ONE Wake

Last week ONE Wake members delivered 753 public comments in support of two proposals: the House Wake Strategic Plan (roughly $2 million for homeless services) and the creation of a rental housing assistance fund (we asked for $5 million for May rent and utility bills). Read more about our action here. 

The Commissioners passed the first plan unanimously, and deferred the decision on the second proposal to their next meeting on Monday, May 18.

On Monday the Commissioners will make key decisions on how to spend a significant portion of the $193 million in Coronavirus Relief Funds made available through the federal CARES Act.

During their meeting the Commissioners will be reviewing a proposal from the County Manager's office which will be publicly available sometime Friday afternoon. These funds have the potential to greatly assist families in crisis and lay the groundwork for recovery. 

The Commissioners meeting on Monday is an opportunity for ONE Wake to continue to take action behind the creation of a rental housing assistance fund - a priority identified by the Affordable Housing Team to address the potential wave of evictions once the courts re-open in June. 

The ONE Wake Steering Team met Tuesday morning to approve a Zoom press conference action Monday at 10:00 am to react to the Manager’s proposal and to lift up the need for a rental housing assistance fund. This action is a continuation of the public comment action that ONE Wake ratified during our recent internal assembly on April 30. 

The proposed goal is for every ONE Wake institution to deliver at least 10 members, as well as your Pastor, Rabbi, Imam, or Executive Director. Our recommendation is to invite everyone that you contacted regarding the public comment action last week.

On Monday, May 4 ONE Wake organized and delivered 753 public comments to the Wake County Commissioners in support of two proposals to use federal funds for housing assistance in Wake County! 

The Wake County Commissioners unanimously approved the first proposal, the House Wake Strategic Plan, which will allocate over $2 million towards a seven point plan primarily focused on supporting residents experiencing homelessness. 

The most immediate impacts of this funding: 

• Over 130 families experiencing homeless will have the cost of their hotel stays covered;
  
  
• Oak City Cares will receive funding to provide access to outdoor FEMA showers, washers, and dryers for unsheltered residents to tend to their personal hygiene needs;
  
  
• The opportunity for services providers to submit letters of interest for funding of additional programs through this plan. 

The second proposal for the allocation of $5 million for a rental housing assistance fund to help Wake County tenants pay their May rent and utility bills has been deferred to the Commissioner's May 18 meeting. At that same meeting, Commissioners could potentially appropriate a significant amount of the Coronavirus Relief Funds available to Wake County (up to $193 million). 

Through our robust showing of 753 public comments, ONE Wake has publicly demonstrated our power, helped win $2 million in funds that will support residents most impacted by this crisis, and positioned our organization to push for the creation of a substantial rental housing assistance fund. 

We will broadcast more information soon about how ONE Wake can continue to act to support much needed rental housing assistance in our county. In the meantime, congratulations to every leader who played a part in delivering this incredible number of public comments! 

Download the latest ONE Wake handout below for distribution within your institutions. 

Wake County is facing a deepening housing crisis made significantly more perilous by the COVID-19 epidemic. Residents experiencing homelessness find themselves in even more precarious situations. One in five tenants missed their rent payment in April, suggesting a potential wave of evictions when the courts reopen in June. 

Last night over 150 ONE Wake leaders ratified a proposal developed by the Affordable Housing Team and Steering Team to address this crisis. Leaders from across the county pledged to act immediately to support the allocation of over $7 million in federal funds to two flexible and broadly written emergency housing initiatives:

• The House Wake Strategic Plan (read full plan here);
• An emergency rental assistance fund to help tenants pay May rent and utility bills (read letter here). 

ONE Wake leaders committed to organize 1,061 public comments to the Wake County Board of Commissioners in support of these initiatives - an INCREDIBLE reaction! 

However, public comments can only be submitted online on Monday, May 4, between 9:00 am and 12:00 noon!

Here’s how you can support ONE Wake’s FIRST public action:

1. Read the sample letter here;
   
   
2. Go to http://www.wakegov.com/commissioners/Pages/signup.aspx and find the online public comment form (it’s not live yet and won’t be until Monday morning at 9:00 am);
   
   
3. Copy and paste the sample letter into the public comment form, filling in your own personal information; 
   
   
4. Recruit at least 10 members from your congregation and/or community to join you in taking this action. They can access these same resources on the Justice United website here. 

Over 120 leaders from ONE Wake institutions across the county joined a virtual Internal Assembly last Thursday night to discuss an amended organizing strategy to address the COVID-19 crisis in our communities. 

