Save The Date!

Save the date for the 2013 Power of Partnership Conference.

The 2013 conference will be held on February 21, 2013 at Waterstone Community Church in Littleton, Colorado.

Registration information will be made available soon.

We look forward to having you join us for another day celebrating the Power of Partnership!

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Power of Partnership Schedule

Conference Schedule

8:30-9:00

Registration and Networking

9:00-9:15

Conference Welcome

9:15-10:00

Opening Session with Keynote Speaker Dave Runyon

10:00 - 10:15

Break

10:15 - 11:15

Workshop Breakout Session 1

11:15-12:30

Lunch and Networking

12:30 - 1:30

Workshop Breakout Session 2

1:30-1:45

Break

1:45 - 2:45

Workshop Breakout Session 3

2:45-3:00

Break

3:00-3:45

Closing Session with Speaker Luis Villarreal

Workshops at the Power of Partnership Conference, February 24, 2011

To register for the Power of Partnership Conference on February 24, 2011, at Arvada Covenant Church, go to GetMeRegistered.com Registering by check is no longer available!!

There are three different "threads" of workshops to choose from at the Conference. The first thread will focus on Gathering Congregations -- We Can Do it Together; the second thread will focus on Community Needs -- We Can Make a Difference; and the third thread will focus on Partnerships that are Working -- We Need Each Other. You can choose to go to the workshops in one thread during the three different breakout sessions, or you can go to workshops in each thread.

Read the descriptions and the biographies to help you decide which workshops you want to attend at the Power of Partnership Conference on February 24, 2011 at Arvada Covenant Church.

Thread One: Gathering Congregations — We can do more together

Loving Others In the Name of Christ

Reverend Doug McKinney

10:15—11:15 am

One of the greatest untapped resources with caring hearts and helping hands gathers in the church each week. When a person with a need asks for help, it’s hard to verify the need and effectively link people to meet multiple needs. Love INC (Love in the Name of Christ) offers a nationally-proven model that mobilizes church members to serve the community. It also helps churches create ministries that utilize their gifts, and supply them with volunteers to fill in the gaps in human services.

This workshop will address:

• The value of collaborating together
• The lack of duplication
• The value of looking like "Christ or love" instead of looking like a specific church
• And the value of volunteers being able to do a specific job with the knowledge that others will come in and pick up where they left off.
  

Rev. Doug McKinney has served as the Executive Director of Love INC of Littleton since its inception in 2008. Love INC is a non-profit that mobilizes churches in the Littleton area to better serve persons in need. Doug has served in congregations in Colorado, Florida, Kansas and Oklahoma in executive, education and program positions. His educational background is in adult education, social sciences, and religion, and his passion is developing people.

Building Caring Connected Communities

Pastors Dan Thoemke and Bethany Thomas

10:15 - 11:15 am

Dan & Bethany will be sharing about the development of the Community Conversations meetings, hosted by the Together Church of Golden, which are attended by representatives from different segments of the community, including local service clubs, the faith community, the City of Golden and Jefferson County, schools, various community groups, non-profits, School of Mines, youth, Golden Chamber of Commerce, residents, and Golden Police and Fire Departments.

This training is for use by individuals and groups. They will share ideas about how to connect with others in your community, how to facilitate interaction and build partnerships that will strengthen your community, and how to provide information that encourages participation in, and support of, a wide variety of community efforts. If you would like to learn more about empowering your community to address needs and build partnerships you will want to join Bethany and Dan for this session.

Pastors Bethany Thomas and Dan Thoemke work together in Golden Colorado as co-laborers in the Together Church of Golden, as Chaplains for the Golden Police Department and as facilitators of the Community Conversations held several times a year in their community of Golden.

Becoming a Congregation of Action

Pastor Danielle Reeves and Mary Kaes

12:30—1:30 pm

Danielle and Mary are presenting how to motivate a congregation to step into their community and serve those in need. This interactive session will provide practical tools for volunteer mobilization as well as discussion around challenges and opportunities that may arise along the way. Included in the workshop is an introduction to the national Just Faith program.

Danielle Reeves is the Mobilization Pastor at WaterStone Community Church in Littleton. Her job involves mobilizing church and community members into the surrounding areas to serve the poor and oppressed. Organizational partnerships are key to effective community service, so Danielle has developed working relationships with several local agencies. She works closely with the Jefferson County Human Services Department, is a member of the Externally Focused Church Leadership Network, and is the 9 Health Fair South JeffCo Volunteer Engagement Coordinator. Danielle was recently recognized at the 2010 LifeServe National Conference for WaterStone’s work in the community.

