpoints and there's prejudices, mainly because they just couldn't buy a ticket to see that there's programs happening in your favor. There's invitations that you can answer and respond to, there's trainings, there's resources. There's all types of things. So I like what you said about the prejudices, but I feel like if there was just a little bit of discount, we'd define it, there might not be anything prejudices. I think several of those, and they commented already about the importance of that personalism or coming closer, and I think I've been at so many meetings when there are people running nonprofits or running a church that want to do good, want to do something about poverty, but many times they're not people that are really connected to the community. Their office might be there, but again, it comes back to those relationships that really make the difference and help us to better understand how to make a decision in the work that we want to do. And also, hopefully, the closer you come to the people you want to serve, you find out it's better served when you're all working together that it's not doing something for somebody, but doing something with something with better understanding for the closer you're getting with the people. Kind of sharing a bit of the reconciliation is something we're involved in. Some of our colleagues set up a program for dads of five and six shows from working class areas. Dads in working class areas are not seen as people of value. They're not seen as educators, but they desperately wanted to be seen as that. And this project only takes the dads away with the teachers and some of the senior board of the school and their five and six shows for two nights. And when they arrive, the dads haven't a clue what to do. Often, their heads are low, they're not sure why they came. They came because their partner forced them to come. And two nights later, they are walking around and walking onto the bus with their heads at high because suddenly they are an educator as part of their children's future. That to me is about, you know, everybody has a gift of, everybody has potential. All right, so these are the things I've heard. And not in the order that I've heard them this weekend, but doing it with others. Affordable access into this. Cultivating spaces of curiosity and dignity, accountability, inclusive invitations into the conversation as well as being in the conversation. I show cultivating message sharers, personal relationships, meeting the people with needs and help people meet those who cannot actually meet. To create a culture, a space, where what we're talking about is gift, not problem, which makes me ask the question, how do we take that word poverty and make it gift? But to be seen as well as heard and recognized as people of value. Is that kind of something? Okay, so I'm going to turn this to the triads. You have the same question, to name a method that you can also piggyback on things you've heard, but to name those methods, okay? Anybody have any questions? You'll have about, there are three people, you have 15 minutes, so you've got to have the same thing they have about three minutes each. You'll have to get to this. So today, steps to building a bridge, so somebody can like go with that, can find out that there's steps to building a bridge. There are also 50 steps to building a bridge. So there's no conclusive how many steps there are. That's what it's called, bridge. So the next question, and since we're building community and the relationship as well, if you were to consider those three steps in bridge building, what order would they go with? Be missing, what tweaks might be needed given the content and context of poverty? To add that finally. And where would you begin and then why? So all of you do partnering and you do building, so you've got to start somewhere, right? You've got to start somewhere. And really as far as I know, even building a bridge, you've just got to start, right? You've just got to start. So a lot of what does happen in our community conversations, we come up with a lot of ideas, but we're going to start to build a concrete bridge. We want to make this real. So we got to start thinking in real steps. So I'm going to hand this and their challenge, I think they're thinking, I don't know what is the answer. I don't know if you know who's first. If you talk about, what order would they go, where would you start? I can relate to what it was like for me when I first moved into the community. And as a white woman in the neighborhood, this 97, 98% of Mexican-American back in 69, I had a speech about whether or not I could be accepted. And we had a conversation back and forth. Well, one of the things he said went in advice for how to start. He said, to begin, don't do anything, just be with us and get to know us and you'll know. And I think that comes at the very root of all the connectedness that we talk about having in order to be connected to have a perhaps bigger impact. But I think it has to be a repeated step. It's a really step, and I think a critical step to be repeated over and over to get to know you before you take action. I very much agree with that. I mean, we gotta be learners first, right? You can't just assume we know the situation and all the components and pieces, but it takes time to learn. And everybody has their bits of information. You know, we tried to build, we came up with the southern order of relief to communicate along the border who's really what and