Surgance Central

Common Ground Issue: Gang-related Crime

At Surgance we are always on the lookout for "Common Ground" issues, those problems that affect and concern everyone, regardless of background, status, or beliefs. One such issue absolutely startled me as I read the headline in yesterday's USA Today: FBI: Burgeoning gangs behind up to 80% of U.S. crime.  Let that sink in for just a moment.  Up to 80% of ALL crime in the U.S. is linked to gangs!  

This means that in our pursuit of comprehensive community transformation across the nation, we MUST consider the root causes and find solutions to adequately address this staggering epidemic of gangs. I believe that much of what Surgance is already engaged in goes a good distance in addressing some of these needs and underlying causes, particularly our rejuveNATION program that has provided a better learning environment for thousands and thousands of students in inner city schools.  But the fact is, honestly, we're just scratching the surface at this point.  

I would like to invite all of you to engage in a dialog here regarding this issue. Those of you who have understanding of the root causes of this epidemic, please share with the rest of us your insight.  Those of you who have ideas of how we can better utilize existing Surgance programs to combat gangs, please share your thoughts.  If you have ideas for new programs or initiatives that Surgance could consider, please share those ideas - no matter how outrageous they may seem!  

Surgance is about collaborating- bringing together the strengths of our knowledge & expertise, our abilities, our resources - to bring about comprehensive community transformation.  With your input, I'm confident that we can become a leader in addressing this enormous social problem.

gLove story/Etowah donation

     We had our first collection and pickup of the new year.  Etowah High School, Brian's alma mater, came through with over 30 gloves yesterday.  Things are beginning to happen.  Here is a partial list of folks who have agreed to collect gloves in Georgia already.  Most of these came from the publicity from the Dugout Club Clinic.  People really do want to help.

• Bo Hendley of the Chattanooga Lookouts Grounds Crew

• Jason McDaniel of Cherokee High

• Don McClintock of Columbus High   

• Mike Nayman of Creekview High

• Tom Golsbreyski of Druid Hills High 

• Bobby Link of Duluth High 

• Greg Robinson of Etowah High

• Tonya Sebring of Etowah High

• Todd Shelnutt of  George Walton Acadamy

• Heath Kennedy of Hebron Christian High

• Phillip Rogers of Loganville High 

• Greg Bell of McIntosh Co High

• Adam Cantrell and Neal Cypher of Providence Christian   

• Todd Morrissey and Joe Jones of Sequoyah High

• Donnie Robinson of Sprayberry High -

• Kyle Reese of St. Francis High 

• Chris Adams of Towns Co. High 

• Scott Krug of Woodstock High

• Steve Bohn of Rockmart High

• Harvey Cochran of Mt. Paran

• Keith Hansen and Tim Krunk of Kennesaw Mtn. High

• Jeff Avery of The Heritage School

• Hobgood Park

• Milton High Softball

• All Tournament Players Park

• Add people like Terry Pendleton, Don Gordon, and Keith Lockhart, all former major leaguers and we have a great start to 2009.

• Tommy Barber of Chastain Park and Atec pitching machines.

• Paul Greene of Shaw Park

• View this photo  - Keith Lockhart very happy with what we do.

• View this photo - see Bob North tell Terry Pendleton all about gLove story.

• View this photo - see Terry Pendleton and Don Gordon pose in front of our booth.

gLove story at GHSA baseball clinic

We had a super weekend with the Georgia Dugout Coaches Clinic.  There was a great showing and our setup was right next to SCORE International who is one of our very important partners.  Tim Swaney and Don Gordon were manning the SCORE booth and we worked well together in support of each other.  Don is a former pitcher for the Blue Jays. and works with SCORE in the same capacity as Keith Madison.

We gave fliers to about 500 coaches which is creating a return already, but due to our location with Don Gordon, we were able to tell our story to Keith Lockhart and Terry Pendleton.  Both are former Braves, great Americans and Christian also.  AND, both agreed to send us some gloves and maybe be a part of we are doing in a greater way also. 

