In a few paragraphs, provide a brief overview of your organization. Include their history, mission, and current initiatives or challenges. Why do they exist? How are they working to effect change in the community? Also give a short description of the project you are working on, including why it is important to the organization. Post this to Moodle under the thread Organization Description.
Then, read and comment on at least two other posts. What do you find interesting? What questions do you have?
I will be working with Beloved Community Church located in Avondale. Beloved is not just a church, but it is a community that has been around for 20 years with the purpose of making others feel welcome, loved, and heard. Unfortunately, this is unlike many churches in America, specifically in the South, where exclusivity and judgement has seeped into congregations. The Beloved community is dedicated to educating themselves on the injustice people face and combatting these inequities. For example, Beloved has started an Immigrant Justice Ministry Team and an Anti-Racism Ministry Team that meets monthly to learn, grow, and act.
For my internship, I will be focusing on innovative leadership in voluntary organizations. Furthermore, I will be studying how to keep communities involved in organizations for free in a society that has been led to believe that every action deserves compensation. Within this topic, some of the areas I will be looking at include volunteerism, atypical leaders, generational dynamics, and neoliberalism. This will be helpful to Rev. Sanders and Beloved as they will be better equipped to promote sustainable community building and hopefully inspire churches and other organizations around them to do the same.