AmeriCorps Member Celebration Event!

This year, the member celebration event was held at the Crowne Plaza in Louisville! It was a two day event that involved all the AmeriCorps members in the state of Kentucky. There were many presenters with my favorite being at the end! He was a pastor from "Over the Rhine," one of the poorest areas in the US resting in the shadows of many fortune 500 companies in downtown Cincinnati. The area has all the social services available to them, but something isn't clicking. Damon, the pastor, talked about how he has introduced an asset based approach to helping the people in the area. He takes the gifts of the people that he may see and makes them present to the person. He doesn't look at what may be an issue like alcoholism, drugs, no parents. But looks at the strengths of the people and turns their lives around. This is exactly what we are doing in SuccessCorps. We are looking at the strengths of the moms and building upon those. When these gifts and strengths become a real thing for the moms, something changes! They fulfill that need to be needed and feel proud of their strengths and gifts.  If more people looked at the gifts in others, this world would be a different/better place!

He was also talking about how it feels better to give than to receive. I couldn't agree with this more! At times, it can be hard to step to the side and let someone else do the giving! This is something that I am going to try and work on even more! 

Along with the speakers, we had lunch, given a really nice backpack with the AmeriCorps Kentucky logo on it, and met new members! It was a good time! I enjoyed it. 

We even created a word cloud...

Here are some pictures of the event!