We have approximately 30 coaches already committed to doing glove collections at their school, plus the groundskeeper for the Chattanooga Lookouts has gloves for us already.  I wonder where he got them but am not worried too much about it.  Some who received a flyer but did not talk to us at the clinic, have since emailed that they want to help.

Two very prominent coaches in the area mentioned that as soon as they retire that they would love to join us in what we are doing.  Two coaches are going to have a "gLove story night" when they play each other.

I will add info with another post in a day or so.  Things are picking up.  Are you available to repair a couple thousand gloves? :)

Dave

United Way of Southern Nevada

On Thursday and Friday, January 15th and 16th, Dwight Watson, Kiki Bandilla, Cathy McAdoo and I guided United Way of Southern Nevada through a strategic planning exercise, “Delivering the Community-based Agenda.”

The event was attended by 40 employees and senior leadership. Utilizing the WildWorks RbC principles of collaboration, the group and the senior leadership were very pleased with the outcome! Check out their great work in the pictures.

This event gave us the ability to network with some real professionals. A number of their leaders offered to assist Surgance with our development in the near future.

Of note, Cathy has received the President’s Volunteer Service Award! See http://www.elkodaily.com/articles/2006/11/02/news/local_news/news3.txt for details. Congratulations, Cathy!


brian AUDIA
President and CEO
Surgance, Inc.
www.surgance.com
702.309.SURG (7874)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Brian D. Audia

Atlanta EXPO

Drew Benton, Hattie Moore and I met at our office, Starbuck’s (where else?), in Atlanta for some serious planning time for a major project in development:

The Surgance SafeHouse Outreach Live Love City-wide Nonprofit Social Service EXPO! Or some other cool name when we decide on it...

The basic idea, utilizing the Surgance platform:

1. Work with a major university in the city
2. Recruit nonprofit and social service ministries to a Surgance “Advocating on your behalf” expo/fair on the grounds of the university in the fall
3. Mobilize students, churches, businesses and the like to attend this urban event and find a place to serve the city in partnership with those already doing it
   

I can’t believe I got all of what we have been working on down to three bullet points, but that is the basic idea. If we can establish a model, we’d like to reproduce it everywhere.

And the business model pays for itself as a scalable operation. Watching the bottom line, you know...

Big props to Drew for a big idea with concrete action items. He’s kind of a social entrepreneur.


brian AUDIA
President and CEO
Surgance, Inc.
www.surgance.com
702.309.SURG (7874)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Brian D. Audia

Hattie Moore - Database Engineer

Welcome Hattie Moore aboard the Surgance surfboard!

Hattie worked with us in Metro New York City (back in the day) and now resides in Atlanta, GA. She is an operations specialist and will assist me globally with specific task-oriented projects. Locally, she will be working with Drew Benton and Todd Briggs on Surgance projects in Atlanta.

Her first big project is the Surgance database. When I asked her if she was up to the challenge, she replied, “Salesforce is my middle name.”

Just kidding. But it soon will be...

If she requests it, please give her any assistance she needs. She is building a very important piece of our infrastructure that will enable us to increase our communication, coordination and fundraising capabilities.

Hattie’s email address is Hattie.Moore@Surgance.com.


brian AUDIA
President and CEO
Surgance, Inc.
www.surgance.com
702.309.SURG (7874)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Brian D. Audia

Colorado Springs, Colorado

On Sunday, January 4th, I traveled to Denver and made the 45 minute drive South to Colorado Springs, CO where I met with a group of leaders from the city that are considering the Surgance platform for a community-wide project.

The project is a community garden on a proposed one acre lot in the heart of the city, with the land provided by Heart of the Springs church. The project would focus on bringing the city together to provide green space, add educational value to the community college and local schools, donate food for the hungry through local food distribution outlets and provide volunteer opportunities. The project will reduce the carbon footprint of the church providing the land. The project has been designed professionally as the pictures attest.

The project manager is Al Barrera (green sweater in the photos). Al has a heart to see this project come to life and to reproduce around the country in urban centers.


brian AUDIA
President and CEO
Surgance, Inc.
www.surgance.com
702.309.SURG (7874)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Brian D. Audia

Douglas County, Colorado

On January 5th and 6th, I met with a large group of leaders from Douglas County, Colorado.