what's going on, because everybody has a little piece of the information. Everyone's situation is different. Like, how do you get the whole picture if you're not getting all those little pieces, right? How do you build a bridge to be over the terrain? You know, you're going in a rock or sand or whatever, but that sense that we need to learn of what we did. And so often, we just jump in I think for me, it would be don't spend much time with people like yourself. I spend a lot more time listening to people who have different life experiences than me. So do you become advocates with them for things that they care about? Because they often want the people who are hurt. We are the ones who are hurt. We need to listen to them. I'm just a big scholar at this, but I'm going to try to answer here. So the very first thing I think is when you build a bridge, you expect travel from both directions. So that's important to note that we're not just building a ladder to at least move around, but we're building a bridge where we're talking about going on both sides, right? And so I think the idea of venturing in other people who are in this environment, who live on one side of the sea and never, ever, ever venture to the other side of the city itself. So just basically when you are kind of dismissed a portion of what can reach you, I think it's important. So poverty itself, it's not just a zero to a hundred scale, zero or a hundred, it has a scale in itself. And when you are feeling yourself dismissed a lot of what is good about other people or other locations, I think everyone suffers. So I think the very first thing we need to address is our dismissal of things that we don't consider valuable. I'd like to start and go back to me as you, right? I think it's important to do something beginning. And when we're thinking about building a bridge, I was having a conversation earlier in the group about, you know, at first I'm thinking, well, we need to build this bridge that everybody can fit on. Maybe we need to make multiple bridges. It's not just one bridge. Eventually we'll get to a big bridge, right? So being immediate and being intentional. And then I think also being, having a hard conversation about communication, right? I think when we talk about poverty, 10 people tend to shy away from having an honest conversation about there aren't people living in neighborhoods that are in poverty. And what does that mean? Sho was just saying that we were talking about this earlier as well. And he said, I'm not sure how many of you are living in poverty, but I'm sure it's probably not represented in this group in this meeting here. That's an assumption. Until we have a conversation about it, it would say it was a continuous day of assumption. But it's important to talk about that and to have the conversation about it in order to look forward. So I think to me, the first step is really to just do something, right? And start talking. And I think the doing is really about the conversation. That's why I chose to come, right? To have the conversation. So bringing that into consideration of the megalodilane and the non-megalodilane, what are people in poverty talking about? What is their conversation? Is it surrounding bridging? Or is it surrounding bridging to maybe a higher position or just getting more money? Is it surrounding increasing the world view or figuring out how to get to work? You know, I feel like when I'm having these conversations about building bridges and merging, building emerging communities out of two different, three different or four different community groups, we kind of lose that smaller voice that's already not being heard for the sake of the solution. People in poverty right now, and I raised my hand and chose that, I'm losing power, I have 40 or 50 dollars, it's too long that it's crippling me. You know, but other people can't pay section eight rent or they don't have bus fare to get across town or the time it takes to get across town on the bus makes them lose their low wage position. So I feel that there are so many different bridges that we need to build. Figuring out which one to do first has to be the hardest question to be asked today because tomorrow morning is another day when people have more worries on top of more worries and we are taking time to figuring out a border. Am I getting a somewhere? It's like a never ending cycle of solution driving and we still have a room made up of people that we are really trying to engage with. Well, I also think that it's not necessarily one size fits all, right? So there are people that are living in poverty that have various situations, right? So I've met people, I've worked with people that are waiting, they don't know where they're at, what's in there? They don't know when they're gonna get their next meal. But there's other folks that are living in poverty that are worried about how they're gonna get their kids to school the next day, so. I think it's not a fit all for everyone. So there's situational things that, it's hard to say, well, this is the prescriptive way to get things to, I think we're thinking more about solutions and kind of the process. But getting back to the process I think it's by having a conversation that there are, what I'm learning from it is that there are different, there's not one size fits all and you have to meet people where they're at, right? Not where we want them to be or where other people want them to be, but where they want. Sometimes it's hard to think about