Free Continuing Ed on Poverty for Watauga County Teacher and church leaders

11-12-13 Notes for upcoming Poverty Training Events from Evelyn Lemons

Click Here to Register for Poverty Training

Developing successful church school partnerships

Who: Pastors of the Watauga Missional Network

Date: Wed. Nov. 20, 2013

Time: 11:30am to 1:30pm,

Location: Deerfield UMC

Please bring a bag lunch, Evelyn will provide drinks.

Audience: Small group meeting with Pastors of Watauga Missional Network. The Watauga Missional Network pastors will have the chance to meet with Susan to have follow up training from our meeting in May in a small group setting.

Subject:   1. Leading our churches to launch new efforts to build bridges to the schools in our communities. Trouble shooting time for pastors in how to get the effort off the ground. How to get lay people on board? Hear from pastors where we are stuck and get suggestions from Susan.

2. How can we do follow up work in the schools after the poverty training offered this week?

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Event One Seminar:  Understanding and responding to children and families living in poverty

Date: Wed. Nov. 20^th ,  Snacks ready: 3:15pm,  Time: 3:30pm to 5:30pm

Audience: Teachers and church leaders

Focus: Emphasis on Title one schools as they deal with supporting children in poverty.

Location: Henson Chapel UMC

Contact person at Henson UMC: Pastor Catherine Cornell 828-263-2035

 Catherine is coordinating the snacks with her church for that day.

Maximum seating for 300 to 350.  We anticipate having enough room for all who will want to participate. Teachers and church leaders invited.

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Seminar:  Developing successful church-school partnerships

Date Wed. Nov. 20, Time: 6:30 to 8:30pm, Location: Deerfield UMC

Contact person: Pastor Evelyn Lemons, 828-264-7130, church. Register at this number.

Audience: Appalachian District, missional network leaders, key lay people working in schools

Subject: Follow up strategy training in how to launch new partnerships with schools in the community. Hear where people are stuck and do trouble shooting.  Address how the church can deal with poverty issues in the schools they are supporting. What does the church need to understand about poverty as they begin these new partnerships? Watauga Missional Network is focusing on building relationships in the community that will last. Susan said she would begin with the poverty piece then move towards the church school partnerships.

Needs from Deerfield UMC: Refreshments, greeters.

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Seminar:  Understanding and responding to children and families living in poverty

Day Two: Thursday November 21, 2013, Time: 8:00am to 10:00am

Location Central office: Space is booked and Christy Welch’s husband John Welch is providing breakfast. Participants should contact Christy Welch to register. 

Audience: Counselors, social workers, nurses. We are looking at about 20 people for this. Similar material from the afternoon seminars for teachers, targeting these specific support staff in their role.

Subject: Trainer would focus on the subject of poverty, the mindset of the students vs the mindset of what teachers think vs mindset of those who are in a support role. 

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 Business Leader Luncheon: Jim Hastings. Watauga County Lay Leader, member from Deerfield UMC is heading up this luncheon. We hope to have a small meeting of business leaders to begin the conversation about poverty in our community. We hope that our gathering this week will spark an interest for people to want to work towards solutions here locally.

Date: Thurs, Nov. 21, 2012

Time 11:00 to 11:30 registration and lunch.

11:30 am to 1pm Lunch Meeting

Location: To be decided

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Seminar Two: Understanding and responding to children and families living in poverty

Date: Thurs, Nov. 21, 2012

Time: 3:30 to 5:30pm

Location: Boone UMC.   Luke is providing snacks.

Audience: Teachers and church leaders

Subject:   Trainer explains how poverty impacts education.   Focus on comments from trainer targeting a population mixed with those in poverty and students from middle class. She will address many ways poverty has an impact in the classroom and look at Watauga County data.

What kind of differences could a teacher make to adapt to this diversity in resources at home for students? 

Remember, this is for free continuing education for the teachers on Wed afternoon and Thursday afternoon. See Evelyn to sign up for the credits at the seminar.

 Evelyn

Free Poverty Training coming up November 20 and 21 in Watauga County

Free Poverty Training sponsored by Watauga Missional Network.

You are invited to a free continuing education poverty training seminar.

Trainer Susan Pennock has worked with communities in Schools for over 20 years. She will offer practical, real-world support and guidance to understand the world of students in poverty and help them succeed. Two seminars will be offered, and they will both rely on local Watauga county poverty data. Seminar One will focus on Title One schools, while Seminar Two will focus on supporting students in poverty in a more economically diverse community. Teachers can choose to attend one or both seminars. Register by Thursday November 14^th at noon.

