Peace Connections News

 

       Peace Connections will once again participate in the Harvey County Holiday Exchange, an alternative gift market which honors family, friends, and colleagues, and provides an alternative to our modern culture of consumerism.     Instead of buying knick-knacks for your uncle, a shopper at the market might sponsor a community meal or provide funding for our summer lunch program. Your uncle would receive a card telling him about this unique gift given in his honor. You may also choose to give him an ornament to represent the gift; complimentary ornaments (many of which are hand-crafted) by volunteers, are a unique feature of many organizations participating in this market.     Please stop by our table, share a smile and give a gift that continues to give!   Want to know how else you can contribute to Circle of Hope? Reach out to Kendra Davila at 316-284-0000 or info@ peaceconnections .org to schedule a time to talk, sign up to be a volunteer...

  There is a lot of change in the air, which comes with the changing of the seasons. For the Getting Ahead class members, this also means a change in titles. For the past four months, they have been participating at Circle of Hope, where they have been known as class members, but will now be known as Circle Leaders. A Circle Leader is someone who is leading the charge to create change in his or her life and hope for the future. They have forged their way through the budgeting class alongside peers and soon allies. As they begin the next 18-month journey alongside volunteer allies, they will continue working on budgets, goals, and timelines.     They have been able to create budgets (and mostly stick with it), recognizing each day as a new opportunity to try again. They have done this with humor and grace, expressing frustration at setbacks and joy with accomplishments. Before celebrating the accomplishment, a few were even asking how they could pass the blessing, love, a...

Staff List    Julia Long has been a devoted advocate and leader at Circle of Hope for many years. She began as a student in the Getting Ahead Class, then interned at Peace Connections while earning her master’s degree in social work. After graduating, she volunteered consistently and joined the staff as Volunteer Coordinator and, more recently, has served as a Facilitator for the Getting Ahead Class. Julia notes, “It has been really wonderful to notice the ways in which each individual is able to recognize and be accountable for parts of their own story in which they have control. But what is more beautiful to me are the ways in which you are watching in real time individuals holding spaces of grace, compassion, grief and joy in such a short time. There is a beautiful show of the strength of resilience and allowing for both what is hard and very real without sugar coating, but seeking out the brightness in one another to remind us all that through the horse blinders of life, ...