the next, where you want to be in two years and you don't know where you're gonna be tomorrow. I think we all have individual indexes of what poverty means and that's what she's basically stated. So to create a process or an order that we have to determine, I think my idea of poverty is completely different from anyone else's in this room, I can assure you. Because I've seen people, in Lagos, Nigeria, where I was born, if you're a boy, you basically can't do nothing to eat, right? So it's not gonna suffice you to be aware, today's worth of HGP bread is down to new events and you're poor here, they're all like, what's the bet and what effect? My sister feeds homeless people every Saturday, 250 and some of them inject the food. So that's, so food in some areas is an indication of what poverty is. Here, that's not the case. So an international kind of job and I would look over that and still feel all these seven areas might be a fiction of some sort. So we have to make that determination as to who defines, who, what's that stand, if it can't be yours, it can't be Mrs. Remain. And people, I can tell you that I'm poor in some areas. I mean, but you can talk about just well-being a house, a room, and an income, then let's just step over that and we can address it, but that becomes politics. There's been some disastrous bridges. I think a lot of this is a permanent, one of them last that I just wasn't going anywhere. I went to the school in Ohio and it was bright, but I wasn't quite at home. But I went to the school in Ohio and right across the bridge was West Virginia and they were gonna build another bridge. So West Virginia is building their half of the bridge. Ohio is building their half of the bridge. They got close, they realized the bridge was money for them to meet. I mean, this is true story, true story. I mean, I had to deconstruct and all that, but I think for me it's kind of like the next step that we're talking about. I mean, first it's just like, okay, let's see. And then it's just like, oh, we're trying to get to. And both sides aren't really, you know, it's not like that. You know, that's what people are saying. It's just like, okay, those living in poverty, you know, they have their goal where they wanna get to and they're like, oh, we're gonna fix the world for you and this is what we're gonna do for you. And it just doesn't match, you know? And it's just like, why is this not working? We did this for you, that's where you play. They're like, oh, you didn't ask for that? That's not what we want. That's not helpful, I still can't get to work, you know? Well, I think I'm sort of frozen with the idea that, you know, I don't know if there's a mindset of everybody coming together and discovering how to solve poverty, you know? And I think there are deeper things. Again, I think it comes back to these relationships, but I think some of the comments like, you know, it's not one size fits all. It's again that everything, I think it somehow has to be personalized. And again, I emphasize the idea of doing things with people. And in our community center, the people who run the programs today are the people, the person who runs the clothing room, needed clothing 50 years ago, the person running the lunch line for the homeless who welcome half the people that are coming to the sat lunch program sometimes. Because it's very community-built. And as I said, there's different levels and people are on the bridge and don't have anything to eat if it's not for some programs like the non-profits offer. But, you know, I was involved in the establishment of Haken for Hope and has wonderful, wonderful services, but it's not the answer for everything. We try to get every answer inside Haken for Hope, but it's still, it's not enough. But what makes it done do good, I think, is the love and the caring that's at the base and the development of relationships with the people who are there. But I think it's overwhelming to try to think, you know, what is that answer? What can we do? Come on, there's a lot of us. We know, you know, we've been working at this for a long time. What can we do? But I think we have to remind that it's somehow or other that comes into our own personal talents of how we can engage, the willingness of the community that we may be trying to engage with. It is complicated and I'm, you know, just going to promote the idea that we've got to find a lot of creative ideas that's going to be based through engagement in person. You know, I'm with you in this, I'm not romantic, but since the beginning, I'm sure it has all the abilities like all of the institutions, but I think there's a wonderfully transformative college. Because what I've experienced sitting there is many staff who themselves have that hardship in life, sitting with students, great stories, real literature, talk about their lives and find that they're not alone, not alone because a tutor understands them, they've sat where they've sat, and not alone because they also find other members of the class are on the same struggle and the same journey. So something that's this notion that a poverty of isolation is overcome for me and some of those wonderful classrooms that students really begin in a small way to take off and fly their wings because they know they're not alone. But I think that's a form of poverty that really helps people over the world. I'm going to get a little bit of a rise with the time since I'm going to send Antonio from Detroit. I worked with two organizations. One