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San Francisco, CA, USA - On June 23rd, 7 young leaders from the Bay Area attended the Faith & Neighborhood Partnerships Day portion of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service, held in San Francisco June 22-24th. Co-Convened by the Corporation for National & Community Service and the Points of Light Institute, the conference brought together volunteer leaders from the non-profit, government, and corporate sectors to learn, share, and imagine the possibilities that service can have on our society. The Faith & Neighborhood Partnerships Day portion focused on the positive impact that faith organizations can have in their communities and featured a keynote address by Rev. Joshua Dubois, Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
The day was opened at the Hilton Hotel by an Interfaith Prayer jointly organized by the San Francisco Interfaith Council and the Interfaith Center of the Presidio, both URI Cooperation Circles, and which included Sarah Talcott, URI’s Director of Youth Programming along with former URI Trustees Rev. Heng Sure, Rita Semel, and Paul Chaffee. This lovely opening to the day presented the diversity of faiths that exist within the Bay Area featuring prayers from the following traditions: Islam, Judaism, Methodist, Christian Science, Buddhism, Catholicism, and Brahma Kumari. Following introductions from speakers including John Kelly and Hyepin Im, Corporation for National and Community Service; Rev. Mark Farr and Neil Bush, Chairman of Points of Light; and David Caprara, Director of the Global Peace Service Alliance; and Mark Herbert from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, Joshua Dubois gave the keynote address. In his remarks Rev. Dubois outlined President Obama’s strategy for engaging faith communities across America, working to build strong coalitions bringing together the work and dedication of faith and neighborhood organizations address the challenges facing American society. He also provided information on how to go about connecting with his Office and its integration within the various departments of the executive branch. The keynote closed with an engaging question and answer session. Closing the session were remarks from Haru Inouye of the Shinnyo-en Foundation reflecting on service from the Buddhist perspective.
Following this inspiring talk, the large gathering broke up into a number of workshops. The workshop that the young leaders chose to attend was “The Rise of the International Agenda” which featured a mediated discussion with a panel consisting of URI’s Executive Director Charles Gibbs, Eboo Patel of the Interfaith Youth Corp (IFYC), David Caprara, and Gwyneth Borden of IBM. Moderating the discussion was Erik Schwarz, Co-Director of the Institute for Faith & Service. Each panel member spoke briefly on the role of service and the role that it plays in their work. This was followed by a lively question and answer session in which a number of the young leaders present had the opportunity to speak.
Our group gathered together for lunch at Naan ‘N Curry, a local Indian-Pakistani restaurant, where we discussed much of what we had learned over the course of the morning. Along with discussing our thoughts on Rev. Dubois speech and the workshop, it was a great opportunity to share our personal views and traditions as they applied to what we had heard as well as a chance to continue the process of getting to know each other that was begun at the Young Leaders Training Program at Anubhuti Retreat Center earlier in the month.
After a delicious lunch the group headed over to the Moscone Center where we attended a workshop put together by the IFYC entitled “Comon Action for Common Good: Building A Sustainable Interfaith Youth Service Movement.” This informative workshop was presented by Jenan Mohajir, an IFYC Outreach and Education Associate who has worked with URI in the past and was in attendance at the Global Assembly in Mayapur this past year. Focusing on how to develop effective programming to build local youth service groups, Ms. Mohajir led those in attendance through a number of exercises. These included finding someone in the room you didn’t know and sharing an interfaith experience that had an impact on you as well as a group activity where a possible program was planned and presented. The experience was quite useful as a number of the young leaders in attendance have been involved in the planning of a number of interfaith youth service projects with more coming up.
At the close a number of us walked over to Glide Memorial Church. After a short opening by Glide founders Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani and Pastors Dr. Karen Oliveto and Rev. Donald Guest, those in attendance broke into a number of groups. Some of the options were a tour of the Tenderloin, a screening of Talking Through Walls, workshops on “Innovative Community Partnerships” and “Addressing the Administration’s Faith and Neighborhood Agenda,” and guided tours around the Glide Community and Building. Those of us still present chose to take this opportunity to see firsthand the incredible work that the Glide Foundation is doing. As part of the tour we had the opportunity to visit and learn about their Family Youth and Child Services, daily Free Meals program, Drop In Center and Emergency Services, Permanent Supportive Housing, Women’s Center, Youth Education and Workforce Development, and the Glide Health Services. All of these programs serve a vital function in helping San Francisco’s poor and marginalized communities to overcome the myriad of barriers that they face on a daily basis.
It was an inspirational close to a great day, one that provided a unique opportunity to interact with people from all walks of life and engage with individuals from across the country involved in a multitude of programs bringing together diverse communities of faith in service to the greater good. It was an honor to participate, especially with such a promising group of young leaders. The future is indeed bright.
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