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Power-Building Campaign

By Rev. Jennifer Davis Sensenig, President

There’s a famous event in the life of Jesus when a huge crowd was fed with five loaves and two fish. It’s a miracle story, to be sure, but also a story of organizing people and organizing resources. By organizing people and organizing financial resources Faith in Action is building our power for making systemic change in this community. The core of this work is relational. In organizing, when we speak about relationships we’re talking about public relationships. In other words, we’re not simply getting acquainted in terms of personal history or discovering mutual interests in cycling or gardening or NASCAR or sourdough. Last month with guidance from James Pearlstein, an organizer in Northern VIrginia, Faith in Action arranged a series of 15 individual meetings with a diverse group of local community leaders. We were specifically interested in persons who have a following, who have talent and who want to grow in their capacity to organize for justice. One of the compelling questions James often asked in these individual meetings was: If Faith in Action had much more power to create change in this community what would you do? Where would you begin? I invite you to reflect on this question yourself and to ask it of folks you know who would strengthen Faith in Action’s work. Here’s a warning, though, sometimes folks don’t have a response to this question. When the status quo in a community is strong, it is hard to imagine structural change, let alone believe that we can achieve it, and thus build power to achieve our goals for justice.

Per our agreement with VOICE-IAF, James will visit Rockingham County and Harrisonburg for three days again in August and we’ll continue individual meetings as well as lay more groundwork for the power-building campaign. What will Faith in Action’s power look like in our community? It will be diverse--more racially, ethnically and economically diverse than our current Covenant Assembly. It will be recognized--Faith in Action is already recognized in this community, but unless we’re growing we will be considered part of the standard non-profit sector or misunderstood as “lobbyists” or “activists” for issues we care about. It will be organized--of course, organizing is what we’re all about! However, being organized requires both relationships and training. We’re expecting Covenant Representatives and other leaders within Faith in Action to be trained, so that we’re focused and accountable as we work together and grow as leaders in our congregations and community. And through our Power-Building Campaign Faith in Action will be large--able to put 500 people “in the room” (when that’s safe again!) to call civic leaders to act for the common good on a broad range of issues that we identify through listening campaigns. If you’re reading this newsletter you are connected to Faith in Action. Are you an observer? Or are you willing to take the next step in our power-building campaign? In the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 there’s a pause in the action when Jesus offers what is given to God and prays. Later, the distribution begins and everyone has enough.

Prayer: God, you know why Faith in Action exists and you know what we may become. Grant us the spiritual courage and steady perseverance we need amidst these pandemic conditions, to realize your purpose for our organization and your vision for this community.

Take Action!

Before the pandemic Faith in Action chose to focus on affordable housing. We recognized a crisis in our community and began pursuing a long-term solution--a Housing Trust Fund in Rockingham County and Harrisonburg. The local housing crisis has grown more acute since COVID-19, so our short-term goal is to simply keep people housed. 550,000 Virginians, mostly Black and brown folks, are at risk of losing their homes including hundreds in our community. Faith in Action is joining our cries from the Shenandoah Valley to those of V.O.I.C.E. in Northern Virginia. We have Governor Northam's ear.

Please listen to this prayer by our clergy colleagues from VOICE:
VIDEO FOR YOU TO USE IN YOUR SERVICE:

and send your own prayer to the governor:
LINK FOR YOUR MEMBERS TO SEND THEIR OWN PRAYER

Seeking Communications Committee Members

Faith in Action is seeking volunteers to join a communications committee for bimonthly virtual meetings starting in September to advise and strategize for future communications projects. Any experience with website platforms or congregational communication would be valued- social media expertise is not necessary! If interested, please contact our communications specialist by emailing faithinactionva@gmail.com

Housing Campaign Update

By Nadia Dames, Campaign Committee Chair

550,000 families in Virginia are struggling to pay their August rent, making one-third of those who are renters at risk for eviction. Prior to the pandemic, Faith In Action congregations were fully aware that Harrisonburg and Rockingham County had a systemic housing crisis due to lack of affordable housing stock. In the midst of a pandemic, this crisis has only escalated. In a community that upholds the value of family welfare and education, every day of inaction puts more families at risk of losing their homes. In a community that is stressing how their children will attend school, we seem to ignore those stressing over what address to provide the school. Now more than ever, stable housing has become the health and welfare issue for our families, and ensuring a safe and stable home is a necessity for families to thrive. Therefore, we hope that you continue to be a voice for the voiceless, and a beacon of hope for those who require our assistance through Faith In Action.