of the first was SAM Ministries and the second one was Workforce Solutions, Alamo, and both of them used the term before their issue, which was either homelessness or unemployment, and that term was chronic. Chronic unemployment, chronic homelessness, and that was the term that was defined as the people that kind of want to be there. They've used the care options, they deny the additional solutions, and if I'm lying, I didn't want to understand it. I didn't want to believe that people would refuse care that can level them up on poverty or give them a step forward. And in my business, of course, my motto was we can define it, and we can move past it because that's what you're about to pay a ton of money to do. And once it worked, was the other time it didn't. So parking into the chronic lander and your employee, those people that need second chance positions, people that need to be hired without a degree or have been incarcerated or fired for some arongous reason. Those people, those chronic lander and employee, as we market them, we saw lines around homeless for jobless, as we market it to those audiences. And when we attempted to engage with the chronicly homeless, the people that accepted drug addiction, that repeatedly been kicked out of apartments, whatever their circumstances may be, we saw a little to no trickle in of people available to receive care. And I began to ask the questions of access, one, and then to fill in my career along with it. Fill in like you don't, and like no one else is seeing your perspective and understanding your point of view and understanding your circumstance. So why get the care, because it's not what I needed. The unemployed persons saw that you were giving them an in and an open door, whereas the homeless person saw that you were trying to release their situation and wanted to wade them away from some others. If you have a physician who's getting a full-time job and you know that your employers want to take some sort of care of you, whereas if you're jumping into some state or federal assigned housing, you're being watched, you're being overlooked there. What is the standard of care our resources are willing to provide that is an oversight? I think we're gonna break the place to transition. So these are the things I heard, to be learners with others, to get that full picture of what is, where it's going, to consider our own dismissal, to venture to other parts, do something immediate, have honest conversations, the critical conversations, that we need many bridges. What's the scene, where are we trying to go to? Love and care, not alone, out of isolation. These are the things that I heard. The critical thing is, we're moving into the next, sorry, I'm jumping ahead myself. So I'm putting this back out here into our triads. I will have about 10 minutes for the conversation to continue among everybody else and then we'll come back to our third question. And there's nothing wrong with that. And if y'all, there's nothing that you can do with it. Conversation. There's more of a change of the process. It's close in, and this question is generally the question, and it's a lot messier than that. And so it was really great, y'all didn't like this revolving. If we don't take a step, nothing happens. So something has, some step has to occur. So one of the best news parts of that is that we're taking a step and y'all showed up tonight. That's a step. But when we leave this room, what happens next? It's a question. So question three, in your conversation circles, agree together upon the necessary first step. What do you think? What could be that next step, a step? And specifically define it, need to go talk to. What is that thing? When, how are we to working together and collaborative action in addressing this? Now I've heard something, I've already got an idea, but I'm not sharing it. But I've been listening and I think a step has been defined. When the conversation starts, what step? If we were gonna really, don't make this night worth it, we're all invested time and time is one of those most valuable gifts. So what's an important step that could be taken? Now that might be because we have many bridges. And not many of the groups we have here, but if we have 20 little groups, it can be 20 bridges and 20 steps. Not that they all connect to each other. So in a sense, we're not coming up with one step for the group. But the conversation starters are going to focus on each step. A small story, about eight months ago, I went to Mark's side, I went to East side. And I was like, all the time I was gonna have a burger all by myself. And there was a group of five who were there and they were having a meeting about the stuff and I was e-struck because of the ending whether it was Twitter or just random conversations around me, I'm too impudent. And they were kind of wrong with a lot of stuff. So I had to jump into their conversations, like no, you know, I want to talk about my business, bro, you gotta go over here and I want you to say and you want to come. So in a way, they were kind of poor with the money information that they had. I just don't have to have a lot of information. So I hooked them up with it, right? Usually I charge people a lot of money for that. It was a consultation call, so it said kind of like, so people could come in and I was just pointing to kind of stuff that I found out since I've been here only nine years. Back for eight months, we've been meeting here every Friday at 11.30 and all over