What Community Outreach Looks Like | Trinity Talks Podcast

Well, good morning, everyone.

And good morning, guys.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Welcome to Trinity Talks today.

So I'm Elizabeth Archer, and I am really excited to have members of the Neighborhood Assessment

Team joining me today.

So we've got Kyla, Jesse, and Tracy.

Welcome.

Thank you.

So about a year ago, or maybe even half a year ago, there was no such thing as a Neighborhood

Assessment Team.

Now, here I am sitting with you guys and this, I'm just going to move my mic, this amazing

document that I actually had a lot of fun and learned a lot from reading.

And I'm really hoping that we can go through what the Neighborhood Assessment Team is and

what you did and learn a little bit about your findings as well and what that means

for us here at Trinity.

Now, Kyla, you talked a little bit about it last week at church, but we're going to go

into it a little bit more in depth today.

Now, I know before we get started, some people may be wondering, what is the neighborhood?

And I know that that was one of your initial challenges was defining Trinity's community.

So I'm just going to show a map for people who are watching at home online or if they

are looking.

We should have a map of Trinity Streetsville, just a map of the area.

There it is.

So these are the firm boundaries of what Streetsville is.

Now, did you stick to the firm boundaries or did they sort of blur?

Yeah, they sort of blurred a little bit.

Yes, because when we were looking at things like census data, that takes in the sort of

voter municipality, which goes beyond Streetsville.

Right into the middle of the Meadowdale area.

And we know that folks who are going to church here are not necessarily living in that strict

area.

That's right.

So we sort of spread out.

So you use this area a little bit as a guide, but not as a firm boundary.

And then let's just show a picture of our Streetsville village here.

So anyone who's not familiar with Trinity and Streetsville, this is one of our shopping

strips right on the street that Trinity is located on.

So Kyla, you are the one who sort of spearheaded this whole idea of doing a neighbourhood assessment.

And I'm wondering if you could share why come up with this idea.

Maybe tell me a little bit about your passions and motivations behind this.

Yeah, for sure.

So the idea for this really started first with a conversation with Pastor Rob and then

a conversation that expanded to Trinity's Outreach Committee.

And it was really the question that kept coming up in my mind was how do we move beyond ministry

in the walls of the church?

How do we do ministry in a way that's really engaging folks who maybe don't come into our

church building?

Right.

And one of the challenges with knowing what would that ministry look like is not knowing

what are the needs and the opportunities that actually exist around us.

And so before, we could just launch out and start a particular ministry to do a particular

thing.

And there's not necessarily anything wrong with that, but it would be helpful to have

a sense of what's actually needed and why we're doing what we're doing.

And so this neighbourhood assessment process was really about answering those questions.

What are the needs?

What are the opportunities?

And how has God gifted Trinity to be able to respond to those things?

I love that.

There's a lot of wisdom there.

I love that you've connected opportunities and needs together.

I think that's a great first step.

So then you came up with a team.

And who is on this neighbourhood assessment team?

Yeah.

So there ended up being seven of us on the team.

So myself and Jesse and Tracy, as well as Sue Flack and Paul and Lauren and Adrian were

the other folks who volunteered to join me in this venture.

Well, well done, guys.

So I assume there's a little bit of passion behind this for each of you here.

So Jesse, why did you decide to join the neighbourhood assessment?

Yeah.

So I've always been interested in trying to find out more ways to help out locally, which

is why my life group's helped a lot with the open door in the past.

And then in terms of, I guess, long-term goals for me being here at Trinity, especially now

getting more involved in different parts of ministries, is trying to see if there's a

way to help Trinity be a visible pillar in the community more than it already has so

far and also kind of mentioned this briefly, but I was also part of the outreach committee.

So it seems like a natural fit for me to help out for this particular group.

Perfect.

Great.

Well, what about you, Tracy?

Yeah.

So in my case, I grew up in Mississauga and lived here most of my life.

And I've seen how Mississauga has changed, how it's grown and evolved.

I've seen how demographics have changed.

Also on a personal side, one of my interests over the years has been reading books like

Boom, Bust and Echo and Outliers.

And through reading these books, we learned that success is not necessarily, or success

is necessarily possibly just because of a certain time in history, something can be

successful, or basically because of a shift in demographics.

So I enjoy thinking about this when I see how organizations change over the time.