Faith In Action's campaign committee is currently working on the following:

Providing short videos that share the stories of local residents facing housing challenges
Co Hosting meetings with local services providers and civic leaders to establish a housing trust fund committee that will assist in providing long term solution to our housing crisis
Reaching out to community members who are at risk of eviction, and providing them with direction on how to prevent the loss of their home
Meeting one on one with our civic leaders, city and county staff, and candidates running for the upcoming local elections

Read action steps you can take here

How can you take action:

Share the FIA videos with EVERYONE! and ALL of the groups and clubs you are affiliated with
Send prayers to Governor Northam, and your local assembly members encouraging them to provide rental relief and extend the eviction moratorium at this week's General Assembly in Richmond (see Take Action! above)
Speak with renters in your circle, and direct them to seek financial aid from Mercy House, and legal assistance from Blue Ridge Legal Services
Speak with local landlords on the benefits on accepting vouchers through the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority
Volunteer to speak with the civic leaders who have the ability to create systemic change in our community

If you are willing to create some NOISE, please email faithinactionva@gmail.com to learn how you can help!

Two Stories from Sylvia

Read these and all of our Local Stories here.

I am a community worker. I have been working in Harrisonburg for over 15 years, as a language translator, social service provider and family mediator. As of the last six years, I have worked for the city’s public school division.

These are two stories that have to do with unstable housing in Harrisonburg.

I was the mediator for a family custody and support case, in which the issues and the parties seemed typical. Perhaps the only slightly different aspect was that I mediated in Spanish, for people who otherwise had few chances to hash out their disagreements in their native language. Their goal was to reach an agreement on the custody and support of their children. It may be unnecessary to explain how much of people’s emotions come into play in these processes. If you have ever tried learning another language you know that when your heart is involved, your first language (your mother tongue) is the one that takes over.

In this case, the parents had been separated for some time but wanted to be involved in raising their children. The little ones were quite young yet, so physical custody was leaning on the mother’s side. She argued that the children had a home with her and that, at their age, the mother-child bond was especially important. The father did not disagree, but he was firm in his commitment to be part of their lives on a weekly, or possibly, daily basis.

Mother and father went back and forth in negotiating the details. At some point the mother became impatient with the father's apparent narrow focus on the logistics of pick-up, drop-off and weekend schedules. She hinted at considering overnight visits instead of splitting hairs. Usually, when the couple’s separation is negative, parents stay in (a perceived space of) opposite corners, not wanting to “give in” too much. So this development was unusual: for the mother to offer more time. But much more unusual was the (curiously long) time the father took to process this consideration. Uncomfortable silence and superficial comments followed from both parties. I mediated for a conclusion on this point.

The gentleman, sitting across the table, looked at me and said that he did not have a place now, that he was returning every evening to his storage unit, after work, so he would not be able to have his children overnight for the time being. Silence followed. We continued mediating to reach an agreement on all aspects mandated by the courts. The mother could have blown this point of our proportion, but she did not.

In a roundabout way, the three of us took a few minutes to acknowledge his situation: a few words to summarize, paraphrase and confirm that he had been heard. It was heavy and painful but there was understanding, empathy and respect. I have often wondered, had it not been for this process, who would have known of this man’s homelessness? Would he have said this to the judge? Did my knowing aid him in any way? In Spanish we say “se ven caras, pero no corazones”, which means “you can see faces, but not hearts”.

Read More

I realize that when there is scarcity, we become protective of our resources. I can see how people can be wary of foreigners, or what many of us prefer to refer to as Newcomers - because we all come from a place; it’s just that some of us arrived here a long time ago, while some of us are new.

People are not static; they move to seek newness, opportunities and work; sometimes they move to get away from pain. Puerto Ricans are American Citizens. People from Mexico and Central America are not, but many work jobs that no one else wants to take on, underwraps, unnoticed. Many people from the same national and cultural groups form ranks in our US military branches. All these regions, where many of our immigrant families come from, have suffered natural disasters over the last decade. In spite of their involvement in our country’s workforce and defense, and despite the collateral reasons that affect them, they don’t all qualify for the same social benefits, which may allow them to have a safe home. Benefits and assistance depends on the multiple categories they fall under in our complex social systems. In my experience, there is no generalizing.

I have often heard people question who “should get” help and who shouldn’t, especially when there are limited resources. Sometimes I’ve seen it as a reaction to protect and funnel limited funds to those in greatest need; sometimes it’s an introduction to an exclusive or unnecessarily bureaucratic web.

Over the last year, I worked with a young woman who has experienced many undercurrents in her lifetime. She was a teenager when she had her children, married to an older man. With an incomplete elementary school education, without English language skills, without a driver’s licence (or knowing how to drive), she came to the US with her two young children. In this age of instant and global communication, she made her way to our community because people from her hometown found work and settled here. She wanted to do the same, and especially, find better schooling for her children.

She found work at a meat processing plant. She sent her children to school, arranged for childcare (however unverified), and figured out a ride to go to work every day, about 45 minutes away. She first lived with a friend, then another; she found a room to rent in a city townhouse shared (or rather packed) with another two families; she found another room to rent in the county. The children switched schools at some point. The one place was infested with bed bugs. Another place she couldn’t give me an address number for, only a landmark and the notion that it was in the country, “on top” of a place of business.

