A Third Place Community Foundation: news and events for Turley and North Tulsa

Donate By Year's End To Our Amazing Story of A Third Place projects on the Far Northside miracles among the ruins

2011-12-30T16:26:00.000-08:00

...Become now a part of the miracles among the ruins and help launch us into an even more incredible year of growing healthy lives, neighborhoods in the 74126 and adjacent zips, renewing community, empowering residents, all through small acts of justice done with great love and hope....

You have been reading all year of the work going on, of the lives touched in small ways and of the grand plans that have emerged and are on the verge of the great tipping point to turning around our community area serving from 46th to 76th St. North and from the Osage County line to Highway 75. Now you can become a part of that story...

Make your online donation by year's end at www.turleyok.blogspot.com; you don't need paypal to use the online service. Or send a check to A 'Third Place Foundation at The Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., Turley, OK 74126. Or bring it by during our New Year's Eve gathering beginning at 9 pm tomorrow evening.

If you missed it, here http://www.turleyok.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-incredible-year-in-turley.html is our annual end of the year report to the community. Please find ways to share it with others, and go to the website and read and share of the many other events and issues and projects underway in our area.

Be an underwriter, be a presence in this abandoned place of the Empire:

$100 helps us provide one of our many community meals throughout the month

$300 pays for a whole month's mortgage for us, or a whole month's insurance for us, or helps us staff the food center for a month.

$500 pays for a whole month's utilities for us, keeping us open and as a warming station for those without heat during these cold months, keeping the computer center alive.

$1000 will announce us to the world with new community signs for the center and for the kitchengardenpark and orchard.

Help us keep the mission alive...

The Week Ahead:

Sat. Dec. 31, beginning at 8 am and going all morning, we will be doing major site preparation work at our emerging community garden park kitchen and orchard at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. This has been one of the amazing stories of this past year, and so come witness as we take another leap forward on the last day of the year turning abandoned property into an oasis for healthy food and community connections.

Sat. Dec. 31, 9 pm. to after midnight. This has been the year we also bought another old historic abandoned building and turned it into our community center, so it is fitting that we end the year relaxing and enjoying this place of renewal, where passions meet the world's great needs, and people find purpose and hope in giving back to others. We will have food, play board games, watch the Best Picture Gandhi to usher in a year of revolutionary peace, and community liberating presence here in our area.

Tuesday, Jan. 3 and Thursday, Jan. 5, from 3 to 6 pm, our Food Pantry Center, where we also provide healthy recipes and healthy meals made out of the food pantry ingredients, where we will be signing people up and handing out tickets for the great food giveaway on Jan. 13 we are coordinating with the Food Bank.

Thursday, Jan. 5, 3:30 pm our Future of the Turley Area deep planning session; we will be unveiling and working on the boundaries for the incorporation of a city of Turley, working on taking our disaster response network to the next level by identifying resources and leaders in sixteen neighborhoods within our currently unincorporated area, hearing reports from partners and networking our organizations.

Thursday, Jan. 5, 5:30 pm, helping the Advisory Board of the O'Brien Park welcome its new activities director with a public reception. This is one of our partners in the community.

Also help plan our parade presence in the Martin Luther King Jr. parade and candlelight vigil and events. And stay tuned in January for the start or something new...

Merry continuing Christmastide, and a happy new year to you and to your communities.

Ron

www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com

www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com

www.uuchristian.org

www.ptstulsa.edu

2011-12-23T19:12:00.001-08:00

The Christmas Words

from The Welcome Table

a free universalist christian missional community

5920 N. Owasso Ave., Turley, OK 74126

feel free to forward and share with others...

Soon it will be the season of Christmas. Already though its spirit of surprising love, abundance, peace, joy, and hope have been felt here in our area. Thanks for letting us share them with you. Our wish is that these reports bring you as much goodwill as you all have brought to us.

We call this area of North Tulsa and Turley at this time of year especially a "new Nazareth." Scriptures report that people believed that the village of Nazareth had such a bad reputation that "nothing good could come from it." At the time 2000 years ago, Nazareth was little known and little regarded. Just a few miles away stood the bigger, shining new city of Sepphoris, a kind of suburban sprawl built by and for the economy of the Roman Empire, taking up land that had sustained the poor, displacing people. Nazareth was even moreso then a place for the left out, the left behind, the decidedly uncool people. And yet, today, so few have ever heard of Sepphoris, while Nazareth, well Nazareth is known the world over for the good that came from it, and that keeps coming.

The New Nazareth: All you have to do, anytime there is a story about any sort of crime, and in fact a story even about any sort of new development or plans or groundbreaking, here on the northside of Tulsa, is to go to the Tulsa World online and read the comments left by people to the story. The refrain is the same; people get what they deserve because they are there, meaning here, and if they were smart they would leave, and no one would ever or should ever move there, and nothing good will last because our neighbors won't let it, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the lack of resources and the history of segregation and neglect and decisions made by people who leave elsewhere breaking apart the social communities, it is all about people making bad choices they and their children even should be punished for. We hear this all the time from people who have grown up and spent many adult years in the Tulsa area without ever coming to this area, and how afraid they are when they do, and how others warn them not to. It is not that we don't have struggles and problems of crime, and bad choices so often driven by so many addictions, and lord knows it is so much easier to get people to respond based on fear of something or someone than to get them to respond out of a desire and belief that they can make this part of the world, and their lives, better.

And yet, just a few days ago, we held a party here, threw open our doors for anyone to come, had no security guards, and had no idea how many would come celebrate Christmas with our small group; the past few years in our old community center space just a half mile north of us now, we had had a good time with about 20-30 people from the area, most of whom we knew. But this year, in our new and still emerging community center space, without still being able to afford much attractive signage on the outside to let people know what this big building is being used for, our Christmas Party had some 125 people, a majority of whom hadn't been here before, or only for our Halloween Party when we had 300 people show up, and no security guards then either, and no violence then either. We fed people with Christmas tamales and pizza from businesses right here, and from what we and another church provided; we brought and got gifts to hand out and in a fishes and loaves moment kept finding gifts to give out to all the children who came; and we sang as a community christmas songs and hymns, these voices of people who hadn't sung together before, and might not have another opportunity to sing with others this season.

And yet, here in the new Nazareth, at that party, a little girl said, to no one in particular, as she was moved by the spirit of the moment of community, "This is the best night of my life." Think about that. It was both a moment of great wonder; like an angel proclaiming in a night full of danger and oppression and isolation "Be Not Afraid for I bring you great tidings..." And it was heart breaking too. She had not had this experience before, so many people gathering in peace, joy, hope, and love. She probably, if she is like so many we live with here, a few in her family and perhaps estranged from other family, so no extended family expereinces, no church expereince, no means to go outside the area much if at all; the lights of Christmas, the excess and abundance of Christmas, the story of Christmas itself, mostly comes to her through the screen of a television, which both connects her to a greater world and accentuates her own isolation and disconnect from it. Her family has had to choose between keeping utilities on and having food and having gifts; we make it just a bit more bearable by helping with the food and gifts so they can spend on the utilities, though skimping on all of it.

And yet, here we were all for her, celebrating, blessing our meal and running out of it and getting more of it and all saying Amen, and people making connections for the first time, and hearing about all we have been doing and will be doing, people impromptu volunteering to help us at the food pantry this past week even as they come to get their own food in what has been our busiest ever week; we have run out of turkeys from the food bank and have had to purchase more on our own to meet the need; and this week in another amazing event the children in our neighborhood school, Horace Greeley Elementary School, who are all on free lunch programs themselves, they and their families filled up 15 boxes of food in the month of Nov. and Dec. and on the last day of school contributed it to our food pantry, which many of them use. And yet that night, and this month has all been very ordinary; it has taken so little effort, really, on our part; so few people have created it; no one has been stressed out or worried about its outcome; no one has tried to control it and shut it down out of fear of what might happen, or what might not happen, not have enough, or get this or that wrong.

And yet, though most of our commercial and public district is dark at night even in this season, we have lighted up our building, and we have even lighted up the historic memorial arch and evergreen tree in the courtyard of Cherokee School that has been closed since we finished our summer daily free lunch there. These few lights are what that little girl sees though with her own eyes, not through a screen, and I believe they mean more than all the bright lights on the other side of town, because they are here where she lives.

And yet, I like to think of what has been experienced here in the past few weeks (including the worship and discussions and movies and common meals we have on a regular basis in the missional community gatherings and with our Advent Vespers too) all as a truly living nativity scene. Not one that has people dressing up to look like the manger scene, as wonderful as those are; Not a pageant either; but a truly living embodied nativity scene, for at our Christmas Party, at our overflowing food pantry experiences, at the Greeley school food drive for us, Christ was born again.

That is what Christmas is about, especially here; it is about creating "And yet" moments, an "And yet" world. The world was ruled in terror; the rich kept getting richer and the poor kept growing in number and kept getting poorer with fewer places to turn to for help; the land was being used up; the religious authorities were becoming servants of the Empire; technology was improving and the spirits of people were declining; the prophets were getting their heads cut off and more were jailed, more silenced, more made refugees. And yet, a baby was born...at the same time, then as now, that babies thousand times over in numbers die, are killed, and yet a baby was born...and in that fragile, vulnerable particular event, is all of divinity and eternity, the spark of possibility that not only is another world possible, but in that birth another world has been started, all in order to remind us that it is such abandoned, fragile, vulnerable, and very ordinary particular people and places and events that we are to go in search of the Sacred.

"This is the best night of my life." I hope, truly, that our Christmas Party, our place, ourselves, all become a fading memory for that little girl here. I hope another world embraces her and she has so many other better best nights of her life that this one will be lost to her. I hope that other world happens right here too, and that she is nurtured here and able to grow and give back to others all right here, instead of having to flee to Sepphoris. Mostly, I hope we are able to continue creating such nativity events for others like her in many more ways, places, and times around our community here. For all that, go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com and read all we have done and are doing through our community foundation work; this letter has been about the spiritual center that is the hub for all the spokes of the other work, though you can at the link above easily make a donation and be a part of our community here where such a little amount makes such a big difference.

Finally, here is some of the news of the ways we gather:

Saturday, Dec. 24, 5 pm join us at the Turley United Methodist Church for a Christmas Eve candlelight service, at 6050 N. Johnstown Ave. across from our Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark and Orchard.

Sunday, Dec. 25, 9:30 am join us for Christmas Morning Worship of our own Lessons and Carols and Communion Service and Meal here at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. We will take a break from our Justice for the Poor video series and resume it on Jan. 1.

Thursday, Dec. 29, 6:30 pm the neighborhood safety meeting his held here.

Saturday Dec. 31 beginning at 9 pm we will have a New Years Eve Watch Party here, games, watching the movie Ghandi to bring in a new year of peace and resistance to Empire, with refreshments, black eyed peas and more.

Sunday, Jan. 1 New Years Day worship, 9:30 am to 1 pm our usual gathering for video series from Sojourners, communion and meal and service.

Thursday, Jan. 5, our Future of Turley planning group here at 3:30 pm, and at 5:30 pm at O'Brien Park, 6147 N. Birmingham Ave., we will join the Advisory Board to welcome at a reception our new activities director there.

More to come in the New Years Letter....till then, live justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God, and pay attention to the many ways Christ is being born in, among, and beyond you, remembering that Christmastide begins, not ends, Dec. 25 so keep it in your heart, share it and celebrate it throughout the 12 days; to help in that go visit www.uuchristian.org and go to the Christmas links there on the home page, and keep checking back for the gifts of Christmas there; and pause to reflect on how Christmas is not your birthday (even those of you born on Dec. 25 lol) but is the birthday of the one whose wish list is to bring good news to the poor.

blessings, and thanks again,

Ron Robinson

This Incredible Year in Turley

2011-12-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

Hi and thanks to all for your interest and presence with us this past year. We just finished hosting another wonderful group from Leadership Tulsa today on a tour of the northside, so much to say and talk about in so short a time, and so I come away wishing that everyone could walk with us through the year, the ups and downs, the detours and deadends and surprising openings that mark our journey each year. This letter might fall in the category of Things I Kept Thinking About....I hope you will also read it and consider ways to give to us at the end of the year after you hear about what a year it has been in so many different ways.

2011 has been a phenomenal year when things kept getting worse, and things kept getting better, side by side. It has been a year in this regard unlike any before in our own history here, and perhaps in our community's.

We began the year by purchasing the abandoned church building that had been a central fixture for years in this community but had been foreclosed and empty for years, a symbol of so many vacant and abandoned and rundown structures here. We were able to buy it thanks to equity we had from a few months before, with your help, buying the city block of abandoned homes where we have put in our still emerging and blossoming KitchenGardenPark and Orchard on North Johnstown Ave. Along with a grant from the Zarrow Foundation, we were able to buy this old building and start reusing it even before renovating it. Thanks to a grant from the Flint Family Foundation we have been able to settle in to the building better and keep up our outreach and services and grow them.

Right away though we had the great winter blizzard that shut down the community for weeks and kept us from moving in for about a week, and which opened up more problems with the roof to go along with the major vandalism attack that had hit the building for the first time in its long 90 year history. But as soon as we were able to move in, we held a Community Art Event where area residents were able to help us clean and paint art and brighten up the building on the outside. During this same time though we lost our community health clinic from OU which had closed their others in north Tulsa the previous year. It would herald a year of increased abandonment in this area where so much community wise had closed.

We held community organizing events with OU on several issues facing our community, and worked more on the community health worker proposal that would help take primary care out of the clinic and into the neighborhoods themselves in revolutionary new ways of growing health that lasts. We are looking forward to more service learning projects with OU Social Work as 2012 begins and will be reporting on it.

In the Spring we got word that our post office, which we had had for as long as there had been a community here more than 100 years, was scheduled to be closed. After organizing petitiions, after working to actually get the story out in the public, the post office was still closed. We are hoping to find some place in the community now, though, that would like to work with us to host a possible Village Post Office to replace what we lost. This area where people have the least resources to be able to get to other alternatives to the post office is the place where they close; it is a symbol of the way values of the powerful reinforce convenience for the privileged over comfort for the afflicted.

At the same time we also got the report that the former Turley School, now Cherokee School, was scheduled to be closed; we worked on getting information out to residents, and coming up with alternatives, but the school was closed, and the communities suffer from not having a major place like school where community and residents can intersect. And we are likely to see more schools closing, possibly with charter schools placed as possible alternatives in Greeley but not Cherokee, which is better than having it closed too like Cherokee was, but we still have the major building in the heart of the community at Cherokee being vacant. We are working with OU and others to try to dream up possible new community friendly uses. Our children go to an increasingly different number of schools so far away from our community these days that this continues to be a difficulty in making the connections for community here where there are so few avenues available to do that.

Speaking of Cherokee, we have lighted up the archway and Christmas tree at Cherokee School even though it is closed so it will not be darkened this holiday season. And we have lighted up the community center building so our area will have a few public and commercial buildings with decorations showing spirit and a source of light in this time of darkness, when almost no other buildings for miles along North Peoria have any decorations for the public and our community again this year; part of the problem that comes when people who own the businesses or run the places don't live here. I know that most people in Tulsa will never see these few little holiday decorations and night lights, but I believe, in the spirit of Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree, that they signify more meaning about the reason of the season than all the glitz in other areas of the city and suburbs. We are going to do the same at the Welcome To Turley signs as we head toward the beginning of Christmas. It is part of our mission to make the community look better even before we spend on ourselves. And we are working with the Cherokee School reunion committee; and we are part of a major community food policy grant proposal that if it is received we might be able to lobby for some of its use in our area.

During the summer even after the school closing, and all the grief it caused, we managed to get the school to stay open throughout the summer so we could hold the Summer Cafe daily free lunch program for all under eighteen years old, and we stayed open longer than any other site and served more because of it. Our summer was hit hard by two natural events though, the long record setting drought and heat wave and the wildfires. We were able though because we had bought the center building to be able to open it up as the first response shelter for all the evacuues; just as we had used it as a tornado shelter in the Spring storms. Out of that experience came our renewed Turley leadership planning group that is concentrating on disaster response and deep issues. One of our residents was killed at night because of the lack of street lights and that we have no sidewalks along our major street, also a state highway, that people have to use to get to and from walking to the store or other businesses; including those in wheelchairs who have to use the highway lanes. This group is planning ways to build up the infrastructure needs of our area and are working again on plans to incorporate our own citizens and a city of Turley, or at least to find out if people will go for it. Our summer was also marked by a week of service where we hosted a church group from Wildflower Church in Austin, Texas who helped us during all this keep up our spirits and make plateau changers in some of our community sites. And at the end of the summer we were partners with OU on community health research that we hope will help us to grow more connections and the health worker plan; we are now helping with research on healthy food with the Indian Health Care Resource Center.

Even in the heat wave, we were able to win our community orchard and organize a major volunteer effort to plant forty fruit trees during the hottest day of the year. Seeing the growth of the garden and orchard has been a major accomplishment of the year; our fall harvest helped feed our neighbors and bring them together and we have so much more to do as we move forward expanding and turning it into an outdoors third place. We also helped spur on the county's commitment to removing many of our abandoned and rundown houses; this is an ongoing concern and project and we still have so many dangerous commercial and residential buildings that are left to waste. This year we also got the Federal Home Loan Bank grant that has helped us to turn the old abandoned homes into our GardenPark; it is a great example of putting all three legs of the stool into collaboration to make a huge difference in an underserved area; we used government through OU students who helped us prepare and envision it; private business through Freedom Bank and the home loan grant program; and ourselves as a nonprofit and help from grant writers at the government US Dept of Agriculture Tallgrass Resource and Conservation District to all work together to bring it about.

This Fall we have been picking up the pieces from the losses, helping Greeley School transform for the new students and staff and faculty, helping to renew the advisory board at O'Brien Park, and helping out with the continued growth of the McLain Foundation and the big event of the Taste of North Tulsa promoting healthy food and lives; and yet, in the midst of it have had to suffer our own personal losses due to the unexpected deaths of two of our own board members, Gwen Goff and Linda Taylor, and our major partner in food justice Steve Eberle. These emotional losses tempt us to turn toward our own selves and needs though we know to honor their legacies we need to continue their work making the world right outside our doors a better, safer place. Our new board members, Deb Carroll who has taken on the renewal of our food pantry justice and sustainability center, and Elaine McDondle of Sarah's Residential Living Center by McLain High School, and Demalda Newsome of the North Tulsa Farmers Market, all are giving us renewed hope and spirit as we begin to enter a new year. There is still a good buzz of wonder and hope from our sponsored community Halloween Festival that drew 300 people; and from our smaller but significant Thanksgiving turkey dinner giveaways and our Thanksgiving community meal.

By the way we just received today our 125 vouchers to distribute to 125 families in our area to be able to take big boxes of food at our Major Food Giveaway on Friday, Jan. 13 from the Mobile Food Van of the Community Food Bank. And we don't just give out food; but we teach about healthy food, give out recipes, connect people with community gardens, and with all of our community events throughout the week, and recovery groups on the weekend.

We end up the year with our Christmas Community Party on Tuesday Dec. 20 from 6 to 8 pm. Come sing with us, have refreshments with us, play games with us, get face painted, watch Christmas videos, and get to know each other better as we dream and make those dreams real in ways that continue to amaze all of us.

I wish I had been able to tell all this to the Leadership Tulsa guests today. I would have told them better what a remarkable gift it is to be able to live here with those who are struggling but still find ways to give of their strengths and spirit, of the new dreams many have, how just staying here and alive and dreaming is a sign that another world is possible; last night several of us in the community watched the movie Joyeux Noel about how peace broke out and friendships were made and worlds changed on the battlefields of France during World War One on Christmas Eve; they paid a price for creating, for a moment, that different world, but it was one that changed their lives forever, and can still today for us. I should have mentioned more to the group about the growing possibilities and community involvement with the Vann Green Park Industrial Area here, along with our unique setting of hill and bottomland so close to downtown. And I should have said more about how issues of racial justice, reconciliation, ethnic diversity, both still challenge us, and are a blessing to us here as we find ways to deepen our lives together across barriers; living next to one another, serving together with one another, linking and empowering the poor regardless of ethnicity, is all an opportunity we get to have that others may want to do but have to go out of their way to do. More on that as we move toward our participation again with the Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations.

But more of all of that in the new year. It will be for us a Year of Celebrations, when we take time to mark and thank and renew all the partnerships and people that have helped us get to where we are, whom made 2011 a little bit easier and a little bit more bearable for us, as we seek to make it so for our neighbors. A Year When We Go Deeper. Stay tuned.

And if you are still here with me at this point, let me ask you to help us enter 2012 on an amazing, surprising, gifted note. We need your End of the Year tax deductible contribution. You can make it easily and safely online at www.turleyok.blogspot.com, or can mail a check to A Third Place Community Foundation at The Welcome Table Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., Turley. OK 74126. Everyone of the things I have written about above will still be projects, are still in need of support; including things I didn't mention like how we are a warming station now as we were a cooling station this summer, how we are still building up our free internet center for those here without, how we need more money for our food pantry purchases, for our gardenpark, for new signs to let the world know what we have going on, for the transformation of our remaining building into a community room, for new shelves for the clothing room, for bathroom renovations, for some part time staff to keep the center open and growing a few more hours a day, and for a new website presence. These are all the "uncool" things that make possible the transformational things mentioned above.

So, thank you for all you have done, even the important work of spreading the word about us; and as we tell one another here, we are all, regardless of our circumstances, blessed in special ways, with something we each can give. We love to be able to offer to one another here the opportunities to give of our selves in so many ways; we love to be able to extend that opportunity to you too as we end out this incredible year.

December Coming Events: All Welcome

2011-11-27T20:10:00.001-08:00

COMMUNITY COMING EVENTS For All

@ The Welcome Table Community Center

A project of the local A Third Place CommunityFoundation

Resources & Info/Library&Bookstore/ComputerCenter FoodPantry/Clothing/Chapel/GardenPark&Orchard

5920 N. Owasso Ave. and 6005 N. Johnstown Ave.918-794-4637

www.turleyok.blogspot.com for more information

1. Food Pantry Open Every Tuesdayand Thursday, 3 to 6 pm at the community center

2. Turley Area TownHall Public Meeting:What to Do with Cherokee School and Turley’s Future?; updates on VannGreenPark; and more, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 7 pm O’Brien

3. Turley Planning Group Meeting: working on DisasterResponse Network, Incorporation, Cherokee School Use, Post Office Renewal, and more.Thursday Dec. 1, 3:30 pm.

4. O’Brien Park Advisory Board public meeting, Thursday, Dec. 1,5:30 pm, O’Brien

5. Advent Vespers Worship Thursdays in December, 6:30 pm, TheWelcome Table Center

6. Christmas Decorating Party forCommunity Center and Turley, Sunday Dec. 4, 1 pm

7. Movie Night, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 6:30 pm at the Center, “JoyeauxNoel”

8. Community Christmas Party and Carolling, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 7 pm, at the Center

9. Turley Area Alliance Against Crime: Personal, Home, and Neighborhood Safety meetings Thursday Dec. 29, 6:30 pm at the center

10. New Year’s EveWatch Party, Sat. Dec.31, 9 pm, The Welcome Table Center

11. Recovery 12 step Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous, 7:30 pm, Alcoholics Anonymous, community center

12. Turley Water Board Public Meeting, LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT.6108 N. Peoria Ave.

13. Turley Fire Dept. Meetings THURSDAYS 7 PM,Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria.

14. The Welcome Table Missional Community, Sundays beginning 9:30 am, conversation on progressiveChristianity and justice for the poor, community service, communion, commonmeal, other worship and prayer classes coming up; see Rev. Ron Robinson.

“Growing Healthy Lives and Neighborhoodsin the 74126 and 74130”

Turley Community Thanksgiving Meal Party

2011-11-22T14:00:00.001-08:00

Come at Noon Thursday to the Community Center for a Thanksgiving Community Potluck. Bring anything, from a bag of chips to juice or ice, or a single apple, we don't care, come and share and eat together in community. Games, TV, computers, library. Meet new friends, see old friends, help us feed our neighbors. RSVP if you can to 918-794-4637 but be sure to come.

In the midst of scarcity and struggle here, the blessings emerge; Thanksgiving News and More in Turley and Far Northside

2011-11-19T11:07:00.001-08:00

This weekend begins the time of year when we get to lift up to the world around us that God's Dream to which we commit to and work toward bringing out in and through beloved community that exists for others, even in our community of struggle. This dream or worldview is different and more meaningful and life-giving than the American Dream that these days, in difference to how it was originally and has been in times of crisis, seeks to define us as out for ourselves over and against each other. Thanksgiving's time of serving others, Advent's season of waiting, pondering, going deeper into the darkness, trusting in peace, joy, love, and hope against the commercial world's values of getting and keeping. And Christmas time of the ordinary becoming incredibly extraordinary, when the giftedness of all of Creation comes about in someone very vulnerable, very fragile, very marginal.

Today we seek to grow and serve at O'Brien Park, our partners, during the Fall Festival from 2 to 5 pm. Come be with us and meet others and have a fun for all ages time, 6147 N. Birmingham.

Our recovery groups meet at 5:30 and 7:30 pm tonight.

Tomorrow we have our special annual Thanksgiving Worship Meal and Reverse Offering. This year from 9:30 am to 1 pm we will have four movements of worship and meal and communion. See the full menu liturgy and explanations at www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com. Come and bring friends and experience God in sacred meal and food justice. Come and bring something to add to the salad or soup or potluck.

Tomorrow at 1 pm come or stay for our missional progressives movie and discussion "Of Gods and Men" about a monastic missional community that had a crises of faith and yet continued to serve their Muslim neighbors through dangerous time.

This Thursday at noon for any who need community we will have a "super potluck" for all.

Next Sunday begins the Advent season. We will have special classes watching the Sojourners video series Justice For the Poor each Sunday at 9:30 am followed by our special Advent worship communion service. Then beginning Thursday Dec. 1 we will have a brief weekly Advent Vespers service at 6:30 pm. This follows our usual Tuesday and Thursday Food Pantry service days from 3 to 6 pm.

On Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 7 pm at O'Brien Recreation Center we will be part of a special community association meeting for our area focusing again on our project with OU Design Studio on repurposing the Cherokee building into community use; there will also be a presentation on the renewed Vann Green Park Industrial area in our neighborhood; and many other updates and chances to connect with neighbors.

We have had full Food Pantry days, teaching about healthy foods and giving out recipes as well as food; we have had a great fall harvest at our new kitchengardenpark and orchard, with much of its yield going to the food pantry already.

We have been supporting McLain High School Parent GearUp program and Greeley Elementary School student of the month luncheons and a special Christmas toy giveaway. You can help us donate to both through safe online giving at www.turleyok.blogspot.com where you will also read more about our presence and our neighborhoods and vision. We are also working on the ongoing work of community renewal through the McLain foundation, through our disaster response network creation, and through other community partners and connections.

We also have to bite the utility bullet and get our $1000 deposit paid for gas heating for the winter, and work on preparing our newly opened north wing where the food pantry and classrooms and clothing and lending rooms and restrooms are. So any funds at this special time when we are giving so much to an increasing number of neighbors is deeply appreciated by all.

We had a wonderful return visit and inspirational talk and dinner with Sherry Clark of Families And Communities Empowered For Safety. She left us with good ideas and practical advice on how to make our lives and communities safer, and through the Turley Area Alliance Against Crime neighborhood watch meetings we are going to move on to a focus on juvenile justice soon.

On behalf of our community group, A Third Place Foundation, I was surprised and pleased to receive special recognition from the statewide Recreation and Parks Society for our contribution to the movement through our partnership with O'Brien and through our beginning of the Miracle among the Ruins Welcome Table Kitchen Garden Park and Orchard in our healthy food desert, a place not only where food is grown but relationships and renewal is as well. And posthumously our Board member and long time sustainable activist Linda Taylor received the Distinguished Service Award from the state organization.

Stay tuned for our Advent and Christmas month news and reports, as our monthly focus will be on lifting up the lives of children and youth in our area and in the world, and more epistles from the adventurous life here in the 74126 and 74130 and adjoining zips where the life expectancy might be much lower but the blessings are never higher and deeper.

blessings, and see you soon, Ron

www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com www.turleyok.blogspot.com www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com www.uuchristian.org

A Dozen Ways We Are Changing Our Community

2011-11-10T19:04:00.001-08:00

You are invited to come and be with us at these special opportunities to serve our neighbors....see posts below for our regular events and projects each week. Lifting up lives and neighborhoods in the 74126 and 74130 and nearby.

1. Free Turkey dinners to 20 families, beginning Tuesday Nov. 15 at our Food Pantry open Tuesdays and Thursdays 3 to 6 pm.

2. Watching Restrepo movie about the Afghan war and discussion on how we can serve veterans who have served us. Tuesday Nov. 15 6:30 pm free supper included.

3. Special Thanksgiving Meal Worship Service, beginning Sunday 9:30 am Nov. 20 until 1 pm, come anytime you can for as long as you can, but the earlier the better; The Welcome Table Church sponsoring; where worship is more like a party than a program. Followed at 1 pm by the movie and then discussion on Of Gods and Men, french with english subtitles, sponsored by the missional progressives group, about French monks living in a monastery who serve their Muslim neighbors and decide to stay at risk of their own lives during battles between corrupt government forces and terrorists. Then Thanksgiving Potluck and Games on Thursday, Nov. 24, noon. RSVP for both events if you can but don't let that stop you from coming.

4. Raising $400 to provide a classroom of children at Greeley School with Christmas presents; Whirlpool will provide half of the school kids with presents; we are working with others to provide gifts to all. Join with our holiday service effort.

5. Raising $500 to sponsor the Parent Student GearUp Event, Nov. 17 at McLain High School, trying to help close the educational justice gap for our children on Tulsa's northside; this program works with parents and students to prepare them for the testing programs and to get them ready, emotionally and academically, for entering higher education.

6. Repurposing Cherokee School. We began this partnership with the OU Graduate Design Studio with a community workshop on Nov. 5. We are continuing it this month at the community center getting residents ideas and attitudes about the future of our area and dreaming possibilities and partnerships for reopening Cherokee with a community focus. We will conclude the community input at the Turley Area Community Association meeting Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 7 pm at O'Brien Park Recreation Center.

7. We are partnering with O'Brien in honor and memory of our recently deceased Board Member Linda Taylor to sponsor a community Fall Celebration event at the Park Center, 6147 N. Birmingham Ave., Saturday, Nov. 19, from 2 to 5 pm. Games, refreshments, and more. Free.

8. Feeding The Neighborhood. Besides our twice weekly food pantry, which also hands out recipes and samples of meals that can be made with pantry items, we will be distributing 125 boxes of food on Friday, Jan. 13, from 11 am to Noon, thanks to our partnership with the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. Come to the pantry and sign up for the Mobile Van visit.

9. Welcoming the Leadership Tulsa participants to the Turley Far Northside area, Wednesday, Dec. 14. Come help us host this group of community leaders as they learn about our transforming community renewal work on a grassroots level.

10. The KitchenGardenPark and Orchard at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. Due to the season we have stopped our regular gatherings, but we are still working to prepare more of the site for the next growing season. If interested in a garden, or helping with events and more, contact Bonnie Ashing through the Center or at bjashing@aol.com.

11. We are updating two of our ongoing projects inside the community center: our Community Clothing GiveAway being better organized and focused and expanding into a Community Tools and Services Lending Library, and our Computer Center. Come help and check it out in the weeks ahead as we launch them in the new year. And start to renovate our future much larger Community Room.

12. Stay tuned for news about upcoming Christmas celebrations, and New Years Eve events, music concerts, Volunteer GiveBack Days, and our Community Connections programs in Turley with the University of Oklahoma.

We have a lot going on but we can't do it without you. And we can't continue to do amazing things that we haven't even imagined yet until you help us imagine them. Thanks in advance.

Coming Events in the Turley Area in November: All Welcome and Needed: Food Pantry Open, Veterans, Cherokee School Meeting, Incorporation, Disaster Response, Crime and Safety, and More See Below

2011-10-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

TURLEY/Far North Tulsa COMING EVENTS For All This Month
@ The Welcome Table, a project of A Third Place Community Foundation
Community Center/Library/FoodPantry/ClothingGiveaway/Chapel/GardenPark
5920 N. Owasso Ave. and 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. 918-794-4637

1. Food Pantry, Food Justice, and Sustainability Space Open Every Tuesday and Thursday, 3 to 6 pm at the community center
2. Turley Area Leadership Planning Group: working on Disaster Response Network,Incorporation, and Infrastructure planning: Friday Nov. 4, 2 pm, every First Friday at the community center
3. TownHall and Community Connections Meeting with State Rep. Seneca Scott and other officials, Friday, Nov. 4, 5:30 pm, Tulsa Comm College NE Campus, Apache and Harvard
4. McLain High School Homecoming Game and Events Friday, Nov. 4, 4949 N. Peoria Ave.
5. What To Do with Cherokee School building? Community Forum and Workshop with OU Graduate Design Studio, Sat. Nov. 5, Noon to 4 pm at the community center with Free Lunch For Participants.
6. Community Fall Festival, Sat. Nov. 19, O’Brien Park Recreation Center
7. Movie Night, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 6:30 pm at the Center, “Restrepo” documentary on the War in Afghanistan through soldiers’ eyes. Discussion of veterans issues in our area and creating a veterans support room in the Center.
8. Turley Area Alliance Against Crime: Personal, Home, and Neighborhood Safety meetings Thursday Nov. 17, 6:30 pm at the center
9. Turley Area Public Town Hall Meeting and Community Association, Tues Nov. 29, 7 pm O’Brien Park Recreation Center, 6147 N. Birmingham
10. Community Garden Taste and Teach Gatherings Free Every Saturday 9am, the Welcome Table Community Park, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave.
11. Recovery 12 step Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous, 7:30 pm, Alcoholics Anonymous, community center
12. Turley Water Board Public Meeting, LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT. 6108 N. Peoria Ave.
13. Turley Fire Dept. Meetings THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria.
14. The Welcome Table Missional Community, Sundays beginning 9:30 am, conversation on progressive Christianity and justice for the poor, community service, communion, common meal, other worship and prayer classes coming up; see Rev. Ron Robinson, revronrobinson@aol.com.
15. Call about Thanksgiving Meal. 918-794-4637.

Important Community Events Coming Up: You are welcome and invited

2011-10-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

Come to all of these upcoming events:

1. Tonight Entertaining Angels movie about beginning of Houses of Hospitality, 7:30 pm
2. Tuesday, Oct. 18, 6:30 pm documentary Living Without: youth of jailed parents tell their own stories, followed by discussion, pizza free dinner included.
3. Wednesday, Oct. 19, 3-6 pm, O'Brien Park Center, Memorial Service Reception for Linda Taylor, our board member, the long time park center director, and community organizer.
4. Tues oct 25 5 pm domestic violence and safety talk by sherry clark of Families And Communities Empowered for Safety (FACES), with free dinner;
5. Followed at 7 pm over at O'Brien Park for Turley Community Association Public Townhall meeting
6. Wed. oct 26 4 pm touring cherokee school talking about repurposing for community.
7. Thursday, Oct. 27, 6:30 pm, Turley Area Alliance Against Crime meeting.
8. Friday oct 28 3:30 pm talk to leadership tulsa group touring our gardenpark and community center to learn about our projects;
9. Sat oct 29 6-8 pm our 6th annual big free old fashioned halloween party and haunted house.
10. Thursday, Nov. 3, 2pm, Future of Turley planning, disaster response networking, leadership coordinating
11. Saturday, Nov. 5, Noon Free Lunch For Community and Then Community Input Workshop on Future of Turley area and the Repurposing of Cherokee School, project partner OU Graduate Design Studio.

Mourning the Death of Linda Taylor and Celebrating Her Life Wed. Oct. 19 3-6 pm O'Brien Rec Center

2011-10-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

Our community in Turley and north Tulsa, and our state, lost a supporter and activist, and we lost a board member of our community foundation, when Linda Taylor, activities director at O'Brien Park, died last week. Her family services were held this past Saturday in her hometown of Cement, OK. A community memorial service will be held this Wednesday, Oct. 19, from 3 to 6 pm at O'Brien Recreation Center. Please come to the memorial reception during that time and bring your stories and photos of Linda.

Here is the obituary information:
Linda Fay Taylor
(July 10, 1949 - October 11, 2011)

Linda Fay Taylor, 62, Tulsa, Oklahoma, passed from this life Tuesday, October 11, 2011.

Linda was born July 10, 1949, in Chickasha, Oklahoma, to Baxter H. Taylor and Minnie B. (Reynolds) Taylor. After graduating from High School, she attended college and received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Education. Before joining the Parks and Recreation Profession, Linda was an educator and basketball coach. She came to the Recreation Profession in 1975 as a Recreation Leader at Tulsa County’s O’Brien Park. She quickly advanced to and was still the O’Brien Park Activities Director. She chartered the O‘Brien Advisory and Education Board, the longest running 501C3 support group in the Tulsa County Park System.

Linda directed day camps, taught fitness classes, started gardens, lifeguarded, arranged special events, organized basketball tournaments and even set up boxing rings. She worked with State Representative Senaca Scott through her activities and State Rep Jabar Shumate was one of Linda’s “kids” growing up at the recreation center. Linda served on the boards of the Tulsa chapters of Business and Professional Women and the American Association of University Women. She was always a steady advocate for equal funding for women’s sports in schools throughout her life. She was a season ticket holder for the WNBA Tulsa Shock team before she knew for sure the Shock would be coming to Tulsa.

Linda served as Activities Director at O’Brien Park for 34 years. She served as President and Historian for ORPS – Oklahoma Recreation and Parks Society. Linda was aware of the need for a clean environment and was “green” before it was popular to be green. She received the CLP (Certified Leisure Professional) certification in 1984. Her desire to protect the environment is still in the hearts of her friends and co-workers. She has recently received the Distinguished Professional Award. She supported various Animal Rescue Locations. Linda has donated her hair at least twice to Locks for Love. There is so much more to say about Linda and her family and friends will always remember her love and dedication to the various clubs, societies, and activities she became involved with.

Linda was preceded in death by her father Baxter Taylor and niece Deborah Taylor.

She is survived by her mother Minnie Robertson and husband J.V.; sister Shirley Stokholm and husband Paul; brother Vernon Taylor; nieces Tricia Taylor and Kirsten Stokholm; nephew Brian Stokholm; great niece Abriana Evans and husband Jonathan; great-nephews Zachary Stokholm, Mason Taylor-Schmidt, and Seth Evans; her care-giver friends Patty Dixon, Angela Swift, Debbie Pleu, Clair Bowles, Keeley Mancuso, Cindy Phillips, Samia Hindi, Pam McWherter, Connie Day, Tina Lynn, Phylis “Cooky” Dawson, Margaret Wilson and Sue Price; many other relatives and a host of friends.

Funeral services for Linda will be Saturday, October 15, 2011, at 2:00 P.M. at the First Baptist Church in Cement, Oklahoma. Rev. Charles Echols will officiate. Visitation for Linda will be Friday, October 14, 2011, from 12 noon until 8:00 P.M. at the Funeral Home. A Memorial Service is set for Wednesday, October 19, 2011 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at O’Brien Park, 6149 N. Lewis Avenue, Tulsa. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.mobley-dodsonfuneralservice.com. Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Mobley-Dodson Funeral Service of Sand Springs, Oklahoma.

In lieu of flowers, the family request that donation be made to: Third Place Community Foundation, 5920 North Owasso Avenue, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 74126, where she was a Board member for the Turley and North Tulsa community; or the animal rescue of choice.

Breaking News: Protest Rally Sat. Sept. 24 to Bring Back Turley Post Office. Come to Warehouse Market show support

2011-09-23T17:53:00.000-07:00

Late breaking news: Come to a protest rally and petition drive at the Warehouse Market in Turley tomorrow, Saturday Sept 24 and support the local postal workers who are supporting our community.

SAVE OUR MAIL SERVICE!
TULSA POSTAL WORKERS TO EXPOSE
EFFECTS OF CLOSING WEST TULSA & TURLEY STATIONS
Event Will Highlight Hardships Imposed on Citizens, Businesses, Local Economy

WHEN: Saturday, September 24, 2011, Noon – 6:00 PM

WHAT: Tulsa’s local postal workers will distribute information and launch a petition drive to inform citizens and the media about the Postal Service’s plan to close the West Tulsa and Turley Branches

WHERE: Warehouse Market, Turley
Corner of Southwest Blvd. & S 33rd W Ave, West Tulsa

WHO: Mark Coyle, Retired Letter Carrier, and local postal workers.

MORE: Closing the Turley & West Tulsa Branches, which are part of a nationwide plan to eliminate post offices in hundreds of communities like ours, would deprive citizens of easy access to crucial services and hurt local businesses. Closing these stations would create a hardship – especially for senior citizens, those with handicaps, and our neighbors who rely on public transportation. Postal workers are informing local citizens about the proposed closure – and what they can do to stop it.

***These rallies are being held in conjunction with the “Save Our Service” Rally which will be held on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 outside John Sullivan’s office. Petitions signed on Saturday will be presented to Congressman Sullivan. Representatives from all three postal unions will be there.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Next Week: Spaghetti Dinner, Turley Meeting, New Health Survey & Free Supper & Movie

2011-09-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Three Straight Days of Big Events in Turley next week.

Begin on Monday, Sept. 26 from 5 to 8 pm with the Spaghetti Dinner to benefit the recent fire victims, to be held at the Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy, $5 per person. Great deal, great cause.

Then on Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 7 pm at O'Brien Park Recreation Center, the monthly public town hall meeting for Turley area residents. come meet local officials, hear about activities and plans coming up, bring your concerns and celebrations and commitment to helping your community improve our quality of life.

Then on Wednesday, Sept. 28, come to the community center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., behind the tag agency, from 3:30 to 5 pm and help us partner with the Tulsa County Health Dept. on a new health survey for our area; this is a new and different one from the one we did with OU recently; come take the 15 minute survey and stay for a free supper at the center, and also at 6:30 pm stay for our monthly movie; this month it is "October Sky" based on the memoir called Rocket Boys, about the struggles of poor kids in a poor community fighting against stereotypes to follow their dream and change the story of their life, thanks in large part to the dedication of a good public school teacher who believed in them and pushed them to greater expectations. Part of our September focus on Education.

Also remember we have every Saturday morning community garden Teach and Taste and Help at The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark and orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., and also on Wednesday evenings beginning at 6 pm. Come see the emerging park and catch the vision of growing and sharing healthy food in our zipcode which has a fourteen year lower life expectancy than in midtown tulsa just a few miles away.

For other events in community coming up see the post below at www.turleyok.blogspot.com.

Exciting Events in Turley Community Coming Up For All

2011-09-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

TURLEY AREA COMING EVENTS For All---Please Share With Others...
@ Community Center/Library/FoodPantry/ClothingGiveaway/Chapel, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. or other neighborhood places 918-794-4637 or 918-691-3223 or 918-430-1150 for more information.

Community News: Thanks for all who came to celebrate or to support Turley Day on Sat. Sept. 17. Let us know if you want to work on a team to sponsor the event next year; it only happens if we get people to agree to work on it.

1. Benefit Spaghetti Dinner for Fire Victims, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., All Welcome, Monday, Sept. 26, 5 pm, $5 meal. Come help raise needed funds to go for those affected by the August fires.
2. Turley Area Community Association, Tuesdays, Sept. 27 and Oct. 25, 7 pm O’Brien Park Recreation Center, 6147 N. Birmingham. Meet local officials, hear what is going on and how you can help.
3. Come to the Community Center from 3:30 to 5 pm on Wednesday Sept. 28 and help our area have a voice in the new county health department being built in our area at 56th and Cincinnati. If you take about 15 minutes to help the health department with a survey of residents, we will provide you with an after school meal or dinner, and then you are invited to stay and watch the acclaimed movie October Sky about boys from a poor town in West Virginia who defy the odds and stereotypes and follow their dreams of launching rockets. Movie starts at 6:30 pm.
4. Turley Area Alliance Against Crime: Personal, Home, and Neighborhood Safety meetings last Thursdays Sept. 29, 6:30 pm at the center.
5. Turley Area Disaster Response Planning, and Community Leadership Coordination, working on small area plan and on incorporation, Thurs., Oct. 6, 2 pm, at the Center. We have been informed that now the Red Cross will be able to use the O'Brien Recreation Center as the community evacuation center in case of future fires or other needs; now we will be working on setting up community resource response and a communication network of how to let people know; we are still trying to work on getting a tornado shelter in our area with a mobile home park without one. This is not a town hall meeting but a working session for community leaders and those who wish to take on work for the community....We are also working on Cherokee School use, revisioning ways to use it for new community uses, working with OU Graduate Design School, and also ways to bring back a post office which recently closed after a century here....We will be working with others to do visioning celebrations and to show possibilities for new economic and community life in abandoned shopping areas in our area.
6. First Fridays Townhall with Rep. Seneca Scott, Catholic Charities, Apache and Harvard, Oct. 7, 5:30 pm, Community Coalitions Connection.
7. Plan It Now. Mark it on your Calendar. Don't Miss It and let your neighbors know about the Free Community Dinner, Third Annual Taste of North Tulsa, Better Choices and Healthy Living, Thu. Oct. 13, 6 p.m., community organizations fair, health screenings, at our community's McLain High School and Junior High School, 4949 N. Peoria Ave. Great Jazz Band, local restaurants featured. Some of the best food will be cooked by area restaurants and available for free.
8. Movie Night, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 6:30 pm at the Center, we will be showing an important for our area Documentary “Living Without: youth of incarcerated parents tell their own stories” followed by discussion. We hope to partner with area organizations who are focusing on helping our children and youth whose parents are incarcerated.
9. Families and Communities Empowered For Safety Presentation and Conversation with Sherry Clark, founder of F.A.C.E.S. Free Supper Program, 5 pm Tuesday, Oct. 25, at the Center. This will be a chance to help our community prevent and respond better to one of our most prevalant problems, Domestic Violence, and will also be focused on other issues of safety as well. Come to the supper presentation at the Center and then go to O'Brien Park for the monthly community meeting.
10. Community Free Halloween Party, Sat. Oct. 29, 6 to 8 pm, at The Center.

Weekly Events:
11. Bluegrass Jam, Every Monday, 5 pm, at the Community Center.
12. Community Garden Taste and Teach Gatherings Every Saturday 8 to 10 am and Every Wednesday, 6 pm to ?, the Welcome Table Community Park, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. Come celebrate and connect and help us grow healthy food in this healthy food desert, meet new friends, come take on a garden bed for yourself, your family, your church; or come and enjoy the views and the emerging new garden park that has been created by local residents.
13. Recovery 12 step Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous, 7:30 pm, Alcoholics Anonymous, community center

14. Turley Water Board Public Meeting, LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT. 6108 N. Peoria Ave.
15. Turley Fire Dept. Meetings THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria.
16. Small Group Worship Circle at the Welcome Table Community Center, Sundays 11 am, bible study, communion and common meal, Rev. Ron Robinson. for more on The Welcome Table church go to www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com.

Turley Area History, CleanUp, Garden, Food Drive Day Sat. Sept. 17

2011-09-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

Turley Area History & Garden & Clean Up & Food Drive Day
Sat. Sept. 17 8 am – 2 pm
@The Welcome Table Community Center
5920 N. Owasso Ave. behind the tag agency, one block west of Peoria

Free Lunch For Volunteers: Come For As Long As You Can. All Ages Welcome.

Food Drive For Community Pantry….
Litter Pickup from our streets: free bags, gloves, water provided….
Yard Sale. Take what you need, give what you can.
Children’s Activities, Jump….
Free Plant & Seed & More Garden Swap begin from 8-10 at Welcome Table Park, 6005 N. Johnstown; see the new orchard; Taste and Teach weekly gathering; enjoy the views; celebrate and connect; grow healthy food for yourself and for and with others in our healthy food desert; then it will be moved from 10-2 down to the Community Center….
Live Music….10-Noon
History Sharing and Talking About the Future: Noon-2 pm: Bring Stories, Photos, Yearbooks & More. Honor Our Elders.

Brought To You By your local TulsaNorth/Turley TNT northside volunteer grassroots A Third Place Community Foundation: Renewing Community in Abandoned Places, Growing Healthy Lives and Neighborhoods, through small acts of justice done with great love.

Please donate and surprise the world; see the button at the top of the page.

Call 918-691-3223, 794-4637, 430-1150 To Help Plan and Participate

Come to our A Third Place Community Foundation planning meal, Monday, Sept. 12, 6:30 pm at the Center.

New News and Views and Coming Events

2011-08-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

Hi all.

First, it is with heavy hearts that we pass on the news of the sudden illness and pending removal of life support from our friend, board member, and co-conspirator for love and justice Gwen Goff. Prayers for her, her family, all of her community connections; her spirit still guides us and will be present in all of these gatherings mentioned below.

Coming so soon after the death of our other partner Steve Eberle, and this past Spring of Michael Niles, one of our partners and husband of our president, and then more recently the fires, the break-in, the breakdown of AC and plumbing which closed us for a while (which is now fixed), the closing of the post office pending in a few days, and the start of this school year without students at Cherokee/Turley for the first time in a hundred years, and the continuing heat wave, and it has been a rough summer of grief and stress. We are looking toward September. It is time to celebrate, to be with one another, to commit and to connect.

And so we continue to be a presence for justice, for community renewal, for growing healthy lives and neighborhoods. Please come to these following events and pass on the news to others, and look for ways you can partner with us in these and so much more. After the events, be inspired by a quote from someone who captures well what we do here...

TURLEY AREA COMING EVENTS For All

@ Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. www.turleyok.blogspot.com

1. Don't Miss this opportunity...We are partners helping to coordinate The University of Oklahoma Turley/NorthTulsa area Community Health Summer 2011 Project: Take a health attitudes survey and get a free Visa gift card to use at local northside stores. Throughout this month, our community health focus month, we have been conducting surveys and handing out gift cards at various events. We are about to finish the project which we have been able to extend. So....Come to the Turley Area COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION Public Meeting, Tuesday Aug. 30 at 7 pm to be held this month here at The Community Center to participate. Must be 18 or over and not taken the survey before, and live in the 74126 or 74130 zipcodes or nearby to them. Meet local officials, join in neighborhood planning groups, find out what's going on.

2. Turley Area Disaster Response Planning, and Community Leadership Coordination, Thurs., Sept. 1, 2 pm, and first Thursdays of the month at the Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso. Followup to the fires, continuing to pursue small area planning to help us get sidewalks, lights, incorporation, and followups to school closings and changes.

3. Benefit Bean Dinner for Turley Fire Department, in response to the recent fires, Sat. Sept. 3, Noon to 5 pm, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria. Help support those who support and save and protect us.

4. Free Back to School Workshops and Conference For All Families in elementary, junior, and senior high, Sat. Sept. 10, 8:30 am to 1 pm, McLain School, 4949 N. Peoria, for more info call Andrea Walker 918-830-7016, walkean7@gmail.com. Thank you to Metropolitan Baptist Church for sponsoring this event. Also our McLain Foundation will begin meeting again this week on Tuesday at 4:15 pm. And Plan now to help us help others at the Back to School Night, Horace Greeley School, Tuesday, Sept. 13. We were blessed to have the opportunity to feed all the staff and teachers before school started, which was so vital as the school is merging staff as well as students this year, and eating together is a way to build relationships and morale among staff that will benefit our children. We hope to do more of this with them during the year, and with other schools in our area. September will be Education Focus Month here at the Center.

5. Turley Area Litter Clean-Up Day and Heritage Lunch, bring stories and photos and honor our elders and learn the history of our area, and Planning Groups and more, 8 am to 2 pm, community center, 5920 N. Owasso; free trash bags, bottled water, free lunch for volunteers, workshops, community information.