the business are open to joy, it's called free game Friday. And we call it free game because we give it in game it's like open to joy in terms of like skews and stuff. And so we call it free game because we don't charge for our consultations and no one really believes that all of our information is all of the information. So it's a really great open source opportunity to get insights and scoops and opportunities and whatever it may be, maybe even a couple laughs and definitely not a free burger because burgers cost $10. But it has become our thing that we use to make sure the messaging that we need to pull in is shared to another community, right? And it's our group, it's our what, it's our win. And we don't know what it's going to become but I know it's something that I have my all to join in and do and really encourage you to give what is a free game and encourage you to kind of build your own little table. It doesn't have to be a workshop on 11.30 on Friday but you know, it could be. You decide on what you're doing together because we're working together so just to make sure we're clear on that. We're gonna do this together. Well, I am there as an example. I'm old and I'm frustrated in at home we have not really got this going. But I am really convinced that all the contribution will be to create schools where everybody is expelled from. To create places such as schools where everybody has to find a new way of negotiating with one another so that the best for children and young people is found. That teachers don't have fear, that parents need safe and staff feel valued. For me, I would build, I would build restorative schools. I would get all the members of the board and come from religious communities or trade unions or humanitarian groups to all my into this. Why? Because if you train six and seven and eight year olds to resolve conflicts, to treat one another well, to mitigate one another and contribute to one another's well being because that's what a restorative school would do. When they become 15, they carry that message. When they become 20 and they fall in love, they carry that message. When they become parents, they then resolve things differently. I personally think that will be one big contribution out of aloneness, out of isolation and for some people out of poverty. I've seen it work in New Zealand, I've seen it work in Minnesota, I've seen it work in Britain, I've seen it work in Ireland. I just think it would be mind blowing to give people new ways to live without being conflictual and without scapegoating and being violent to one another, especially in my society, expelling kids from school that costs 25,000 pounds a year. How could that money be used differently if it was kept in the school because the school didn't expel anything? We have to decide that every engagement we have shouldn't necessarily be transactional and what I mean by that is that when we step out of this space and the next individual we actually meet can be a decision kind of voicing their intent whether that individual is worthy of being invited to your life or you're just not being acknowledged at all. So I think poverty, the way we define it, it's not necessarily just, to me, it's an imbalance. It's not necessarily just homeless or individuals who don't have enough. It's individuals who are holding too much and that's why I think it works as your project and I thought that as well. Also what I think with the school as well, I think that is something that we need to decide. So it's not just something that we address and something that we also address if we don't feel poor in ourselves as well. I just think it's so important to keep mentioning that. So if you are dismissive of something, you are in a way, I don't know, I don't like to explain it better than, you know, I know that I only discovered, I'll give you an example. I know it's kind of far-flung, but I found that the noodle tastes exactly like a soup that my grandmother used to cook in my beach. And the only way I could figure that out was like, you know, the strike, one day, this went out and he said, exactly that and I have that every Sunday now, right? Now I'm finding my chain of restaurants so I can dismiss it a little bit, but it was a great substitute. Now this is thousands of miles away and when I tell people I haven't really got the, some people that are, I don't know, like, you know, I said, but that is what makes me feel alive. It then reaches me, but it's something that for a lot of people might be considered less important. The ideal venturing is so important. It's so important. When we talk about kids not being magma or the witty bingo in public access and you don't, there's no way you can find African American youth walking around the area under magma and not being challenged and stopped several times. So whether the museum is open and free and it's, they don't have to pay for it, they still can't get back in itself. But that's the first field that we don't see. So poverty, in a way, it's a way, it's kind of an enforced thing for people who are not necessarily poor as well. It's so important to, it's not something that is one-sided, it's a balance. Okay, that makes sense. I think the, you know, there's community organizing groups here in San Antonio that do a lot to bring people together and let them speak about, you know, the needs in their community and all those things. And I think such a big piece to this whole process is like empowering those who are having that need