City Year & Timberland

As the snowflakes are FINALLY falling on the Philadelphia soil, (this is our first snowfall of the year/winter), I am sitting in our warm, cozy apartment...actually it's anything but because I am a pennypincher and will not turn the heat up. Anyway, this past weekend I attended a group meeting called CityLights. It's an organization that brings together different non-profit organizations for the purpose of partnerships. I basically went as an attendant desiring to learn a little bit more about organizations in southwest Philly. At this meeting I met people ranging from community center directors, to GED teachers, to job placement workers, teachers, principals, pastors, community developers, etc. Very encouraging and informative to me. During this meeting there was also a professor from Eastern University who gave a short seminar on strategic partnerships. Though I am not currently involved in a non-profit organization I gained valuable knowledge on some strategic ways to partner with existing ministries/organizations for better and more wholistic ministry. One of the examples that he gave was the partnership between CityYear and Timberland. (Sidenote: I've always thought it strange that the Timberland boot, a high quality work boot and a high quality mountain outfitter boot would be so popular amongst urban youth.) This partnership between CityYear and Timberland is a major influence to this rise in fashion. CityYear is a non-profit organization that came to Timberland and asked if they could have some boots to equip their interns when they first started. Timberland agreed and now every CityYear intern is equipped with a red jacket and Timberland boots. CityYear has since grown and is in almost every major city and along with it, Timberland has grown from being a mountain outfitter shoe to the highest selling boot on the urban market. Anyway, you can read about more of it on this website, I just thought that it was extremely interesting. http://www.winwinpartner.com/Branding/sstimberland.html

As I sat listening to the seminar I began thinking about churches and how many many churches in America would benefit from listening to this and implementing these concepts in their ministry outreach and in their visions for how to effectively minister to their community.