6. Benefit Spaghetti Dinner for Fire Victims, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., All Welcome, Monday, Sept. 26, 5 pm, $5 meal.

7. Movie Club, Education Focus Month, “October Sky” Wed. Sept. 28, 6:30 pm, community center, free pizza popcorn. Come be inspired. Come discuss how we can help children who no one else believes in.

8. "Taste and Teach" events at our Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark where the new orchard is, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., come every Wednesday from 6 pm to ?, or on Saturdays from 8 am to 10 am, meet others who wish to learn, to grow, to serve, to celebrate, to connect. This is why the park is being developed, so share with others and see how the miracle among the ruins is continuing.

9. Recovery Groups, Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous and 7:30 pm Alcoholics Anonymous, at the Center.

10. Other public meetings. TURLEY WATER BOARD PUBLIC MEETING LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT…. and TURLEY FIRE AND RESCUE MEETINGS THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station.

11. Worship Circle, Welcome Table Church, a free universalist christian missional community, write to revronrobinson@aol.com for times of gatherings at the center or gardens or other places, or follow on facebook at www.facebook.com/revronrobinson, or at www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com or www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com. We have been worshipping with others lately, but we will be back at the center beginning Sept. 11 for special worship; contact me 918-691-3223 or by email to find out more about where and how we will gather. See recent sermons at the sites above.

Commentary: Here is one of the best depictions of what we are up to, and why, and what our vision is. It comes from Mary Lou Kownacki and "A Monk in the lnner City":

"What do I do here? I listen. I get to know my neighbors, really know them. I listen to their hopes and dreams for decent jobs, decent homes, a safe place to raise their children. They are worried about their children, especially their teenagers, who can see no future except minimum-paying jobs, lockup, or dropping out on the streets...What do I do here? I plead a case for presence, beauty, community, and a call to follow God into the wilderness.

"Once upon a time men and women who wanted to seek God relocated themselves in abandoned places. These "wilderness places" often associated with the desert [like our healthy food desert], gave the seekers a unique perspective and freedom. Living on the margins of society, stripped of the trappings of social expectation and pressure, they began to see differently. Immersed in the word of God, they began to listen differently. They put on the broken heart of God and spoke the truth on God's behalf for the poor, the victims of injustice, the suffering.

"Their location in the wilderness gave them great freedom. Why? Because no one paid attention to them. Because they were not the movers and shakers of the city. Because they had no political influence, no one cared what they did. No one even noticed their quiet works of transformation among the poor until suddenly "the desert and parched land bloomed with abundant flowers."

More to come, blessings, thanks, Ron

Coming Events in Turley Area: Health Survey Gift Cards, Public Meeting, Heritage Lunch, CleanUp Day, Movie, Gardens, Schools, Benefit Dinners, More

2011-08-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

TURLEY AREA COMING EVENTS For All

@ The Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. and elsewhere in the area, 918-794-4637

The University of Oklahoma Turley/NorthTulsa area Community Health Summer 2011 Project: Take a health attitudes survey and get a free Visa gift card to use at local northside stores. Come to the COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION Public Meeting, Tuesday Aug. 30 at 7 pm at The Community Center to participate. Must be 18 or over and not taken the survey before, and live in the 74126 or 74130 zipcodes or nearby to them. Meet local officials. A community health month project of Turley's local nonprofit A Third Place Community Foundation.

Turley Area Disaster Response Planning, and Community Leadership Coordination, Thurs., Sept. 1, 2 pm, and first Thursdays of the month at the Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso. We will be joined by leaders of Tulsa Partners to discuss development of a local disaster response plan, and continuing issues of incorporation, area planning, and response to the recent fires, needs for sidewalks, lights, and more.

Benefit Bean Dinner for Turley Fire Department, in response to the recent fires, Sat. Sept. 3, Noon to 5 pm, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria.

Free Back to School Workshops and Conference For All Families in elementary, junior, and senior high, Sat. Sept. 10, 8:30 am to 1 pm, McLain School, 4949 N. Peoria, for more info call Andrea Walker 918-830-7016, walkean7@gmail.com. Sponsored by Metropolitan Baptist Church.

Back to School Night, Greeley School, Tuesday, Sept. 13. Help us help the students, teachers, families, 63rd and N. Cincinnati (Martin Luther King Blvd) Ave.

Turley Area Litter Clean-Up Day and Heritage Lunch and Planning Groups and more, 8 am to 2 pm, community center, 5920 N. Owasso; free trash bags, bottled water, free lunch for volunteers, workshops, information. Come pick up the trash off our streets, have fun, free lunch, do planning of future events, share stories of Turley area past.

Benefit Spaghetti Dinner for Fire Victims, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., All Welcome, Monday, Sept. 26, 5 pm, $5 meal.

Movie Club, Education Focus Month, “October Sky” Wed. Sept. 28, 6:30 pm, community center, free pizza popcorn. A movie about the real story of the 1960s Rocket Boys of West Virginia who proved their world wrong about what they were supposed to do with their life, thanks to a supportive teacher who believed in them.

Community Garden Gatherings Every Saturday 8 to 10 am, Park, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. …Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous, 7:30 pm, Alcoholics Anonymous, community center…TURLEY WATER BOARD PUBLIC MEETING LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT…. TURLEY FIRE AND RESCUE MEETINGS THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station.

National News on Turley and Us and the Response to Heat Wave and Fires and More

2011-08-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

CBS Radio just interviewed us about Turley about a story on Oklahoma heat wave (http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-100_162-296.html?tag=hdr;wnav), after AP did yesterday (see http://hosted2.ap.org/MAQUI/ENTAPNEWSTICKER/Article_2011-08-20/id-41612cd9dcf346e2b31bef2110d79629), about our community center response during the heat wave, fires, and all here in our community lately; no news story is able to capture all that needs to be said and just one little sentence or two barely scratches the surface...

about life in poverty areas especially when heat wave makes it even tougher on folks without ac, without cars, without access to malls, who walk without sidewalks to grocery stores and schools, and then the shutting down of post office coming after shutting the school, and the fires and home losses and depletion of resources for the fire department and the community center....and those with AC, like our situation, are having theirs breaking down and not able to replace; fortunately schools going back here this week so kids will have a cool place, though for many walking back in the heat is tough.

and then our center which acts as cooling station in afternoons and provides water, food, TV computers, games, etc. has its own AC wear down from so much use and eventually this past week wear out, plumbing breaks, and the breakin after the fires takes computers, phones..

....so with all that hard to contain to a cute blurb and hard to shut me up, but I do appreciate very much of the national news and attention, helping people perhaps to see what they don't in normal run of their day see or experience; like how hard it is for people in the heat wave who work day labor outdoors and rely on mowing lawns and small day jobs, working in heat or not being able to find work like they used to; worrying about paying electric and water bills so not eating but very little to save up for the bills to come....

but like we said at worship in the park this morning, being here is what counts, and doing things poorly but doing them is what counts and what lasts; so tomorrow we will be taking again the ice chests of bottled water out to the streets, and hope to get AC replaced asap and then find ways to pay for it later....and to learn from this summer and disasters how to be present even more and better; we will be meeting at the center thursday sept 1 at 2 pm, if AC gets replaced, with area leaders and those from Tulsa Partners about the disaster response plan ideas and process for next time we have mass evacuations from fires or possible floods tornadoes etc. And we are still out promoting all community events like the fund raiser for the Turley Fire Dept. Sat. Sept. 3 noon to 5 pm $5 per person bean dinner at the fire station 6408 N. Peoria; don't want to miss that chance to help and get some good food....And we will keep hosting community celebrations to remind us of the abundance of life together even in the midst of the things that try to drive us to thinking only about ourselves; and we have a community history and heritage lunch planned at the center for noon on Sat. Sept. 17 after a morning of service cleaning up our community. and our Sept. focus will be on educational justice, and our movie will be "October Sky" Wed. Sept. 28 6:30 pm.

...we will continue to look at the deeper systemic issues of justice at the same time we do the daily response of one to one needs that comes up; we will be talking Tuesday Aug. 23 at 1:30 pm with politicians about trying to get the post office to work with us to staff our own postal center with their help here in the center or with a local business interested in it ...On Wednesday Aug. 24 we keep our focus on Community health month here with the movie "Sicko" and discussion and free food at 6:30 pm and hope we can do it in the center but if AC not replaced by then will find another place for it...Then thursday evening Aug. 25 we host the local neighborhood leaders safety and watch meetings of the turley area alliance against crime...

....and speaking of community health month, we found out we can extend for a few more weeks our summer health survey program with OU where we give out to local residents gift cards to use for their time taking the surveys with us; so we get more data, can reach more areas of the community, and pump more money directly back to the people here in our neighborhoods, and build connections to our projects and one another at the same time; we hope to have more health events at school, community meeting, and again at the north tulsa farmers market to reach people living here on the northside....another reason to get our AC replaced in time for our the community meeting next week and the community leadership meeting....

...Even when the Center is shut down because of the AC out we take the Center to the Community as we did this past Wednesday providing a pizza and salad lunch for all the teachers at the Horace Greeley Elementary School, now our closest school; it was a time to promote reconciliation of teachers from two schools that had merged due to the closing of Cherokee school; allowing teachers time and place to eat together and visit all together is a rare thing for a school where schedules and more keep all so busy and apart, but we want to do more of this and find ways to promote teachers building relationships with one another in order to help foster that among the students who are going through all the changes of closed schools and new schools too.

....finally while all of this is the arms and legs hands and feet and body of the church being the church int he community for the community and with people of varying faiths and no faith communities, our worship circles, like this morning at the park in the relative cool of the early morn, are the heart, and we have real, relaxed, and relational times, sharing life, getting in touch with all that sustains us, so that we can share and be the church in many ways while we are out in the world....So this Thursday we will be sharing worship with Phillips theological Semianry, 905 N. Mingo, at 11:30 am followed by lunch as some of us in the Unitarian Universalist sphere provide the chapel liturgy for communion. You also get a good homily from PTS President Gary Peluso-Verdend....Then next Sunday The Welcome Table Universalist Church will go on the road to Stillwater as I will be preaching at the UU Church there; we will carpool and caravan and then have some fun in Stillwater after the fun of worship of course.

will try to post more links and updates at www.turleyok.blogspot.com and www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com

Turley Community Health FunFest Sat. Aug. 13 9 am to 1 pm; celebrating community after the fires

2011-08-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

Come to the community center at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. behind Turley Tag Agency this Saturday as we celebrate community, especially after the fires and evacuations from last week when our center was turned into a Red Cross response station. Thanks to all who helped then and continue to help now.

We will have live music at 11 am by Johnny Cervantes and The Oklahomans; we will have free community resources and information tables to help your families with many issues; we will have classes and conversation on getting better health care led by a Medical Doctor; we will have clothing and more giveaway, book sale, and OU Community Health and Social Work partners will be here giving health care attitude surveys for us and we will be giving out $10 gift cards to Quick Trip for those who take the surveys, while they last. And we will have free pizza at noon. And children's activities.

Plus come hear about our Community Orchard and Gardens to grow healthy food for our area which has the lowest life expectancy in the Tulsa area, and most poverty; plus come hear and see the vision of what the community center can be and become. Bring Food for our Food Drive. See the Muhammad Ali Peace Garden. And more...All are welcome. Spread the news.

Channel 6 Story on $25,000 Grant For the KitchenGardenPark

2011-08-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.newson6.com/story/15213874/grant-volunteers-create-turley-community-garden

We have already begun making big transformations clearing out the old trash and debris to make room for the orchard and the garden beds, but with this grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank, with the help of Turley's Freedom Bank, and the Tallgrass Resource and Conservation District, you will really be able to see a transformation and creation of a new place to grow healthy food together, to meet and greet neighbors, and make connections to change our community for the better. Information is available at the site at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. on how to be a part of the Garden. Or call 918-430-1150, 918-794-4637, or 918-691-3223. Thanks for all the helpers already.

Post Office Set To Close Sept. 10: Help Us Protest and Plan A Free Community Post Office here at the Center

2011-07-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

Even though Turley was left off the list of 3700 post offices being closed that was published in the Tulsa World, the post office has confirmed that Turley's post office will be closed on Sept. 10. We are trying to find out if we can get a "village post office" for our area, perhaps in our community center. The Tulsa World is set to run a news story on the closing of Turley and others that were left off the massive list provided by the post office recently. It should be published on Sat. Aug. 6.

We believe:
It is not right to close the post office in our area where we have the poor and the elderly without the means to get four miles away to the other post service; do it where this is possible;
It is not right where the residents affected are not the ones with computers and internet service as an alternative which is the reason the postal service says volume is down; do it where computers are prevalent,
It is not right because where volume is down here it is because the hours of service have been being cut over the years making it difficult to people to use the existing location, and there has been no public signage or promotion of the office and where it is to attract newcomers. One of the first acts we did when we set up our community center was protest the neglect of the post office which was located next door to where we were because the American flag at the post office was torn and tattered; it was replaced, but was a sign of neglect;
It is not right because the people in this area do not have access or means to an alternative like fedex or ups offices as they do in other parts of the Tulsa area; do it where there are alternatives.

Let your federal official representatives know how you feel about this. Contact information through their websites Rep. John Sullivan http://sullivan.house.gov/Contact/, Senator Tom Coburn http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactsenatorcoburn?p=ContactForm and Senator Jim Inhofe http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=contact.contactform and ask them to do the right thing and keep the post office open where it is needed the most, which is what government resources are meant to do, filling in the gaps.

Stay tuned for news of organizing and protesting meetings and exploring options.

Greenhouse of the Possible: Summer of Renewal on Far Northside

2011-07-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

Hi all.

Put some extra bottles of water in your car as you drive our area and hand them out to those walking and without, or drop them off to those waiting at bus stops, or bring them to us as we do so.

While I was away working for a few weeks out of state, we at A Third Place Community Foundation had here the Great Orchard Planting for the Northside on June 26, and the continued emergence of the community gardens going along with the orchard to feed those in the 74126 and 74130 zips, and to build community connections while we do so. See other posts for the links to the TV and newspaper coverage of the big day. Thanks to all the hard working residents from our group and area, and to volunteers who came as far away as Oklahoma City, and to Up With Trees and PSO Oklahoma and Turley United Methodist Church for their assistance, and to project leader Dr. Bonnie Ashing and Cecilia Wessinger who coordinated.

Our New Big News: We were awarded the $25,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank project to take the Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark, 6005 N. Johnstown, to the next level. We look forward to continuing to put money back into our zip codes, as well as creating a place for growing healthy lives and neighborhoods. We have had our first partner family at the garden park, and we also have them at our garden sites at Cherokee School too, and more will be coming, as well as producing vegetables already for our food pantry at the community center. We are eagerly awaiting the actual receipt of the funds so we can put it all into the park project, bridging city of Tulsa and Turley neighborhoods.

Community Health Projects and Summer Events: We are partnering with the University of Oklahoma on a wellness program this summer, a health attitudes survey (along with free $10 gift cards for residents who take the survey) as a prelude to our revolutionary project to begin neighborhood lay health advocates/mentors/master patients called real community health workers. We will unveil it at our booth on Saturday July 16 from 11 am to 2 pm at the Northside YWCA Summer Carnival with the Tulsa Health Department, right around the corner just about from us, in the old Wiley Post School, 54th and N. Madison. Come enjoy the many booths, the free food, and health screenings, and music and more. We will also have survey event days on Wednesday, July 20, 11 am to 1 pm at Cherokee School Cafeteria, 6001 N. Peoria, as part of our Summer Cafe program with Tulsa Schools, and also conducting the surveys as we will have a Big Health Event at our The Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., on Saturday August 13 from 9 am to 1 pm, and other sites and places may be announced soon. We will have the full list at the booth at the Summer carnival on July 16....This Tuesday afternoon, July 12, we will also host again this year a visit by the OU Medical School summer interns who will be learning about community health from the grassroots and helping us with projects. We hope to have two more events with them during the summer...There are lots more health projects we partner with, even as we work on our own through the healthy food park and our own center projects, so come by to find out about them.

Summer Cafe at Cherokee School: We are still raising funds to keep the daily summer food program going at Cherokee School, which we have sponsored along with Tulsa Schools, Monday through Friday, 11:30 to 12:30 for all under 18 years old; by paying our own staff to run the program here we are able to keep it going all summer long, June 8 to Aug. 5. We feed an average of 30 to 50 children and youth a day. Donations can be made online at the button above. You don't have to have a paypal account to use the donate button. Thanks for all the support....Speaking of schools, we will be partnering this year with Greeley School as well as deepening our involvement with McLain School, and hope to help as needed where we can with Gilcrease and Penn and Monroe. Even while continuing to work with school officials, neighborhood residents, and those interested in finding a healthy community use for the grounds and building at Cherokee and the old Morse school site, and supporting our children no matter where they wind up for school, be it home, online, public, private, etc.

Far Northside/Turley Small Area Planning: We will be hosting a meeting of local and area officials on Thursday, Aug. 4 to keep building connections and next steps for producing a consensus plan for our unique urban/smalltown/rural stretch along North Peoria especially, where now there are inexcusable abandoned dangerous buildings right across from our schools, and blight areas that discourage any efforts to attract groups, residents, businesses to our area. We will be exploring again incorporation of unincorporated areas, but it is just one of the tools we will be employing as we create a new community out of the ruins left behind....In many ways, I say, we are growing from the grassroots a city without a government (yet) as we are de facto involved in early stages of bringing people together to work on our own health department (including our hosting the recovery 12 step group), parks/food/environment/ department, public safety department (last Thursday of each month at 6 pm for the neighborhood safety group btw), Events department, education dept. and chamber of commerce.

The Misc.: Among the still to be announced events, We will be holding soon our summer planning event to schedule many celebrations and events to come for the rest of the year; we always need donations of food for the pantry; we will also be scheduling and holding our big fundraising auction of donated items to us, especially so we can begin when it gets a bit cooler transforming our big building into the Community Room here at the center, where currently we are storing the items. We continue to care for the gardening projects out in the neighborhoods, watering work takes its toll in this heat, and the clothing room is now at full capacity, and we have our computer center back to half its capacity (always looking for donations of new or used computers)....One of our big new donations has come all the way from California as a supporter has shipped us boxes of children's books and health books so we can set up special library areas for children and to support our health projects.

Message: Often I am asked how we do what we do, given that there are no salaries still yet: I respond using phrases like "better to do something poorly than not at all when you are doing life and death matters" "fly by the seat of the pants" "catch as catch can" "relying on grace". Right now on the sign out front of the center it says: "In Brokenness, Here We Are". That means not only are we in a broken area, abandoned by those who want to be places where the cool people are, where there are conveniences and comfort, but it also means we come to you as broken people, as a broken group, still seeking to model a different way of being, with values that run counter or cross to those perpetuated on the television and in the news every day. We are not a faith-based community 501c3, and we have people on our board from a variety of churches and theologies, and our church group pays rent to the foundation, and lord knows our small worship group seems to get smaller and poorer the more we do, and so this is all not just some sneaky evangelical way to bring in people to some organization; but still, faith, hope, and love run through all we do and dedicate ourselves to, and perfection is anathema to faith, hope, and love; shame is anathema to faith, hope, and love; apathy and self-indulgence are anathema to faith, hope, and love...

I close with a quote from Mary Lou Kownacki's book, A Monk in the Inner City, from her opening section on Abandoned Places: "Our goals are modest: to plant daffodils, to rebuild abandoned homes, to paint porches, to read to children, to pray together, to grow vegetables, to become a neighborhood, a community. Nothing spectacular, just a snippet of "the kingdom of God, come on earth as it is in heaven.' "Come, children, let us scatter flower seeds in the neighborhood of no lawns or birds, Let us turn one small street into a greenhouse of the possible."

For those interested in the small group spiritual community side of things here, This Sunday July 10 in worship (come at 10 am each Sunday for the service before the service) we will have a spirited summer hymn sing; on July 17 we will have Question Box Sunday, part 2; on Sunday July 24 I will be in Houston area preaching and on Sunday July 31 I will be preaching at 11 am at Hope Church, 8432 S. Sheridan, on "Where in the World is the Church?" From July 25-29 I will at Western Hills Lodge near Wagoner leading worship on Monday evening and a workshop each afternoon on "Missional Progressives Reimagining The World (and Church)." In August we will have StoryCorps Sundays, bring your favorite meaningful stories out of your lives. And of course communion and common meals anytime we meet which are open to all. more at www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com.

Our renewal work is open to all at any time too; if you want to do something with us at anytime, on your own schedule, just let me know. Ron Robinson, executive director, a third place community foundation.

We Receive $25,000 Federal Home Loan Bank Grant for our KitchenGardenOrchardPark in Turley/NorthTulsa

2011-07-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

We just received word that we have been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank community reinvestment program for our work on the miracle among the ruins The Welcome Table KitchenGarden Park where we recently planted 40 fruit trees for an orchard for our area, located at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. near suburban hills edition in tulsa and near the historic downtown of Turley. We already have several community garden beds underway at the park, and our first family gardeners growing their healthy food there.

Thanks to Freedom Bank in Turley for their cosponsorship of the grant with us, and to the Tallgrass Resource and Conservation District of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture for helping us to submit the grant. As soon as we receive the funds we will be doing more park preparation and cleanup on this site where abandoned houses and trash piled up for years on one of our busy thoroughfares. Thanks also to Rita Scott of buy local, buy fresh and Sustainable Oklahoma, and to Rep. Seneca Scott for help in partnering with us.

To volunteer at the park, to have your own garden bed, call 918-691-3223 or the Welcome Table Community Center at 918-794-4637, or email to revronrobinson@aol.com.

Spread the good news about this good news which is just the beginning of much more to come.

Our Turley/NorthTulsa Area June 26 Orchard Event, Community Health Focus, and More This Summer

2011-06-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

What a great summer is underway in the far northside 74126 and 74130 zipcodes. Here is your invitation to events coming up, and updates, and opportunities to be a part of our mission of renewing community, empowering residents, and growing healthy lives and neighborhoods, through small acts of justice done with great love.

First, the Big News:
You and others are invited to attend the public event on Sunday, June 26 beginning at noon here at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. as we are joined by the National Fruit Tree Planting Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars marking the planting of the new orchard that day that was recently won in a national competition for our emerging Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark.

While we were not happy with the selection of the day for beginning the orchard and festivities, which was picked by the organizations sponsoring the national competition, we will be making it a momentus day for the far northside anyway as we combat food deserts and blight in our area with this project we have called the "miracle among the ruins." We hope you will be there, to receive our thanks for your support, and to see the latest developments, and enjoy the festivities, and tell others, and dream of ways to partner with the park and duplicate it elsewhere.

It is hard to believe that just one year ago we were still trying vigorously to raise the funds to buy the rundown abandoned property from N. Kenosha to Johnstown and 60th to 61st Streets atop a hill from where you can see downtown Tulsa and other landmarks. We not only were able to raise the funds, but used the property to help us buy another bigger more historic rundown abandoned church building in our area and turn it into a community center asset, and then this Spring we managed to garner enough online support to win the orchard in the first round of voting at www.communitiestakeroot.com.

While we will be there all day with volunteers working on the site with the arborist from the Fruit Tree Foundation (and we hope you will join us anytime from 8 am on), we will pause at noon for the announcements and recognitions and words of support. Edy's Fruit Bars will be giving away free fruit bars, building a bench for the site to commemorate the occasion, and the arborist will be unveiling the fruit trees planted and turning on the irrigation system installed by the foundation, and then he will be conducting a free public workshop for our residents on fruit tree planting and care. The trees are being purchased from local nursery Worley's in north Tulsa County.

We have been installing and planting community garden beds already as well as preparing the site at the park for the orchard section. We also are hoping we can announce the awarding of a new grant too, which we have applied for in partnership with local Freedom Bank and with the help of the USDA Tallgrass RC&D, but even if it is otherwise we will be able to show the vision of what will be coming.

I, unfortunately, had previous travel and work plans for the end of June and will be unable to be there (which is a double shame since it is my birthday too), all the more reason why I hope you will come and support one another and residents, and contact Bonnie Ashing as park project leader and coordinator of the event If you have questions or rsvps, please contact her at bjashing@aol.com or 918 346 3475. Please feel free to forward this on to others in your associations as well.

Again, at a time when governments are shutting parks and community centers, we are growing our own from the grassroots for the grassroots.

In Other News:
Summer Cafe at Cherokee
We managed to get the Summer Cafe program to be held at Cherokee School again this summer under our supervision and we are operating it from June 8 to Aug. 5 because we are a community organization and not dependent on school staff to operate it on their schedule. Already we are seeing more children and youth than we had the past two years. Free lunch for anyone in the world, we say, who is 18 or under at the school cafeteria, 6001 N. Peoria Ave., from 11:30 to 12:30.

Austin Guests Serving Our Area
We were joined recently by members of Wildflower Church in Austin as we cleared the park site for the orchard, as we put together some of the garden beds for the park, as we created the new Prairie Trails native plant Park right across the street from our new community park, as we built the Muhammad Ali Peace Garden at the community center, as we beautified and cleaned up the major welcome intersection on North Lewis and 66th St., as we planted a garden bed with residents at Sarah's Residential Living Center near McLain High School, and worked on projects at the center itself. We are looking forward to a group coming from Dallas at the end of July. Groups for a day or more are always welcome to come learn and serve.