Seminar One: Henson Chapel United Methodist Church (120 Henson Hollar Rd., Vilas, NC 28692-9119)

Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013, Snacks start at 3:15pm

Seminar: 3:30pm to5:30pm

Subject: Focus of the first seminar will be targeting poverty with Title One schools and understanding and responding to the needs of families living in poverty.

Seminar Two:

Boone United Methodist Church (471 New Market Blvd  Boone, NC 28607)

Thursday, November 21, 2013, Snacks start at 3:15pm

Seminar: 3:30pm to 5:30pm.

Subject: Focus of the second seminar will be dealing with poverty training for understanding and responding to the needs of families and children living in poverty with middle class issues addressed as well.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

 ** These events are sponsored by the Watauga Missional Network, made up of all the United Methodist Churches and ministries in Watauga County. The United Methodist people of Watauga county want to bring our teachers professional development regarding poverty because they know that our teachers are on the front line dealing with children in poverty every day.

October 1, 2012 Watauga Missional Network Meeting Notes

October 1, 2013 First meeting of laity of Watauga Missional Network

Location: Faithbridge UMC, 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

Rev. Evelyn Lemons, Watagua Missional Network Leader, presiding.

Agenda:

1. Rev. Ben Carson, host pastor, to lead in welcome and prayer.

2. Rev. Lemons, Summary of the first year’s work in a nutshell.

3. Dr. David Fonseca, Superintendent of Watauga County schools to speak.

4. Christy Welch from Mabel School to speak on upcoming poverty training.

5. Hear from the churches on what we are already doing in the schools in our community and new ideas for the coming year.

Pat from Mabel UMC and Hinson Chapel UMC to speak.

6. Attached is one example of a brand new effort at Deerfield UMC to start a volunteer effort at Parkway school. We are starting small. You can too.

7. Close with prayer.

Item 2. On Agenda:

Summary of first year’s work in a nutshell:

Watauga Missional Network:  Who are we?

The Watauga Missional Network was formed last fall of 2012 when our Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church changed the structure of the districts from having 15 districts to 8 districts. Now we are in the Appalachian District and Rev. Lory Beth Huffman is our District Superintendent. In Watauga County, all the United Methodist pastors in Watauga are in the Watauga Missional Network. We have been meeting since last fall to discern one common focus on a mission project where we can make a significant difference in our community.

After several months of meetings with our pastors and much prayer, we have been able to discern a common goal: to partner with an elementary school in our community to build relationships that will last.

 We want to have an impact on student achievement with students who are behind in math and reading. The pastors have started conversations with staff at the schools with principals and social workers to find out about the needs that are specific to their schools. These conversations are already under way between the churches and principals. We are coming to the schools to serve.

Watauga Missional Network: What are we doing?
      This summer the Watauga Missional Network learned that there was grant money from the district that we could apply for, for startup money. The pastors came together around the common thread of poverty in Watauga County that has been part of our conversation many times over the last year. So we applied for a grant to do poverty training and got $750.00 from the district to do poverty training. Since our main goal is to work with schools in our community, we are going to the teachers first for providing this training because we believe that our teachers work face to face with poverty all over our county on a daily basis. After meeting with Dr. Fonseca, our superintendent of schools here in our county, we have his permission to go ahead with the poverty training for teachers and we are working with the school system to help make this possible. Christy Welch from Mabel Elementary is our contact person for this. Her contact number at Mabel School is 297-2512.

Important dates to come:

1.  We are looking at the dates of November 20 and 21 as possible dates for the poverty training. We will confirm these dates and get the training information to each church. Our target audience is the teachers, but we want to ask the churches to attend where they can and to assist with either snacks or a meal, depending on the location and time of day. Training teachers and church leaders together is a place to make significant connections to people working with children in poverty daily.

2.  Next meeting of the laity for the Watauga Missional Network that has been called by our DS for Sun. Nov. 24 at Boone UMC at 3pm.

Purpose of our meeting tonight as the laity of the Watauga Missional Network:

Our goal at this meeting is to share what churches are already doing to connect with the school in their community, and we anticipate representatives from the school system to be present to speak directly to the needs that the church can help address. We will be addressing things to do and pitfalls to avoid. There is great work already going on in this connection in some places and not a very strong connection in other places. We want to learn from each other and support each other in this important work. This is a work meeting for the Watauga Missional Network and will include lay people. The pastors will continue to meet regularly as well.