And I've enjoyed thinking about this looking at Trinity over the years as well.

So that's how I was interested.

And when back in July or August, when Rob mentioned that we would be doing a neighborhood

assessment at the end of one of the services, I got really excited.

I actually thought that a third party organization was coming in with some consultants to do

this because it is a professional thing to do.

And so I thought, well, I won't be able to participate in this, but I'm so happy that

they're doing it.

And then in September, when I walked around the ministry fair, I happened to pass by Kyla,

who I didn't know.

And she had in front of her the signup sheet for the neighborhood assessment.

I got very excited.

And I said, oh, you mean we can sign up for this?

And she's like, well, yeah, sure.

Christmas came early for Tracy.

Yes, it did.

I was so excited.

I was the second name on the list.

That's great.

Well, it really was a wonderful report to read through.

And I'm glad that you said that it's something that you might consider professionals to do.

Because when I looked through the process that you took in doing this, it was incredibly

intentional.

It was incredibly methodical and thorough.

And I would actually encourage anyone who's at Trinity to ask for a copy of it, because

it was really well put together.

And it looks like you sort of did your work over eight sessions, each with its own purpose.

I mean, me myself, if I were to do a community assessment or a neighborhood assessment, I

wouldn't know where to start.

So how did you start your first session when you guys all met together?

Yeah, so the eight sessions of the neighborhood assessment were partly based on processes

that I had done in the past and partly based on some of my own background in education.

So my work is in community development.

And so this fits with that really well.

But to start our first session, I thought it was really important to ground ourselves

in, first of all, who we were as a team.

So taking some time just to get to know who else is sitting around this table.

So one of the first questions that we asked was, when you hear the word neighborhood,

what comes to mind for you?

And just getting to know what experiences we're all bringing to the table.

But then also really grounding ourselves in Scripture and in God.

This isn't a neighborhood assessment that we're doing just because we want to.

It's something that we're doing because we feel like we want to know what is God calling

us to do in this moment.

And so yeah, we looked at some different scriptures.

We looked at, for example, the story of the good Samaritan, which Jesus tells in response

to the question, like, who is my neighbor?

And we looked at some of the Old Testament passages where throughout the prophets and

the law, there's this really an emphasis on caring for the vulnerable, caring for widows,

caring for orphans, caring for the stranger in your midst.

And so we looked at those scriptures and we said, who are these people in our context?

Who are the vulnerable people in streetsville, in Mississauga?

And also the other piece that we looked at was some of Jesus's ministry.

And looking at the fact that Jesus, yes, he came and he preached and he said lots of good

things, but he always paired that preaching with deeds, with healing, with feeding people,

with spending time with people.

And so this idea that our ministry comes not just in what we say, but also in what we do.

And so therefore, we want to follow that model of Jesus.

That's beautiful.

That's beautiful.

And I just want to extend just like a sincere gratitude for going through that so thoroughly.

So that was just your first session, a great way to make a foundation for your work.

But then you did other types of methods and processes.

And some of them that I have here are there was a prayer walk, there was a census review.

Tracy, were you part of those?

Yes I was.

The prayer walk was a practical thing to do and it was a symbolic thing to do.

I think all of us in the group knew enough about the general neighborhood here around

the church.

But when we actually went out and walked around this time, we looked at it differently.

We read signs that we'd never read before or we read them a little bit more closely.

We looked at construction areas and we asked the who, what, when, where and why questions

around those construction areas.

We also were just more mindful about walking around.

And actually, just to be honest, for me, a highlight of this walk was the people I was

walking with.

I enjoyed talking to them, asking them questions, getting to know them a bit better and just

feeling free to speak openly.

And that's all part of neighborhood and all part of community.

So yeah.

Wow.

A lot of learning there.

It makes me inspired to actually start doing that in my day to day.

Just see things through a little bit of a different lens.

Yes.

And the census, well, of course, that excited me.

I was glad that you asked me to speak on that.

Yeah, I looked forward to that particular session for weeks before it came up.

So obviously, it was a necessary thing we had to do.

We need to look at the census to, you know, we're doing a neighborhood assessment.

We need to know who is who's here, who's in the neighborhood.

And that's the best way to do it.