who have the problem who need the solution. And so often it's just other people, putting the solution on them. And what we've done to do that on a bigger scale is just, you know, a lot of people are afraid of going into unfamiliar situations. And I can be accepted, you know, while I speak up or people, you know, crazy for speaking up or, but you know, how could those community organizing things be done on a bigger scale so that we're reaching more neighborhoods or not necessarily we're reaching more neighborhoods, but that more neighborhoods are involved in that kind of thing, you know what I mean? And that they help make those schools for getting to know each other. We don't know our neighbors anymore in certain places. You know, we were talking about the technology, you know, before, you know, everyone used to sit out on their stoop for, you know, the courts and people, you know, the kids played in the street. And now you have to be able to then be an activity. And, you know, how can we get some of that back and then use that to really see, you know, what are the issues in our area? You know, where we live, you know, if you go on the North side, it's gonna be different than on the South side. So it's not all gonna be the same, but you know, to create the atmosphere where people, where everybody has a voice, you know, and it's easier to say that you do it because some of us just have, you know, the answers, right? I'm not sure if we've decided on what our step is, right? I think I'm hearing a couple of different things, but for me, I think personally, I think the step is to just do something, right? So I think we've, I'll commit to doing something and doing something through our networks of things that I can't do, right? One, and then being able to circle back with this community and be part of a larger coalition or a larger body of being able to say that we're doing something, right? So I think it's hard to put the steps in chart. You would explain these, I will tell you that on Thursday, there's gonna be a presentation at the city council about power and what the city's planned, what the city's approach is to be going forward. And I think, you know, I definitely can be part of that. And I think we should probably all see how we can put some synergy and energy behind that, specifically with everybody that we have contacts with, right? So I think just in this one group, we talked about several stakeholder groups and communities that we're part of. How do we influence those communities too to do what we haven't defined to do yet but to just commit them to doing it? I guess as a personal step, I don't want to create a first step without a room that's engaged with people in poverty. If that's what we're doing here and it's trying to do what that means to you. I think we, if there's any step, I think we have to figure out how those of us here can have this conversation with people in poverty. Oh, is that right? What is the first step being, how are you gonna get them in a second? Well, people need to engage with them on some level. Figure out how you will know them and there's some of us in this room who know people in poverty, but they're not here. Yeah, I mean, does anyone consider themselves poor? Is there a very nice room here? In any way. In any way? Of course, poverty is poverty here. And we can't define poverty for whatever it is. I mean, I consider myself poor, huh? That's not, you know, we have a financial poverty, we have emotional poverty, spiritual poverty. Anyway, and that's true, but I think, it seems to me like a lot of our focus has been around the poverty that is very physical, very physical, and in that regard, I'm speaking of because those are the people who know, how they speak, they know what their dreams are, they know what their needs are, and it may be very different the way they think, but we know what's been good for us. It's not necessarily good for them, and we need to hear those voices, and I think it's invalid to move forward. We're gonna move from here into your conversations, but just so you know, these books continue to converse, right, when you're conversing, it moves forward. And so we're gonna talk again for another like 10 minutes. Try to be as specific as possible so you know what you're gonna do when you walk out of this room. And the thing that I heard in this overall was like a gating imbalance, and then that community organizing in a way where everyone has voice in rooms that are diverse, and to do that through networks and come back. And then I'm suggesting maybe the building of circles and like school aspect, those are examples of where that could move into. That's what I'm hearing, but we still don't have like what have we done in the walk out of this room, right? So, I gave you time to talk amongst yourselves, and these folks hopefully are gonna wire that out to them themselves. We'd love to hear from others, but we need some like concrete specifics when you turn back. We're on the outreach committee, and we were just talking about the idea of taking this stigma away from what poverty is, this actionable first step. We all have three and a half, four months until we meet again, right? We all came here from some organization that works in communities with, we're here for a reason, we all spend a night and for a reason, what if over the next three and a half, four months, we went back to those places and made real friends? Like an actual real friend who listened and found someone who was experiencing