Summary 

• ONE Wake must postpone our May 31 Founding Assembly to October (date TBD) due to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic; 
   
• Our amended strategy is to engage in a rapid listening campaign to identify opportunities to act in the short term to support the well being of our communities; 
  
  
• ONE Wake will reconvene during a second internal assembly on April 30 to ratify proposals for action based on the concerns identified during our listening campaign. Our goal is to act quickly. 

Listening Campaign and Timeline 

ONE Wake will respond to the immediate crisis in our communities through a rapid listening campaign that concludes on April 9. The goal of the campaign is to: 

1) understand how our families, congregations, and communities have been impacted by the epidemic and the related economic crisis; 

2) surface specific stories that will help us identify shared concerns and winnable issues: especially “low hanging fruit” that can be addressed quickly through action at the county or municipal levels.  

All ONE Wake leaders are asked to conduct between 3-5 relational phone calls by April 9 to help us complete this campaign (see below for more information).

The ONE Wake Steering Team will shape and vet proposals for action based on the concerns identified through this campaign. All ONE Wake leaders will reconvene during a second Internal Assembly on April 30 to discuss these proposals and move into action. Sign up for April 30 Internal Assembly Here.

In the event that there is a pressing issue that demands immediate attention prior to April 30 the Steering Team will call a snap virtual leaders meeting to propose an action. 

Relational Phone Call Resources

A relational phone call is a one on one conversation over the phone or a video call that will allow us to:

- “Show up” for people during a difficult time;

-  Hear how people are being impacted and listen for ways to act through immediate action or longer term organizing and systems change; 

- Learn the ideas people have and what they are doing to support one another.

We have prepared a sample outline and note form for relational phone calls below.

Download Relational Phone Call Outline and Sample Note Taking Form Here.

Please submit notes from your calls by April 9 following instructions in Note Taking Form above.

During the last 48 hours conditions in our region have been changed dramatically by the COVID-19 virus. ONE Wake is proposing the following initial actions to ensure that we can continue organizing our power while also protecting those who are most vulnerable to infection. 

1) Hold all Group Meetings via Conference Call

For the next four weeks (and we will reassess along the way), ONE Wake will hold all small and large group meetings via Zoom or conference call instead of face to face. One on one meetings will be held only when we can comply with the recommendations of medical professionals about physical distance, staying away when sick, etc.

Meetings impacted by this change include: 

• Monday, March 16 Affordable Housing Team Meeting (7:00 PM);
• Wednesday, March 18 Education Team Meeting (7:00 PM);
• Thursday, March 19 Clergy Team (Institutional Leaders) Meeting (10:00 AM);
• Thursday, March 26 Internal Assembly (7:30 PM). 

2) Create Communications Team

The current need for social distancing is an opportunity to use technology in a relational and powerful manner through tapping into online training, face to face video conferences, Facetime, Facebook live, relational phone banking, and conference calls. To this end, ONE Wake is organizing a new Communications Team to help harness the creativity and skills of our leaders and members in this arena.  

Please sign up via the link below if you are interested in participating in this new team and exploring how best to use technology within ONE Wake.

https://www.onewake.org/research_action_team_signup    

3) Continue to Save the Dates for the April 30 Internal Assembly and our May 31 Founding Assembly. 

How we proceed this spring will be determined by the current state of the COVID-19 virus in our area and the most up to date recommendations of public health professionals. For now, please continue to hold these important dates on your calendar. 

Questions? Please contact us at wakeorganizing@gmail.com

Report from 12.05 Internal Assembly

Over 200+ leaders from 32 institutions attended the Wake County Sponsors internal assembly last Thursday night at Common Thread Church (formerly North Raleigh Community Church). 

Leaders reported the completion of listening sessions that engaged over 1,000 additional people since the October 29 Internal Assembly. In total, the listening session campaign has engaged 3,197 people from diverse communities to identify the top pressures facing families across the county. Those in attendance unanimously agreed to select one priority per every 1,000 people involved in listening sessions. 

Leadership teams from all institutions present then voted to prioritize one additional concern for research and action: Living Wages / Access to Quality Jobs. Education and Affordable Housing were selected as organizing priorities at the previous internal assembly on October 29. 

Finally, all institutions present voted for the permanent, legal name of the organization: ONE Wake!

Next Steps

Leaders pledged to take the following actions at the conclusion of the meeting: 

1) Deliver 90 leaders to attend training on Saturday, January 18 to learn how to develop effective issue campaigns to address our priority concerns. 

It was clarified that this training is aimed at equipping members of participating institutions with the roles they need to translate the three initial priorities into actionable, winnable grassroots issue campaigns. 