Partnerships for Health With OU
In July we will be partnering with OU Community Health to conduct health attitude surveys in our area, something that will also benefit residents economically with incentives for taking the survey, along with local businesses where the incentives will be good for. This is the initial public step in our movement toward launching the community health worker program in north and west Tulsa, a project we have been working on with OU for a few years now, even when we had the clinic; now that the clinics have been closed in north Tulsa this project is more needed than ever, and will help radically reshape health care delivery by creating neighborhood health mentors for those who are the most frequent users of the emergency rooms and urgent care.
One of the places and partnerships for our health attitude surveys will be at the annual summer carnival for the YWCA northside and Tulsa Health Dept. Saturday July 16 from 11 am to 2 pm, at the YWCA on 54th and N. Madison. Come support this free fun for all carnival and get great health information and screenings and see our booth.
We are also working to set up in July our community health care conversations at our center again this summer with neighborhood residents and with summer interns from OU. These are always educational conversations for all. More info as we get the dates set.
And we had a very good poverty consciousness raising workshop with local residents and the incoming graduate social work students at OU which we helped coordinate and held at O'Brien Recreation Center recently.

Meetings and Movies and More
We hosted and helped to coordinate recent meetings to create a leadership and planning focus group to concentrate on issues of how to attack the growing problems of abandoned commercial and residential properties in our unincorporated side, how to create a plan for growth and community vision here north of 56th St. in the wake of the closing of the Cherokee School, and how to bring conditions of unhealthy and blighted sites to the attention of the county commissioners and departments. We are looking again at steps toward incorporation, not as an end in itself, but as a possible means to the bigger end of community renewal. Attacking the numerous abandoned and dangerous sites near our children is the common top project for this new leadership group. Our next planning meeting will be at the Center Aug. 4. Also remember the Turley community association meeting is Tuesday June 28 at 7 pm at O'Brien Recreation Center. Congratulations to Northridge Neighborhood Association for its first meeting this past week for the area around McLain High.

....Speaking of Cherokee, and Alcott also, in our service area which were both closed as Tulsa public schools, we have met with area legislators to explore options on how to keep the buildings in community use.

We had a wonderful time hosting and watching and discussing the live webstream from the Childrens Defense Fund and the documentary on PBS about the Freedom Riders during the 50th anniversary of that pivotal time in civil rights history. We also again sponsored a public showing of the Dorothy Day Story movie Entertaining Angels and related it to our work and vision here. And we were once again one of the few presences from our whole northside area, along with the YWCA northside, in the Tulsa Pride Parade and Festivities sponsored by the Equality Center.

We have supported and will continue promoting the North Tulsa Farmers Market at Tulsa Community College NE campus on Wednesdays from 2 to 5 pm and Saturday mornings on 56th St. between Highway 75 and N. Lewis. We have our ongoing Neighborhood Safety group the last Thursdays of the month; weekly recovery 12 step groups, our clothing and food pantry (our computer center is temporarily shut down as the computers are in need of updating and repairing, stay tuned for relaunch news in July).

And we worship on Sunday mornings with conversation and common meal and service to others for all who are interested in a free universalist Christian missional community. The next two Sundays we will "be the church" in the park as we gather to serve and celebrate and prepare for the Orchard Event.

Be a partner with us in person and/or through donating to make all this happen; no one draws a salary; one hundred percent into mission; go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com and donate; you can use debit/credit cards as paypal is not required.

Thanks, blessings, and more to come,

Ron Robinson
Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation, operating among its many projects The Welcome Table Community Center and The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark
renewing community, empowering residents, growing healthy lives and neighborhoods
5920 N. Owasso, Turley, OK 74126
www.turleyok.blogspot.com
www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com
www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com
www.uuchristian.org

A Simple Ask For A Big Need: A Little Extra Right Now For Those Without Extra

2011-06-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

Very quickly: We are doing a little extra here for those without, and so could you help us with a little extra you might have? We are half way there raising the funds for the free daily lunch program we coordinate here for children in our area and partnering with Cherokee School. Need $500 to go. Have already served more in our first week than we did first week last year...Also, because of the early planting date for the orchard, three months before our plans, we have had to deplete the account to pay for installing electric, and bringing in large bin and for removal of all the debris illegally dumped on the site over the years the former houses there were abandoned and the old trees on site still damaged and dangerous from the 2007 ice storm.

You don't have to have a paypal account to use the donate button on this page, and it is safe and easy with debit/credit card, or send check payable to A Third Place Community Foundation, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. Turley, OK 74126. We don't get the chance to send out all the thank yous as we should to those who have supported us and meant so much to us, so consider this thanks in advance and blessings from those whom you bless.

And keep us in your prayers as we await word on a $25,000 Federal Home Loan Bank grant which we should find out about later this month for our "miracle among the ruins" park project, but even if we get the news so much is needed now to get in the orchard and get set for a humdinger of a Fourth of July Party on the hill where just a year ago there was so much blight and danger. We also have our Prairie Trails Park almost finished as well across the street from the Welcome Table Park, and next to the resident-made trail from subdivison to store they walk each day a mile away.

100 percent of donations go into missons; no one draws a salary yet. Don't think your little extra doesn't make a huge difference in lives here; it is the only way we have been able to accomplish all the amazing things we have.

All Invited To the New Orchard Planting Event Party Sunday, June 26, at our new community park 6005 N. Johnstown

2011-06-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

You are all invited to attend the Orchard Event for the public on Sunday, June 26 beginning at noon along with the National Fruit Tree Planting Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars marking the planting of the new orchard that day that was recently won in a national competition for our emerging Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. Please pass this on to others.

Volunteers are always needed to help us plant that day or to come help us clean and prepare the site before hand, and to take on garden plots already installed for growing food for families and our food pantry. To volunteer call project leader Bonnie Ashing, bjashing@aol.com, or 918 3463475.

We were not happy with the selection of the day for beginning the orchard and festivities, which was picked by the organizations sponsoring the national competition, because of short notice, people being gone, and not optimal for planting season, but we will be making it a momentus day for the far northside anyway as we combat food deserts and blight in our area with this project we have called the "miracle among the ruins."

We hope you will be there, to receive our thanks, and to see the latest developments, and enjoy the festivities, and tell others, and dream of ways to partner with the park and duplicate it elsewhere. It is hard to believe that just one year ago we were still trying vigorously to raise the funds to buy the rundown abandoned property from N. Kenosha to Johnstown and 60th to 61st Streets atop a hill from where you can see downtown Tulsa and other landmarks. We not only were able to raise the funds, but used the property to help us buy another bigger more historic rundown abandoned church building in our area and turn it into a community center asset, and then this Spring we managed to garner enough online support to win the orchard in the first round of voting at www.communitiestakeroot.com.

While we will be there all day with volunteers working on the site with the arborist from the Fruit Tree Foundation, we will pause at noon for the announcements and recognitions and words of support. Edy's Fruit Bars will be giving away free fruit bars, building a bench for the site to commemorate the occasion, and the arborist will be unveiling the fruit trees planted and turning on the irrigation system installed by the foundation. The trees are being purchased from local nursery Worley's in north Tulsa County.

We have been installing and planting community garden beds already as well as preparing the site at the park for the orchard section. We also are hoping we can announce the awarding of a new grant too, which we have applied for in partnership with local Freedom Bank and with the help of the USDA Tallgrass RC&D, but even if it is otherwise we will be able to show the vision of what will be coming.

.

We Won

2011-06-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all who supported and voted for us in the national competition to win a fruit tree orchard for our area. Please feel free to share the following news release and announcement on the orchard, the park, the victory party, and the dedication this week of the Muhammed Ali Peace Garden at the center.
...............

The "TulsaNorth/Turley" neighborhoods will receive a free fruit tree orchard after winning in national online voting competition during the first round of the contest sponsored by the National Fruit Tree Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars.

More than 21,000 votes were cast from April 15 to May 31 for the proposed park project sponsored by A Third Place Community Foundation, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. The local volunteer nonprofit came in fourth place in the first round out of 120 community contestants, and the top five winners of each round receive an orchard. A party to celebrate the victory will be held at the orchard site, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., on Thursday, June 9 from 6 to 8 pm. All supporters and area residents are welcome.

A team from the Fruit Tree Foundation will come to the northside area and work with area residents to plant the trees, to install an irrigation system, and to teach community workshops on growing fruit trees in the area, according to Rev. Ron Robinson, executive director of A Third Place Foundation.

The orchard will be planted at the emerging northside "pocket park" begun by the local group that will also include community gardens, play and social and eating areas, and a gazebo for bands. The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark will be located at 6005 N. Johnstown on an acre overlooking downtown Tulsa where abandoned houses recently stood amid other trash and debris. The foundation purchased the property last year, and had the homes removed and is currently working on preparing the site for the start of the gardens.

"We are located in the 74126 zipcode which has the lowest life expectancy and many nutritional deficiencies," Robinson said. "The park and now the fruit tree orchard, along with our other gardens and health programs and summer daily feeding program at Cherokee School which starts June 8 through Aug. 5, and work with our area partners is aimed at elevating food justice and reversing these trends among our people."

Robinson said once the local group finds out when the planting day will be slated, a call will go out for volunteers to help with the planting, to attend the workshops, and help launch the new community food project.

A Third Place operates both the emerging park as well as the The Welcome Table Community Center and renewal projects in 74126 and 74130 zip codes.

It also received this Spring a grant to create a Muhammad Ali Peace Garden Grant for producing vegetables for families in the area. The garden will be located at the community center with the planting taking place the week of June 6-10 and dedication ceremony being held on Friday, June 10 at 7 pm. Volunteers are welcome. For more information call 918-794-4637, or 918-691-3223, or 918-430-1150 .

Background information and articles on the park can be read at http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2011/04/all-videos-news-design-plans-on-our.html. More information on the orchard competition, held each year, can be seen at www.communitiestakeroot.com.

Join Us For our Big Juneteenth Week of Service June 6-10

2011-05-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

Calling all to our Juneteenth Big Mission Week June 6-10 How does this sound for a schedule below?

We can and will be flexible on alternatives and changes on the ground during the week especially in regards to weather. in general we will do outdoor stuff mornings and evenings some when coolest; inside stuff during afternoons. We will have a list of a variety of projects we will offer as opportunities to serve, that involve different skills and level and you can choose. Should have that list posted Monday.

Community Garden and Beautification projects will also include putting in a bed for the Sarah's Residential Living Center in our area, non profit care for seniors in a small home environment; and also planting the Mohammed Ali Peace Garden at our Center received from a grant. Others will be at ongoing sites such as the park where the orchard will go, at an intersection we have reclaimed, at an establish park partner, along the prairie trail, and other guerilla gardening sites at abandoned buildings.

We are non smoking non alcohol no weapons on property.

Big Mission Week Sunday, June 5, Arrival and Welcome 9 pm ish. We will welcome with orientation to the building,

Monday, June 6, Learning/Orientation To Area 9-3. Tour of our Service Area/Mission Field, from 46th to 76th N and Osage Line to Highway 75, discussion of history and current status of the area, issues of economic injustice, food justice, race, class, identifying assets and strengths of our community, and why we are where we are.

5:30 our weekly Bluegrass Jam at the Center

6-9 Pizza dinner and showing of Entertaining Angels movie and discussion of missional church. optional small projects at the Center.

Tuesday June 7 Morning Work at Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark, where orchard will also go.
Afternoon Work at Community Center. Evening Community Potluck and Game Night at the Center, Board Games, Wii, etc. continuing projects in evening as able.

Wednesday June 8
Morning Work at Guerilla Gardening and other blight to beauty Sites in the community.
11:30 am Kickoff of our Daily Summer Cafe feeding program for all in the area 18 and under at Cherokee School just a block away from the community center. Afternoon work at the Center.
Evening Worship 6:30 pm and Free Time in Tulsa area.

Let us know if you have special places you would like to go either this evening or possibly at other times.

Thursday June 9
Morning Work in community gardens, peace garden, etc. Trash Off Streets. Afternoon Work at.the Center.
Evening Orchard in Abandoned Places Miracle Among The Ruins Celebration Party at the KitchenGardenPark site, 6-8 pm. Celebrating our winning an orchard from the National Fruit Tree Foundation.

Friday June 10 Finishing Projects Day and celebrating the peace garden completion at the Center. Jupiter Jump for kids. Live music outdoors and inside in evening.

Sat. June 11. Goodbyes.
10 am cherokee school reunion planning meets
6 pm Gay Pride Entry downtown Tulsa 7:30 pm AA

Rev. Ron Robinson
Turley/North Tulsa OK
www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com
Www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com
Www.turleyok.blogspot.com
Www.uuchristian.org
9186913223 9184301150

Tulsa World Article on Our Foundation/Center

2011-05-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

The Tulsa World recently published an article on our new community center and our projects and our orchard vote competition, and more. Read it here: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110509_11_A13_CUTLIN403855&archive=yes

12 Facts of Hope in Turley/NorthTulsa

2011-05-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Hope these 12 areas of making a difference in the world through small acts of justice done with great love will be as inspiring to you as they have been to me, and you will explore ways to partner with us to make even more of an impact here and in your own lives and groups and families.

1. We are currently in fourth place out of 120 in the national fruit tree orchard vote to win a 40 tree orchard for far northside Tulsa. Keep voting for us daily and spreading the news. If we can remain in the top five at the end of May we will win one of the orchards from the National Fruit Tree Foundation which will come plant, teach residents, install irrigation systems. Go to www.communitiestakeroot.com/Plant/Index/. Easy to register and vote. We have fliers and business cards about the contest if you would like to distribute them. Help us combat the food desert of our 74126 zip code.

2. This coming Monday, May 16, at 6:30 pm at our Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., we will be watching a special documentary being premiered on PBS marking the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders. Refreshments available. Bring friends to watch together. We are scheduling a whole series of films for the summer. We had a great cinco de mayo party watching the The Three Amigos and discussing the real roots of the Mexican celebration.

3. A story about our new center and the orchard and the new kitchengardenpark project, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., ran today in the Tulsa World. You can read it and see the pictures at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110509_11_A13_CUTLIN403855. Share the link with others as a way to promote our orchard vote and renewal projects.

4. We are hosting a weekly bluegrass jam on Mondays at 5:30 pm at the Center. We have the neighborhood safety monthly meetings last Thursday of the month at 6:30 pm. The recovery groups meet Saturday evening. If you have an idea for a support group or regular community meeting let us know.

5. We do not have our community health clinic anymore, but the plans are evolving for a neighborhood or community health worker program in our underserved areas. I travelled with OU representatives to meet with officials at the Oklahoma Health Care Authority about the project, combining community residents and leaders with health providers and people in our neighborhoods who are repeat emergency room users. We are also working on a smaller wellness survey plan for this summer. Our Center's future Health Hub is taking shape.

6. A week ago the decision was made to close our partner in education Cherokee School. Since then we have been present with people in their grief and anger. We bought lunch for all the school teachers and staff last Friday to celebrate the ending of their testing period and to mourn the decision. We have met with parents who are exploring various options and are hoping to use our center and/or investigating charter schools or some other way to make use of the building. At the same time we will be hoping to receive invitations to partner more deeply with the remaining Tulsa public schools in our service area, and plan to help community residents have a voice in how such a vital physical building in our area will be taken care of and used for the good of the community as we meet with school officials. On Saturday May 21 we will be at Cherokee from 11 am to 3 pm for a Farewell Community Open House. Spread the word to all community residents and alumni of the school which dates back to its days before it was a Tulsa public school and was part of the Turley area school district drawing students from many miles around. You can of course read more about my comments to the School Board and others at www.turleyok.blogspot.com and also at www.cherokeeschoolgardenjournal.blogspot.com

7. We received the materials from the Mohammed Ali Peace Garden Grant we received that we had planned to put in at Cherokee with the students there, and now will be working with community children to plant the beds elsewhere in our area, perhaps our community center. We continued to plant and care for all the vegetables gardens and native plant landscape gardens that we started before the closing decision and will continue to grow food for families and our food pantry.

8. We have been notified that because of the school closing we will not be able to host there the daily summer feeding program we have coordinated and paid for the past few years for all under 18 years old. We will be trying to find an alternate site for it that is as convenient to our area children and youth and will report our progress. Next year we hope our center is capable of handling the program ourselves; we continue to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drinks for any who are hungry no matter what age. We are also working with O'Brien Recreation Center to get the word out to those over 60 in our area that they can be a part of a free nutrition program at the recreation center. We have also been working on the gardening projects at the recreation Center and helping to make the park again a place that is oriented to people in the immediate area and not just those from suburbs who come in for organized sports.

9. We presented 25 plus pages of signed petitions opposing the closing of the 74126 post office here on North Peoria when we met with representatives of the USPS and Sen. Inhofe's office at the post station. We told them it was immoral to close the facility in an area where the most vulnerable needed it without the means to take advantage of alternatives as those in areas of higher income do. We told them that if the internet is causing the post office problems the solution shouldn't be to close stations in areas where people have the least amount of email and internet use. We told them that the postal authorities have not put out any signage in the leased space they use or promotion that the post office is where it is and for all the new mobile residents in the area they don't know it exists, and worse have cut the hours down so that people who cant get away to use it from 10 am to 2 pm can't use it when they would otherwise. And at the same time we have begun talking and researching how we could set up a postal support center at our community center in case they go ahead and close down our post office. Come get more petitions to distribute to protest the possible closure.

10. We have work progressing on the Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark with the north area trees and debris scheduled to be removed this week so we can begin to plant garden beds and begin scheduling events and parties in the new northside park space, even as we keep working to clear and prepare and equip the rest of the miracle among the ruins greenspace project on the hill overlooking downtown Tulsa, a bridge between neighborhoods. We are scheduling a work day on the site, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., for this Saturday May 14 at 10 am. Start spreading the word to folks you know or groups you know that they can adopt a bed to grow their own food we will help them plant. Also this Friday, March 13, from 2 to 5 pm we will be supporting the McLain High School Greenhouse Plant Sale, 4949 N. Peoria Ave. Come see the transformation underway and support the McLain Initiative.

11. We are going to be working with one of our partners in the area, Sarah's Residential Living on N. 53rd St. to plant a garden for their use and with their residents. We had also consulted with the Dept. of Human Services to help them launch a community garden at their office on North Peoria. And we have picked back up on our initial project we did with OU Tulsa graduate social work students, the abandoned properties project; we have been touring and planning ways to bring attention to the horrible unsafe conditons of commercial abandoned buildings on North Peoria in our area, and are planning guerilla gardening actions and BYOT events, bring your own tables,where we hold community potlucks on the grounds next to the abandoned by their owner properties, and plant sunflowers, and try to work with owners when we can locate them to clean up and/or tear down structures that endanger our children and send a message that our area isnt important.

12. We have the food pantry expansion underway; donations are being taken, and food being given away; we also have restarted our "gently used" clothing room, and we will be inheriting the childrens clothing room that was being operated at Cherokee School now that it is being shut. We have added a new computer to our computer center but need three or four more. We will be scheduling an auction of donated items to raise needed funds to continue the building renovation and the park creation. We are also planning to host mission trips from churches coming from Texas and would love to do so with others even from here in the Tulsa area. Summer calendar of events planning will be done soon with our leaders and will be listed in the next email news. At the worship gatherings on Sunday we are discussing this month the book "Change the World" by Michael Slaughter. http://www.amazon.com/Change-World-Recovering-Message-Mission/dp/1426702973 We combine mission service with conversation worship and common meal. More events on the church side will be planned and announced soon too.

For more go to www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com, www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com,

Thanks, blessings

Radical Health Care Change For The Poor: The Turley Plan

2011-05-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

Even when we had the OU clinic here in our community center in Turley/NorthTulsa, we were planning ways to be "disruptively innovative" about really making a difference in the lives of the poor and to cut the costs of health care too. Now that all the clinics that used to be called bedlam or mobile clinics have been shut down on the northside, we are focusing on our previous ideas and plans and dreams even more intensely. Since we first began to discuss this in Turley a few years ago we have found other approaches that are similar springing up in other parts of the nation.

Today I go with OU to Oklahoma City as we present our plan to state leaders where it is getting a favorable so far response. Here is a link to an article published last year that goes into the idea a little more: http://progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com/2010/08/disruptive-innovation-for-real.html

We put resources into people, leaders already, living in the neighborhoods where the ones live who are the highest repeat users of the emergency room as their only health home, and we start with the connections to community these people have, knowing that real health arises and is supported by community, and we train these people with whatever basic skills we need them to have to be "master patients" mentors to their neighbors, and also to be teachers to the medical residents who are overseeing the health care, teaching them about the real lives and real community hindrances and helps that these people face. Probably start with conditions like diabetes and breathing problems where monitoring and support can make huge difference.

The key is putting resources into the people who live in the neighborhoods with one another, instead of into the salaries of those who come into an area to treat people and then go back home with their money to other places; this then becomes an economic as well as health stimulus. We know that just because you build it, a clinic or anything, that they will not just automatically come. Not with generations of not seeing primary care as important, because you don't see yourself or your family as important; not when you don't trust medical personnel to understand your living conditions. So we need to turn inside out what we mean by a health home, to get it closer to real homes wherever those may be and however they are formed.

As soon as I can figure out how to upload here the newest powerpoint on the plan, I will do so because that helps you to see it a bit more clearer too.
Out of abandonment and desperation to change the statistics that people are dying fourteen years earlier here than just six miles south on Peoria Ave. has come a great idea.

Postal Authorities Considering Closing Turley Post Office, meeting with public Thursday May 5 from noon to 2 pm at the post office

2011-05-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

We have petitions at the Center for people to sign protesting the looking into closing of turley post office and moving services to Apache Street Northside Station. We will present these at the thursday meeting at the post office.

We believe:
It is not right to close the post office in our area where we have the poor and the elderly without the means to get four miles away to the other post service; do it where this is possible,
It is not right where they are not the ones with computers and internet service as an alternative which is the reason the postal service says volume is down; do it where computers are prevalent,
It is not right because where volume is down here it is because the hours of service have been being cut over the years making it difficult to people to use the existing location,
It is not right because the people in this area do not have access or means to an alternative like fedex or ups offices as they do in other parts of the Tulsa area.

Let your federal official representatives know how you feel about this. Contact information through their websites Rep. John Sullivan http://sullivan.house.gov/Contact/, Senator Tom Coburn http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactsenatorcoburn?p=ContactForm and Senator Jim Inhofe http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=contact.contactform and ask them to do the right thing and keep the post office open where it is needed the most, which is what government resources are meant to do, filling in the gaps.

Stay tuned for news of organizing and protesting meetings and exploring options.

Tulsa Schools Votes To Close Cherokee School

2011-05-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

In a 5-2 vote, Cherokee School which was begun as Turley School in the early part of the twentieth century, was voted to be closed. Still to be determined are what the new boundaries will be covering the existing school boundaries, or what area schools will now cover this area; those are to be unveiled within a week or two. Also to be determined is what will be done with the building and the lands. We will keep you posted. We encourage you email board3@tulsaschools.org, Dr. Lana Turner-Addison, school board representative for our area who voted to close the school as part of the project schoolhouse initiative, to say that the community needs to be involved in what happens to the property; also send your emails to ballake@tulsaschools.org and to state representative Seneca Scott at seneca.scott@okhouse.gov who has been working to keep the school open. Our best option now is to make sure the building is used by a community oriented group. Also email support to Principal Jody Tell at telljo@tulsaschools.org.

Here are my remarks to the School Board before the vote was taken:

I am Ron Robinson, a district resident and graduate of Cherokee, Monroe, and McLain, and with A Third Place Community Foundation, an active partner in education with Cherokee School in many ways through school programming, outdoor classrooms, gardens and landscaping and running the summer food program at the school for all of the community all summer long, and I am on the board of the new McLain School Foundation.

There is much hope and promise in the Project Schoolhouse initiative, especially for us in north Tulsa. Still it is with sadness and regret that I speak tonight because of lost opportunities to make the plan even better for an area that needs the best, and of course with a little sense of outrage that public schools have received this kind of treatment from state political leaders. We need to take this energy and be in oklahoma city.

But First,our Cherokee school and parent and community leaders still simply want to know specifically why, why Cherokee was closed compared to other schools in our immediate area based on the measurement criteria used which to all our eyes didn’t seem justified in comparison? And why no one met with Cherokee to go over the alternative proposals we made which we feel would be ways to improve not only Cherokee but building on its strengths to help McLain, our neighbor on North Peoria a mile away.

Why have three schools serving children under sixth grade within a half mile of each other on North Cincinnati; why not take any one of those programs and move it one mile east to North Peoria to Cherokee? Why reopen Monroe for an immersion program when you could move it one mile north to already existing Cherokee?

Second, why at this date, at this point in the project, are people from the principal to teachers to parents and community leaders still asking these questions? This is perhaps the biggest question with the longest lasting effects for building any bridges with those affected at Cherokee, for keeping them connected with the local public school system and trying to keep them in our neighborhoods that have received so much historic and continuing neglect and abandonment by all institutions.

Lastly, we are concerned with what might happen next and how the community is treated as part of any closure and the future of the land use. Cherokee School is unique. It was not created by Tulsa Public School. It was given to TPS by the Turley area community when it closed its own school district. The historic arch of Turley High School is on the grounds, as is part of the Turley Historical Display, and the trees and gardens have been planted there by the community residents which now includes those from both incorporated city of Tulsa neighborhoods and unincorporated community of Turley neighborhoods.

We hope for the best for the initiative. We hope that in the future you will find our community’s school buildings and grounds to be of use some way for the education of our children and the growing of healthy community. We have so very very very few community assets left in our part of the 74126 zipcode; but one of our assets, the main one, is a people who are proud to live where we live, in a naturally multiethnic diverse community, and to help one another make our area one with deeper community ties, the ties that are the real source of the good life.

And so we end by inviting you, TPS, to come back to our community, to find ways to partner with us, not just for our sake, but for your sake, for your growth and improvement, and for the benefit of the lives of the children and youth we all serve.

We are still waiting to find out why.

Seven Statements on Saving Cherokee School

2011-04-26T11:41:00.000-07:00

1. I am a proud graduate of Tulsa Public Schools, from Cherokee Elementary, from Monroe Jr High, and from McLain High School. I am a resident of Tulsa Schools who moved back here from Owasso so my daughter could be in the school district. I have helped fund and start the McLain School Foundation and love being a part of the McLain initiative. I am part of a Partner in Education group active at Cherokee throughout the year and as coordinator of the full summer long child nutrition program at Cherokee. I am not objective I know when it comes to Cherokee and McLain; first, I think Cherokee and McLain, both so close on North Peoria, are interwoven in their destinies reflecting our neighborhoods in the 74126 which are naturally multiethnic and don't rely on commuter students to make them so; secondly, because my wife and I met in kindergarden in Cherokee, and started dating in McLain...but it is not about the past.