Mary Kaes is a JustFaith graduate and is the Coordinator for the JustFaith program at WaterStone Community Church. She is also a member of the Front Range JustFaith Graduate Leadership Team.

How Smaller Churches Can Change Their Community

Panel

1:45—2:45 pm

Small churches sometimes think they don't have sufficient resources and people to be involved. But involvement is not about numbers. Several leaders from small churches talk about how to be involved at the level your church can handle.

Thread 2: Community Needs — We can make a difference

What Are the Greatest Needs of Jefferson County?

Lynn Johnson

10:15—11:15 am

Everyone has heard about budget cuts and it is true, funding has been cut and some things we could do a few years ago are no longer options. But it is more than that. No one organization, agency or church can do it all. Lynn will address needs, resources, collaborations and opportunities for partnership that will help during these budget crunching times.

Lynn Johnson currently serves as the Executive Director of Jefferson County Human Services. She is on the Executive Committee for the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators. She is a member of the Supreme Court Nominating Committee.

Prior to this position, Mrs. Johnson ran her own firm consulting on issues pertaining to mental health, high risk youth, developmental disabilities, child welfare and early childhood education. Mrs. Johnson has a bachelor’s degree in Rehabilitation from the University of Northern Colorado and a master’s degree in social Work from Arizona State University. She is a graduate of the Federal Judicial Center National Leadership Development Program. She is the mother of three children and is actively involved in school, sports and church activities. Raised in Littleton, Mrs. Johnson now resides with her family in Jefferson County.

Gaining a New Point of View on Poverty

Lynne Frost

12:30—1:30 pm

We all think we know what it means to live in poverty, but do we really? This workshop will give a brief overview of the national known Bridges Out of Poverty model for understanding and working with individuals and families in generational poverty.

Lynne is a Training Coordinator for Jefferson County Department of Human Services in the Community Assistance Division. She is a nationally certified trainer for Bridges Out of Poverty and has facilitated training on Bridges Out of Poverty for new employees and for community partners. Lynn has a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Development and over 20 years of experience as a trainer, classroom instructor, family advocate, counselor, and program coordinator working for various non-profit organizations in Denver, Colorado, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has worked with diverse populations of people with low incomes and has focused her career on understanding and implementing empowerment models, movement toward self-sufficiency, strength based case management, and advocacy. She has designed and delivered training on poverty measures including the Self Sufficiency Standard and Cliff Effect, personal and professional development, and career and workforce development.

Help in a Violent World

Gary McCune, MRE, LMFT, Chelsea Baldwin and Laura Haynes

12:30—1:30 pm

This workshop will address what domestic violence is, how spirituality is abused, how a church can address domestic violence, what resources are available, and how we have collaborated and can collaborate between agencies to support victims and address domestic violence in our community.

Gary is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Colorado and has been in private practice in the Denver metro area doing individual, marriage and family therapy since 1976. He is also an Approved Domestic Violence Therapist and worked for AMEND since 1984. Gary’s work involves facilitating groups for men who come voluntarily or by court order needing help to deal with issues such as anger, spouse abuse, drug and alcohol treatment and parenting training. His work with AMEND included being a speaker and trainer about domestic violence in Colorado and other states to public organizations, churches, law enforcement and the community in general. Gary is a certified Parenting instructor for Active Parenting Publishers and has been leading parenting groups since 1995 as well as being a Trainer of Trainers for those wanting to be trained to lead parenting groups.

Chelsea Baldwin has worked with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault for the last six years. After working directly with victims for three years as a crisis line and shelter advocate, Chelsea is currently the Administrative Supervisor for Family Tree Women In Crisis Shelter, the only domestic violence shelter for victims of domestic violence and their children, and the Family Tree Outreach Counseling & Education Program at the Karlis Family Center. Chelsea started presenting on domestic violence related issues two years ago and since then has presented to faith leaders, civic groups, volunteers, staff, victim advocates, lawyers, judges and many other members of the community.

Laura is a Resource Coordinator to the Family Violence Unit at the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office. She coordinates resources to meet the needs of many victims of domestic violence involved in criminal cases at the District Attorney’s office. She has been working in the domestic violence field since 2002 and obtained a Masters in Public Affairs with a concentration in Domestic Violence.

Everybody Needs a Home

Linda Barringer

1:45—2:45 pm

The presentation will explore the issues of homelessness both in the Metro area and across the country but will focus specifically on the factors that affect Jefferson County specifically. The extent of homelessness, the trends, the causes and the solutions will be discussed. Current events will be included in the presentation as well plans for the future.