The county is located midway between Colorado's two largest cities: Denver and Colorado Springs. They have seen a 50% increase in population since the U.S. Census in 2000, making Douglas County one of the fastest growing counties in the United States. The county seat is Castle Rock and Surgance’s own Dr. Allan Karr lives in the county with his family in the town of Larkspur.

Last year, Rand Clark, radio host, pastor and community activist led a Surgance rejuveNATION project focused on the Douglas County Task-force Intake Center. With partnerships from churches, universities and the local Lowe’s, the project was a success and it has spurred greater interest in using the Surgance platform to address further pressing issues.

In September, I traveled there to meet with about a dozen city and county leaders for a briefing on Surgance and to hear their thoughts on collaboration. The group decided that they would like to bring others to the table and to use the Surgance platform to put together a county collaborative effort across the three sectors of society.

Take a look at the photos. On the 5th and 6th of January, guided by the WildWorks Results-based Conversation principles, leadership from the city and county governments, nonprofits, churches, and businesses attended the event and worked for a day and a half to establish the strategy for this cross-sector collaborative movement. In the end, they split into four primary work teams and began work streams to provide the necessary infrastructure to move the initiative forward. Those work teams were focused on:

1. Leadership
2. Community in Action
3. Communications
4. County-wide Community Building
   

Look for big things from this great group of leaders, striving to make a difference in their county and beyond as they seek to reproduce this model off of the Surgance platform.


brian AUDIA
President and CEO
Surgance, Inc.
www.surgance.com
702.309.SURG (7874)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Brian D. Audia

Things are getting HOT in Tucson...

The Surgance platform is opening doors in a variety of different ways here in Tucson. First, there is a great deal of interest in partnering with the Sunnyside School District for a RejuveNATION project in the summer of 2009. The Sunnyside School District is located in South Tucson, and is struggling with frozen budgets. I will be presenting some information to the governing council on Feb. 10 outlining what a rejuveNATION project would look like.

We are also exploring opportunities to start a non-profit childcare facility and recreation center here in Vail. During a town hall meeting in April of 2007, the residents of Vail listed the following concerns:

Lack of quality childcare, lack of recreational facilities, lack of supervised activities for teens, lack of after school programs, need a place for youth to gather, lack of community centers, lack of churches/facilities. With the help of Surgance and collaboration with other governmental agencies, we hope to provide real solutions for this area that has exploded with growth, but has a huge deficiency in infrastructure.

 

rejuveNATION Baltimore

Over the past several months there has been an ongoing dialogue about bringing the Surgance platform to the City of Baltimore.  Baltimore is a city of extremes.  Wedged into the I-95 coridor along with Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City, Baltimore draws millions of tourists to the world famous Inner Harbor, while at the same time being number two on the list of problem cities when it comes to both homicide and AIDS.  

While there have been many diverging theories on why the city is facing such struggles, the one constant is the state of the Baltimore City Public School System.  The school system has been the target of much criticism, and was recently the target of an HBO documentary detailing many of the struggles that a school system blighted by urban poverty (of 190 schools in the BCPSS 115 schools warrant Title One designation) faces each day.

Enter rejuveNATION.  

On Wednesday, January 7th, Brian Audia and I spent time connecting with the principal of Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary School.  Located in the Madison Park neighborhood of Baltimore, Eutaw-Marshburn has approximately 350 students, 98% of whom qualify for federally funded meals.  As Brian, Principal Marylin Jackson and I spoke, a partnership began to form, and future possibilities began to be discussed.  Coming away from this meeting I am excited to see the potential that we have to impact not just this one elementary school, but the entire neighborhood of Madison Park.  

Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary School.  Notice the Boarded up windows of the building next door.

Another neighbor of Eutaw-Marshburn elementary.  A majority of the housing immediately surrounding the school consists of boarded up vacant row homes, or section eight apartments.  

And so, the adventure begins...  We are currently in the very early stages of planning out what we are going to be doing this summer, but we already have businesses, community groups, and volunteer teams lining up to be a part of this huge undertaking.

Matt