Building Community

Val Brown
Val Brown
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Blog #3

Each week I will try to outline a series of simple and easy community builders you can use with students and adults.

Time building community is not wasted time, so I will continue to encourage you to make time for it.

Tonight, however, my heart is in Houston, 2017, Katrina 2005, and Miami, 1992 because every time one of these major hurricanes hit, I am taken back to Hurricane Andrew and:

  • howling winds lasting through the night,
  • two weeks without running water,
  • six weeks without electricity at my grandmother’s home,
  • a University of Miami foreign exchange student, Yukio, from Yokohama, Japan who stayed with us, and
  • my pregnant mother being in the hospital the whole time because babies often come a early when there is a hurricane. My sister, Tiffany, arrived about two weeks after landfall.

After it was over — and we could get some gasoline — my dad drove us to see some of the worst of it. It truly looked like a war zone.

http://flashbackmiami.com/2016/08/23/hurricane-andrew/#lightbox[group-8852]/24/

So when you consider building community this week, I want to encourage you to build community in a way that will connect your students or colleagues to people who need it most.

Obviously, you can focus your efforts on those who are in Houston, and other areas hit by Hurricane Harvey. Here is one link that may help you find an outlet for time, talents, or money that you can donate.

Here’s how to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-to-help-hurricane-storm-harvey_us_59a166dde4b0821444c37515?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004 via @HuffPostImpact

For weeks and months, families will be putting their lives back together. After Hurricane Andrew, some schools were in the worst hit areas and didn’t reopen for months. What can your school or classroom do to serve another school or classroom in some of the worst hit areas?

How can you make sure a student who just lost everything feels like they have a place in your classroom?

If not the victims of Hurricane Harvey, how about serving locally? There are always people in need.

I would love to hear how you decide to use this as an opportunity to bring your classroom or school together for the benefit of someone else. To me, that is the best work we can do in community anyway.

)

Val Brown

Written by

Val Brown

Praying. Teaching. Leading. Learning. Sharing. Serving. Passionately pursuing my purpose.

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