2. We should take all this energy of the past year and month and be focusing our attention and energies on gathering people for rallies in OKC to demand that the state political leadership give our children the public education they and the state deserve instead of helping them in their efforts to gut public education or lower its standards for families who can't afford private school. Let's seriously try that first; people are awake now.

3. Much to applaud in the SchoolHouse Plan. Much. And much for the northern part of Tulsa is good. But instead of rushing it we need to make sure that we aren't leaving gaps like Cherokee tht will have unintended consequences

4. Mainly, we need to know and be able to discuss Why Cherokee has been recommended for closure. Based on the measurement criteria as we go over them, particularly compared with our neighboring schools, We Just Don't Get It. You know there has been a rush because no one has come to talk with Cherokee staff or parents or community leaders about the reasons, or to go over the proposed alternatives. This far into the process and why has there been no sit down even with the staff to explain, to review, to look at the alternatives as we see them, alternatives backed by three state legislators representing our area. Without that transparency, authenticity, no effort will be rewarded in creating community anywhere.

5. So, why not, instead of reopening Monroe which is right next to another elementary school , why not put that wonderful new program for it into a school already open like Cherokee, thus rewarding the turnaround success and the natural multi-ethnic diversity of the school? Cherokee is easy to get to from anywhere.

6. So, why have three schools serving children in grades six and under right next to each other within a half mile of each other on North Cincinnati? Go ahead and keep Houston and Greeley nd bring the community school planned for Gilcrease down to Cherokee which is already in the pipeline working on becoming an official community school?

7. Finally, in the long run, bonding Cherokee and its surrounding community better with McLain, where students go to 6th grade at Cherokee and then immediately to 7th in McLain, will build back that connection (which lost when the problems at Gilcrease as a middle school step to McLain caused many at Cherokee and elsewhere to leave) and that connection will keep aiding McLain in its amazing transformation success story as a shining example of a naturally integrated multi-ethnic school that reflects the face of the amazing zip code we are all here in.

All the Videos & News & Design Plans on our Park where the Orchard will go

2011-04-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

Explore this post to see all the moving videos and the news clips and articles and design documents and more on our Welcome Table Community KitchenGardenPark in the North Tulsa and Turley area where our orchard will go if we win one in the national online competition. Vote for us at http://www.communitiestakeroot.com/Plant/Index/. register once and vote easily every day and pass it on..................................................................................................................................................... Here is the Tulsa World article that helped put us over the top to be able to buy the beautiful acre overlooking downtown Tulsa that was full of abandoned houses and buildings and start putting in the park: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100827_11_A11_CUTLIN485332 ...................................................... ..................................................................................................................... The most recent news story from channel eight: the clip shows us clearing the kitchengardenpark not the school though we had been planting there the day before, and the park and the orchard will be in a place where children walk by to school and families without cars on their way to the grocery store. http://www.ktul.com/video?clipId=5741176&autostart=true.............................................................................................. The Channel Six news story is at http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12642450.................................................................................................................... For the OU social work students moving video about the place and the need for the project and for your donations, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhgFKD6_i_w . .......................................................................................................................................... For the OU Design Studio on what it will look like go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/miracle-among-ruins-welcome-table.html .................................................................................................................... For the background on why we are doing this community transformation project here go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/see-vision-miracle-among-ruins.html and to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/04/consider-thischange-this.html ......................................................................................................................................... For the bigger connect the dots link on how we have plans for all of our Four Directions area of Tulsa North and Turley go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/four-directions-initiative-tnt-vision.html

Help Us Win A Fruit Tree Orchard For Our Area in Need of Healthy Food Options

2011-04-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

Our Turley and North Tulsa community is in the running for a forty tree fruit tree orchard as it has been selected to be in a national online voting competition by the National Fruit Tree Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars. Five orchards a month will be awarded to communities receiving the top votes in a contest that will begin April 15 and last through August at http://www.communitiestakeroot.com/Plant/Index. Please bookmark this link and go to it every day for a quick click and vote. Representing the local community in the competition is the area non-profit A Third Place Community Foundation. Our volunteer group raised $15,000 last summer to purchase a city block on North Johnstown Ave. and N. 60th St. overlooking downtown Tulsa where it is building The Welcome Table Community KitchenGardenPark on the site where abandoned houses once stood. The project is called the "Miracle Among The Ruins." Purchasing the site was the first miracle, getting the rundown eyesore homes removed was the next, and the fruit tree orchard will be another miracle on this site. If we win an orchard, the planting will take place at the new park site and with its partners in the area, according to Ron Robinson, Executive Director. "We hope everyone will go to the website every day and quickly click on our community, and encourage all their friends and family around the world to vote for us, because so few of our local residents have computers and internet access," he said. Robinson said the orchard is vitally needed not only to beautify the area and help complete the park as an asset in an area with few public amenities, but to add to the healthy food needs of the residents in the 74126 zipcode. A recent nutritional survey conducted by the OU Graduate Social Work students and the A Third Place Community Foundation revealed the following statistics about health and nutrition in its service area: ...55 percent worry about the amount of food they have ...6 percent use spoiled food ...29 percent use a food pantry ...31 percent receive food from church ...35 percent borrow food from family ...25 percent borrow food from friends ...25 percent adults skip entire day from eating ...29 percent adults skip meals ...26 percent did not eat and are hungry at time of survey ...43 percent eat less than they should ...60 percent eat low cost foods ...52 percent cannot afford nutritious meals ...57 percent run out of food ...60 percent cannot afford healthy food The Food Environment: ...29 percent have no affordable source of food in community ...63 percent know about a food pantry ,..56 percent rate the food quality in Turley area as fair or poor ...59 percent indicate food in Turley area expensive or very expensive relative to budget Overall Health: ...56 percent not currently healthy ...41 percent health is fair or poor ...54 percent are overweight ...66 percent should weigh less ...47 percent smoke or use other tobacco A Third Place Community Foundation, a new 501c3 organization made up of volunteers with all funds going to mission, runs not only The Welcome Table park but also has recently purchased a large old historic abandoned church building at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. and is reclaiming and reopening it as The Welcome Table Community Center with free internet and computer center, library, game and meeting and program space, food pantry, 12 step recovery group, clothing giveaway, prayer and meditation room, and classrooms for a health hub. Its former community center on North Peoria was in rented space. Robinson said the purchase of the building, aided in part by a grant from the Zarrow Foundation, has helped to take an abandoned and vandalized building and is transforming it back for community use. The center has now reopened on a part time basis in its first phase of remodelling. We also run the area free summer lunch meal program at Cherokee School for all under 18 year old, and do environmental reclaiming and promotion of native wildflower plants in this region at schools and public sites. A Third Place Community Foundation is also involved with the McLain High School Initiative, Cherokee School, OU Community Health Worker project, and other events and items as part of its mission of "renewing community, empowering residents, growing healthy lives and neighborhoods" through small acts of justice done with great love. For more on the group and area and to donate go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com. Or call 9186913223.

Come To Turley Area Big Event of Service: Apr 8-10: For Cherokee, Community Center, Park & More

2011-04-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

We need you to help this weekend. Everyone Welcome. Come For Our Big Weekend of Service, join with others from OU and elsewhere working with us in our Turley area. ... Plant Cherokee (come help in the outstanding gardens and outdoor classrooms and help us plant the school in the minds and hearts of the School Board and community; all skill levels welcome; no experience needed; bring families, groups, etc) ... Sat April 9 between 8a-12p and beyond at Cherokee School Breakfast, Lunch included ... Part of The Great American Clean-Up Day Serving Turley Area Big Event Weekend Apr 8-10 Fri Apr 8, 2-7 p: work on the new community center, 5920 N. Owasso behind tag agency, and clean up Turley streets, free supper ...... Sat Apr 9, 8a-noon and later: Garden at Cherokee, 6001 N. Peoria, and/or at our emerging Park site, 6005 N. Johnstown Sun. Apr 10, 12-4 plant at Turley Welcome Sign and 66th and N. Lewis site and school, streets, park ..... Rainy weather meet in community center .... The Welcome Table Community Center, a project of A Third Place Foundation, local nonprofit 9186913223 and http://www.cherokeeschoolgardenjournal.blogspot.com/ .... Renewing Community, Empowering Residents, Growing Healthy Lives and Neighborhoods

Top 10 Reasons For Keeping Cherokee School Open, and a Proposal For Growing It as a Magnet For Diversity, an "Anytown School"

2011-03-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

Why keep Cherokee open? Why not let it be a center attracting others? A Top 10 List First: Much merit in Project Schoolhouse; the Tulsa Public Schools are not the enemy; economic situation developed because of the last few years budget cuts by the state legislature and Governor in Oklahoma City; without those cuts, with the actual increase in funding that should be done, we would be celebrating having small classes in big schools where the community could then use space too, instead of looking to punish those schools where enrollment is small by closing them. At a time of much loss and abandonment in our zipcode area, it is tempting to react out of a sense of scarcity, but our best ethic and highest value is to respond proactively in collaboration. Second, Why was Cherokee put on all three plans to be closed, since: 1.) Cherokee’s enrollment is more than some other schools who were not slated to be closed in all the plans, and its projected enrollment is more than Greeley’s projected enrollment which was projected to decline. 2.) its cost per student for building operation was lower than other schools that were not slated for closure, plus the age of the building is wrong on the data; the current buildings do not go back to 1920, that date was for the high school that TPS tore down already recently; instead the buildings date back to the mid or later 1930s, and have been upgraded. 3.) its proximity rate to other schools was also on average with others, better than some worse than others; it is farther away from the nearest other elementary schools compared to Greeley which is much closer to Houston. 4.) its academic performance was also in the average range compared with some other schools nearby 5.) it is one of the most ethnically balanced student populations, and we thought that was one of the goals for the district—see the proposal for building on this strength 6.) its number of students in its area who have transferred out to other schools rather than attending at Cherokee was a lower percentage than most other schools nearby, though it has low number of students transferring into the school compared with others nearby; we have questions about those schools data that shows high rates of both transfer in and transfer out; become a magnet for diversity here in this diverse community and attract others in. 7) It has been site of community support for ecological diversity science education, with the community planting community gardens and beautification and educational flower beds, many trees donated by community groups, and the recent receipt of a Mohammed Ali Peace Garden grant to build a peace garden in a school in an area of high vulnerability (what will happen if the school is closed to all these plantings beautifying the school for the students and community?); additional events have been held that were not mentioned in the data for community involvement: the grounds have been used for community BBQ events; there are many Partners in Education with Cherokee though none were listed on the charts, and other groups use it; we have had one of the longest during the summer feeding programs for the community children and youth; in fact when the summer lunch programs close at other nearby schools in the summer those children and youth come to Cherokee for the program because a community group here pays for and coordinates the free feeding program and doesn’t rely just on school staff to operate it so it can only be open when summer school is open; community information is distributed along with reading materials to all those who come during the summer feeding program; if the school closes, it will drastically affect the nutrition needs during the summer of our area children whom are already in families with high healthy food anxiety states, according to a recent survey in our area done by the University of Oklahoma Graduate Social Work Dept and the A Third Place Community Foundation, one of the school partners. Also scouting and other programs such as Principal for a Day involving community people have been held at the school that were not listed on the community support chart. The school does have a backpack program for food which wasnt listed on the chart. It is a title one school which wasnt listed on the chart. There is mentoring which wasnt listed on the chart. There is tutoring which wasnt listed on the chart. There is a daily clothing center at the school run by one of the community partners, which wasn't listed on the chart. There are Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and a Fitness Program and a Basketball team as after school programs which werent listed on the chart. 8) it is a safer environment compared to some of the statistics for law enforcement calls in the communities surrounding other schools that were slated to be open. Important for attracting and keeping enrollment 9) Our families have difficulties with transportation and if students have to go to school further away it will be harder for the families to go to those schools for parental involvement and for emergencies if they do not have a car or reliable transportation 10.) Cherokee School represents a historic community, having been an independent school of its own before the 1938 merger with Tulsa Schools*, and is the keeper of the Turley Community historical artifacts and Turley High School display within the school and on the school grounds; students came to Cherokee from areas both inside and outside city limits; in fact before Greeley was built students in its area once were Cherokee school students. In fact, What legal documents are there that date back to the merger in 1938? Third, the Dangers: In a two mile radius of our area, there is a 40 percent abandonment rate for vacant homes, just residential not counting commercial buildings; we do not need to add another major building to those in our area that have been abandoned, particularly one of this size. We need to reward people for living in our area. Our area already has been damaged by the closure of the TPS Morris School and the land where it was being used as a dump by TPS which has attracted others to illegally dump there. Even if students do travel greater distances to attend other TPS schools, they will still be living in this area that has been further abandoned and this will affect their quality of life and hence education issues. It does take a village to raise a child, and you can't do that if the village is abandoned. Each Community Matters as Each Child Matters. Fourth, An Alternative Proposal: An "Anytown School" Magnet For Ethnic and Ecological Diversity 1. Students in higher grades are more able to adjust to travelling longer distances to schools, so focus grade shifting by eliminating the middle schools as in Proposal A; in our area close Gilcrease as a Middle School; McLain will have 7-12 grades; elementary schools will have PK-6. 2. If that doesn’t achieve enough enrollment capacity, consider adding to it in our area by: 3. Merge Greeley back within Cherokee boundaries as it once was, and by adding Grade 6 back this should help reach capacity at Cherokee-Greeley. 4. Create Cherokee/Greeley as an intentional curriculum “Anytown School” to borrow from the model of the Oklahoma Center For Community and Justice, as an Elementary Magnet for Diversity, ethnically and ecologically, capitalizing on the strengths of the school already with both diversity and also with the outdoor classrooms, Peace Garden, community gardens underway, all here in the 74126 zipcode that is the most fragile community in the larger area, with the lowest life expectancy and lowest income and fewest services. Combining the two areas again should increase the diversity. Such a magnet school is needed to prepare students both for the new economic world that exists multiculturally and with a “green jobs” focus we are creating in our area through McLain Initiative and the Vann Industrial Park in our school area across from where many of our students live. 5. Just as Rogers is becoming an "early college" school, Cherokee-Greeley would be an intentional "early high school" 6th grade focus to prepare students to make that cultural leap to 7th grade at McLain; if they don't make that leap right, attuned to the diversity issues they will face as adolescents in school, they will be more prone to drop out especially coming from vulnerable families. 6. This plan path should help build back the full ethnic balance at McLain it once enjoyed, a situation that will help build back the wider community as well; without such a path, the imbalance is likely to continue.

Repost on Just The School Closing and A Counter Proposal

2011-03-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

Cherokee and Greeley School Vulnerable to Being Shut Down: The big news is the proposals released which all have recommended our schools being closed. We are now in the public, and particularly parent, feedback stage as the reports were just released. It caught us off guard especially for Cherokee near us because 1: Cherokee School represents a historic community, having been an independent school of its own before the 1938 merger with Tulsa Schools, and is the keeper of the Turley Community historical artifacts and display; in fact all the kids in the Greeley school area once were Cherokee students before it was built, and because 2.) its enrollment is more than some other schools who were not slated to be closed in all the plans (though our other partnered school Greeley is also proposed to be closed in two of the three plans), because 3.) its cost per student for building operation was lower than other schools that were not slated for closure, because 4.) its proximity rate to other schools was also on average with others, better than some worse than others, because 5.) its academic performance was also in the average range compared with some other schools nearby, because 6.) it is one of the most ethnically balanced student populations, and we thought that was one of the goals; and because 7.) its number of students in its area who have transferred out to other schools rather than attending at Cherokee was a lower percentage than most other schools nearby, (its only damaging criteria data was that it has a low number of students transferring into the school compared with others nearby).

So, why was it picked to be closed in all three plans, and why was Greeley picked to be closed in two of the three plans? It will be interesting to hear what school officials say who recommended it; so far nothing specific has been said for the reasons behind this particular closure, nor what would be done with the building if the school is closed. In the midst of the grief, I tried to make a few points at the initial meeting last night at our community association monthly program: there is a tendency to be divided and conquered and if each school only struggles alone that will happen; especially if we end up dividing along racial lines; and also that we wouldn't be having this discussion regardless of the declining enrollment in the district if the state were not slashing funds to schools; we would be celebrating having smaller enrollments to do better teaching; we would be celebrating having extra space in buildings to bring in the community more; we should tax ourselves adequately to meet the basic needs of our children, and this is another attack on the whole idea of public schools which is so much a cherished part of our American value system. That is the big picture which we are in danger of forgetting in our specific anger and confusion over why this or that school may be closed.

I will come back in a second as to my speculation as to why Cherokee in particular was slated for closing, but I want to say that we can't let the school system wall off the effect of this decision on communities; especially after they give lip service and in some few places have built effective community schools; yes, education levels and testing results and the kinds of courses available is important; I have been lamenting the loss of these over the past years as they have starved the schools, and now are penalizing them because parents have often left,who could, because of the previous curriculum cutbacks; but don't forget to take neighborhoods into account in the decision; and not all neighborhoods are equal; this will be particularly devastating to the 74126 if Cherokee and Greeley are closed; we should instead, if we were to follow God's preferential option for the poor, keep these schools open and bring others here. As the NAACP has said, our communities here have suffered from decades of neglect, resulting in lawsuits, because of the segregation Tulsa schools had de facto until the mid to late 60s, and then the way integration was handled led to a showcase high school that took away resources from other high schools, and has resulted in again hugely imbalanced racially high schools; so now, don't penalize schools in communities that have been emptied because the resources were taken away in the first place.

Cherokee and Greeley are on the edges of the district; geographically I think the planners were looking at bringing back closer into the center the schools, shrinking the area of service without shrinking the actual area of the district; which means students here on the edge, where we have the highest poverty, will have the furthest to go to attend school; even with more funds spent on busing, it will mean our parents, many of whom do not have cars and do not have reliable cars, will find it harder to get to the schools for events, for picking up kids who are sick, and it will make it harder to build the kind of parental school involvement that is needed. When schools close, parents move, and an already declining student population in Tulsa will continue to decline as more families go suburb or private; the hope is that more elective programming at all of the schools will keep them in the district even if they have to travel with their child further to get there; I hope so, but doubt it if they can get those electives elsewhere. Those who want to go elsewhere but can't afford it will not make the kind of school supporters they are now. Also geographically, Cherokee serves students within and outside the city limits of Tulsa, but it is located four blocks outside the city limits; there is not then a city governmental representative voice that can speak up for it as there is for nearby schools that are within the city limits.

Deeper still, Cherokee is an ethnically balanced school as I mentioned, and this can work against it as unfortunately there isn't a core ethnic group that can rally around it either. And, here is the rub: many of the white residents in our area have not been supportive of McLain High School and Gilcrease Middle School as they have back in the day when those schools were more evenly integrated and especially when they were primarily white schools; even now the parents of many Cherokee students, though they are not alone in this, have no plans to send their children on to the higher schools close by here, to Gilcrease or McLain, because of the past problems at those schools, which are being turned around, but images and stereotypes and fears are hard to erase; and so why should the school district keep open a school at which many of its students will then transfer to other schools or to charter schools or outside the district? In essence, has our area itself cut itself off from Tulsa Public Schools middle and high schools and are now seeing the District return the "favor" by cutting Cherokee, and perhaps Greeley, too off from it? We need to look at the ethnic demographics of Cherokee compared to the surrounding schools and deal honestly, though painfully, with the emotions and ramifications and history. But, closing it will only make that situation worse, and will make the racial demographics of the schools even more uneven, I believe, as families turn elsewhere.

Our task is to keep our eyes on the real culprits who have failed to tax those things that ought to be taxes, and those people who ought to be taxed, to provide funds for education to all so we can operate out of abundance and not out of scarcity; our task locally is to also envision a new kind of school at Cherokee that will draw on its strengths and help it attract students; I think making it a magnet for overt, intentional, teaching tolerance curriculum as both an Ethnic and Ecological Diverse Elementary School is a key, recognizing its already strong areas of multi ethnic population and the outdoor classrooms we have been putting in place there these past few years through our community foundation and center. We need a place where young people will go to learn how to learn and grow with others of different ethnicities as they get older; it will help them, and their parents, to then remain in the Tulsa district for what it can offer, which is why Bonnie and I moved with our daughter out of Owasso and back to the Tulsa School District. This can be Cherokee's distinctiveness, at a time when diversities and diversity of life are so key to the new economy. I also worry what will happen even more to the vulnerable urban unincorporated area here adjacent to the city limits if the only school in the unincorporated area is shut down; already it is not eligible for community development block grants, etc., and taking yet another resource away will deepen the hurting.

My proposal for this area: (without the advantage of months of deliberations of course and with the caveat that we should just citizen up and tax and spend more for our most vulnerable children)
I like, given the real unfortunate economic circumstances the district is in, the plans to make the high schools multi year campuses, reducing the moves from one building to the other during the adolescent years; I like doing away with middle school as it has been, making the high schools 7 to 12 grades; do this at McLain; it is easier and more appropriate I think to have older children travelling further from their homes, especially in areas with difficult transportation and poverty areas. We then have geography to consider and the value I believe in keeping younger children closer to their homes: Houston and Gilcrease and Greeley are all within a half mile of each, with Houston and Greeley adjacent; Penn and the old Monroe school they are talking of reopening are also adjacent; Alcott and Cherokee are more set off in their own spaces. So, use Gilcrease which is right between Houston and Greeley as a site for those two schools combined, closing their own campuses; and keep Cherokee and Penn and Alcott open, PK-6 or some variation between them of those grades. Don't reopen Monroe. Make Cherokee a Diversity Emphasis Magnet to help attract others and offset that low transfer in criteria and the demographics of the area. Even if you had to, make Cherokee a Special 6th Grade Center with those focuses in order to help prepare students and families for the diversity to encounter and encourge in the higher grade level life, though I in general don't like single grade schools, but it is an idea; just like Rogers High School is going to be transformed into an early college school to prepare students for college and get them started on it; this option of Cherokee as a special 6th grade center would be geared to helping all prepare for the big step into the 7-12 grade centers. Then in the McLain feeder system you would actually have closed two schools which is I think at most all this zip code should have to at worse consider but they are schools close by to another; make up the money elsewhere that would be gained by closing Cherokee too. Gamble on it being pitched as a district wide kind of Anytown School, like the oklahoma center for community and justice has its summer program for diversity called anytown, and add in a focus on ecological diversity and environmentalism and outdoor classrooms, the strengths already in place.

And, as the Cherokees say, make your decisions thinking not of the next budget year, but of the seventh generation.

blessings, Ron Robinson, Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation

On The Proposal to Close Cherokee and Greeley Schools, and Our Upcoming Events As We ReOpen

2011-03-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Sad times as I write this. Actually today one of our businesses in Turley a few blocks away ws robbed and the owner beaten, the payroll for the part time workers who get by day to day was stolen. And yesterday three alternative plans for school closings in the Tulsa Public Schools were announced and all three of them recommend closing our community school. More on that below.

But, we continue to be a presence sowing seeds, and our presence is needed now more than ever before here. We will be reopening regular hours for the community center in our new building, still in phase one of remodelling, beginning April 5, on a part time basis; it is already fulfilling to see how people are finding us out and coming by to see how things are going and to use the resources as we get them available. The Food Pantry is partly back in operation with new hours of Fridays 2-6 pm or by appt or during our special events. We will soon have three computers available in the computer center, and more soon. Our library/free bookstore is available, as are meeting space and DVD watching area, and the prayer chapel space, and community info area, and the outside is being transformed into welcoming artistic space thanks to our community art day last week. We will be moving toward dedication and official opening and more space this summer. But so far on track with the move. Plus we are gearing up for the kitchengarden park work, and our other areas such as Cherokee and more where we serve others.

I had a great time talking about us, and our vision of community, when I was in New England recently. You can read what I said in two sermons here at this link: www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com Abandoned Places, Missional Communities, and Faith.

Events Underway: Thursday, March 31, 4 pm at Cherokee School, strategy meeting with parents to fight against the school closure; Thursday, March 31, 6:30 pm here at The Welcome Table, a free showing of the documentary "A Powerful Noise" about three women in different parts of the world who made big differences in their local areas with global reverberations, free pizza and popcorn and drinks; come get inspired for the world changing work we must do; Friday, April 1, 5:30 pm Tulsa Community College NorthEast Campus, community coalitions "From Turley to TU"; Sunday, April 3, 11:30 am I will give a talk on "Life, Death, and Resurrection in the 74126" at Emerson Hall in All Souls Church, 2952 S. Peoria Ave., followed by lunch somewhere, then back here to the Center from 2 to 5 pm for a free public workshop on economic justice and faith featuring a DVD by Shane Claiborne of www.economyoflove.org. with a meal to end it. Also beginning April 15 we will be in the running for a big grant for here from the National Fruit Tree Planting Association; we will need all to help with online voting so we get a big donation for our community orchard for North Tulsa area; more on that will come separately but get ready for it.

Big Weekend of Service: Friday to Sunday April 8-10 we will have volunteer projects going on all over the place here, up at the kitchengardenpark at 60th and N. Johnstown to begin getting it ready; here at the Center, and at Cherokee School, and on the streets of our area. Plan to come spend time changing one little part of the world in great need; all ages welcome.

Big Projects Underway: Even with the school under fire, we continue to gear up for our project for the third summer in a row of feeding all the children and youth under 18 years old a lunch whoever needs it whether they live here or elsewhere or are just travelling through, and it will be at Cherokee School two hours a day. The more volunteer commitment we have the better; then we will just pay for staff when volunteers can't make it. So see me or contact me if interested; we will be holding training for it soon...Also we are getting ready to launch a Summer Wellness Survey Project with OU again; I am getting training for that now; we plan to provide coupons for those who participate with the coupons redeemable at local businesses so it will pump a little money and support into our neighborhood. And plans are continuing to unfold to move toward the launch of our revolutionary Community Health Worker plan to develop health mentors from folks who live right here to help uninsured people who live right here from having to end up so often in expensive emergency room care.

