Welcome to another edition of A Wider Community! October at A Wider Circle has continued to stay busy, and we’ve got some fantastic highlights to share with you, including:
- Celebrating the Graduation of Partnership to Independence Cohort 1
- An Advocacy Training Facilitated by AWC’s Social Justice Committee
- Gathering with Fellow Service Providers at AU Law
- And more!
Congratulations, Graduates!
On October 14, we gathered with the 15 participants in the first cohort of our Partnership to Independence (P2I) program to celebrate a huge milestone: their graduation from the program!
Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando joined us to recognize the graduates and celebrate the completion of this five-year journey.
We are incredibly honored to have walked alongside the 15 graduates over the past five years and see all they have accomplished. Check out the video below for a quick retrospective on Cohort 1’s journey.
Creating A Wider Circle of Community Advocates!
October 17 was the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. To recognize this important day, our Advocacy program joined our partners at the Maryland Poor People’s Campaign to deliver an online training on giving testimony to elected officials.
Co-Chair of A Wider Circle’s Social Justice Committee, Ayanna Bunch, presenting on “Giving Testimony to Elected Officials”
The presentation was developed by A Wider Circle’s Social Justice Committee and presented by the committee’s Co-Chair, Ayanna Bunch, and Rachael Buck, A Wider Circle’s Director of Advocacy.
Interested in checking out the training? You can view it on the Maryland Poor People’s Campaign YouTube channel here.
Convening with Partners to Better Serve Our Neighbors
On Friday, October 20, we gathered at American University’s Washington College of Law to convene with partners for “From Social Service to Social Change: How a client-centered approach can help rebuild communities and change lives.”
Fellow service providers from around the region joined us for presentations, a panel, and breakout activities, all focused on ensuring that we listen to, learn from, and center our services around those who receive them.
Huge thanks go out to the American University Washington College of Law for hosting us, to our keynote speaker, Dr. Fredrica Brooks-Davis of Restoration Center Inc, to our panelists (Dr. Stacey Little, Silver Spring United Methodist Church’s Reverend Will Ed Green, Latin American Youth Center’s Michael Leon, and A Wider Circle’s own Dr. Eddy Ameen), and finally to our breakout group facilitators from Martha’s Table, WorkSource Montgomery, and East River Family Strengthening Collaborative. Thank you as well to DC Ward 3 Councilmember Matthew Frumin for joining us!
Rounding out the circle
Upcoming events in the community:
- 10/29/23 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Kids Trick-or-Treating + Activities, Ellsworth Plaza, Silver Spring, MD
- 11/1/23 8:30 am – 4:00 pm Kids Day Out, Registration Required, Various locations across Montgomery County
Ways to get involved:
There are plenty of ways you can support the work of A Wider Circle right now!
- Support our Good Karma Holiday Program!
- Spend some time volunteering with us!
- Schedule or drop off an in-kind donation
- Support our Market Bag program
- Help restock our food pantry
- and more!
Staff Recommendations:
This week’s recommendation comes from none other than our usual A Wider Community author, Marketing & Communications Coordinator Theo Blair! Theo shares:
“There’s a podcast I enjoy called LeVar Burton Reads, on which host LeVar Burton shares fictional short stories that resonate with him, usually with a focus on elevating BIPOC voices. The podcast reminds me of our work at AWC because I see similarities between how LeVar uses this show and how our advocacy program works to create space for marginalized voices.
If you grew up a fan of Reading Rainbow, enjoy speculative fiction, want to be exposed to authors you may not have otherwise heard of, or simply enjoy a good story I’d definitely recommend this podcast!”
Furniture Finds:
Who wouldn’t instantly fall in love with the elegant woodwork of this enigmatic chair spotted in our showroom earlier this month?
Elegance and comfort combine in this one-of-a-kind chair!
That’s all for this week’s edition of A Wider Community! We’ll be returning with our next edition in two weeks, on November 13. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our email list so you don’t miss our monthly e-newsletter, First Fridays at A Wider Circle, later this week!
