Community Weaving e-Presentation

1. Community Weaving: Creative solution for a new century
Convener: Christ for the City International
A collaborative project to create resilient and thriving communities
adaptive to change
CW Coordinator: Mark Pomeroy
Lincoln, NE
(402) 617-4959
mark@cfci.org
“The more resourceful we are among ourselves, the more valuable a resource we
become to our families, our communities and our world.”
Cheryl Honey

2. Community Weaving: A new solution for a new century
www.communityweaving.org
Community Weaving (CW) alleviates suffering and increases civic engagement as it weaves a
Family Support Network of Good Neighbor volunteers in the community. “Good Neighbors” pool
their resources to support one another, organize activities fun for all ages and spearhead community
service initiatives that can be tapped by organizations and first responders to serve the broader
community.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead
Community Weaving is a long-term process to increase volunteerism, civic engagement and social capital.
It identifies peoples’ talents, possessions & experiences at the grassroots level in schools, churches,
neighborhoods, companies, and civic groups, so people don’t fall through the cracks. It weaves the tangible
resources of the grassroots with the skills and expertise of formal organizations to create an
interdependent functioning community system

3. “It occurs to me that this is not a neighborhood; it
is only a collection of unconnected individuals”
Philip Langdon
Why don’t neighbors ask for help when
they need it?
Why don’t neighbors offer to help their
neighbors in need?
Responses from neighbors:
 “I’m afraid of being judged if others knew about the situation”
 “People don’t care”
 “I don’t know who to ask”
 “I’m too busy to get involved”
 “It’s none of my business”
 “Don’t want to get sued”
 “Neighbors might think I’m too nosey”
 “If I help them, they will expect me to help them in the future”
Who started Community Weaving?
In 1993, Cheryl Honey, pioneer of Community Weaving, was a single mother of four children struggling to
make ends meet. She applied for assistance from a local agency and was treated like she was broken and
needed to be fixed. She asked the caseworker to connect her to her neighbors, but the caseworker said it
would violate liability and confidentiality policies. Cheryl realized in that moment what
her calling was. She gathered a small group of neighbors together at an elementary
school and they created a safe place to start Family Support Networking. Neighbors
shared issues impacting their lives and found the support they needed to make tough
choices to improve their quality of life. They made friends and got the support they
needed to solve their own problems. Speakers shared information about programs
and services that families expressed interest in learning about. The neighbors self-
organized to help each other. Everyone who attended agreed to be Good Neighbors
and pooled their resources. Over time agencies asked the Good Neighbors to volunteer
to assist their clients and Community Weaving was born as networks sprang up all
across the country.

4. “If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit
of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the
loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant
social club with no meaning for the 20th century.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Technology helps weave community and informs leaders
The Good Neighbors website (www.goodneighbors.net) was developed by Good Neighbor volunteers. It is a
free web-based tool to help people find what they need and search for resources to help others to improve
conditions in the community. Features of this user-friendly technology include:
 Inventory assets: skills, equipment, tools, and experience
 Form groups based on location or affinity
 Post social, educational and recreational activities
 Publish rosters of groups
 Publish alphabetized resource directories
 Tabulate volunteer hours and correspond to demographics
 Capture details about issues and lessons learned
The Good Neighbors technology offers leaders valuable information about what is occurring in the
community. Leaders utilize this data to help them be more responsive to the needs of the people.
Making a difference in someone’s life
An example of how Community Weaving works is when a “Good Neighbor” who was a bank employee invites a
customer who is a local plumber to be a “Good Neighbor.” It is a great way to break his daily routine that kept
him isolated from community. She signed him up as a “Good Neighbor” and he offered
$1,000 of in‐kind plumbing services. Two weeks later a teacher calls a “Community
Weaver” in the network about a student whose grandmother wasn’t able to afford
plumbing repairs on leaky pipe. Plumber’s name comes up on a database search and is
contacted by the “Community Weaver” to fix the pipe. Plumber’s life is touched by
helping this family. He decides he wants to volunteer to conduct a workshop on fixing leaky pipes to teens at
an after school program. He discovered that he had been too skeptical about people and that sometimes
people really do need a helping hand.
Community Weavers bridge gaps across community systems
Community Weavers are caring community citizens who come from all
walks of life. Some are professionals in organizations, faith-based
communities, schools and businesses. Others who like to help people and
have discretionary time can also be Community Weavers if they have a
phone line and know how to use a computer. Community Weavers are
certified after completing training and passing a background check. They
serve as bridges between organizations and advocate for individuals to get
the help they need. They coach callers how to access the resources they
need to help themselves, as well as connect those requesting assistance
with trained volunteer Family Advocates.

5. Neighbors have a lot of resources they are willing to share
Communities are filled with an array of gifts and assets. Individuals are multi-talented and have many resources,
but barriers prevent them from sharing these gifts. Even consumers of services such as welfare recipients,
people with disabilities, those with mental health issues and veterans, all have something they can contribute to
help a neighbor in need or volunteer in the community.
Many responsible and responsive citizens are willing to share their time, talents and resources with people they
trust. The environmentally conscious are networking and creating coops to reduce consumption. There is an
enormous amount of untapped resources that would benefit the whole community.