Cherokee and Greeley School Vulnerable to Being Shut Down: But the big news is the proposals released which all have recommended our schools being closed. We are now in the public, and particularly parent, feedback stage as the reports were just released. It caught us off guard especially for Cherokee near us because 1: Cherokee School represents a historic community, having been an independent school of its own before the 1938 merger with Tulsa Schools, and is the keeper of the Turley Community historical artifacts and display; in fact all the kids in the Greeley school area once were Cherokee students before it was built, and because 2.) its enrollment is more than some other schools who were not slated to be closed in all the plans (though our other partnered school Greeley is also proposed to be closed in two of the three plans), because 3.) its cost per student for building operation was lower than other schools that were not slated for closure, because 4.) its proximity rate to other schools was also on average with others, better than some worse than others, because 5.) its academic performance was also in the average range compared with some other schools nearby, because 6.) it is one of the most ethnically balanced student populations, and we thought that was one of the goals; and because 7.) its number of students in its area who have transferred out to other schools rather than attending at Cherokee was a lower percentage than most other schools nearby, (its only damaging criteria data was that it has a low number of students transferring into the school compared with others nearby).

So, why was it picked to be closed in all three plans, and why was Greeley picked to be closed in two of the three plans? It will be interesting to hear what school officials say who recommended it; so far nothing specific has been said for the reasons behind this particular closure, nor what would be done with the building if the school is closed. In the midst of the grief, I tried to make a few points at the initial meeting last night at our community association monthly program: there is a tendency to be divided and conquered and if each school only struggles alone that will happen; especially if we end up dividing along racial lines; and also that we wouldn't be having this discussion regardless of the declining enrollment in the district if the state were not slashing funds to schools; we would be celebrating having smaller enrollments to do better teaching; we would be celebrating having extra space in buildings to bring in the community more; we should tax ourselves adequately to meet the basic needs of our children, and this is another attack on the whole idea of public schools which is so much a cherished part of our American value system. That is the big picture which we are in danger of forgetting in our specific anger and confusion over why this or that school may be closed.

I will come back in a second as to my speculation as to why Cherokee in particular was slated for closing, but I want to say that we can't let the school system wall off the effect of this decision on communities; especially after they give lip service and in some few places have built effective community schools; yes, education levels and testing results and the kinds of courses available is important; I have been lamenting the loss of these over the past years as they have starved the schools, and now are penalizing them because parents have often left,who could, because of the previous curriculum cutbacks; but don't forget to take neighborhoods into account in the decision; and not all neighborhoods are equal; this will be particularly devastating to the 74126 if Cherokee and Greeley are closed; we should instead, if we were to follow God's preferential option for the poor, keep these schools open and bring others here. As the NAACP has said, our communities here have suffered from decades of neglect, resulting in lawsuits, because of the segregation Tulsa schools had de facto until the mid to late 60s, and then the way integration was handled led to a showcase high school that took away resources from other high schools, and has resulted in again hugely imbalanced racially high schools; so now, don't penalize schools in communities that have been emptied because the resources were taken away in the first place.

Cherokee and Greeley are on the edges of the district; geographically I think the planners were looking at bringing back closer into the center the schools, shrinking the area of service without shrinking the actual area of the district; which means students here on the edge, where we have the highest poverty, will have the furthest to go to attend school; even with more funds spent on busing, it will mean our parents, many of whom do not have cars and do not have reliable cars, will find it harder to get to the schools for events, for picking up kids who are sick, and it will make it harder to build the kind of parental school involvement that is needed. When schools close, parents move, and an already declining student population in Tulsa will continue to decline as more families go suburb or private; the hope is that more elective programming at all of the schools will keep them in the district even if they have to travel with their child further to get there; I hope so, but doubt it if they can get those electives elsewhere. Those who want to go elsewhere but can't afford it will not make the kind of school supporters they are now. Also geographically, Cherokee serves students within and outside the city limits of Tulsa, but it is located four blocks outside the city limits; there is not then a city governmental representative voice that can speak up for it as there is for nearby schools that are within the city limits.

Deeper still, Cherokee is an ethnically balanced school as I mentioned, and this can work against it as unfortunately there isn't a core ethnic group that can rally around it either. And, here is the rub: many of the white residents in our area have not been supportive of McLain High School and Gilcrease Middle School as they have back in the day when those schools were more evenly integrated and especially when they were primarily white schools; even now the parents of many Cherokee students, though they are not alone in this, have no plans to send their children on to the higher schools close by here, to Gilcrease or McLain, because of the past problems at those schools, which are being turned around, but images and stereotypes and fears are hard to erase; and so why should the school district keep open a school at which many of its students will then transfer to other schools or to charter schools or outside the district? In essence, has our area itself cut itself off from Tulsa Public Schools middle and high schools and are now seeing the District return the "favor" by cutting Cherokee, and perhaps Greeley, too off from it? We need to look at the ethnic demographics of Cherokee compared to the surrounding schools and deal honestly, though painfully, with the emotions and ramifications and history. But, closing it will only make that situation worse, and will make the racial demographics of the schools even more uneven, I believe, as families turn elsewhere.

Our task is to keep our eyes on the real culprits who have failed to tax those things that ought to be taxes, and those people who ought to be taxed, to provide funds for education to all so we can operate out of abundance and not out of scarcity; our task locally is to also envision a new kind of school at Cherokee that will draw on its strengths and help it attract students; I think making it a magnet for overt, intentional, teaching tolerance curriculum as both an Ethnic and Ecological Diverse Elementary School is a key, recognizing its already strong areas of multi ethnic population and the outdoor classrooms we have been putting in place there these past few years through our community foundation and center. We need a place where young people will go to learn how to learn and grow with others of different ethnicities as they get older; it will help them, and their parents, to then remain in the Tulsa district for what it can offer, which is why Bonnie and I moved with our daughter out of Owasso and back to the Tulsa School District. This can be Cherokee's distinctiveness, at a time when diversities and diversity of life are so key to the new economy. I also worry what will happen even more to the vulnerable urban unincorporated area here adjacent to the city limits if the only school in the unincorporated area is shut down; already it is not eligible for community development block grants, etc., and taking yet another resource away will deepen the hurting.

My proposal for this area: (without the advantage of months of deliberations of course and with the caveat that we should just citizen up and tax and spend more for our most vulnerable children)
I like, given the real unfortunate economic circumstances the district is in, the plans to make the high schools multi year campuses, reducing the moves from one building to the other during the adolescent years; I like doing away with middle school as it has been, making the high schools 7 to 12 grades; do this at McLain; it is easier and more appropriate I think to have older children travelling further from their homes, especially in areas with difficult transportation and poverty areas. We then have geography to consider and the value I believe in keeping younger children closer to their homes: Houston and Gilcrease and Greeley are all within a half mile of each, with Houston and Greeley adjacent; Penn and the old Monroe school they are talking of reopening are also adjacent; Alcott and Cherokee are more set off in their own spaces. So, use Gilcrease which is right between Houston and Greeley as a site for those two schools combined, closing their own campuses; and keep Cherokee and Penn and Alcott open, PK-6 or some variation between them of those grades. Don't reopen Monroe. Make Cherokee a Diversity Emphasis Magnet to help attract others and offset that low transfer in criteria and the demographics of the area. Even if you had to, make Cherokee a Special 6th Grade Center with those focuses in order to help prepare students and families for the diversity to encounter and encourge in the higher grade level life, though I in general don't like single grade schools, but it is an idea; just like Rogers High School is going to be transformed into an early college school to prepare students for college and get them started on it; this option of Cherokee as a special 6th grade center would be geared to helping all prepare for the big step into the 7-12 grade centers. Then in the McLain feeder system you would actually have closed two schools which is I think at most all this zip code should have to at worse consider but they are schools close by to another; make up the money elsewhere that would be gained by closing Cherokee too. Gamble on it being pitched as a district wide kind of Anytown School, like the oklahoma center for community and justice has its summer program for diversity called anytown, and add in a focus on ecological diversity and environmentalism and outdoor classrooms, the strengths already in place.

And, as the Cherokees say, make your decisions thinking not of the next budget year, but of the seventh generation.

blessings, Ron
ps I will post these school thoughts separately on Facebook and blog for those who might want to comment or pass them on just as is without the other news.

You are invited: Second Annual Heart of Turley/Art of Turley Day Fri March 25, Plus Calenda of Events for Our Area--Public meeting, Service Days

2011-03-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Here are some upcoming events you and others are especially invited to where we will be working on and celebration our projects here at our new community center building and grounds, new gardenkitchenpark, and school garden and neighborhood guerilla gardening.....Hope you will enjoy these and share the news with others on your lists and your social media sites.

Friday, March 25, from noon to 7 pm come anytime to Community Art Day here at our The Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., just off Peoria. We will be joined by graduate art therapy students from Kansas who will help residents create art for our building and grounds, especially after our vandalism attack. Free, with Food, and for all ages....This will be our first public event in our new building.

Saturdays beginning March 26 call us at 9186913223 to find where and when we will be working at Cherokee School gardens, 6001 N. Peoria, and our other public gardens underway here.

Sunday, April 3, I will be speaking on Life and Death and Resurrection in the 74126 on our gardens and center and community renewal projects during a presentation at 11:30 am at All Souls Church, 2952 S. Peoria Ave., then go to lunch with us, and then come back north as we hold an "Economy of Love" workshop from 2 to 5 pm followed by common meal here at our Center. Check it out at www.economyoflove.org as we seek to create a different economic relationship that fosters instead of destroys endangered communities and people.

The Big Weekend: Friday to Sun, April 8-10 we will be calling all helpers to come help us on renewal projects at our Center, especially at the GardenKitchenPark at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., at Cherokee School, cleaning up illegal dumps on our streets, and working at our sites around the area where we have started guerilla gardening. Opportunities to serve going on all day each day with free food for volunteers.

Help us launch our new visibility in our new spaces. Check out more at www.turleyok.blogspot.com and www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com.

No experience or tools needed, though bring them if you have them, all ages welcome.

Ron Robinson, Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation

Help Us Get A Matching Donation of $1,000

2011-03-04T14:02:00.000-08:00

The Welcome Table Community has received a matching challenge grant of $1000 toward a capital improvements campaign. Donations will go to: Plumbing and Bathroom Repair, Roof Repair, Paint to cover over the vandalism we suffered, and Equip our new kitchen we plan to use for community and for consignment.

You can make safe online donations toward this at our donation button above. Or you can mail donations to A Third Place Community Foundation, c/o The Welcome Table Community, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. Turley, OK 74126. Thank you for all you do with us, on behalf of those we serve in our immediate area.
blessings, Ron Robinson

Our Needs/Wish List For Your Donations, Thank You

2011-02-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

We appreciate every bit of support we get from others in our community, surrounding area, and across the world. We are living proof of miracles among the ruins. And we are just beginning. Amazing what has happened in only four years and now in our new place of our own so much more is blooming...Look at this list, check back as we update it, and thank you for your support. If you are just finding out about us from publicity articles, please explore our website here.

---Plumbing or money for plumbing as we get the first phase of bathroom repair underway.
---Computers, desktops or laptops, for the Computer Center, or money to get some refurbished ones
---Electrical or money for electrical work anticipated to handle the increased computer center
---Food for pantry
---Website and Facebook Site Creation
---Libraries Set Up Help
---Musicians for our Coffeehouse Concerts
---Paint and/or painters to cover over the vandalism we suffered
---Landscape and grounds work to do French Drain, etc.
---Picnic tables for our outside welcome areas
---brochures for all sorts of community resources and put together our info kiosk
---children's library, beanbags, playspace for inside and outside
---Artists for Community Art Day Mar. 25 and for other art days
---Stained glass artist to help repair vandalized windows in main room/chapel
---We have a sign place for a permanent electric sign naming our space; sign work or money for sign work
---People to lead book or movie or game nights or crafts coop
---People to lead workshops on relationships, healthy living, neighborhood safety
---Coordinaters for Job Fair
---More To Come

Progress Coming Along at our new The Welcome Table Community Center

2011-02-21T11:58:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update: We have begun to have a few community meetings and gatherings inside the new building we purchased. The 12 step recovery group is meeting here on Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and we held a grant meeting for our community garden park being built at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., and office space we rent for my office with the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship is taking shape, and worship is being held on Sunday mornings at 11 am followed by a common meal.

Also we had part of our Building the Future Vision Retreat here in the building on Sunday afternoon and then completed the rest of the plans by meeting in space at the Turley United Methodist Church; thanks to Rev. Estell Ray and the church. We will soon post here all the plans that were made for the new building and grounds.

We have internet and phone service just in this past weekend, delayed as much of our move in was delayed, by the Great Blizzard and Great Freeze. Next steps are to see if the computer center can be powered up without needing to add additional electric work as we had to do already. We also need to set up the Food Pantry shelves and get it restocked. And we need to begin the first phase in of major needed plumbing. Plus a whole lot of little things. But it is getting transformed both inside and outside. Stay tuned for news on when and how we will be able to gradually relaunch even in this first phase. And the more support the sooner it is all done. Please contribute safely and often through the paypal button on this page; you don't have to have a paypal account to use it. Thanks and more soon.

PS. Stay tuned for a list of volunteer work days, and a list of our needs. And more will be coming soon about our Community Art Day on March 25.

A Third Place Moving and Morphing News

2011-01-04T09:15:00.001-08:00

A Third Place: We Are Moving and Morphing

The Good News: We have been able to buy this past month a historic large building in our community at 5920 N. Owasso Ave.(behind the tag agency on Peoria) that has been abandoned and rundown. Like our community it needs renewing and using and to become a beacon again for growing a healthy neighborhood. We are excited to be able to do this, putting funds into our own assets and community, thanks to the support of many residents and to a $5,000 grant from the Zarrow Foundation. Your support is greatly appreciated and we need it now more than ever.

What We Will Become: We will keep many of our community projects that we have begun here the past four years, and the new space will enable us to expand them. But we will also use this time to dream of new projects and partnerships and make them a reality in our own space to keep serving more needs and more people in our unique community that is a mix of urban, rural, small town and multi-ethnic. Our current plans are still forming but we will focus on one part of the new building as a Community Health Hub with health library, videos, classes, equipment, presentations, and creating community health workers. Another part will eventually house an expanded food justice center and pantry, sustainable center, library, computer center, giveaway area, tool lending library, art gallery, gathering spaces for all ages, kitchen and more. Another part will have a Community Chapel for prayer and meditation and meetings. One of the first things we will do is create a welcoming community yard outside.

The New Name: A Third Place Community Foundation will continue to be the organization that coordinates all of our projects, whether they are in the new center, or up at the new Garden Kitchen Park we also bought a few month ago and are transforming at 60th and N. Johnstown, or projects out in the communities in various places. That will not change. But to tie all of these together the Foundation will be operating at the new building as The Welcome Table Center in line with the hilltop The Welcome Table GardenKitchen Park.

The Move and Transition: Unfortunately we can’t afford to keep renting our current space while expanding into the new space and doing the remodeling and repair necessary there. So we will have to temporarily close down most of what we do now by the end of January, 2011, while we get ready to relaunch and have a grand opening of the new space. We plan to keep the Food Pantry going on a regular basis, new day and time to be announced, and will have some space for meetings in the chapel area, and offices we rent to will be set up on an ongoing basis, beginning by using the chapel space. We are talking with the OU Clinic folks but they had planned to close down our clinic this summer anyway as they did their other northside clinics last summer while working with us to set up the new community health worker network of care in our new Health Hub. We also will have some special events in the new building while repair is underway, such as the Community Art Day on Friday, March 25. Stay tuned for others. Check our sign out front of the new building or on Peoria once we get moved.

Come Join our Volunteer Appreciation and Farewell to the Space Dinner tentatively set for Friday, Jan. 14, 6 pm. Help at our Moving Sale on Sat. Jan. 15, 10 am to 2 pm. Walk with us in the Martin Luther King candlelight march Sunday Jan. 16 and in the MLK Parade Monday Jan. 17. Come help us pack and move our contents into storage in the new building. We will work on Tuesday evenings and at other times during the day as you are available. Any personal items will need to be moved out and all keys turned in by the end of the month. Stay tuned for volunteer days as we set about repair and remodeling the new building.

We regret the inconveniences of the transition, and we don’t know for sure when we will begin reopening to the public, though it will most likely be in phases in the Spring and Summer. But know our time closed during the cool winter months will allow us to build up the funds needed to relaunch in a newer bigger way in the future. We hope you will also be excited to see this building come back to life in and for our community. The building sets on the property where the first church in Turley was founded in 1909 by the Community Methodist Episcopal church which built a wooden church first on the spot, then in the mid 1920s raised the current building, adding on to it wings in 1940 and 1952. In the mid 1960s it became the Witt Memorial Indian Methodist Church, and later became Zion Baptist Fellowship. We are proud to build on this multi cultural multi ethnic history in the building as it becomes the new Welcome Table Center for far northside Tulsa regions helping us fulfill our mission of renewing community, empowering residents, growing healthy neighborhoods and lives, all through small acts of justice done with great love.

If you have questions see or call Executive Director Rev. Ron Robinson 691-3223. And keep in touch through this site. We also hope to launch a new website soon but will continue this one as well.

Community Candlelighting Christmas Eve Service in our new building 11 pm all welcome

2010-12-24T09:03:00.001-08:00

We have purchased our new building we will be moving into and relaunching in a new transformed way to better serve more people in our area. The new place is at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. just behind the Turley Tag Agency. It was built in 1920 as the Turley Community Methodist Episcopal Church, then became the Witt Memorial Indian Methodist Church in the 1960s, then became Zion Baptist Church and child care and Joyful Time Ministries, then has been abandoned for a few years. We are beginning the long hard work of fixing and remodelling, and will be moving in beginning next month though we will have most of our services shut down for the transition and the new relaunch. Thanks for your patience. More news on that coming in the new year.

Come celebrate with a community candlelighting communion service in the space that has been cleaned but is still showing signs of vandalism. Christmas Eve at 11 pm come join us in celebration and bringing in Christmas morning in a deeply spiritual way.

For more on the service go to www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com

Get Ready for the Launch of The Welcome Table Center, tied in with our other recent project The Welcome Table Garden Kitchen Park on 60th and N. Johnstown Ave. All our projects of our A Third Place Community Foundation. 2010 has been an amazing year, but 2011 with your presence and assistance, will be even more miraculous for our area.

Justice For the Poor program, and more in December

2010-12-04T19:13:00.000-08:00

On Sundays at 12:30 pm we will have our special Advent and then Christmas Justice For the Poor DVD program and discussion along with a common meal. For those who want to attend a worship gathering we have our small group communion services at 11 a.m. during the season. (feel free to come even if you can't bring anything for the meal but if you can feel free to add anything to the feast or if you want to just enjoy the program and discussion that is good too). This program comes from Sojourners magazine and community in Washington, D.C. See www.sojo.net.

Nov. 28: Burger King Mom, first Sunday of Advent
Dec. 5: Is There Something Wrong with the Gospel of Prosperity?, second Sunday of Advent
Dec. 12: Standing at the corner of Church and State, third Sunday of Advent
Dec. 19: The Gospel according to New Orleans, fourth Sunday of Advent
Dec. 26: Outside The Gate: The Poor and the Global Economy, first Sunday of Christmas
Jan. 2: From Serial Charity to a Just Society, second Sunday of Christmas

These feature Jim Wallis, Shane Claiborne, John Perkins, Richard Stearns, Tony Compola, Desmond Tutu, Heidi Unruh, David Batstone, E.J. Dionne Jr., Robert M. Franklin, and many others.

Other special events in December: Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 6:30 pm Decorating Party at the Center and community. Saturday, Dec. 11, 10 am to noon, mentoring and gardening, Cherokee School or in bad weather at the Center; Tuesday, Dec. 14 6:30 movie and free pizza, watching Powwow Highway; Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 6:30 pm our annual Christmas Party, treats, carols, games. Share this post with others on your social media sites, email lists, etc.

Concert In Turley: Sat. Nov. 20 7 pm

2010-11-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

David Rovics of Portland OR will be in Turley/NorthTulsa Saturday, Nov. 20, at 7 pm in concert at A Third Place Community, 6514 N. Peoria Ave. for a "songs of social significance" concert. He is the singer of "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" and lists guerilla gardening, one of our favorite community events, among his many song topics which also include peace and justice for all and environmental protection. Check out www.davidrovics.com. No one gets turned away at the concert but to help defray his expenses there is a suggested donation of $10 from those who can. But don't let expenses keep you and your friends from coming.

Below is the lyric to his song More Gardens Song:
More Gardens Song David Rovics This neighborhood is blighted That's what the people say Half the buildings are abandoned And everything is grey Half the kids have asthma 'Cause of the sewage plants nearby And the mayor doesn't seem to care If we live or die That's the situation Now let me take you to the part The center of this neighborhood What you could call the heart A vacant lot of broken glass For years that's what it's been But the neighbors got together Said this is where we will begin (Chorus) We'll dig this dirt Plant a seed Push aside the concrete So the earth beneath is freed We will plant a garden Grow some food to eat And the sunflowers looking to the sky Say we relclaim this street In one day we had accomplished What the mayor always said He was trying to bring us Through his clubs upon our heads The neighborhood is clean The dealers gone away We had good food to eat A place for the kids to play (Chorus) Twice the city came here Said this is not our land Twice the cops destroyed it All the work of our own hands Uprooted plants and broken tools Lay scattered all around But the next day the only thing you could see Was fingers in the ground (Chorus) Created February, 2004 Copyright David Rovics 2004, all rights reserved

A Letter To All To Support McLain High School: Dinner, Nov. 18, 6 pm

2010-11-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

An Appeal For Support For Tulsa McLain High School
By Ron Robinson, class of 1972

On Thursday, Nov. 18 at 6 pm the new Tulsa McLain High School Foundation will hold a benefit dinner in the school gym, 4929 N. Peoria, to raise funds to endow the foundation for its mission of supporting the students at a time of public funding cutbacks and continuing economic decline in the community. All alumni, friends, and supporters of the northside and of educational justice should turn out in support.

It will be a fun way to reconnect or meet with one another and with the school and with the current students who are upholding the legacy of not being defined by the statistics and stereotypes but by the “Scot/Titan” spirit of still dreaming the impossible dream for their lives. One of my “impossible dreams” is that the new McLain Foundation will get support from alumni across the 50 years, from those who have left the neighborhoods they grew up in and those who still live here, and especially support across the racial lines. Our school and community has borne the brunt of much tension and change, but out of that conflict, because we lived it, we can become leaders for reconciliation. The Foundation is not a panacea for that deeper work, but it is a start and needs support.

The foundation is critical at a time when public educational funds have been cut and when the community around McLain suffers from the lowest income and lowest life expectancy in the area, 14 years below that of the zipcode just six miles south along the same Peoria Ave. McLain’s foundation is the last one to be created for a Tulsa high school. It is coming at a time when the school, now with several specific magnet programs and an alum for a principal, is transforming itself to continue growing leaders for the community, state, and nation.

McLain has had a unique history in the Tulsa schools during its 50 years serving students in Far North Tulsa and adjacent unincorporated areas such as Turley. It was built at a time of economic and community growth on the northside, but it was also built during a time of official segregation in Tulsa schools and within the city. When Tulsa schools began to be slowly integrated in the mid to late 60s, then more rapidly in the early 1970s, McLain and its feeder schools became the first to be rapidly and fully integrated and did so without the magnet program that developed later for city schools. It was on the front lines for needed change, and the rough lessons learned may have helped smooth the integration of other schools in other parts of the city that would come. However, there is much still to be done.

I was proud to be in the school during this time. I am proud that my senior year in 1972 was the first year for a black homecoming queen, the first of the long line to come. I am not proud of how at the very same time many of the advanced classes for college prep began to be eliminated at the school. It was not an easy time for any in many ways, and we had little of the kinds of orientation to multiculturalism that have been developed in the decades since and that were part of the first Magnet experiment. Plus, outside of the school at the same time, the surrounding neighborhoods were beginning their 40 year decline in population and loss of mainstream businesses and civic groups to support the school and community youth. Schools do not exist in vacuums; as communities convulsed, so did schools; conversely, though, as schools can make comebacks, so too then can it spill over into communities.

These changes in the 1970s placed an added stress to the long-held stigmas and stereotypes about the area, and to the racism that flared in reaction to integration as “white flight” occurred. Even though there were always (sometimes predominantly), and continue to be, persons of European ethnic descent living in the McLain area, many of the younger siblings of white McLain grads went to Washington High School instead after its integration occurred later, or they transferred out of the district or began the big shift toward private and suburban schools. A perfect storm of social change, decay, and lack of resources and stability all hit at once. There were at one time about as many students in one grade as there are now in what is a four-grade high school. The economic hit that happened to both white and black middle class and working class families in the 1980s, the drop in wages and home ownership, the rise in drug use and gangs, and the flight of business investment that chased after rooftops instead of reconciliation all left a fragile school even more vulnerable.

Within the span of one generation, while other schools became and stayed integrated, McLain went from being virtually an all-white, and American Indian, student population in official segregation days to virtually an all-black one today. Along the way even the name McLain was changed, to Tulsa School for Science and Technology. While some class reunions became separated by race, echoing the difficulties of uniting even with integration, one thing that seemed to unify many of both black and white alumni was the effort to return the name of the school to McLain. The original mascot name Scots, held proudly by many black alumni as well as white alumni, did not return with the name McLain, but alumni are proud to now be supporters of McLain Titans. (I do personally wish, however, that the added name Science and Technology would be dropped; all Tulsa high schools have some form of magnet programs now, but McLain is the only one with the added name of a technology school; nothing wrong per se with that, except there is already a Tulsa Tech, and to me it evokes the many historic officially segregated black schools who were designated as technical schools.)

