Peace Connections News

 

  As we processed the book "13 Ways to Kill Your Community", by Doug Griffiths, the concepts of beautification and community engagement rose to the top of the priority list for many people. Thus was born - Paint the Town!, a project that encompasses both ideas. Supported by a NetWorked Kansas Community Solutions grant, Peace Connections will be coordinating the painting of 40 doors in Harvey County this spring! There will be options to have your door painted, options for us to provide the materials for you to paint your own door, and certainly, opportunities for volunteers to help paint the doors for others.  We look forward to seeing neighbors and helpers coming together for painting workshops, block painting parties, and celebrations once the doors are painted. We believe that this effort will spark a wave of people connecting to additional painting, minor home repair and weatherization services over the coming months. Click HERE to join!

  It is said that there is no greater expression of love than to prepare a meal for others. At Harvey County Circle of Hope, we want you to have the opportunity to express your love on a grand scale, by providing a Tuesday night meal for our Circle of Hope participants. These meals bring families into the program as they build hope into their future stories and close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. We are currently feeding between 60 and 80 people each week. If you are a cook with a plan, we have volunteers that can help with preparation and cleanup. If you are a big group and want to do it all, we’ll just stand by to help you find stuff. The one need that remains constant, however, is coordinating the meal and providing the ingredients. Please look inside your circle of friends, maybe outside your circle of friends, maybe inside your own heart, and help us find folks to perform this honorable, collaborative (and delicious) task. The meals created in our k...

Krista Eagan (center) celebrates the completion of her 18-Month Match Circle with allies Joe Sailors (right) and Janet Voth (left) .   Story by Tom James.    Joe Sailors came to Circle of Hope through very organic means. You might say he was already an ally before he walked through our door. Let me explain. Joe had befriended a homeless couple and was doing his best to help find them the services they needed to get their lives on a more stable path. Joe was new to Newton, he had been a teacher in Haysville for many years, and he didn’t immediately know what the process was, or who to reach out to. He just began navigating the system much the way an unhoused person would, from the ground up – with the exception that he had a car and unlimited minutes on his phone.     At every turn in this process, he realized how difficult things would be for someone without these tools that many of us take for granted. As he put those tools to use and began navigating the ...