What a Sunday it was at the UU Congregation of Charlottesville! We welcomed Price Thomas, Executive Director of City of Promise, and announced the beginning of a new partnership between UUCville and City of Promise. More specifically, Price invited us to be part of a wonderful pilot program called “Nurturing Neighborhood”, whose purpose is to connect under-resourced families in Charlottesville with teams of volunteers who will serve as a kind of extended family that will assist with essential tasks that can easily over-stretch an under-resourced family with children.

Read about CIty of Promise
Read about Nurturing Neighborhood
Email Rev TIm to volunteer or learn more

In a congregation in which many (but not all) enjoy economic and other kinds of privilege, it can be easy to take things like transportation, flexible work schedules, and after school child-care, for granted. But, as Price explained, too often, families that live in under-resourced neighborhoods lack similar privileges and resources, making it difficult to connect their children to the kind of opportunities many of us experienced growing up and are able provide to our children and grandchildren. Those barriers (and shrinking public resources and support) make it incredibly difficult (if not impossible) for families to break the cycle of generational poverty.

This is where volunteer teams from UUCville can play a role. City of Promise is creating teams of 5-7 volunteers who will be connected to families they are already working with and who could benefit from an extended family network. The volunteer team will work closely with families to identify key tasks and then divide those tasks among team members so that no single person is responsible for doing everything. In this way, volunteers can avoid getting burned out and can provide a robust network of support.

My hope is that our initial volunteer team(s) will begin the program by late February/early March. Once we put a team(s) together, City of Promise, will invite the team(s) to have dinner with the families so we can get to know one another and begin to build relationships and trust. From there, the team will create a schedule with the family(s) and then get started.

If you are interested in being part of a UUCville extended family team, please email me as soon as possible. A number of UUCville members and friends have already reached out and the more potential volunteers we have the better!