One of the challenges that I see with community efforts to address the many social issues that are present in any community and need resolution is a reluctance by some to collaborate with one another. I found over my time on the bench and in consulting around the country on child welfare issues that bringing people and their ideas together and listening to one another can develop a common vision and plan of action. That effort almost always brings better results than the good work that individuals or an individual group are doing on their own.
I saw a prime example of this the other day in Queenstown. Krista Pettit, the Executive Director of the Haven Ministries, invited me to come to see what they have been doing there for over 20 years. As she and her husband, Chris, are also here in Cambridge where I had recently met them, I decided to take the trip up the Eastern Shore to see what she and her organization were doing. Her husband is the new pastor at St. Paul’s UMC and Grace UMC here in Cambridge where they with other interested churches in the community have started ONE MISSION CAMBRIDGE, which is a cooperative ministry to address and help those in our community living in need.
What I found at my meeting with Krista and thought about on my drive home was how open she was to listen and learn from me. It was clear from our talk that she wanted me to know what had been accomplished in Queenstown through the Haven Ministries. It was also clear that what she wanted to do in Cambridge was to listen to the community and the Cambridge Faith Community to learn how we all felt that we could make things work better and achieve better outcomes for children and families here.
I learned from Krista that the Haven Ministries has services for the following:
Shelter – an emergency, winter homeless shelter open to men, women, and children where they are provided services such as food, clothing, case management services, and other life necessities
Food Pantry and Resource Center – a daytime place to request financial assistance, attend classes, and choose food from the food pantry
Street Outreach – meeting with individuals wherever they are to connect them to services caused by the housing crisis
Thrift Store – providing clothing and household goods at deeply discounted prices
HOPE Warehouse – selling used furniture, appliances, and building supplies along with job training in customer services
Art for your home – partnering with local artists to provide artwork to beautify homes of clients transitioning to housing.
With ONE MISSION CAMBRIDGE, she is not planning to bring the Haven Ministries here. She and I both know from our experience, that each community has its own personality, different leaders with different skills, and a pride in its community that needs to be heard. It is not unlike the well-known expression that “All politics is local.” So are the ways that communities work together or struggle together. Krista plans to listen and help our community develop its own best way of addressing the challenges here.
While I know that some, if not all, of the services that the Haven Ministries provide are also provided here by good people doing good work, most are done individually at different times and locations that make it difficult for those needing the services to easily utilize them. For an example, I have seen that in the numerous food backpack programs that have provided needed after school, weekend, and holiday food for children to take home with them.
Krista meets regularly at St. Paul’s UMC on Monday evenings in person and by zoom at 6:00 p.m. and wants everyone to know that All Christian Churches are invited to attend. This is the kind of visioning and listening that when shared with everyone can find its way into helping more people in need with more resources that are effectively implemented. Anyone interested in attending One Mission Cambridge meetings or discussing it should contact Krista at 410-739-4363.
Judge Rideout is the former Chief Judge of the Alexandria, VA Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court (1989-2004). From 2004 until the present he has consulted in different states to support their efforts to improve their child welfare systems. From 2016 to early 2021, he was the Ward 1 Commissioner on the Cambridge City Council. Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for improving the lives of children in his and other communities.
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