And of course, Kyla, with her professional background and her skills and just general

amazing common sense, knew that she had to organize this this meeting for people who

are not census statisticians, which I assume is at least one or two, at least one.

So of course, it was organized in a way that we could all manage it.

And we were able to answer the questions that we may have had and we were able to find if

we were missing something.

And I think at the end of the day, we found that what we saw in the census was what we

already knew about streetsville and about Mississauga.

So that gave us merit.

It gave what we were talking about merit.

And it allowed us to move on in the direction where we seem to be going.

Great.

That's great.

So important.

And Jesse, you looked a little bit more at our local community.

Maybe I know you drew up some maps yourselves and then looked at some of the actual needs

that you saw.

So what did you come up with there?

Yeah.

So one thing that's really good and I think we saw from the earlier picture from before

when you at the very beginning was like defining again what exactly we were actually starting

for both streets from the Mississauga community.

And so we actually drew a map downstairs and we have to use bad sticky notes.

And we try to identify all the different organizations and the businesses that were relevant to what

the existing community supports were in the area we're actually serving.

And actually one of the best things we did after that was actually going out to ask people

both parishioners and outside the church what those needs were and if they're actually being

addressed in streetsville or Mississauga.

So we could have a better idea of where exactly Trinity can address those gaps.

It was really eye opening for some of the things that we saw that were actually available,

but the same things that were clearly maybe underserved or an opportunity for us to actually

maybe address at some point, especially as we're kind of figuring out the fine details

of the neighborhood assessment team, like what some of these suggestions we have for

Wolf Robin and the rest of the congregation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And then one of my favorite things that I got to read in this neighborhood assessment

team, and maybe it's just my visual learner self, but you did a fun activity called Rocks

and Balloons and I actually asked our tech team to put up some of the pictures here and

maybe Kyla, you can just talk us through just briefly what this was all about.

Yeah.

So Rocks and Balloons is like one of the reasons that I like this tool is because it's a very

visual tool and it's a way to bring a lot of information together in like a sort of

compact way.

And so the point of Rocks and Balloons is you have this middle line and the middle line

is the goal.

It's the dream.

And so for Streetsville, we talked about it being a welcoming and a safe community where

everyone's needs are met.

And for Trinity, we talked about it being a place where we are reaching out and where

everyone is feeling welcome.

And so balloons are the things that are lifting us up, that are really pulling us towards

our goal.

And rocks are the things that are weighing us down, the things that maybe are detracting

from our goal.

And so this is just a really visual way to sort of see like, what are we dealing with?

What is our situation?

What are the things that we can be really grateful for and maybe that we should build

on?

And what are some of the things that we're aware of as challenges?

And so we did this exercise first in a team.

So each individual member of the team completed this Rocks and Balloons template and then

we talked through it together and we said, okay, what are some of the common things that

we all identified as rocks or balloons?

And then we went away from that meeting and each person was asked to go and talk to their

neighbors, right?

To go and talk to somebody at the church and somebody outside of the church.

So that we could then, you know, we don't want this to just be about, you know, what

the seven of us sitting in a circle think.

But like, what does our actual wider community think as well?

And so we added those insights into this Rocks and Balloons exercise.

Wow, that's great.

And I think there's even another one up there too, isn't there?

Yeah, so the one, yeah, there we go.

Yeah, so this is the one for Trinity.

And what's important to sort of recognize about this is that like all of these things

on there are things that are contextual factors of our situation, but they're not necessarily

things that we can change or maybe like there are some things that maybe we don't want to

change.

You know, maybe that's just true of who we are and that's central to our identity.

But it's still important to put it out there and to say, this is a factor, right?

That is impacting what we're able to do.

That rock is going to be there no matter what.

Exactly.

All right.

Well, I really think that you did a lot of really good work.

And then you had to take all of these findings, which I assume was probably another challenge

in itself, but one that you did quite well.

And you gathered the information and you addressed the strengths and you looked at the weaknesses,

you found opportunities, and then you came up with some, I guess you assessed everything

and then you came up with some actions that you wanted to take and that you want to encourage

Trinity to take as well going forward from all of that.

So let's talk a little bit about the findings and then also about what you've decided to

do with those findings.

So I know you broke down the actions into three main categories, acts of service.

You brought up talked about cultivating community and then ongoing learning.

So I can see three different dimensions to all of this.

