The Neighborhood Connector role for Washington School Neighborhood, which Hope Church has been supporting for the past several years and which I currently inhabit 20 hrs a week, is a bit hard to explain (at least in detail). I thought I’d share a connection story to help paint the picture as well as celebrate what I consider a success.
At the end of June Hope Church hosted two Youth Connections crews from the City of Holland to do work for one week. One of these crews was donated to WSN. Part of my job as connector is to connect people and organizations for the benefit of residents. So in preparation for this week, I began to seek out job opportunities that would benefit neighbors.
The City of Holland had informed me that a house on 9th St. was in need of some attention for multiple violations, so when I investigated I found that it was my friend and neighbor Juan (who had just invited me to his 75th birthday party, and whose wife had been in and out of the hospital). His property needed painting and yard clean-up among other things.
Fortunately, another non-profit organization in the City, Homecor, had set aside some funds for WSN for just this type of project. I secured a dumpster through their funds to be dropped at Juan’s house for three days, and the youth crew filled it up with his and another neighbor’s items that needed removal, as well as getting a fair bit done on painting the garage. Who was involved? Hope Church, City of Holland, Escape Ministries, Homecor, WSN, and neighbors Juan and Polly, at least.
Juan was grateful. Polly was grateful. The City of Holland was grateful. One of the youth said he wanted my job. And it was all done in a spirit of personal relationship, built trust, and respect.
~Andrew Spidahl, Neighborhood Connector