Convergence Project Chaffee County

Convergence Projct: Painting the Salida Senior Center

Update: On September 20, The Convergence Project pairing of Central Colorado Humanists and members of the First Presbyterian Church of Salida will meet to paint the interior of the Salida Senior Center. For this project, they will be joined by a local group of Bodhimarga Buddhists. Paint for the event has been donated to TCP by Hylton Lumber to benefit the Senior Center.

Convergence Project: Downtown Recycling

Convergence Projects are not strictly limited to the partnering of opposing groups and organizations. Recognizing that communities are always stronger when they work together, TCP also works to find common ground among groups with similar values. Toward that end, The Convergence Project is coordinating a project for Salida Business Alliance, a collection of diverse merchants and business owners whose goal is to bring recycling containers to downtown Salida.

SBA is partnering with Angel of Shavano recycling and Brewer Welding to have metal recycling bins fabricated at a greatly reduced cost. Various options for bin maintenance are being discussed.

The Convergence Project has agreed to write a grant to pay for some of the costs of bin fabrication, and it will also accept earmarked donations for the project.

Convergence Project: Common Culture

Chaffee County Health and Human Services requested the help of The Convergence Project to increase collaboration of its sub-organizations by identifying the common features of its cultures. The organizations within Chaffee Health and Human Services include the Department of Social Services, Family and Youth Initiatives, and Public Health.

The organizations are currently housed in different buildings but will soon move to a shared location. The Convergence Project’s help was requested to identify the common values shared by their cultures and to assist them in identifying their common culture, or “super culture”.

Finding that the request was within our mission, TCP provided extensive organizational development and a specially designed facilitation on September 5th, 2008. Continued work with these organizations may be on going.

Salida Middle School volunteers erect playground
By Arlene Shovald - Special to The Mail

Approximately 70 volunteers converged in the heat Saturday at Salida Middle School to install playground equipment.

The project is the result of six months of fund-raising combined with a Great Outdoor Colorado grant and in-kind contributions.

"The grant totaled $31,500 and community fund-raising brought in another $20,000," Kirk Banghart, former Salida Middle School principal and new director of teaching and learning for Salida school district, said.

"Added to that was about $7,000 of in-kind services from Diesslin Structures which provided labor for 2½ days of prep work to ready the playground for volunteers. Hard Rock Paving donated concrete."

McDonald's and Burger King donated breakfast, Moonlight Pizza and Sites Dentistry provided lunch and Wal-Mart donated water for workers.

Parents provided fruit, brownies, cookies and other snacks.

Brad Price coordinated the project, assigning team leaders and organizing teams for various aspects of the project. Day care was provided so parents of young children could help.

The playground project was a first for The Convergence Project, a non-profit community organization designed to bring two or more diverse community groups together to work on a cooperative project.

Members of the Colorado Humanists and some members of First Presbyterian Church were among volunteers.

"It seems like everyone can agree when it comes to something that will benefit kids," Brock Oyler, executive director of The Convergence Project said.

Mary Lou Church, of Colorado Humanists and part of The Convergence Project, said, "This is what Salida is - people working together. This is the biggest example of community involvement I've ever seen and the kids will benefit."

Three pieces of equipment were erected in the playground - a swing set, a 10-foot net climber and a fitness circuit with a slide.

The purple fitness circuit is ready for use, but the other two pieces need to wait a week before use to allow concrete to set.

"It's wonderful to see so many volunteers turning out for this project," Banghart said. "I'm just ecstatic about it."

In Salida, Colorado a Convergence Project is on going between a group of Humanists and two area churches. Central Colorado Humanists, a group of individuals who are primarily atheist or agnostic in their beliefs found common ground with members of the First Presbyterian and United Methodist Churches in Salida.

While of different beliefs in the area of faith, these groups agreed to put their differences aside and found that a belief in service to their community and a desire to help is the common ground they both shared. For their Convergence Project, they chose to create a helping organization for housebound individuals in Chaffee County. The response to this project has been tremendous, as people in need of home maintenance have contacted The Convergence Project.