a different type of poverty than we are, right? And came up with a synergistic, healthy, functioning friendship with someone and brought them next time. There's enough space there to enter into this room for all of us to be friends, but not a friend who's experiencing life the same way we are with a friend who's experiencing poverty and almost the flip side of the point that we are. He was applauding. Danny, discussing different perspectives of what poverty is, and I've had the pleasure of experiencing a poverty simulator and I think it is a depth experience that enables you to see it from a different standpoint because I believe we all have our story of what our poverty was, right? We all have our stories, but a poverty simulator is just that, it really gives you a true in-depth experience of where you're having your life to be able to compare and contrast what the realities are for people who are in poverty today compared to where we're at today. So decisions that are being made at the poverty simulator is, do I make the house payment or the rent payment today? Yeah, I know. We're gonna go to the homeless shelter tonight because I need to feed you and I need to take you to the doctor's appointment. These are decisions that our families are making on a daily basis, but on some level, we're not making those decisions. So when we say let's invite somebody who's really experiencing those situations right now, poverty simulator is very real and very in-depth and it takes about an hour to an hour and a half of your time and I think collectively together, if we could share that experience together, when we're looking at the who, what, when, we would really have a very good platform to execute, to be able to start making decisions on what does that truly look like until you're truly experiencing it and you're making those decisions directly impacting your family and that given situation. We think we have the solutions, but we don't. We don't because we are not in it. We're not living it and we're not making those decisions. Some of you're suggesting poverty simulator to amend your gathering. Another great idea that needs to be shared wants to be shared, of course, sister Jan. Well, there's an organization that's been in town for almost 50 years, it's called COPS, Metro. COPS, the COPS organization is very organizing. It was organized, oh, I don't know how many years ago, in the 60s, I think it's 50 years ago, actually started in Catholic churches on the West side and what it does is exactly what we're calling for, it provides an opportunity for people to come together and talk about their needs, to be done at homes and to be done at larger communities, but the process is established, they train the leaders to work with this. It's, they probably put almost half a billion dollars into neighborhood improvements around the city of San Antonio over this time. Do people think in getting organized, they were pretty ruthless in tactics to get the attention of leaders and they're still being blamed for that. However, Tom Frost, who got us his son, was converted, his bank was converted in East support. He ended up a huge supporter of COPS. I suggest that neighborhood groups, church groups, parish groups, organized groups of other kinds, participate in the process, have leaders trained to facilitate these conversations. It's not, it's already in place. So why don't we use it and not be afraid of it and support it? So that, I'm gonna continue to be a member of COPS Metro and attend their meetings. I think thanks with that. One, if you have individually or as a collective, a great idea, because we're not gonna be able to be here tomorrow. I would really like it if you could write that down and give that to me before you leave because we don't wanna lose those things and we can get that information to everyone. So I do have some index cards if you don't have something right on and Cynthia's up there too. So if you need a card to write your idea down, just raise your hand to bring that to you. The other thing that I've heard listening to this circle and now I'm listening to the ideas is that there are many bridges in this room, many bridge builders. So it's not necessarily going to be the one same step, right? But I think the step is to do something. You're gonna take a step. Yeah, we're gonna take a step together. Is there like one more great idea that just needs to be shared? I'm kind of hoping maybe one from the center circle would do that. Well, I'm really encouraging you to write down those ideas so we don't lose them and they'll also be going out in information and then form together. So I'm gonna tell you my next step after listening to all of this. So the future conversations that we're having in this four-part series, the next one's March 31st and it's entitled Changing the Landscape. And it's gonna feel really nice I can get to this one. It'll be 630 to 830, just like this. I don't know where yet, but it's starting to develop in my head. So my invitation is this and this is the step I'm going to take. So it's gonna sound familiar because I've been listening. I didn't have a step before, right? But that we do leave this space and intentionally meet people and see them for who they are. So to be awake, right? And engaging. And try to get to know someone at least or to appreciate the someone you already know. And to continue to involve the networks that I know as well in this process. And I want to invite all of you to work with me to come back