6. Organizations have skills and expertise they are willing to share
Organizations in communities provide programs, services and have trained professionals. These are called
Community Assets. Many people who would benefit from these resources are not able to access them for
many different reasons. Take a moment and list reasons why these resources are not accessible to all
community members?
Due to budget cuts & staff reductions, many talented professionals are transferred to other departments or
seek jobs in fields unrelated to their experience and training. What happens to training curriculums,
materials & videos when funding runs out and programs eliminated? Community Weaving has developed
tools to maintain access to these skilled professionals and all these valuable skill-building materials.

7. Our mission in life is to weave community
"Helping Hands" by Nina, 3rd Prize, Grades 9-12
God has a mission for all of our lives. The common thread among all believers is we are called to be Good
Neighbors. We are not here for others to meet our expectations. We are called to be compassionate and
merciful to our neighbors. This is the common thread that runs across all belief systems. Our skills and
experience are the gifts God gave us to help ourselves and our neighbors in need. The time has come to
shift beliefs from a philosophy to a practice for faith-based communities to manifest in communities.
Borrowing material from Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford’s new book, Right Here Right Now: Everyday Mission for
Everyday People, to be published in Jan. 2011:
There must be an intersection of Spiritual Formation (in Self), Common Community (in the Body)
and Missional Living (in the World).
We don’t take God into a mission. We are missionaries bringing God’s love into the world.

8. Creating Collaborative Partnerships across Community Sectors
We are facing tough challenges ahead and community organizations want to collaborate more effectively.
Each partner designates a representative from their organization, school, faith-based community or business
to be a CW Liaison. They also identify individuals who will be trained and serve as Community Weavers.
Community Weavers design strategies to recruit and engage their constituents as Good Neighbors to weave
the fabric of community. Collaborative Partners provide a list of resources they are willing to share including
books, videos, curriculums, meeting space, speakers and workshops that can be used to increase knowledge
and skill sets of the Good Neighbor volunteers.
Community Weaving is a turn-key bottom-up capacity building approach that breaks down silos by creating
collaborative partnerships across community sectors. The approach is integrated into established
infrastructures and enhances service delivery systems.

9. Years ago when there weren’t as many agencies to rely on, people relied on each other. Their interactions
were the interwoven strands of the patchwork of community. This weaving affect served as a safety net and
neighbors cared for each other.
Over the years times changed and a number of factors played into the unraveling of the fabric of community.
People started falling through the cracks and into the streets during the great depression. The War on Poverty
created a new safety net of organizations funded by government to help meet the needs of the people. Fewer
people relied on their neighbors and started turning to agencies.
This became the way communities functioned. More people became reliant on agencies to meet their needs
and people became more isolated and disenfranchised as they bore the burden of shame, guilt and frustration.
The capacity of agencies’ ability to meet the needs depended on funding. As funding was cut, agencies weren’t
able to meet the demand for services so people began falling through the gaps. This created an adverse affect
on public health and safety. Many grass roots organizations started up to help meet the needs of the poor,
unemployed, homeless and hungry, but the situation worsened with deeper budget cuts. Community Weaving
engages people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds to be Good Neighbors as a way to re-weave the
fabric of community.
Reciprocal partnerships are established between formal systems and grass roots organizations to build
capacity and increase resiliency across the whole community system. As more consumers of services become
Good Neighbors and learn new skills to access resources, the strain on financial resources of agencies is
reduced. As Good Neighbors use their skills to help themselves and others, they learn new skills and become
contributing members of society, which builds self-esteem. Weaving community in this manner creates safer,
more resilient communities that are more self-sufficient, responsive and adaptive to change.

10. How it works
Community Weaving enables people to connect directly to each other for assistance, for fun or to serve in the
community. Agencies refer people into the Good Neighbors network who are higher functioning which makes
room for those who need professional services. Good Neighbors in the network experience a sense of hope,
purpose and belonging having direct and immediate access to the human and tangible resources in the
network. The capacity of the organizations increases having access to Community Weavers who match
referrals to trained Family Advocate volunteers in the grass roots safety net. All the interactions build and
bridge social capital. All this activity is tracked on the Good Neighbors website and reports are published and
made available to all Community Weavers, Collaborative Partners and community leaders.