Ms. Barringer is currently the Project Director for Family Tree Housing and Family Services and has been with Family Tree for fourteen years. As Project Director she supervises and supports case management and crisis line staff for programs serving people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. She has a Bachelors’ degree in Social Work and extensive training in client services, disability issues and substance abuse treatment. She is the committee chair for Heading Home-Jeffco Community Steps to Housing (the group working to end homelessness in Jefferson County) and serves on several sub-committees of the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. She is also the Jefferson County coordinator for the Annual Point-In-Time survey of homeless people.

Growing Old with Grace

Rena Kuberski

1:45—2:45 pm

Rena Kuberski, a thirty- year employee of Jefferson County Human Services, will provide information related to adult services. She will talk to you about effective county and community based partnerships. Plus, you will gain information about the number of Aging Baby Boomers in Jefferson County along with the predicted needs they will represent to service agencies. With the current economic times, her program and others are experiencing fiscal cut backs. This is affecting emergency housing, rent, food and medication. Additionally, applicants are experiencing delays in application processing for such benefits. Ms Kuberski will discuss the need for free services, the increase in adult exploitation, lack of guardians and representative payees. This session will answer your questions if you are interested in adult related issues both today and in the future.

Rena Kuberski received her Counseling MA from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1979. She has worked with Jefferson County Department of Social Services since 1977. During the 30 years, Rena has focused her career in Adult Services and Adult Protection. Currently she is the Program Manager for Aging and Adult Services which is directly connected to Adult Protection, Options for Longterm Care, Longterm Care Financial Medicaid Eligibility and the Veteran’s Services.

Thread 3: Partnerships that are Working — We need each other

Rediscovering the Art of Neighboring

Dave Runyon, Vicky Reier, Assistant City Manager

10:15—11:15 am

Dave and Vicky will talk about the collaboration between 20 Arvada churches and the city of Arvada. They will address how this collaboration came together and what it has meant for the city and the churches involved.

Dave Runyon has been serving the Jefferson County community for over 11 years as a Pastor at Foothills Community Church. He currently leads a network of diverse churches that gather together serve government and non-profit agencies. Dave is constantly asking the question, “what could we accomplish together that we could never do alone?” In 2009, Dave launched a neighboring movement that mobilized over 20 churches and 15,00 people in the Northwest metro area. He is happiest when he is helping people collaborate around the common vision and mission of city transformation. Dave and his wife Lauren have been married for 10 years and they have four kids under the age of seven.

Vicky Reier, Assistant City Manager, City of Arvada. She has worked for the City of Arvada for 15 years; she works in the area of Project Management especially on projects that involve several departments and divisions or involve outside agencies who are partners with the City. She works on issues related to Organizational Development, including Leadership Development and strategic planning for the City. She has worked with the executive management team and the employees at the City to develop vision, mission, and values statements for the organization.

Vicky’s responsibilities also include Community Relations; dealing with conflicts, and providing resources and information to people. Each year she leads a citizen committee that reviews grant applications and makes recommendations to City Council for funding non-profit agencies serving Arvada. Vicky’s degree is in organizational development with an emphasis in human resources.

Building Relationships with the School and the Church

Leslie Rynolds (Crossroads Church), Erica Schutte (Volleyball coach, Arvada High School), Jeff Berget (Arvada Covenant Church), and Jason Zaboth (Young Life for Arvada)

12:30—1:30 pm

Several churches are seeking to encourage and serve their local school. Here is how the schools and the faith community are partnering together to build families. Leslie and Erica will share how Crossroads Church has partnered with Arvada High School over the past three years through the Bulldog Backers program. Jeff will talk about a new partnership between Arvada West High School and his church.

Leslie has been involved with the Bulldog Backers from the beginning and is a key volunteer in the partnership. Erica is a teacher and coaches girls volleyball at Arvada High School. Jeff is very interested in getting involved with the partnership between his church and the local high school. He enthusiastically believes that the faith community should be involved with the community on "their turf," not just on church property. Jason has been helping adults get connected to volunteer opportunities at schools for several years in his role as Area Director for Young Life.

Collaborations At Work

Panel

1:45—2:45 pm

When it comes to collaboration, we can learn from each other. A panel with representatives from several successful, collaborative programs involving

different churches will talk about what works, how they have collaborated, difficulties overcome and impact on church and community. There will be time for questions.