on March 31st with your someone's new friends, the people you now know, so that we can learn together on how to change the landscape, literally, of our city when it comes to poverty and archaeography and how we're dealing with each other. But we need to be learning from each other. So that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna work towards that. And you don't have to limit how many people you bring to one someone. And so I know what that means with Patty. So she's gonna fill the room. What are the rest of you gonna do? Right? Seriously. So that's what I'm inviting you into. So then closing, because it's 8.28, I don't know how to expect your turn, three things. Email. If you aren't getting the news we can use each week from the faith-based initiative, and you would know what it was talking about if you do, if you don't, I would encourage you to give us your email. And Cynthia can take that as well, again on the card or scrap piece of paper, because it will keep you informed and also getting that information. But we'll keep you informed about the next gathering on lunch three first. On your chairs, you receive a very fancy professional looking word document in white, right? But a menu of meaning. So perhaps tomorrow or tonight, there's an area that you're already very interested in working on. This is up-to-date information of areas of concern and bridge building and work that's going on in the community, how it relates to poverty, things that are happening, but also two contact names, one within the community and one within the city structure. So if you or your congregation or organization want to get involved, you have somebody that you can go to. So that's what that menu is for. It's for you to be about the work. And we always have a table and a space in terms of our resources. So next time you come, if you want to bring a flyer or a brochure or something that you want to have people to find out about, there's a few of those on the table by the exit, but I really want to mention, it's safer to you, the San Antonio Community Resource Directory, because it's already doing that work of connecting community with the needs and the resources. So if you don't know about it, Keith is over there, he's going to wave his hand and you can stop and talk to him about that. But it's a free online resourcing directory. And refillations. Oh yeah, it could use money, but like more money. And I'm just going to ask, I'm going to put Edward on the spot at 8.30. He just moved to his new position on January 15th. So, I'm going to put him on the spot. Is it true that in neighborhood and housing services that they're working on an effort, and I don't want this for sure, that they're working on an effort to break together all the neighborhood association leadership and do some work with them? Am I right? Do you know? That's the story. Oh yeah. Do you have any details? Sure. Maybe. Because I think it relates to what we've been talking about. So we're trying to gather input from existing neighborhood associations that are registered with the city of San Antonio to gather input about framing some policy around how to create boundaries. I think there is recently been some discussion. I think we haven't had this problem in the past where there's a neighborhood, there's a neighborhood association that boundaries set. But most recently there's been some instances where people that either are not unaware of the neighborhood boundary or want to create a new great neighborhood boundary about what's the process to create another neighborhood boundary or separate that overlap. And right now we're trying to see how do we do that? What's the best approach for that? So we're trying to get input from the neighborhood association of the community on how we address that. So there's not a clear kind of well-existent. The way that code works now is if you're a registered association with a boundary, then that's the neighborhood. We don't govern what that is. We're the people of record. But there is some discussion on how do we deal with that instance and we're trying to get some input on that. I'm thinking neighborhood associations would be a great place to create community where you can tell where the boundaries are. Right. I just think the other thing is it's really a great communication tool. So we're utilizing it obviously for things that are important for their community that they live close to. So if you have your own case or you have something in the development code, you get notified. But it's also a series of bonus community meetings that once happening tonight, I think, or just every night this week. And we set that up to all the people that are registered in that community registered. So it's a great communication tool. We're trying to make it so that it's two-way, but at this point it's one-way. And how many approximately neighborhood associations are there? So there's a little over 300. But we know that there's close to 1,000 that are on the next door. So think about if we were to really strategically think about that, what could happen. And? Yes, sir. We need to cross it. I know you need to cross it. I'm not going to say much, except we met. The neighborhood leadership academy met last Tuesday. It would have been nice if they invited here tonight. You can do that next time. How many were there? 80. Oh, see, so Patty's still in this room. You're bringing 80 next time. I'm getting a bigger space. Thank you all for coming. Please let us hear your email.