More information to come to be posted on blog:

www.liftupyourheartsblog.blogspot.com

By: Rev. Evelyn Lemons

Watauga Missional Network Leader, Deerfield UMC, Pastor

Contact information: evelyn.lemons@gmail.com

One example of a church partnering with Parkway as we begin:

We are getting ready to step up our efforts to partner with the school in our community at Deerfield UMC. The school we are going to partner with is Parkway Elementary.  A preliminary idea in our partnership with the school this year is to take one grade per month and do something for the teachers of that grade. If we start in October with showing some gratitude towards the three kindergarten teachers at Parkway and the first grade teachers, then the next month, we will be appreciating the second grade teachers, etc.  We were not able to get started on this in September, so we are going to double up in October, then take one grade per month.

Pastor Evelyn is working on the volunteer schedules to turn in to Principal Costin regarding who can volunteer when.  We will need some volunteers from church members to drive students from ASU to Parkway to volunteer and take them back to campus. Right now, we have at least two volunteers who have a significant  block of time to give that do not have rides.

Pastor Evelyn and Angel Teague are signed up to volunteer on Tuesday mornings from 9:25am to 11:10am weekly. We started this work three weeks ago and it is going great. We are working with students individually giving specific help on reading. The school has provided training on exactly what they want us to do with the child we are helping. It has been so much fun!!

Trail Ministry and Deerfield UMC to Partner with Parkway Elementary

We are getting ready to step up our efforts to partner with the school in our community at Deerfield UMC. The school we are going to partner with is Parkway Elementary. We are asking anyone who wants to volunteer to see Pastor Evelyn to get a volunteer application filled out and bring it back to her. They will be turned into the Central Office for a background check. A preliminary idea in our partnership with the school this year is to take one grade per month and do something for the teachers of that grade. If we start in September with showing some gratitude towards the three kindergarten teachers at Parkway, then the next month, we will be appreciating the first grade teachers, etc. There is a meeting coming up on Oct. 1 for anyone who wants to support our partnership with Parkway school at Faithbridge UMC in Blowing Rock at 6:30 that evening. For Trail participants, this would require a sacrifice of your regular meal and group time for this one organizational meeting. Please contact Pastor Evelyn if you want to work in some way to support the ministry of partnering with Parkway School.

Watauga Missional Network- Who are we?

The Watauga Missional Network was formed last fall when our Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church changed the structure of the districts from having 15 districts to 8 districts. Now we are in the Appalachian District and Rev. Lory Beth Huffman is our District Superintendent. In Watauga County, all the United Methodist pastors in Watauga are in the Watauga Missional Network. We have been meeting since last fall to discern one common focus on a mission project where we can make a significant difference in our community. After several months of meetings with our pastors and much prayer, we have been able to discern a common goal: to partner with an elementary school in our community to build relationships that will last. We want to have an impact on student achievement with students who are behind in math and reading. The pastors have started conversations with staff at the schools with principals and social workers to find out about the needs that are specific to their schools.

Watauga Missional Network: What are we doing?
      This summer the Watauga Missional Network learned that there was grant money from the district that we could apply for, for start up money. The pastors came together around the common thread of poverty in Watauga County that has been part of our conversation many times over the last year. So we applied for a grant to do poverty training and got $750.00 from the district to do poverty training. Since our main goal is to work with schools in our community, we are going to the teachers first for providing this training because we believe that our teachers work face to face with poverty all over our county on a daily basis. After meeting with Dr. Fonseca, our superintendent of schools here in our county, we have his permission to go ahead with the poverty training for teachers and we are working with the school system to help make this possible.
Please make a note of the date of October 1. We are going to have our first meeting for pastors and lay people who are interested in working in the school in their community. The meeting is going to be hosted at Faithbridge UMC in Blowing Rock from 6:30 to 7:30pm. Child care is going to be provided. Our goal at this meeting is to share what churches are already doing to connect with the school in their community, and we anticipate representatives from the school system to be present to speak directly to the needs that the church can help address. Dr. Fonseca may be there to do this part, or a representative from his staff.  Please come to the meeting on October 1 if you have a passion for connecting with the school in your community and want to learn what other churches are doing, hear from the schools, and try to make our work as efffective as possible. We will be addressing things to do and pitfalls to avoid. There is great work already going on in this connection in some places and not a very strong connection in other places. We want to learn from each other and support each other in this important work. This is a work meeting for the Watauga Missional Network and will include lay people.
    For the poverty training piece that will be coming up soon, we have been in contact with Susan Pennock who is a trainer with communities in schools and does poverty training to mark some dates on her calendar. As soon as we get those cleared we will publish those dates and the location of the training.