Valley Leaders Build Relationships Across Counties

MVOC convenes grassroots Leadership Council

More than 100 residents, neighbors, pastors, lay-leaders and advocates for communities throughout the Valley gathered on a rainy November evening to share a meal, build relationships, and discuss collective work in the coming year.

“This dinner signaled the first official convening of MVOC’s grassroots Leadership Council,” said Bill Mullane, MVOC Sponsoring Committee Member. “For over eighteen months, MVOC has been building a base of hundreds of grassroots leaders, clergypersons, concerned neighbors, and everyday advocates working on issues ranging from abandoned homes and neighborhood blight, to equal access to healthcare, and pressuring store owners in urban neighborhoods to be responsible for what they sell to the residents who rely on their products. It is time to start bringing people together and better unify the movement,” said Mullane.

Leaders shared organizing stories and sat at diverse tables with people from different neighborhoods and counties. Lay minister and community leader Rev. Michael Write said he was “inspired by the ability of people from different communities to discuss issues of importance to their neighborhoods, and how leaders from across the Valley have the potential to work together.”

Jimmy Pugh, leader of Project Gridiron and an MVOC board member said he was agitated to continue to build youth involvement in MVOC. “Young people have to be at the center of our movement and they are ready for it,” he said.

During MVOC’s first leadership dinner, leaders reflected on a year of accomplishments ranging from shutting down problem corner stores to advocating for NSP dollars to being the central voice for health care reform in the Valley.

Bill Mullane and Pastor, Michael Harrison both challenged the group to go back into the community to expand involvement in MVOC. Noting that to move forward, “we must bring people together across geographic boundaries to support each other’s neighborhood efforts and expand our work to include our region’s young people.”

The work continues, and MVOC’s newly established Grassroots Leadership Council will play a key role in steering the direction of the Collaborative in 2010. Chair of the sponsoring committee and pastor of Union Baptist Church Rev. Michael Harrison, challenged everyone present to “get up and do!” In other words complaining and about the situations of communities of the Valley will not improve them, but taking steps to organize people and resources in the name of gaining collective power will lead to change in Valley neighborhoods.

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