So do you want to tell us a little bit about the findings and then how we can take those

into acts of service, Kyla?

Yeah.

So I think it was important for us to recognize that there are certain particular opportunities

or ministries that Trinity could engage in, but also that one of the findings was that

some of the things that people are experiencing are not necessarily things that they need

a particular ministry to support them with, but that they just need relationship to support

them with.

And so we wanted to both set these really specific opportunities, but also give everyone

an opportunity to engage wherever they're at.

Yeah, so in terms of the acts of service, there was sort of three really specific or

concrete options that we sort of came up with.

So the first was that there was an opportunity to engage in some sort of ministry in long-term

care homes.

And so in the past, that ministry has looked like going in and providing something similar

to a Sunday service, where there's some scripture reading and some music and things like that.

And that's certainly something that could start again, or it could be something different,

just some opportunity for social time and playing games or whatever that is.

But just noticing that need to care, particularly for seniors and those who might be feeling

isolated.

Which actually, I'm just going to cite it, ties in really nicely to the sermon we just

had, where Rob was speaking about our aging population and Jesus's care for these people.

I love that.

Yeah, perfect.

Perfect timing.

Yeah.

So the second ministry sort of opportunity that we thought about was starting some sort

of a community meals program.

So an opportunity for folks who maybe can't afford a meal or maybe don't have time, or

maybe are just feeling isolated, right?

Like folks who are living alone or folks who, you know, single parents and things like that,

where they can just come and have a meal together and engage in both that physical nourishment,

but also that like social and emotional nourishment of community.

Great.

Yeah.

And then third was some sort of a volunteer service team.

So this would be something that could provide really practical support to folks, you know,

so helping with shoveling snow or raking leaves, or if someone's moving and they need help

with that, right?

Just a group of people who would be dedicated to showing up when something needs to get

done.

So those were our sort of three opportunities that we're sort of presenting to the church.

But of course, those opportunities don't happen by themselves.

There needs to be folks who are willing to lead those things or to volunteer and engage

in those things.

And so right now we're looking for folks who feel like they might be called to participate

in those in some way, particularly folks who are willing to lead them, but even folks who

are just willing to show up and to say, I'll show up and help cook a meal or clean some

dishes or shovel snow or whatever it is.

And so if that's something that other people are interested in, I would definitely encourage

you to reach out to myself or to reach out to Pastor Rob.

You can find his email address on the website if you're not here in person.

So yeah, just to think about what opportunities you might want to take advantage of.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Those are all I love that they're so practical.

So practical.

So those were the actions.

And then there was this idea of cultivating community, which I suppose makes sense in

this neighborhood type approach.

So how do we cultivate a community?

What came out of this?

Tracy, do you have any notes on that?

I do have notes, Elizabeth.

If you don't mind, I do have my notes because I don't want to forget anything.

No, I appreciate that.

And I could go on for a long time, so I don't want to do that either.

Yes, I love how today's sermon ties in exactly with what we're speaking about.

Today's sermon was about a care community.

It was about relationship.

It was about caring for our elderly parents and just the aging population in general.

Cultivating community.

I looked up the word cultivating finally this morning after I was ready to come in.

And you know, cultivating usually is a word around farming, right?

And working, getting your hands dirty.

And some words that came up are prepare for crops, dig, turn, plow, fertilize, farm, and

work.

Wow.

That is the word for cultivating.

Those are the words for cultivating.

So this will not come by easily.

Well, on the other hand, it will.

And that's what I want to talk about.

So again, Kyla's questions to the congregation last week were, what is God calling us to

do?

And what can we be quick to respond to?

And the acts of service that she mentioned just now are acts of service we can be quick

to respond to.

In our meetings, these questions came up maybe with different words or in different forms,

but we kept coming back to the same thing, acts of service.

And I think that's because that's something we don't see much of in the world today.

And it's something that is becoming in higher demand because of the aging population.

And time and action are the hot commodities here.

People need to take the time and the action to cultivate community.

And we're not talking about big things.

And the big thing about cultivating community is it doesn't happen within the church walls.

Most of us are here for less than two hours on a Sunday, and that's it for the week.

We live the rest of our lives out in the world.

And that's where we can be doing things to make build relationships.

So I just want to mention four things of how an acts of service cultivate community.

First of all, as Kyla said, everyone can participate.

