BREAKING NEWS!

Mayor Summey Kicks off Freedom School 2010

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey visited Metanoia's Freedom School as a guest reader on Thursday, June 24th.  Summey took part in the morning Harambee celebration with the scholars and counselors in the auditorium of Chicora School of Communications, the host site of Freedom School.  The mayor entertained scholars by reading the book I Can Make a Difference, by Marian Wright Edelman.  They mayor then answered questions the students had about his educational background, family, and job, before showing their appreciation by including him in their morning ritual of song and dance. 

This is the fifth consecutive year that Metanoia has provided Freedom School for the North Charleston youth, which is funded by a grant from the Children's Defense Fund.  The Freedom School is a six-week summer program that offers intensive reading and values education for students grades 1-6. A research-based “Integrated Reading Curriculum” is provided by the Children’s Defense Fund.  The school boosts the capacity of local college-aged community leaders by hiring them as “Servant Leader Interns” to work in the school and providing them with a week-long training with the Children’s Defense Fund in Tennessee.  This year the Freedom School will also be employing “Junior Servant Leaders,” high school students from Metanoia’s Civic Leaders afterschool program, to assist the Servant Leader Interns.

Having prominent community figures like Mayor Summey read their favorite children’s book reinforces the importance of reading while giving community leaders an opportunity to see the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools program in action.  Studies have shown that students who do not read during the summer months lose as much as one-third of their previous grade level's learning. The Freedom School is an attempt to mitigate that trend in our community where adult leaders often have to work multiple jobs and have few opportunities to read to their children.  Thanks to grants from the City of North Charleston and Family Services Inc., Metanoia is able to sustain the Freedom School to accommodate a total of 100 young scholars.  The goal of the Freedom School is to teach a love of reading and values education in equal measure. 

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Metanoia Board Retreat Focuses on Education, Bonding and Pushing Forward

On June 5, the Metanoia Board of Directors met for our annual board retreat at the new North Charleston City Hall.  This year the board retreat focused on some basic education for new board members as well as discussion around the progress of our newly adopted Strategic Plan.  Board Members serve to represent the public within Metanoia’s organizational structure.  They are ultimately responsible for defining our mission and vision and for assuring that we are remaining faithful to our purpose.    Metanoia’s board is different from many other non-profit boards in that we have a majority of community residents on our board.  We genuinely believe that local residents are best able to identify their own problems.  When resources are put under the control of those who are on the ground, they tend to be spent in an efficient and effective manner. 

            At this year’s retreat we reviewed the general responsibilities of any board member and discussed the past year’s accomplishments.  Each of these conversations was followed by a fun and interactive game (Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Metanoia Style) to help assure the board’s knowledge was more than adequate for it to do its job.  The day concluded with an update on our strategic plan and a discussion on how the board can help Metanoia move forward in the year ahead.   Along the way board members had the opportunity to get to know one another better and build bonds that are essential to any working team.

Rev. Bill Stanfield feels that board members who are also members of the community have a vested interest in Metanoia's mission.

                                                                   Metanoia Board Members pose for a group shot at their retreat.

  Metanoia has always understood that the time and resources it takes to govern well are small compared to the cost of governing poorly.  For that reason we make time for a retreat each year in addition to our regular monthly meetings.   Special thanks to the Mayor Keith Summey’s office for arranging our space at North Charleston City Hall Free of Charge. 

Rev. Bill Stanfield addressed upcoming goals to members of his board.

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Metanoia Staff Benefits from Personality Training

Our office and Freedom School staff members all got together last week at Metanoia to participate in a unique group training.  The training session, hosted by Anita Flowers of Pinnacle Leadership Associates, was an exercise in defining our own personality types and finding out how we relate to others. 

            We each took a short personality quiz that grouped us into one of four main personality types: the leader type, the people type, the task type, and the free spirit type.  Since Metanoia focuses on building leadership within the community it was no surprise to find that personality type well represented.  According to Ms. Flowers, the leader types are accomplishment-oriented, and like to get things done in the most efficient and timely manner possible.  People types are relationship-oriented and are driven by their need for closeness and understanding.  Task types are hard workers who like to keep busy and are focused on structure and completing the task at hand.  And free-spirit types enjoy their freedom, desiring a work atmosphere that lets them work in their own way.

Anita Flowers identifies personalty types as staff take notes

Identifying our personality types allowed each of us to recognize what weaknesses and areas of improvement go along with them.  For instance, leader types may be so caught up with achievement that they often lack compassion for group members, and can be overly competitive.  On the flip side, people-types may find they have a hard time dealing with conflict because they are so concerned with staying on everyone’s good side. 

                                                                                                                       Staff members began the training by completing a personality test.

 In all the training was a great time and offered some excellent food for thought going into what will surely be a tough and busy summer.  Recognizing our personality types will allow us to play to our strengths, as well as work on correcting our weaknesses.  This is a great example of how Metanoia strives to build strong and confident leaders not only in the community, but within the organization itself.

Rev. Bill Stanfields listens in on his group's discussion.                                  Freedom School staff member Darren receives advice on dealing with different personality types

Group members work together to identity the Achilles Heels of different personality types.