Shannon Spencer, executive director of Asheville Poverty ...

Press unlock from Asheville Poverty Initiative:

Please read this critical message from Shannon Spencer, govt Director of Asheville Poverty Initiative:

Grace and Peace, Y'all,

may additionally this season of hope that involves us in many traditions and names remind us of the pleasure and existence that often comes in such surprising techniques.

I write this letter to thank every and each one in every of you for the approaches you've got participated in making Asheville Poverty Initiative all that it is. once I started API and 12 Baskets Café, I couldn't have imagined the pleasure that it could bring and the change that it might start making in Asheville. I additionally could not have predicted the ways i would be changed by using all that we get to do. Which makes this subsequent paragraph heart wrenching to jot down.

I have accredited the position of Chaplain of the college at Warren Wilson. i know this can also come as a shock to lots of you — it was a little of a shock to me as I wasn't trying to leave. The situation and route of API is so filled with life and probabilities that leaving looks a bit of impossible. Yet I utterly believe our board of administrators and group of workers to proceed holding and deepening the mission of building neighborhood and deconstructing stereotypes in the creative and significant techniques we at all times have. as a result of I consider in the actuality of abundance, i know that API is bigger than any one grownup — even the founder. And that's as it should be.

when I began API, it turned into only a dream and a card desk from my basement in the lower back of my minivan. but now analyze what you've got made it into. you are API. Thornne is API. Tatter, Kiva, and Jim are API. i will forever be pleased about the approaches you've joined me on this journey. simply as a result of my job might be diverse, you are going to nonetheless see me round. i'll continue assisting API and the Café in the entire ways that i can. You recognize, now I get to return and devour lunch without it being my job! :) anyway, what may well be greater than bringing out a gaggle of students to introduce them to our pals living in poverty. can you imagine how so that it will have an effect on what they do with their lives? more and more individuals with awareness potential further and further policy and systemic alternate!

Please comprehend that API is in incredible hands — including yours. thank you from the bottom of my coronary heart. I'm excited about this subsequent chapter and notwithstanding these chapters could be distinctive, they belong in the equal book. blessings, y'all, unless we see every other once more!

In Deep Gratitude,

Shannon

From the Board of directors of Asheville Poverty Initiative:

dear API/12 Baskets Café household,

As we share the news of Shannon's determination to flow to another chapter of ministry at Warren Wilson college, our eyes have full of tears and our hearts with gratitude for all she has given to us these previous five years. Shannon's imaginative and prescient of creating a beloved group that celebrates mutuality, abundance, and justice has taken root in West Asheville in the course of the love and commitment of so many of you. Shannon can be the first one to assert that API has never been about her, and though we're sad to see her go, we want her the most suitable as she follows her call to serve in a brand new manner. yes, we're sad to see her go, but we comprehend that API stands on a strong groundwork developed by using her and many others who are dedicated to the work of hospitality, justice, and transformation. Shannon could be working with API except mid-January when she can transition to her new position at Warren Wilson.

all through this time of transition (even in the course of this pandemic!) we are looking to share with you some pleasing indications of abundance and vitality:we now have just achieved a strategic planning technique on the way to help us advance our mission of building community and advertising financial justice. that you would be able to read highlights of API's strategic plan right here.

we now have recognized the purpose of finding a new house that enhances and expands API's mission and programming, together with the Poverty scholars training software.

we are in a match economic position, permitting us to expand our team of workers. Emily Fox is graduating along with her master's diploma in social work this month and should be increasing her role as our group construction Director.

we are blessed to have the persevered help of Donna and Klari who have kept the Café working in a modified means because of the pandemic. Our partnership with Homeward bound will continue as we coordinate nutrition for those housed at the red Roof lodge.As participants of API's Board of directors, we want to allow you to be aware of of our dedication to guiding this essential non-income into the subsequent chapter of its lifestyles. considering that the primary days of API, after we served food on picnic tables at Pisgah View residences, we have relied on in the narrative of abundance. This narrative tells us there is enough for all, that we're greater collectively than apart. So we ask for your persevered aid and welcome your ideas and goals as we circulation into a new chapter together. if you have any questions, please suppose free to reach out to any of us.

basically,

Samantha Gonzalez-BlockMissy HarrisPhil Leonard, TreasurerMichael Poulos, ChairKim WellsBetsy Wilson, Secretary