“Neighborhood Connections” Project

Co-facilitators:: Ann Bookman (aebookman@gmail.com) and  Dee Finard (deefinard@yahoo.com) 

Purpose and Goals

To understand the impact of the economic recession on the entire Temple Israel community and to create a congregation-wide response so TI members will experience a true community of caring. The goal is three-fold:

1. For TI members to feel they are not alone in dealing with the situation and that the congregation is a “village” where we are truly here for one another;
2. To make TI a place members can turn for a variety of supports and resources; and
3. To enlist a broad number of TI members as volunteers to help each other and eventually those outside the TI community.

We will start with a membership-initiated assessment process that will be the basis for us to launch a series of programs and referrals based on both individual needs and community capacity. 

Activities and Method

We will collect information on:

1. What Temple Israel members need by way of information, social support, material and/or financial resources, etc. to manage in this very difficult economic climate;
2. What Temple Israel members can contribute to fellow members. 

We will divide up all TI member households by neighborhood (using membership roster, zip codes, election districts), pick team captains for each neighborhood, train them to make calls and use the assessment tool, equip them to enlist and train other people in their neighborhood who can make calls, and then divide up the 1500 households in TI so that every household gets a call. 

Timetable

The “Neighborhood Connections” project will roll out over a period of months, as follows:

February:

• Create neighborhood lists.
• Develop and refine an assessment tool that will enable us to get a picture of congregational needs while respecting individual desires for confidentiality.
• Hold trainings for neighborhood captains and neighborhood teams.
• Utilize a list of preliminary resources that will be posted on TI website and that callers can refer people to immediately while other plans are taking shape.

One week before calls start:

• A “heads up” letter/email from the clergy to all members letting people know that they will be getting a call from another member to find out how recession is affecting them and asking what they can do to help.

March - May:

• Neighborhood captains and their team members make calls to all TI households and begin referring individuals to resource page and Triage Team.
• Triage Team ready to receive information, make follow-up calls with knowledge of what each Working Group is doing and/or is planning

Early May:

• Report to the congregation on what has been learned about the impact of the recession on TI members and publicize a series of programs, workshops, etc. in response