It's all inclusive.

You don't need skills or special talents to be part of this type of thing.

So if a person feels that they can sign up for something they can do, they feel confident.

They go to do that thing, feeling confident.

The job or the task gets done.

They can stand back and say, I was a part of that.

And that means they feel like they belong.

And when they feel they belong, that's part of cultivating community.

And the person they did it for feels like they belong too.

I'm a part of something.

These people came and shared with me and they did this with me.

I belong.

That's part of cultivating community.

Also it's a wonderful way to get, I believe we probably have five generations in this

church.

And I believe that acts of service are ways of getting the different generations mingling.

And there's a list that could go on forever on how that might look.

But that's just, let's just leave that for today.

Also acts of service are an intangible way for all of us.

But I'd like to, I'd like to highlight particularly middle school, high school and young adults

to become more well-rounded as people.

They can learn new skills.

They may find new interests, career interests.

They would certainly have something interesting to put on their resume as a fun fact, which

then becomes a conversation piece in their job interview, which then sets them apart

from other applicants.

Very true.

I mean, there's so much that everyone can gain from this.

At the end of the day, if you've experienced the act of giving, you also have the opportunity

to experience joyful giving, which is given to you by the Holy Spirit.

And if you experience that once, you'll just want to keep doing it again and again and

again.

Sunday mornings are a starting place for establishing community, but cultivating community means

moving and doing things and stepping outside and serving in simple, tangible ways, which

could make the world of difference to someone.

Wow.

That's beautiful.

That's beautiful and very true.

And I love that you're so encouraging to everybody.

And at Trinity, we've talked, I think, a bit about this ability to connect with all the

generations.

And I think that you're just dead on that this would be a fantastic opportunity that

would have a ripple effect.

Yes.

A ripple effect and multidimensional nature to this type of community.

And with the church's mission to grow young, you know, the elderly people know what I'm

talking about.

They did this.

Their parents did this.

My generation and younger, we don't really know about this as much.

It's more of an idea.

And we need to create people who are like the generations three or four older than us.

To learn.

To learn from them and then to do.

Exactly.

Yes, which seems to be a theme here.

And then I mean, there was so much good learning that came out of this.

But I love that Tracy said at the beginning, she's lived in Mississauga for almost her

entire life and it's changed.

And one of the elements that came out of this report is that there's a need for ongoing

learning.

Right, Jesse?

Yeah.

And you can kind of see from the rocks and balloons picture, there's a lot of different

topics and it was actually really hard to narrow down exactly what we could potentially

do.

And I think that's one thing we want to keep in mind as a church as we move forward.

Like we're just stretching the surface here, especially with the initial stuff we're doing

that's by no means the only thing that we're going to start off with.

And one thing I would encourage a lot of people in the congregation, either individually or

maybe in your life groups, is maybe try to discuss this further and just thinking like,

what things do we notice as a group or what do I do individually on a basis where I do

address some of these concerns or community needs, but we can maybe do on a larger scale

at Trinity.

And I think that's part of what Kyle is trying to do is asking people to potentially step

up and reach out to her and Rob and share a bit more about their expertise.

Because we know there's so many people in our community that actively do help in their

own ways.

Either they're serving at a food bank, they're doing other stuff for seniors on an individual

basis, but we could potentially expand or rely on you guys to kind of get that ball

rolling.

So again, it's not just a matter of us saying, oh, we know this is what the community needs.

Us listening to both people within and outside the church, we can really address something

and make positive change for the better.

That's right.

That's right.

I'm excited to hear what stories come out of this.

I would love to sit down with you three again, maybe in half a year from now.

And hopefully we have some teams going.

We would have maybe some new needs.

We'd also see some new strengths.

We'd see a few more balloons even there too.

You never know.

But I love that you also said that people at Trinity are encouraged to get involved.

So if you are interested in knowing more, in helping more, in just finding out more

or even just sharing a story that you have, make sure to contact Kyla or Rob or even just

the office in general and we'll be sure to connect with you.

So thank you for taking the time.

I keep wanting to say community assessment team.

I was told it was the neighborhood assessment team.

All right.

So thank you very much, neighborhood assessment team for taking the time away from your coffee

hour to share with us about all of this hard work that you've done and all the blessings

that you've given to Trinity and to our greater community.