Hi all!
These slower summer days have been a very welcome time for me and I hope many of you have been able to spend some time away with loved ones. To spice up these slower days a bit, we are excited to be hosting a GBIO-wide potluck this Thursday, July 24th at United Parish! This is a great chance to get connected with some of the many volunteers from across the wider GBIO world, right in our backyard. We will get to hear from the new GBIO Lead Organizer, Matt McDermott, and share the results of the organizing commitments we made back at the beginning of the year. See below for more details and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Want to get more involved in this work? Reach out to us at gbio@upbrookline.org if you’d like to meet and learn more about the work of GBIO and specific ways you can support our mission of building community power across the Boston region.
Best,
Connor Israel and David Rockwell
United Parish GBIO Liaisons
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES
GBIO Relational Potluck – Thursday, July 24, 6:30 PM
Join us for a fun evening of fellowship and (of course) great food! GBIO Liaisons, clergy, core team leaders and others are all invited. We will take a look at the season ahead and reflect on progress toward our training commitments made earlier this year. We are excited to be joined by the new GBIO Lead Organizer, Matt McDermott, and to hear more about what comes next for our community as a movement.
UPDATES
Good News from the Governor’s office on Public Housing Funding
On June 30, when Governor Healey announced her 5-Year Capital Budget we were glad to see that it included a 17% increase in resources for public housing capital improvements. On the operating side, there was also a small increase—3.5%, from $113 million to $117 million—by no means a radical change, but a steady gain from the $90 million which operating funding had been stuck out for several years before our Housing Justice Campaign. These are encouraging signs that the power and relationships we built are continuing to influence the Governor’s agenda, even when the campaign itself has concluded.
TAKE ACTION
1-1 Relational Meetings
One way to strengthen our own power to make change is through what we refer to as “1-on-1” meetings, or sometimes “Relational” meetings. These meetings are not intended as merely times to talk about issues of the day, but rather to gain mutual insights between two people about what motivates them, what they care about. Questions can come up, for example, like, why do you come to United Parish? What excites you about our church, and what, if anything, worries you? What do you care about in your life? How are you spending your time these days? With this conversation, we can discover new opportunities to get involved with GBIO, but this is not a required part of the conversation. It’s instead a way of building a new or strengthened relationship that we can use for actions, GBIO or otherwise, that we can look forward to taking on with each other.
We on the UP GBIO Core Team encourage you to initiate your own 1:1s, or to join into a 1:1 if someone calls you. The two liaisons of the UP Core Team, Connor Israel and David Rockwell, are keeping track of these meetings, so please just let one of us know.