Education

A significant aspect of Restoring the Soul: Faith and Community Partnership’s mission is to educate the Boulder County public about the important social issues of the day, with emphasis on their local impact. We are a small county, 291,288 people, and yet many people do not know that there are, for example:

• hungry children who breakfast on Twinkies and Coke

• isolated elderly who have human contact maybe once per week

• few services for transitioning inmates to help them establish stable, crime-free lives

• young adults with mental health problems who have no services available because they are 18 – 20 and the school system is, legally, no longer able care for them

• middle- and high-school-aged Latino children who often skip school because of consistent harassment

On the other hand many people also do not know about the Boulder County Human Services Strategic Plan, which has as its mission to “create caring and livable communities” and address the needs of all sectors of our population. People are not necessarily familiar with the extensive social services available and how to make contact with the one they need.

Restoring the Soul has undertaken to contribute its education programs so that this crucial information is disseminated as widely as possible. A particular focus of our programs is the faith community, nearly 300 diverse congregations in the County. These faith groups constitute an extremely valuable resource for the well-being of the whole community.

Forty three cents of each philanthropic dollar contributed in the United States comes from people associated with a faith community. In 2007, 26.2% of the population of 61.8 million people did volunteer service, which came to 8.1 billion volunteered hours. Of that number 36.7% volunteered in or through their religious organizations. (Bureau of Labor statistics were basically the same in 2008). Wow!! Let’s help keep them informed about the issues and the opportunities for first-hand involvement.

To this end, Restoring the Soul organized conferences, in 2003 “Restoring the Soul of Our Communities: An Interfaith Conference on Community Engagement; in 2004 “Needs and Dreams”*; and in 2005, “Soul and Service” on volunteering and the inspiration for service.** Since 2003 we have presented monthly Forums on crucial topics with expert local panelists. Since September of 2008 these Forums have been broadcast on KGNU and the audio tapes are available on this website. We also make presentations bimonthly on request to congregations and service agencies on volunteering opportunities and our collaborative services.

* Learn about Social Capital.

** Conference Keynote address videos are accessible for viewing on this website