At some point, Child Protective Services was involved. She lost her job due to childcare needs, sick-days and days she spent dragging suitcases (or plastic bags -the kind you put your trash in- with her belongings) from one side of town to another. She did not want to go to a shelter. By winter she had no bed, so she did end up at a shelter, out of town. She was hypervigilant about her children and the other adults at the shelter. She was disappointed that she was not allowed to cook her own food and talked about the seemingly poor quality of the children’s meals, almost obsessively. She was offered a new job and another place so she left the shelter a few days too soon to qualify for further assistance towards independent living. She got on her feet and then back down again.

At another point, she reluctantly interviewed for rental assistance through a local shelter. Luckily, and to her surprise, a temporary apartment opened up, where she could stay for a few months and work on finding more stability. When she was at this new place, she called me and described what it looked like: she said it had a full working kitchen and when she opened the fridge, there was food. She said, “they left fresh ground beef for me”.

This mom went from not telling me anything, to sharing so much, trusting me in the parent support role I had at her child’s school. At other times she shut down, later confessing that she felt like we (people in social services) no longer advocated for her but rather accused her. When she was anxious, she was loud, demanding and put up her best “street talk”, which was met by the puzzled faces of our rather quiet and often smiling Valley folk.

Some days, when she was in the most precarious housing situation and unemployed, she would bring the children to school and spend the day sitting under a tree, waiting to take the children back again. During her most stable days, she walked across town to buy them the most formal clothes that she could afford, so they would look nice (and match) for the school music program.

In the meantime, one of her children was evaluated for special education. This may sound like another hurdle. The children were below grade level and struggling with some aspects of school, but they were also soaking in a lot in terms of academic and social-emotional learning. Here, I must bring the words of pediatrician Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, in a TedMed Talk in 2014:

“I started noticing a disturbing trend. A lot of kids were being referred to me for ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, but when I actually did a thorough history and physical, what I found was that for most of my patients, I couldn't make a diagnosis of ADHD. Most of the kids I was seeing had experienced such severe trauma [...]”. “[Childhood trauma] dramatically increased the risk for seven out of 10 of the leading causes of death in the United States. In high doses, it affects brain development, the immune system, hormonal systems, and even the way our DNA is read and transcribed. Folks who are exposed in very high doses have triple the lifetime risk of heart disease and lung cancer and a 20-year difference in life expectancy”.

Children who experience unstable housing get one mark on their Adverse Childhood Experience scores. Not having a home may roll out other detrimental experiences, like abuse and neglect. Our schools work diligently to support families who are experiencing homelessness through the McKinney-Vento Act. This is “a federal law that ensures the right of students to go to school even when they are homeless or don’t have a permanent address. The Act aims to reduce barriers that have prevented many homeless youth from enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school, including: transportation; residency requirements; and documentation requirements, such as birth certificates and medical records. [...] Youth have the right to attend either: the school nearest to where they are living; or the school where they were last enrolled (called “school of origin”), even if they move out of the school district”.

The big piece here is acknowledgement and communication. For many reasons, families may take some time to inform the school that they have lost their home. It sounds incredible, but despite not having a stable roof over the heads, some parents will go to incredible lengths to keep their children well-clothed, fed and at school on time. Teachers, in their caring roles, are many times, the first ones to notice or hear from the child that something has changed in their lives. We act quickly but housing issues are difficult to overcome.

According to “Virginia Homelessness Statistics”, as of 2018, 18,577 students experience homelessness on any given day. According to 2020 Census data “Young children are traditionally very hard to count and about 22 percent of people experiencing homelessness are children”.

Affordable Housing is critical for our community. I am grateful to you all for listening and for Faith In Action’s efforts to address the issue.

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fysb/mckvenapp20120829.pdf

“Will You Count? People Experiencing Homelessness in the 2020 Census.” http://civilrightsdocs.info/pdf/census/2020/People-Experiencing-Homelessness-HTC.pdf

Counting People Experiencing Homelessness http://www.georgetownpoverty.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GCPI-ESOI-Counting-People-ExperiencingHomelessness-20180904.pdf

www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/va/

Announcements

Celebrate The 35th Year of Gemeinschaft Home by joining their virtual picnic and fundraiser! More information here.
Promote the 2020 Census in your faith community today! Use this guide to help secure valuable funding for our community.

Helpful community resources for during the COVID-19 Outbreak:

Are you or someone you know facing eviction? Blue Ridge Legal Services and Mercy House may be able to help. See more details here.
Call the Shenandoah Valley Emotional Support Line for free, confidential support.
Donate to the COSPU COVID-19 relief fund for immigrant families in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County (in conjunction with NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center).
Tenant Rights and Evictions: The Virginia Poverty Law Center has created a guide to your rights as a tenant during the COVID-19 outbreak in both English and Spanish. If you have questions about your rights as a tenant please contact the Blue Ridge Legal Services locally at (540) 433-1830.