Still, it should be said, that even during the years of the first integration at McLain, when the student populations were fairly evenly mixed ethnically, and even during the years when there was the greatest change and challenge from the problems in the community, and even during the years since when the school population has declined and during the name changes, and even today, there have been students, parents, faculty, and staff, and community mentors, working on the ground and producing graduates and leaders who have the skills and passion to make differences in their respective fields and, what might be more important, in their own communities. I am proud that some of them continue to do so in the neighborhoods that still feed into McLain.

To all alumni and former students (even if you weren’t graduated at McLain) and former teachers of McLain, I want to add my eyewitness account that change and transformation educationally is taking place now in a way we haven’t seen before. The school is of course struggling to continue its academic turning-around and to stay off the list of needs to improve state schools, but it is off the list; new magnet school programs at McLain are in the areas where society especially needs skilled leaders: environmental science, health careers, along with aviation. If you are working in some of these career areas, we need your expertise and connections; but regardless, you have skills and stories to share; we also need your presence and financial support to help keep the transformation going. Even if your own children, or grandchildren, are students elsewhere, we know McLain can still beckon to you. Even, like many, if your high school years were not easy ones, we need your support to make them a little easier for the students today who have challenges and obstacles the same or harder than we had. And even, if you are not a McLain alumni, or parent of a McLain student over the years, but have a passion for justice, here is a place to put that passion into real life.

Hope to see you not only at the Dinner (or support us with a contribution if you can’t make the launch party), but also with the McLain Initiative where every small act and help goes a tremendously long way in the lives here. Checks are payable to McLain High School Foundation and can be sent to Post Office Box 4444, Tulsa, OK 74159-0444. The foundation is a tax-exempt 501c3 organization. Dinner costs are $50 per person or $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 or $5,000 Sponsor Levels for tables of eight guests.

For more information or reservations contact:
mclainfoundation.60@gmail.com
or phone 918.587.7222

Ron Robinson
Class of 1972, McLain; Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation, 6514 N. Peoria Ave.; Board member, Tulsa McLain High School Foundation

Coming Events You Won't Want To Miss: Building Community From Ground Up

2010-10-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

All Are Welcome. Share This and Pass it on to others in the TNT area of Turley/NorthTulsa.

Fundraiser Trivia Game Night For A Third Place, Thursday, Oct. 28, 8 to 10 pm, Joe Momma’s Pizza, 112 S. Elgin. Meal proceeds and direct donations taken.

Park Meadows Community Party, Sat. Oct. 30, Noon to 3 for Park Residents

Community Free Old Fashioned Halloween Party, Sat. Oct. 30 6 to 8 pm A Third Place

OU Community Medicine Clinic Friday mornings. A Third Place. Call 660-4419 for appt.

Turley Public Meeting—Tuesday Nov. 30 7 pm O’Brien Center

Community Arts and Crafts. Tuesday, Nov. 2, 6:30 pm at the Center.

Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 7 am to 7 pm.

"From Turley to TU" meeting, Nov. 5, 5:30 pm TCC NE campus Apache and Harvard

Forum on Schools, Thurs, Nov. 11, 5:30 dinner, 6 pm mtg. Gilcrease, 56th and Cincinnati

Diversity Movie Night Honoring Veterans, Tues. Nov. 9, 6:30 pm, A Third Place

Veterans Community Leader Appreciation Dinner, Wed. Nov. 10, 6 to 8 pm, A Third Place

Community Gardening, Mentoring, Random Acts of Kindness, Saturday Nov. 13, 10 am to noon, Free Lunch. Meet at Cherokee School, 6001 N. Peoria, Back Garden.
McLain Alumni & Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Nov. 18, 6 pm, 4929 N. Peoria Ave.

Thanksgiving Community Meal, Thursday, Nov. 25, Noon, A Third Place
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Weekly Missional Church Gathering in A Third Place, Rev. Ron Robinson, 10 am, Sundays, communion, conversation, common meal, community projects.

Weekly 12 Step Recovery Group at the Center, Saturdays 7:30 pm

Weekly Volunteer Fire Department public meetings, Thursdays 7 pm, 6404 N. Peoria Ave.

Turley Water Board meeting last working day of each month 8:30 am, 6108 N. Peoria

OU Lecture: The Pragmatics of Collaboration, and Hope: The Example and Story of the Turley/Far North Tulsa Area

2010-10-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

The longer draft of a somewhat shorter lecture given at the University of Oklahoma National Association of Social Work Conference, Friday, Oct. 22, 2010, by Rev. Ron Robinson, Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation.

I had finished a nice long keynote paper and was prepared to deliver it today, but then it occurred to me that since it was on the topic of collaborations, it would be rather contradictory to have me talking the whole time….So, in the spirit of The Daily Show with John Stewart’s Extended Interviews that run longer than television allows but are posted on the website, so too I have posted the longer version on our website…www.turleyok.blogspot.com. I hope this will be more fun and I will still talk too much…

I want to leave lots of room for Questions, also precisely Because one of the fundamental gifts of the collaboration between OU programs and our community renewal center is the questions the students and faculty ask. Not only because of what I learn from the questions, but even moreso because this gets our neighbors eventually starting to ask questions too..And one of the first things to be abandoned when you live in a place that has been abandoned by others is the practice of questioning. As long as you can keep coming up with questions, there is still hope for change. Once you give up questions, the status quo of cynicism and helplessness sets in.

It takes effort, though, to ask questions, especially if you aren’t getting paid to ask them, or not getting a grade to ask them, or have been raised not to ask them, then questioning the how and the why of the world in which you live, even the what of what you have to give back to that world, is all a pretty strenuous thing. In our culture of convenience, ours not to question why, to rephrase the old poem, but to consume and die.

The first question for us today will be why talk about the Turley, Far North Tulsa, Oklahoma area? The quick answer, and it is fitting for the place we are gathered in or coming to you from today, is that there has been “a perfect storm” that hit our edge community, where urban and rural and small town literally bleed into one another, and made it a shadow of a community, fitting for the downtown skyscrapers that you can see off and on from our place. This collision of forces and events over the course of little more than one generation turned the area from a mostly blue collar working class fairly cohesive and fairly homogenously ethnic community with a culture of collaboration and a core of social groups, into a place of great social fragmentation, where our main zipcode of 74126 has the lowest life expectancy in the wider area, 14 years lower than a zipcode just six miles due south of us on the same street. There has been a great emptying out of both people and places for community to happen. So much so that we used to think of community as a simple noun, as a thing. Now we are learning to think of it as a verb, as something that must be continually enacted for it to actually exist. We will look at more of how this happened. But keep in mind it is not a case of the past was better and something we want to get back to—not at all; and likewise we will see how the current state, the real and perceived weaknesses and scarcity, can actually be an advantage for creating the kind of community that our emerging future will favor.

Then we will lift up some of the ways collaboration is happening as a response to the social decay, bearing in mind our own initiative called A Third Place Community has inherited the efforts of others before us, and we are just a few years old, the new kid.

Finally, we will consider the deep nature of the collaboration needed for such a place as ours, and know there are many such places, and not all of them are geographic ones, and how these new more radical approaches can, may, can enable us to go from surface connections to sustainable community.

The longer original draft, from which I excerpted for the lecture (some additions not here will be added in later:

Introduction
One of the favorite things I like to do with social work students, faculty, visitors of all kinds, and even long-time residents of what I sometimes call the “Greater Turley area” or “Far North Edge of Tulsa” is to go on a local tour. Especially if we have time to do more than a windshield tour, but can stop and look and listen and talk. Like any tour guide I usually learn something from what people see and ask, and in the responding to the questions even deeper questions and answers come to me that I can later dive into. I love surprises and stories and every new tour is full of them.
I also love the questions that students ask; in fact, one of the fundamental gifts that the OU Social Work students bring to our area and residents is the gift and model of questioning. The questions the residents hear get them to thinking and asking their own questions. To wondering why really something has happened, what really might be done, what really can’t be done, who might be involved in decisions, and how they might find a way to be involved too. One of the first things to be abandoned when you live in a place that has been abandoned by others is the practice of questioning. Because as long as you can question, as long as you feel the drive to question, then there is still hope. Once you give up questions, the status quo of cynicism and helplessness becomes the dominant culture.
But it takes effort to ask questions too. Each question begins a journey and it might not end the way you hope, or it might not end. And so it takes energy to ask questions. And if you aren’t getting paid to ask questions, or not getting a grade to ask questions, then questioning the whys of the world in which you live, and the whats of what you have to give to that world, is all a pretty strenuous thing. Especially when your culture is geared around taking the convenient route. Ours not to question why, to re-phrase the old poem, just to consume and die.
All of which is my way to introduce my talk. It will be like one of those tours of our area. But instead of stopping at specific landmarks, we will stop at a series of question locations. My former graduate seminary professor, the author scholar and lecturer Dr. Brandon Scott, has said that the deepest quest and commitment and hardest task for the scholar is to come up with the at most three questions in her field that will guide the rest of her career. I am not a scholar (I had two choices in my life where I was about to launch into PhD work, one in English and later one in Biblical Interpretation, and the first time my own passion took me in another direction, and the latter time Dr. Scott thankfully saved the academia from me when he asked me if I was in love with footnotes...I said I love to read them, but not research them.) I am not a scholar but I believe he is right and that it applies to the world of community renewers too. What are the guiding questions for our community? For us today they are also the places we will visit on our verbal tour.
1. Why Turley? Which has buried within it the questions What is Turley and Who are Turley? And why does it matter?
2. Why focus on collaboration? Its problems and its promise as well as its pragmatics?
3. Why are we an area with the greatest health care needs, including food and nutrition of course, and the least resources, and how is collaboration the only true route toward survival and sustainability?

1.
Why talk about the Turley area? I believe nearly every metropolitan area has a two mile radius area like ours, but we are especially representative of a perfect storm of cultural forces that make us a teachable place, at this teachable moment. For me, as for the Community Services Council in Tulsa, Turley is a part of Far North Tulsa. Turley is the unincorporated, past the end of the sidewalk,literally, part of Far North Tulsa.

Once upon a time, when I was very very little even before starting school, Turley was for all of Far North Tulsa the closest concentration of businesses including movie theater, pharmacies, several groceries, a doctor and dentist, homes, civic groups, churches, schools up to ninth grade, park, small airport, children’s home, water department, fire department, community center, merchants association, rodeo grounds, skating rink, and small farms. There was at this time before the building of McLain High School in the late 1950s a few miles of relatively undeveloped land between Turley, which was mostly white and American Indian, and the other parts of North Tulsa, primarily the segregated African American section closer toward downtown and the wealthy white Reservoir Hill housing community, and then toward the other working class white neighborhood to the east called Dawson. Dawson was in the city limits of Tulsa where Turley was not. Nor was Turley, like the other fairly separate towns in north Tulsa County like Sperry and Skiatook and Owasso, incorporated as its own town though it was as large or larger than they were. Also Unlike them, and unlike the other unincorporated neighboring community to the west over into the Osage County called Barnsdall 55, which kept its own school district until it closed, Turley had ended its independent school district back before World War Two and became a part of Tulsa Public Schools. I would love to have time to do some historical research into the discussions that went into that decision, and into the decisions about why Turley never incorporated in its formative and growing years.

I have been told by family that there was fear from merchants that taxes would be levied to support the school in the future and for the growth like for a football stadium that would mean taking land from around the school to expand it. That would mean there was in the town’s DNA, and this was just coming out of the Great Depressioin, a sense of scarcity or fear, of collaborating for greater community benefit. It might have been part of the reason for not seeking to incorporate the town, though of late when community association members sought to incorporate it took them three times through the state legislature to get the approval because of the nearness of the boundaries of existing cities and towns. I have a hunch that in the past my ancestors simply felt that it was too much bother for too little gain given that the town looked and acted like a self governing community. They had no idea of the changes that would come that would begin decimating all the community social capital and infrastructure and connections that they took for granted.

So coming out of World War Two, and with the rise of the baby boom population, the community had no local self government and no local control of its schools. But the business owners lived in town; the churches were full and ministers lived in town; the schools were full and teachers for a large part lived in town or nearby; the Sheriff’s deputy lived in town; the fire department volunteers worked and lived in town; and the children of the area by and large went to school together and to churches in their areas and played sports or were in scouting groups in after school leagues and groups with their classmates who lived within walking distance of one another. All of that is now gone.

The community had been built by those of the Builders generation who had a forward looking frontier settling vision, sustained by The Greatest Generation that went off to fight World War Two and Korea or to maintain homes and community during it. And then came Television, and our world got both bigger, transporting us to so many places—Vietnam, Watts, the moon; and smaller, making us feel attached to those places, all at the same time. Communication changes precede culture changes and worldview changes. As we know there soon became with the Baby Boom generation, my generation, a preference for all things bigger and bigger and bigger: schools, rock concerts, churches, stores. Small communities were dissipated in the wake. Dislocation, meaning our sense of community was no longer what it had been, happened first to us culturally and then to us physically. Everything began to get bigger, to inflate, right before all the air went out.

The Turley Methodist Church, the first Turley church, grew so much during this time that in the early to mid 60s it moved out of its place in the middle of the community where it had begun and moved halfmile west to a hilltop where a new building was constructed with a great view near a newly built subdivision. It could assume that everyone would still go out of their way to find it and the folks in the new housing edition, which was annexed by the city of Tulsa by the way, would flood into it. Which they did at first. And then, the year after the new church building opened, probably the largest square foot building in the community, the Tulsa Public Schools integrated. Began, I should say, to integrate the far northern schools as the first areas.

The perfect storm hit. Integration was good, long overdue. But Racism created the phenomenon of white flight as residents fled to the other parts of Tulsa and especially to the suburban towns which began their great rise in population at that time, and concurrently with that as more families of color moved nearer the schools where their children could now attend, few new white families moved into the area. Between 1960 and 2000 the white population in North Tulsa declined by 50 and 60 percent or more; the black population in some segments of North Tulsa, particularly the old north or previously segregated area, also declined by fairly similar percentages. Along with this occurred the departure of the major oil companies from Tulsa to Houston and elsewhere, and with them the trickle down to the blue collar jobs of the ones who lived in the Turley area. And the pressures on working class families became more intense as prices rose, salaries didn’t keep pace, unions were marginalized, the gap between those with “just” high school education and college education grew wider, as a culture of consumerism and acquiring stuff grew dominant, and in part as a result of those pressures addictions of many kinds, and gangs, increased. And other companies as they grew began to move farther away from downtown and near Westside and further out on the edges of Tulsa making the commute harder for those remaining in Turley, and for all the kids who grew up and went to school in Turley their jobs were elsewhere for the most part so they went where those were, and as they had young families too at that time, they also succumbed to the white flight and new places to where the new schools and money was flowing. It was both the American Dream, and its shadow side. I think of the Perfect Storm forces as a kind of collaboration itself, like that between low education unemployment addictions and gangs, that fed the abandonment of our place; and why a kind of collaboration that puts communities, neighborhoods and land and people first is the antidote.

Even as my wife and I were finishing up at McLain High, the college prep classes of advanced science and math and other advanced courses were being cut from the curriculum. And soon after we were graduated, and our senior school year was the first for McLain to have a black homecoming queen (just about all after that were), and we had at the time a fairly well integrated school, by the numbers if not by the spirit, but soon after that the school system transformed the historic segregated black high school in town also on the northside into a magnet integrated school that attracted many students with the best grades and discipline records to it, both black and white, many that would have kept going to McLain and to other schools in the area. The magnet high school had white students from all sides of Tulsa attending it along with core black students from the local area, but, of course, the white families who sent their children to school on the northside did not move to the community surrounding the school, nor invest in it. So the communities continued to decline. Pretty soon you had a situation with McLain High School where at one time when it was founded in 1959 it was virtually all white, and American Indian; and by one generation later, it was virtually all black and was being treated in large part as a glorified technical school, not bad in itself of course, but it was not all that different from the way the previously segregated black high schools had been treated in cities across America. McLain even lost its name for several years; becoming the Tulsa School For Science and Technology; not it has the McLain name back, but alone among the Tulsa schools, all of whom like it now have some form of magnet programs, it still has the added on descriptor of Science and Technology.

This has lasting effects. As at McLain we sometimes have reunions for the same class years with black alumni and white alumni meeting and celebrating separately, and little connection between the grades from the years when it was all white to all black; with just a few of those years such as in my time when it had a nearly equal mix of students based on ethnicity. McLain was the last school in the Tulsa system to have an alumni and community foundation, and it just got started this past summer, in an effort to begin the slow process of reversing all of this disconnection. McLain is the high school for our area; there are no private high schools in the area unlike in other areas. The school has a real and symbolic effect on the life of the community and down into the elementary schools in the neighborhoods.

The re-segregation of our schools and area is both real and an illusion. When people think of North Tulsa they often think Black Tulsa and only of that which is in the city limits. But North Tulsa has always been, as we have seen, a place of great ethnic diversity, at first a segregated diversity, but now you will find all races in the section 8 housing, the neighborhoods, the stores, and some of the schools. When people think of Turley they often think of Poor Whites. But over the years more and more black residents have been moving in and staying in all of the neighborhoods. And we have always had sizable numbers of our original American Indian inhabitants. These stereotypes, rooted in some real statistics, are held by people within Far North themselves, both white and black, both in city limits and outside. The other night I was at an event at McLain and met African Americans who thanked me for coming across town to support the school; I set them straight and that confounded them even more, I think, because, to their defense, there has been a real lack of support, or collaboration, between whites and blacks who are both living in Far North Tulsa. This is embedded early in life. For example, the students who begin school at the elementary school in Turley’s unincorporated side, a majority now of white students, will not go on to the predominantly black middle school and if they do they won’t by and large go on to McLain, predominantly black. In fact many of the white children who live in the Turley area transfer now to nearby Sperry public school, or to private schools, or charter schools and never enter into the traditional Tulsa public schools that are feeder schools to McLain.

Between 1960 and 2000: the population of Far North in general declined 15 percent, but the population of those under the age of four years old, young families, fell 53 percent; the population over 65 percent gained 205 percent.

In just the past ten years The elementary schools in our area declined 31.5 percent; the two closest to us declined 55 and 42 percent. In just seven years between 2002 and 2009, the two elementary schools closest to us drifted apart in ethnicity; at one school, Cherokee, the historic Turley school, black students declined in this period 52.9 percent having 65 such students out of a total 221; however, school officials tell me this year the figures have changed a bit again and there is a more equitable balance and the school is one of the most diverse in the system with a third white students, a third black students, and a combined third Hispanic and American Indian; during the past ten years the other elementary school, the newer one built in the late 60s early 70s to handle that growth that had just occurred but was about to bottom out, retained an overwhelming black student population with just 12 white students out of 147. In the middle and high school level, the racial and ethnic concentration is also evident: In 2009 there were 523 students at McLain, 27 of whom were white. Compare that with the historic black high school Booker T. Washington, an academic magnet school that draws from all across the city, which had the same year 1270 students, 515 of whom were white and 512 of whom were black. Adding in the far north public middle school with its 379 students, of which 46 were white, and for the two Far North schools in our area sixth grade to twelth there are 902 students, of which 73 are white students.

The upshot of this, of all this, is the continuing deepening fragmentation of all parts of the surrounding community from each other. And that race and class issues are a part of it, but not all of it. Still, we will not undo what has been done until we can, in the spirit of abundance, talk about race and class. For what keeps much collaboration from happening among residents who remain is the old shame that we have missed the boat of the American Dream; as civil rights leader John Perkins of Mississippi has described it about the areas he lives in, among blacks and whites, if we are still living here, we begin to think that there is something wrong with us; otherwise like other whites or others of color with money and education we would live somewhere else; and if there is something wrong with us than we must deserve what we get, or rather what we don’t get, for living here. We embed shame and that keeps us silent and silence preserves the status quo.

So, that Methodist Church I was telling you about, the harbinger of the growth in the area after WWII and up to the mid Sixties? As the neighborhoods changed ethnic makeup around it, and as the culture of church going shifted, it began to shrink in numbers as soon as it hit its peak; now in its big building, few attend on Sunday and some of those drive back into the community to do so. And its building from the 1920s that it had left when it had outgrown it? Well it housed different ethnic oriented congregations for the next forty years then has sit empty for the last few years, a kind of ghost witness to all that used to be growing and thriving around it but which has also been abandoned and in many instances demolished so there is no physical trace of what once was. This includes one of the original Turley High School buildings, the tallest building in the area for years and years, built in 1920 and demolished in 2005, with, I must add, a lot of wonderful architectural elements and history and even school books still inside.

When my wife and I moved back in 2005, though we had been back all the time with my extended family having remained in the area, Gone were the local owned groceries and lumber companies and most cafes, movie theater, pharmacies, doctor and dentist, gone were the civic groups (except the odd fellows lodge which still meets but most of its members are from elsewhere), the churches as noted were struggling, other churches mostly African American in culture would rent storefronts or buildings in the area for the cheap rent but as they grew they moved into the city side of the area to be available for community development block grants and to be closer to where the ministers lived; the schools were now down to the fifth grade and each year enrollment was a challenge and attendance maintaining a chore; when we moved back there was a 80 percent mobility rate for the elementary school during the year; gone was the community center, airport, the children’s home was a correctional facility privately owned, no merchants association for decades and only a small few who supported the community; the water department and fire department continue but continue to struggle. The rodeo grounds continue but for those who live outside the community mostly, just like the county park has been gutted of shelters that were attractive for local area families and in their place were put larger sports complexes that draw in people from the suburbs; the youth have to leave the area to be in sports leagues now and to play outside of their community; and the small farms have been changed into auto salvage yards. The post office in Turley moved from near the school to a small strip of businesses and is threatened now with closure. And as I like to mention there is no pizza delivery for most of the northside just a few miles away from downtown in Tulsa, one of those taken for granted community building especially for youth aspects of life. Such a small thing, I know, but related I believe indirectly to a very big thing. That just between May 1 and August 4 of this year, there were 311 reported shootings, the bulk of them in or near our zipcode. That doesn’t count the ones on the unincorporated side; and doesn’t include the unreported ones.
This is why our zipcode has the lowest life expectancy in the Tulsa area, fourteen years lower than that of the zipcode with the highest, just six miles south of us, right along the same street.

So all that history to give you a sense of the place as it was and as it is. A perfect microcosm of the cultural changes and forces that have created the fault lines in community. And remember, as the theologian Jorgen Moltmann puts it, that the opposite of poverty is not property, but the opposite of both is community. ….

2. The Collaborative Response: Why and How?
Into the world of fragmentation, against the status quo, there have always been a few in our Far North area living and working against the grain of the culture. Starting a community association, or a local small business, or working within the parks or school system to be a voice for community, or just choosing not to move. When we began operating A Third Place Community Center and Foundation in 2007, there were people ready for a catalyst just about of any sort. I am not sure any were used to our kind of radical collaboration though. For the first thing we did, as an act of building trust and vulnerability, which are the key foundations of collaboration, was to collaborate with strangers, to turn our newly rented building and space over to neighbors whom we barely knew.
We few residents who created the center, created a library and computer center and clothing room and food pantry and community gathering and meeting space and meals out of our own combined resources. And we said come and take what you need, no questions asked, and leave what you can to help us support what we do. To help us make the rent and utilities most months. No one gets paid. We put it all into operations. We want to be broke at the end of the month, like most of our neighbors. We trust that we will have enough to go around. And we trusted people with keys. We had our bumps and our welcoming and safe and civil space culture to protect in its fragile stage, and still do, but we began by a radical openness to collaboration, even if you had a not so good reputation, even if you were just out of jail, even if you were homeless, even if you had a very different religious or political persuasion than we did. That is the mission of Third Places; vital to our lives are not only first places like homes, or second places like jobs or affinity groups or churches where we gather along some designated lines, but we need those third places of real trusting radical community where diversity can flourish and authentic community can find roots and begin to grow again.
With that culture beginning to be seeded, we began to collaborate with the University of Oklahoma. First to bring in health care providers. Then with the Social Work department, which had helped to bring in the health care providers, we began to collaborate on some of the Center’s mission to help bring residents together and in a safe space and structured way (which was unique for most in their experience with community gatherings here) for them to listen to one another and lament and to hope and to plan and to share ideas and resources. From these we began collaborating each semester with different classes working in different areas on the topics of interest that had emerged from the grassroots meetings: abandoned properties, blighted neighborhoods, food insecurity, poor health, fear of crime, youth needs, job needs, stray and wild animals, better schools and support for our schools and for our local groups. We began to see the overlap in many of those areas, resulting in one of our collaborative projects, The WelcomeTable Community GardenKitchenPark project where we, residents and social work students, identified abandoned homes in a block, purchased the block, and have a design thanks to OU Graduate Design Studio, for how to create a kind of outdoors A Third Place Center that can be beautiful, inspire community events, grow relationships through food production, and more.
Through first our collaboration with one another, with radical trust and vulnerability, which means we know we will fail each other and have our hearts broken, but will try again and show up with one another again;., this led to our second collaboration with OU and some of its varying disciplines and departments, and I know we could collaborate with so many more OU departments and classes that have a connection between their fields and the areas of our service; and this collaboration led to our third level of collaboration, our wider sphere, as we began to meet with other individuals and groups throughout our Far North area, what has been called From TU to Turley area, with community coalition meetings, with joint projects like the McLain High School initiative, the Food For Life initiative of the Indian Health Care Resource Center, and with other partners small and large who have a dream for making life better for our residents by growing the spirit of community and making it real through real collaborations.
Which has led us, after just three years, into our next phase where we will create a house for these collaborations, a house for hope itself. We are in the process of buying that old abandoned Turley Methodist building that has stood at the center of our part of Far North Tulsa since it was constructed in the 1920s. We are doing so, I am pleased to say particularly here and with you all, with the kind and generous help of the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation. It will allow us to expand three times our current size. Our vision is that one third of it will be a Community Academy space, a hub especially for new visions of community health and nutrition, a place for classrooms and group clinics, a specialty library, for partners like OU and many others to do service learning in the neighborhoods of most need, to connect their students with our residents for the mutual transformation of both. Another one third of the space will be a Community Center with many of our current services plus an expanded Food Justice Focus, and one third of it will be a place, a quiet chapel, for individual and group meditation and prayer and spiritual renewal. And an adjacent building will be a Center for Community Gardening and Sustainability. And someday in many rooms in the basement we hope to provide spaces for people to sojourn with us temporarily as they serve with us at the center and out in the community. Our vision is also that even this new bigger building won’t be the end, just as the outdoor garden park won’t be the end, but that all across our area, in what we call our Four Directions Initiative, we will find a diversity of ways to create “third places” in every neighborhood.
The social fragmentation described at the beginning of my talk was the byproduct of the abandonment of institutions and neighborhoods in our area, along with the general cultural changes of wider society, in the last few decades of the 20th century. In these first decades of the 21st century, to change that, we can’t jump straight to bringing back or recreating new institutions and thriving healthy neighborhoods in our area. We must first address the result of social and community fragmentation, isolation, fear and mistrust of one another, and of others, especially in ethnic relationships. And only then can we have the soil full of life in which all the surface level things like businesses and civic groups can grow. I have often said that it will do no good to have an official incorporated town for Turley unless the values of community, of collaboration, are what first are incorporated.