2) Turn out 116 leaders to attend a Countywide Leaders meeting on Thursday, January 30. 

During this meeting the Countywide Leader’s Caucus will be divided into three teams (one for each of the three priorities) and will work with the help of organizers to develop clear and shared next steps. 

Please review your institution's pledges via the attached pledge form here.

Upcoming Events

How to Organize Effective Issue Campaigns
Saturday, January 18, 10:00 am - 11:30 am
Common Thread Church (formerly North Raleigh Community Church)
1417 Clifton St, Raleigh
Confirm your attendance here

ONE Wake Countywide Leaders Meeting
Thursday, January 30, 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Common Thread Church (formerly North Raleigh Community Church)
1417 Clifton St, Raleigh
Confirm your attendance here

Questions? 

Contact us at wakeorganizing@gmail.com

In Progress: WCS Listening Session Campaign

All across Wake County institutional leaders are organizing house meetings as part of the Wake County Sponsors listening session campaign. This campaign is designed to engage 4,000 county residents in house meetings to identify new leaders and to surface the top pressures facing their families and communities. Since April, over 220 leaders have attended IAF University to learn the skills necessary to engage at least 100 members of their community in this process. 

The listening session campaign will conclude at a WCS internal assembly on Tuesday, October 29, 7:30 - 9:30 PM. During our internal assembly, leaders will review the broad categories of concerns raised during the campaign and will vote to form our first grassroots agenda (download the Wake County Sponsors timeline here). 

This campaign represents a crucial phase for our organizing initiative. Read more below to learn how you can organize a house meeting in your community and shape our future grassroots agenda.  

Listening Session Resources

Below is a list of listening session resources and handouts from IAF University with brief explanations for each. Click on each title to download the corresponding .pdf file. This information will be permanently hosted on our website here: 

Overview of a Core Team

Core Teams are the basic unit of power within every IAF organization. Core Teams are broad based. They are made up of the leaders who organize and regularly deliver the major constituencies that comprise your institution: ministries, committees, choir, hospitality, membership, etc. Core Teams will be the driving force behind organizing listening sessions in your community.   

Internal Power Analysis

So, who should be on my Core Team? An Internal Power Analysis is your tool to identify the top leaders in your institution, and to  understand how power works and how decisions are made. A good Internal Power Analysis is your map to start building relationships with potential Core Team leaders in your community. 

House Meeting Outline

House Meetings are at their core a tool to do two important things in your institution: to identify new, potential leaders for development; and to identify the top concerns that impact them, their family, or their community. House Meetings require 10 - 12 participants, a facilitator, and a note taker.

House Meeting Report Form

Please use the following report form to record the results of your house meeting. Completed forms should be sent to wakeorganizing@gmail.com. 

Effective Organizing for Congregational Renewal

The above tools are central to our ability to organize power and win big victories on the top pressures facing our community. But they are also equally effective as tools for internal congregational and institutional development. In this small booklet available from ACTA publications, senior IAF organizers and leaders explain how these tools are used to develop leaders and grow our institutions. The booklet includes five case studies from participating institutions across the United States.   

Questions? 

Contact us at wakeorganizing@gmail.com.

Close to 150 leaders from 24 institutions across Wake County attended our leaders meeting on September 6 at Martin St Baptist Church in Raleigh.

Leaders reported that they held 790 relational meetings within their institutions over the course of the summer. These meetings are part of our shared goal to strengthen the bonds of trust, reciprocity and accountability among leaders participating in this effort (see here for more information about relational meetings).

To further this goal, Wake County leaders agreed to participate in a second phase of relational meetings across institutions. Leaders pledged to deliver 497 of their members to attend relational meeting events between their institutions by December 1. To this end diverse institutions have been clustered together across divides of race, faith, and geography.

The agreement is that leaders of the clustered institutions will create a plan to meet in fellowship, thinking creatively about ways in which a team of 20-50 leaders from each institution might relate to each other. For example, leaders of these clustered institutions can plan a shared meal, a worship service, or theological discussion. The structure is a two hour event, with enough time for participants to share two, thirty minute long relational meetings with members from different institutions.

In addition to the two meetings that will take place at the shared event, it was agreed that each participant would schedule at least two additional relational meetings to be held at a later date.

Please follow the link below to review your cluster, the contact person for your institution, and the pledged number of participants from your institution. This spreadsheet reflects the information that was given at the Sept. 6 meeting.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wqu-boymnQ-HzDoxkq7cHaOnxRhr1fnrpfubB2URV70/edit?usp=sharing

Please contact us at wakeorganizing@gmail.com if you have any questions. See pictures from the event here.