11. Ways to participate
Good Neighbor
Good Neighbors lend a helping hand to their neighbors and organizations from
time to time or pitch in on specific projects. Everyone involved in CW is a Good
Neighbor because everyone is equal no matter their income, race, profession
or situation. Good neighbors self-organize into Family Support Networks in
their schools, faith-based communities, businesses, groups, organizations and
neighborhoods.
Good Neighbors sign up free on the website: www.goodneighbors.net to track
peoples’ contact information, talents, possessions and experiences they are
willing to share with others. People can form their own networks to help
others. For example, someone who has dealt with alcoholism is in the best
position to help someone with an alcohol problem.
Community Weaving (CW) Partner
Organizations, businesses and professionals become CW Partners. Good
neighbors who are professionals in the community may also register as CW
Partners and list goods, services and resources they are willing to share.
Community Weaver
Community Weavers are the hubs of Community Weaving. They
recruit Good Neighbors and coach them how to access resources.
Community Weavers learn how to assess situations to maximize on
safety and make referrals to local agencies when necessary.
Community Weavers help Good Neighbors and Family Advocates
organize social, recreational and educational opportunities.
Community Weavers bridge the gap between individuals who don’t
know where to turn and organizations who need additional resources.
They link formal and informal systems together. They delegate task
assignments to Family Advocates and Good Neighbors, follow-up and
track outcomes and do public reports. Community Weavers attend
certification training and pass a background check.
Family Advocate
Good Neighbors who want to volunteer to help others in the community may
be certified as a Family Advocate. Family Advocates receive specialized
training to provide direct peer support services to agency referrals. Family
Advocates provide services such as childcare, transportation or supervising
visitations of children in foster care. Their work can extend to client advocacy
and community organizing. Family Advocates are recognized as leaders,
advocates and change agents in the community. Family Advocates learn how
to access local resources and help families get their basic needs met. They help
organize educational and recreational activities for families and spearhead
change initiatives. They serve anywhere between 2 to 10 hours per month,
and are highly respected for their knowledge and commitment to the
betterment of community. All Family Advocates must pass a background
check to become certified.

12. Goals:
1. Support: Enable loving family and community support structures grow people holistically
in all areas of life
2. Empowerment: Empower people to work together in serving everyone in the
community
3. Boundaries & Expectations: Use positive role models as examples for setting right
boundaries and high expectations to benefit our communities
4. Constructive Use of Time: Use time constructively and creatively to build others up in
recreational, spiritual and family activities
5. Commitment to Learning: Develop commitment to learning that maximizes gifts and
talents in making our communities better places
6. Positive Values: Practice positive values of caring, social justice, integrity, honesty,
responsibility and restraint
7. Social Competencies: Cultivate social competencies among diverse people to resolve
conflicts
8. Positive Identity: Believe in positive identity as a created person with purpose and hope-
filled future
Objectives:
• Increase face-to-face interactions
• Build trusting and meaningful relationships
• Create opportunities to lead & mentor others
• Provide direct access to no/low cost resources
• Empower people to help themselves & others
• Generate data to affect change in service delivery
Why it works:
• Community-Based & Participant-Driven
• Builds trusting relationships and social networks
• Opportunities to lead & mentor others
• Saves time & money by pooling and sharing resources
• People empowered to help themselves & serve others
• Serves as infrastructure to generate data from grassroots
Benefits
• Reduces demand on depleting resources
• Tracks shift in use of grass roots resources
• Reduces caseworker burnout
• Fosters self-sufficiency and cooperation
• Raises protective factors to improve health & safety
Outcomes
• Taps innovation at grass roots to solve problems
• Citizens are invested in outcomes
• Reduces caseworker burnout
• Fosters self-sufficiency
• Grows cooperatives and micro-enterprises
• Raises protective factors to improve health & safety

13. Basics & Projects Specific Activities Sign Up & Evaluation
Technology Activities: Social SIGN UP AS A GOOD NEIGHBOR
• Sign-up as Good • Barbeques 1) Register free as a Good Neighbor
Neighbor and/or FSN • Bingo Night at www.goodneighbors.net/gnr.html and
Partner list resources you are willing to share
• Pumpkin Carving
• Register & Search for then submit form. You will be linked to
• Quilting all the Good Neighbors around the world.
Resources (specify
criteria) • Movie/Date Night CREATE A GROUP ID IF YOU WANT TO
• Post & Search for • Book Club PUBLISH CONTACT LISTS AND
Activities • Go Green Group RESOURCE DIRECTORIES:
• Pick a Group ID • Christmas Parties 1) Login using your username and
(optional) password and select “Create Group ID”
from left menu
• Generate Reports (i.e.
Village Resource 2) Enter the contact person for the group
Directory) 3) Create a unique Group ID (usually an
• Data tracking to acronym) (i.e. KWKC: Community
measure outcomes Weaving King County)
Implementation Approaches Activities: Recreational Evaluation: Quantitative
• Grassroots • Bowling • Good Neighbor Registrations
• Single Site • Snow Skiing • Trained Community Weavers
Organization • Ropes Course • Types, level and frequency of
• Multi-Site Organization • River Rafting engagement
• Community-Wide • Campouts • Number and types of activities
• Emergency Response posted to website
• Horseback Riding
• Number of requests met by
• Hiking
volunteers
Biking
• Demographics of volunteer
responders
Projects: Small Scale Activities: Educational Evaluation: Qualitative
• Furniture Exchanges • Computer Classes • Quality of life
• Baby-sitting Coops • Budgeting • Number and quality of social ties
• Coop Meals • Organizing • Ease in accessing resources
• Community Gardens • First Aid • Connectedness to community
• Garage Sales • Parenting • Community Impact Survey
• Yard work • Investments
• Clothing Swaps
• Do it yourself classes
• Support Groups
• Accessing Healthcare
• Business start-ups
• Mentoring
• Auto Repair
© 2010 Family Support Network, International wecare@communityweaving.org (206) 240-2241