See Our Video Introduction
Greetings to all our friends and family -
This month's blog entry comes from Mike Ferguson, the newest addition to the City Connections team - joining Jeff as City Champion for Greater
Little Rock. As my first entry, I thought it would be interesting to offer a perspective from someone who has
two different reference points about our city and about City Connections:
- First, I've been associated with City Connections for several years now - like many of you - as a Community Partner serving as Executive
Director for several Little Rock area non-profits - and also like many of you, benefiting greatly from the
collaboration of leaders and
organizations that are the City Connections network;
- And second, I've been on the City Connections team for three months now, working directly with Jeff and with a number of Community Partners helping
to support and strengthen their individual and unique ministries.
A nice place to start may be a quick look back. For three years now, Jeff (along with Tim and Carla) has led the creation of an amazing collaborative network of community partners –
a like-minded group of leaders representing the very best of Little Rock. It seems this network has become known to be several things:
- An extension of the collaborative leader that Jeff is – a place where authentic, honest and meaningful conversations are commonplace
and where love and compassion are the currency;
- A family of leaders and organizations who know the importance of together – and are willing to spend the time to work together;
- A familiar and trusted place for folks from all walks to tap into helping and supporting resources – at all scales;
- The “go to place” for organizations and folks who wish to speak into the fabric of Little Rock.
As we approach 2012, the City Connections team has a dream of being even more intentional in several areas:
- First and foremost, imagining ways to more effectively communicate the experience of the City Connections Community Partner network so even more
in our city – churches, business, government, education, agencies and individuals – may adopt the idea that “together we are more”,
and that the extra effort it takes is worth it;
- Supporting our community partners in even more specific ways – to include things like:
- Organizing and introducing those who have service resources to benefit our community partner network – things like insurance
(personal and organizational), web development, finance and accounting, technology, staffing and more – to provide such resources
in some sort of "group leveraged" way;
- Organizing and facilitating consultative support around important things like board development, organizational development,
spiritual development, as well as personal and professional development;
- Looking for ways to collectively tap into the philanthropic community in Little Rock – leading toward the opportunity to
administer a modest endowment fund for community partner projects.
- De-emphasizing our historic focus on named “strategic priorities” as City Connections driving initiatives – (education, re-entry, neighborhood
revitalization) – and rather seeking and following God’s guidance in proactively supporting leaders who emerge around subject areas
important to the improvement of our city;
- Introducing more substantive and hands-on support for those who choose to call the City Connections Center their home for a season –
working to build even more "family" inside our non-profit incubator so together we can move mountains.
As always, it is our mission to join with the faith community from across the Greater Little Rock in Christ-like service
- and we are excited about what we can do together in the coming years. We invite everyone who has a heart for a better Little
Rock to become part of the City Connections network and experience for yourself what 150 current Community Partners already know!
From all of us at City Connections, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.
Mike Ferguson
City Connections Center
2500 E. 6th Street
Little Rock, AR 72202
(501) 374-1686
mike@cityconnectionsinc.org