Past Forums
Spring Faith Forum - May 14, 2009 - Church of St. William, Fridley
Anoka County Seniors - A Vision for 2020
Kim Ratz, a Minnesota motivational speaker, singer, and songwriter entertained us with songs and messages that inspired us to serve, honor, and engage the senior citizens in Anoka County.
Our forum objectives were met as we:
- acknowledged the valuable life experiences and contributions of our community's seniors.
- highlighted successful active programs that serve seniors in order to improve their quality
- provided an opportunity to network around ways to meaningfully engage seniors in our community.
Fall Faith Forum - October 24th, 2008 - Emmanuel Christian Center, Fridley
Facing the Challenges of an Economic Downturn-The Power of Community Working Together
Keynote Speaker, Jim Scheibel, Former St. Paul Mayor, spoke on getting people more involved in community service activities.
And, as we faced an economic downturn and the increased needs that it presented in our local communities, we turned to JFK's challenge of 1960-to use our combined skills, knowledge, values and motivation to work collectively to meet people's most basic needs: food, housing, transportation, and physical and mental health care.
It was our goal that participation in this forum would serve as a catalyst to:
- connect volunteers with meaningful volunteer opportunities.
- highlight successful active programs that assist people in meeting basic needs.
- provide an opportunity to network around common service areas of interest.
- offer resource materials and hands-on tools.
Spring Faith Forum April 17th, 2008 - Faith Lutheran Church, Coon Rapids
Staying On Track - One Child at a Time
Our keynote speaker Rev. Kelly Chatman, Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Minneapolis shared some insights into how his church has responded to the needs of the North Minneapolis community in which they serve, the collaborative partnerships that have resulted from their efforts and the impact this outreach has had on the youth in that community.
This forum focused on raising awareness and understanding of issues impacting children in our community. To help plan action, the forum provided some "how to" workshops to give participants tools and information useful for organizing efforts to assist needy children and their families. We also highlighted many of the different ways faith communities & local programs are working to support our children.
Workshop Highlights
- One School-One Church
- CEAP informational session
- Financial Peace
- Effects of Family Violence
- Creating A Safe Place in the Faith Community
- Kinship-working since 1954 to provide support to children through adult friendships
Fall Faith Forum October 7th, 2007 - Oak Hill Baptist Church, Columbia Heights
Hungry to Help - Part II / Welcoming the Changing Faces of our Community
Our keynote speaker was Rev. Bruce Bjork, Director of the Center for Families, which is a center to assist immigrants and refugees who settle in the Twin Cities region.
Following Rev. Bjork, there was a panel of individuals from local organizations that assist immigrants with specific needs. The panelists shared their experiences and insights.
Following the panel discussion, there was time for networking to discuss ideas for further outreach to immigrant groups in our community.
Spring Faith Forum April 20th, 2007 - Bridgewood Community Church, Blaine
Hungry to Help - Bridging the Gap in Social Services
What an honor it was to have Margaret Langfeld as our keynote speaker at this forum. Throughout the years, Margaret has been deeply committed to her work in human services. Her ability to get people to work together for the good of the community is well recognized. Margaret's time, efforts, and compassion for others have revolved around such issues as battered women, homelessness, work readiness programs for unemployed parents, independent living programs for seniors, child support, mental health and foster care fit right into our focus of this forum.
This forum gave our audience an opportunity to find out about community resources already in place and how to take action by collaborating with those resources. Our focus was to:
- share how each faith community or organization is helping/serving the community.
- learn about services developed by others that you could benefit from.
- discuss the gaps in community services.
- learn what resources are in place right now.
Spring Faith Forum May 11/12 2006 - Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Nowthen
Asset Mapping with Luther Snow
Luther K. Snow a developer, facilitator, trainer, speaker and writer who specializes in asset-based development presented. Luther Snow is the author of the best-selling book, The Power of Asset Mapping: How Your Congregation Can Act on Its Gifts, and served as director of the Congregational Asset Mapping Project for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The goals for this forum were to:
- lead our congregations and communities to take action together right away
- recognize why we come together as communities in the first place
- experience the powerful "open sum dynamics" of individuals, organizations, associations and faith communities working together
- implement simple tools and techniques that lead to action
- apply these lessons to diverse aspects of congregational and community life
