Friday was busy and productive! We spent the morning meeting with Angie Sledge from the Center for Non-Profits. Angie gave us a general overview of writing grant proposals. There is a lot of money out there, if you know how to get it. Angie knows, and now so do we (a little bit). It was a fantastic class. I wish she could teach it at Saint James. We were asked to come up with an idea that we might use for the practical parts of the class. I used Miriam's Gift. Searching through databases of grant-funding agencies, I found lots of places that might fund Miriam's Gift. We might need to actually put Angie's class to work finding funding.
The grant class highlighted something that's run through my entire experience in Chattanooga: the need to forge links to other passionate individuals/organizations who share your vision. This builds synergy, avoids duplication of effort, cuts down competition and shows the world (i.e. funding agencies) that you are serious about your project/mission. This kind of broad coalition-building is exactly what Rev. Mike Feely had done at the Saint Andrews Center.
We spent Friday afternoon talking with a few local pastors and meeting with one of the people pushing for the creation of a new homeless center downtown. This, apparently, is an issue of some controversy -- it's come up in several of our discussions. The neighborhood is wary of the center, thinking that it will attract the homeless. What perhaps they don't realize is that the homeless are already these (I had dinner with them last Wednesday) and the center is a step in getting them on their feet and OUT of the neighborhood!
We wrapped up the day at Rev. Mike's house, enjoying some fine barbeque (watch out for the HOT sauce, Yvette!) and meeting some friends to discuss storytelling in ministry. A good time was had by all!
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