3. The Challenge of Collaboration and Hope: or, Why Is Our Area The Place of Greatest Health Needs, lowest life expectancy, and the fewest resources located within it?
Collaborations, especially when people into voluntary association with one another, are based on covenant, or promises, and not on contracts, which are set quid pro quo type agreements that guide much of the rest of our lives, such as jobs and sometimes where we live. To paraphrase another theologian, Martin Buber of the Jewish tradition, we are the promise making, promise breaking, promise renewing people. This means what we do isn’t easy, especially now. The kinds of collaborations that happened in the days of homogeneity and stability in the Turley area, the days of growth, those that some of us are tempted to recall with nostalgia, occurred under the best of social circumstances and with a culture that reinforced them. What we do now and attempt now together in this world of social fragmentation has echoes only in the faroff days of the early Builders generation, the frontier, when the community was first forming; but in fact, it is much harder even than that in many ways because there is not an empty canvas and because we must wrestle with the legacies, especially ethnically, of all that has happened since then, and without the kinds of commonalities that shaped the founders and their world, a world before television, when the most common communication mode for our community was only face to face, for all intents and purposes, since there was no local newspaper or mass media, it leaned heavily toward being an oral culture. And in oral cultures, where individuals are dependent upon one another for knowledge, collaboration is a necessity for survival. Contrast that, these 100 years later, with our electronic web culture, with virtually everyone having their own mass media carrying around with them, and you see why collaboration is itself so against the grain of postmodern life.

And yet, as mentioned, in the world of social fragmentation such as in our zipcodes, collaborating with others is also a necessity if another kind of world is going to be possible. The redeeming aspect, the gift we have been given, is that in such a world of abandonment and isolation, a little collaboration goes a very long way. Our initiative with A Third Place is a testament to that. When just a few people collaborate to plant a small wildflower bed along the bike path where strangers to our area ride through our area without riding just a block or two off the path into our area because we have no sidewalks, then such a small act of welcoming, or reminding the stranger that there is a community of people here, such a very small act really stands out in ways that would be lost if the same thing were done in other areas. So it is when just a few become the defacto city waste management and go pick up the littered furniture along the streets where they have been illegally dumped, when they are seen picking up trash along the street because it is their street and not because they have community service hours. Or when we throw free communities parties, offer free community meals, collect food from those who others think can only be given it, plant gardens at schools, organize public forums, keep an open place where people can come with their questions or offerings of help. Small acts of justice, of random kindness and beauty, done with great love, and hope, and faithfulness, done with one or two or more people, all of these change the world. At a time when so many people feel they have so little to give back, where they choose to give of themselves can make a big difference, and places such as ours are ripe for their investments.

Just know there will be setbacks and reactions to every transformation; and every collaboration carries with it the possibility, probability, of being hurt so that the doorway to cynicism and retreat back into the status quo of the fragmented world is always open and beckoning. Our challenge is to respond by living more fully in the “as if” world where each setback allows us to see the horizon clearer and more partners possible.

So, just as we are getting close to owning that new house of hope, the old abandoned church building, as a site of transformation itself, after all these years it was hit with extensive vandalism. It was a gut punch, but we’d been there before and it dawns on us that we now will need to rely on many others than we thought we would at first, just to do clean up and get the building back into the rundown shape it was in. We know the collaborators are there though. We set our sights higher. Just as when we were beginning to transform an empty vacant lot into a native plant nature trails area. This site is situated strategically by our gardenkitchenpark site, and in a bridge location between groups within our area, alongside where people walk quite a distance to school and stores. Just when we were about to unveil it, a new person mowing grassy areas nearby mowed it all down; but we know being native plants they will return in beauty, and this time we know we will be better prepared with better collaboration, and signs ahead of time, so it will be a new, easily maintained, site of beauty where before people would have only seen what was there as weeds, and waste. What a metaphor for our whole area. Just as when we decided to surprise our community on Easter Sunday morning with a row of flowers along Peoria Ave. in big pots, so that in the morning they would drive by and see these gifts of hope, but during the night, someone went along and dumped the flowers and dirt on the ground and took the pots, and so the residents were greeted with little piles of discarded dirt and trampled flowers; we learned from that we have a deep culture of kicking things to the curb in our area so people just think automatically they are there for the taking, and not for the giving (at least in our better days we give them such a benefit of the doubt); besides nothing like that, nothing like us, had ever happened in the area before. Out of that, came the Let Turley Bloom initiative where we would create such areas more securely by planting in the ground itself rather than in pots. And of course there are many more even smaller ways that changing the culture takes perseverance.

Our latest setback from collaboration itself, which we are using to help us to see wider and collaborate even more, comes from the presumed pending closure of our community health clinic which OU has operated with us as one of our first joint ventures. This past summer all of the similar clinics on the northside were closed; ours was the only one left open but our contract was redone for just one more year. We had gradually been reduced from up to three days a week at one point down to just one morning a week. Funders hit by the recession…Difficulties in getting people who aren’t used to preventive care as part of something one does or can do to take advantage of the clinic…turnover of staff…mutual lack of communication about needs…perhaps a concern about a duplication of services of primary care with other institutions? Only in areas of scarcity does it seem duplication of services is an issue; not in places of more wealth and insurance. For Still you come back to the facts on the ground that we have the lowest life expectancy; our residents, because they have been without health care, were sicker and so in more need of referrals and that costs more, and they did not have health insurance as they were unemployed. So there are higher costs and little income to care for them. Of course they are going to keep going to the emergency rooms for their urgent care and being admitted there and so the costs for someone is going to be even higher.

Our response could be, drawing from the history of institutions and our area, see, we shouldn’t have trusted in the first place; we are now losing something again, and literally nurse our wounds and grow our grudges. Instead, we choose the collaborative response and say how can we turn this weakness into a strength?

First, I am not 100 percent given up on the idea that some form of direct care providing can’t continue, given that other clinics in the other parts of Tulsa where there are more people and more insurance streams are still operating full days (maybe a bit of resource shifting is possible, in order to see and show that the patient you are caring for in community health is not just an individual, but is the community itself); and there are some developments through other institutions nearby which might over time open up some traditional care opportunities in our zipcode; we are hopeful….But beyond all this our attention is being drawn to how we can take a loss and make it a tremendous gain, how we can actually help form a new response to health care that will get to the root causes of what lands people even in primary care clinics in the first place; a new network of lay health leaders who live in the neighborhoods of need themselves, who can connect their communities with institutions of health, being two-way teachers, to providers about neighborhoods, and to residents about health literacy, self-care and monitoring, and when they do get to see doctors and providers how to be better patients and get the most out of those encounters. For we know that just getting persons and physicians together doesn’t magically make health happen. We are working on grants, and looking at somewhat similar models elsewhere, and hope that our area, even at a time of losing a modern-era medical clinic, can create a gift not only for our area but for others of a way of growing healthy lives and neighborhoods that is both post-modern, truly communal, and draws on the wisdom of the frontier….This vision had its roots in a collaborative brainstorming Sunday afternoon at A Third Place Center with various members of the OU community when we were looking at being a site for a competition known as the X Prize for Revolutionizing Health Care; we said then that if we didn’t win the prize, or as the case turned out, weren’t even eligible for it, that the ideas were too wonderful, too “disruptively innovative” that they would have a life beyond…And so they are again with these plans…And we know again that if the grants don’t come, that they will continue to find a way in our new place to become seeds of what can be created out of the heart of hope, the heart of collaboration, for the heart of the real issues that have kept us apart, kept us struggling, kept us sick.

I close with the full quote from theologian of hope Moltmann, who witnessed the destruction of whole communities in firebombing and other acts of horror throughout Europe during World War Two. He writes: “The ideology of “there is never enough for everyone” makes people lonely. It isolates them and robs them of relationships. The opposite of poverty isn’t property. The opposite of both poverty and property is community. For in community we become rich: rich in friends, in neighbours, in colleagues, in comrades, in brothers and sisters. Together, as a community, we can help ourselves in most of our difficulties. For after all, there are enough people and enough ideas, capabilities and energies to be had. They are only lying fallow, or are stunted and suppressed. So let us discover our wealth; let us discover our solidarity; let us build up communities; let us take our lives into our own hands and at long last out of the hands of the people who want to dominate and exploit us. (Jurgen Moltmann, The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and The Theology of Life, Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 1997; English translation, SCM Press, Ltd: London, p. 109-110.

Our hands, from many places, many colors, that do many kinds of work; Our hope, Our health, Our Community.

A Quick Amazing Look At This Past Year: Oct. 2009 to Today

2010-09-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

Major Activities of A Third Place Community Foundation
Turley North Tulsa
Oct. to Oct. 2009-10

Let us stress these are some of the major highlights and ongoing projects, not all by any means.
If any of these are enticing, calling you to participate, or spin off a project, let us know.

Monthly: breakfasts and lunches, movie night, Turley Community Association, North Tulsa community coalitions, McLain School Initiative, Healthy Cornerstores Initiative, Turley Leadership Council,

Weekly or One Time Events:
OU Medical Clinic
Community Vision Forums
Community Halloween Festival
Community Thanksgiving meal
Community Christmas party
Weekly Nutrition class
Community Academy classes to do community projects
Community Tours .
Turley Leadership Retreats
Daily free summer lunch program
Gardens and Beautification and Cleanup Day in Turley
Four Directions Initiative for Community Renewal Started
Celebration of Juneteenth and Local Food Week and Turley Festival
Food Bank site
OU medical resident visits and talks
Community life surveys
Housing Site For U.S. Census
Talks about community health with OU medical students
Poverty Education Workshop coordinated at O’Brien Recreation Center
Cherokee School community garden days
Greeley School Garden Day
Information Booth at McLain High School Community Bash
Party Among the Ruins at Community Garden Kitchen Park site
Purchase of The Welcome Table Community Garden Kitchen Park site
OU Student Idea Day For Fundraising For Community Projects class events
Turley Heritage Day, Fall Beautification and Gardening Event and Meal
Cherokee School Safety and Turley Historic Downtown Community Project
Abandoned Properties Project
A Third Place Computer Center
A Third Place Library
A Third Place Clothing and more Donations
Community Resource Information Sharing

Donate at the button above or write a check and Make This Year Even More Amazing
6514 N. Peoria Ave. Turley, OK 74126
thirdplaceturley@aol.com
794-4637 or 691-3223 or 430-1150 contact Ron Robinson, Executive Director

Transforming Garden at Greeley Elementary School

2010-09-22T18:26:00.000-07:00

A Third Place and our volunteers transformed the front entry into one of our neighborhood elementary schools near us, Horace Greeley School, at 63rd and N. Cincinnati. Lifting the spirits of the children as they come and go, plus possibilities of outdoor science and nature learning. Read below for what we did a weekend ago, and call 4301150 if you want to be a part of our ongoing community gardening efforts. And go by and see Greeley and support the school and all our public schools.

Here’s what we did.
1. We stripped the turf, removed “all” the grass roots, laid paths of mulch over landscape fabric or cardboard across the back of the bed and into the bed in the middle of each wall (about half way between the windows). This creates smaller sections of the bed and allows easy access for care.
2. In each smaller section we centered a crape myrtle tree in the window. This will only need pruning to remove dead wood and any low branches that block the beautiful leggy look of crape myrtle trees. The reason some people cut the tops off must be to control the size but crape myrtles come in many sizes now and growth is stronger if they are not topped. They have white blooms and are Natchez variety.
3. Across the front of each bed is a row of white meadow salvia or sage; this will fill in by this time next year into a soft row of white flowers. If you want to see what they will look like in a year, the ones we planted at Cherokee School last fall were the same size then.
4. In a semicircle around the crape myrtle we planted yarrow, mostly yellow some red. This has soft ferny foliage and flowers in the summer that butterflies love.
5. In the back of the bed right in front of the path we planted daylilies and daffodils
6. In every planting hole we tried to place a daffodil or two. We planted 135 king Alfred daffodils and ran out, so it may be skimpy in spots but they will quickly spread as will the daylilies.
7. All the plants are drought resistant so in a couple years may only need water during extreme drought but while they are spreading their roots I recommend checking them every other day for a week or two then weekly if it doesn’t rain. Just pull back the mulch a little to see if the soil is damp about an inch down. It’s easy to just get the mulch wet or the bed may not dry out as fast as you think because of the mulch.

BE THERE, BE HERE THIS WEEKEND: Heritage Lunch, Cleanup, Beautifying Turley, and More

2010-09-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

First, Come to the Center, 6514 N. Peoria Ave., this Friday Sept. 24 from 6 to 7 pm. Give an hour to help us clean up the dumping from our streets as we get ready for Turley Area Heritage Day the next day. Free supper for all helpers. Great for families, church youth groups, etc.

Second, Come to the Center on Saturday, Sept. 25 for some or all of these actions: at 8 am on to be a part of Beautifying Turley Area through community planting projects. And/or come at 9 am as we meet with OU graduate students to hear of their work planning ways to help our projects in this part of the Tulsa North area.

Third, at 11 am come hear and share stories of Turley area history and help us create a Map of What Used To Be Here Where.

At noon we will have a heritage lunch of soups and salads and more, freewill donations, and live music from Johnny and The Oklahomans until 1 pm. Then more work with OU students, or more cleanup and beautification plantings, and an update on the community renewal initiatives of A Third Place Community Foundation with tours of the new spaces for our Welcome Table Garden Kitchen Park and new Center.

Every Saturday at 7:30 pm Recovery Group at the Center.

Sunday mornings church at the Center 10 am. Call Rev. Ron Robinson 6913223 for updates and more on the spiritual gatherings.

Come anytime and bring your dreams for Renewing Community, Empowering Residents, Growing Healthy Neighborhoods.

We our working on a major initiative to recreate a Turley downtown community space by Cherokee School to make for safer students, better business, and attract new businesses. We are working on an initiative to start a lay health advisor program with OU in our area. We are working with the McLain School Initiative transforming our community's public high school. We are helping make sure every school is a garden. We are transforming and expanding our Center focus on food justice and our ongoing programs. All of these need your help. Come join with our volunteers and grow our community together.

Yes!!! Miracle(s) Among The Ruins: We Did It, Thank You; We Are Doing Even More, Come Join The Movement

2010-08-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

It is my pleasure and privilege to tell you that the Miracle Among The Ruins, version one, is happening. Over the weekend we raised the final amount needed to close on the property. So thank you, thank you, thank you, and now let's keep the good things coming... Read other posts below about the community garden kitchen park project underway here; and if you haven't donated to it, we still need support; buying the property is the first step but we will need to buy supplies, and pay for construction of the new areas.

Keep reading this to hear some new developments in our latest ongoing big projects for renewing our area. We will do them too with your participation. Another world is not only possible, but is here among us, emerging.

1. All of you who have donated to the Miracle Among the Ruins Welcome Table Project have been helping us get double out of our donations, as we can also now it is hoped use our ownership of the property as part collateral on the down payment for our own two and a half times bigger building of our own we are seeking to purchase
I am planning on Wednesday, the day after closing on this property, to take paperwork to Spirit Bank to begin seeking the loan on our own building purchase of an old church site in the old historic business district of the Turley area. Important not only as history in our area, and a much needed way to expand and grow our presence and get us closer to school traffic and others in our service area, but it is a justice action in our area each time we are able to take and transform such a large abandoned building and turn it into a vibrant place for community. Keeping and turning over dollars into our own community so much in need of that very thing.

I am a very reluctant owner of any property or building, in general, as it often in some communities turns into an "edifice complex" and impedes the mission or becomes the mission; but this is good for the community, taking an abandoned building and actually using it in service to the community, helping to revitalize an abandoned areas itself. Many times even churches come into our area and use our buildings and then move on when they "outgrow" them. In contrast, we want the community to "outgrow" us. So this will become Miracle Among The Ruins, version 2.

2. Plus we have the purchase of the green space and bird sanctuary and children's safety space project along 61st St. between the school and the mobile home park and OBrien Park that we can now begin moving to get, especially partnering with local nature socieities such as Audubon and others. This area is an unsafe but travelled area for children, and another opportunity to create a place of peace and nature sanctuary in our area.

3. We are helping to take the lead on a rural economic grant and a Safe Routes to School partnership federal grant project with Cherokee School and INCOG and we hope the State Dept. of Transportation. Our currently developing project for sidewalks and lights, bike path and beautification around Cherokee School will not only provide more safety for students, but will be better for small struggling businesses nearby. We will work to slow traffic down, making it more like what it used to be decades ago, a microcommunity or small town downtown, hoping to use it as a draw to also attract new businesses to the renovated area.

4. We are working with McLain High School on its transformation, joining with its new school and community foundation, supporting its magnet programs, helping to promote the good changes academically that have been happening there. Growing our partnerships with the schools that prepare students for McLain as well. Looking for ways to help parents help students, to help students who have dropped out, by partnering with the library, schools and others. Stay tuned for programs emerging here in these and many other educational fronts.

5. We are helping shape a major new health care delivery initiative with OU for lay health advisors in neighborhoods, a project that if you saw writer Janet Pearsons editorial in Sundays Tulsa World you can see will be part of a national reform movement, all beginning here. We are working to support on one end the new specialty clinic in north Tulsa by OU, and on the preventive end to create a network of paid lay health advisors, people who live in the underserved and unhealthy areas, who can both help their neighbors with health concerns but who can also teach the care providers about the on the ground issues problems and realities of the communities and the lives of those receiving care. By taking health care out of a centralized location and a one size fits all way of providing and paying for care, the traditional clinic, we begin to turn inside out the way health is grown.

6. Growing our "day to day" miracles among the ruins by what happens at the Center, clinic, library, donation room, computer area, meetingspace, food pantry, and with our projects at the schools and other places. The second, third, and fourth weekends of September and the first weekend of October we will be engaged in hands on community renewal work, and partnering with social work students to help our Center better fulfill our world-changing mission "to create beloved community" through our small acts of justice...Next month we will be doing community work with social work students and residents on the second, third, and fourth Saturdays on beautification and renewal projects at Greeley School and other places in our area. See the calendar of events elsewhere on the website. Also know We are making a focus this year as well on diversity and respect of cultures, and on veterans, and on volunteers. Stay tuned.

You all are making such a difference in the world, just by sharing this with others, by coming and helping, coming and participating, and it is a joy to behold what may come in the next three years based on what all has happened in these, our first three years. Thanks again.

Ron Robinson, Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation

Welcome To our "TNT" TulsaNorth/Turley Area, to the Miracle Among The Ruins, see the videos, read the stories, explore below, Donate above

2010-08-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

Help Us Reach our Final Fundraising Goal. Just a few thousand to go, just a few days left. See the OU Graduate Design Studio vision of what the blighted abandoned houses and property can look like at http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/miracle-among-ruins-welcome-table.html. Or see the moving video by the OU social work students when they worked out here last summer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhgFKD6_i_w Read all about it at http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/08/miracle-among-ruins-needs-you-link-of.html

Come This Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm and see for yourself, take the Four Directions Initiative Tour with us and a class from OU Graduate Social Work, be inspired, see and hear the problems but also see the vision and the seeds being sown. Or work with us at Cherokee School. www.cherokeeschoolgardenjournal.blogspot.com.

Read The Latest Tulsa World Story About Our Community. Read posts below for much more on this and other projects

2010-08-27T05:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100827_11_A11_CUTLIN485332

TulsaNorth/Turley Food Statistics: Why We Need The Miracle Among The Ruins Welcome Table GardenKitchenPark

2010-08-25T19:29:00.001-07:00

Back to the basics of why we do what we do...According to a survey of our service area residents living in our zipcodes, which we partnered last summer to do with the OU Graduate Social Work Department, and are now publishing the results of....

...55 percent worry about the amount of food they have
...6 percent use spoiled food
...29 percent use a food pantry
...31 percent receive food from church
...35 percent borrow food from family
...25 percent borrow food from friends
...25 percent adults skip entire day from eating
...29 percent adults skip meals
...26 percent did not eat and are hungry at time of survey
...43 percent eat less than they should
...60 percent eat low cost foods
...52 percent cannot afford nutritious meals
...57 percent run out of food
...60 percent cannot afford healthy food

The Food Environment:
...29 percent have no affordable source of food in community
...63 percent know about a food pantry
,..56 percent rate the food quality in Turley area as fair or poor
...59 percent indicate food in Turley area expensive or very expensive relative to budget

Overall Health:
...56 percent not currently healthy
...41 percent health is fair or poor
...54 percent are overweight
...66 percent should weigh less
...47 percent smoke or use other tobacco

Nothing too surprising, of course, but sometimes the statistics are needed to make especially visible and in our face what we know from our anecdotal experience.

While it is true in our short life as a community within our community we have begun to provide a food pantry, offer meals, a one morning a week health clinic, a daily summer feeding program, beginning community gardens and orchard, classes and workshops on nutrition, providing community health and food resource information, and more, it is all a small drop in the bucket compared to what we can effect physicially, psychologically, spiritually, with the creation of the planned The Welcome Table Community Garden Kitchen Greenspace Park where we can raise from the ground up, from the grassroots, a major project to change our landscape, to bring people together to grow their own healthy food, saving money and saving lives, teaching how to grow and how to cook and how to eat healthy right here in our neighborhood in a fun park environment we will make in a place with a great view of Tulsa downtown and Tulsa county stretching out to Bird Creek bottomland in one direction and Turley Hill in the other. See the other posts here for all the vision and details and our Aug. 31 fundraising deadline. See the donate button above. Safe and easy and you don't have to have a paypal account to use the online giving form. Or send checks of support made out to A Third Place Community Foundation to us at 6514 N. Peoria Ave. Turley or Tulsa OK 74126.

We don't wait for a governmental agency to come in from the outside, with employees who don't live in our area providing services to us in our area, to do this; we don't wait for the perfect time and perfect economic climate to do this; at a time when everyone is cutting back, here where things have been cut back for years, we come together to start something new, something with a safe environment in the midst of an area others seek to make unsafe or to stigmatize and stereotype; here on the ground in solidarity with supporters in other places, we can dream big again, and make them real, one block at a time, modelling and inspiring others in their areas.

We have these past three years created an indoors A Third Place Center, from which we have created small projects elsewhere across our area; now we are moving toward creating the gardenkitchenpark as an outdoors A Third Place Center, where even bigger dreams will be dreamed and connections made to pull them off too.

We can over time, and by changing the culture from the grassroots, turn those statistics on food and health and justice around; they have not always been true of us living here; they don't have to be true for us and our children in the future. Perhaps there is no one miracle cure for these social and political and personal problems underlying the statistics, as I believe there is not, but I know the Miracle Among The Ruins transformation is one miracle that will make a difference.

Images At A Third Place

2010-08-24T18:25:00.000-07:00

More on the way the rest of the week....

Coming "TNT" Events: Tulsa North/Turley. Don't Miss Them.

2010-08-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

All are welcome. All are needed. Let us know of events to add. Let us know of events you would like to see. Come and help us plan how to make these events better and reach more people. Pass this on so others will have the same opportunity to be a part of community. More details coming, and reports afterwards, on these events.

OU Community Medicine Clinic Friday mornings. A Third Place. 619-4400 appts.

Area Leadership Council meeting, third Friday, Aug. 20, 2:30 pm, A Third Place.

Monthly McLain High School Initiative, third Fridays, 4 pm., Aug. 20, McLain.

Diversity Monthly Free Movie Night, Aug. 26, 6:30 pm, “Iron Jawed Angels” A Third Place. About the tremendous struggle for women's right to vote, on the day the nineteenth amendment was signed and Women's Rights Day was begun.

OU-“TNT” Tulsa North/Turley community service day, Sat. Aug. 28, 9am-3pm, A Third Place and out in community. Graduate Social Work Dept.

Garden Art and Community Gardening Day, Cherokee School, 6001 N. Peoria, Sat. Aug. 28, 8 am to Noon. Every School a Garden, Every Child a Gardener Program.

Turley Community Association, 7 pm, Tues Aug. 31, O’Brien Center, 6147 N. Lewis.
Community Coalitions Meeting with State Rep. Seneca Scott, Friday, Sept. 3, 5:30 pm TCC Northeast Campus, Apache and Harvard

Arts and Crafts Gathering, Tuesday Sept. 7, 6:30 pm, A Third Place. Free. Bring Projects or Interests.

OU-TNT Day, community projects, A Third Place, Sept. 11, 9 am to 3 pm.

Fundraising Lunch and Music for the Community Center at noon. Also OU-TNT projects Sept. 28 with Heritage Lunch at noon.

North Tulsa Coalitions meeting, Sept. 14 11 am Tulsa Job Corps on North Lewis.

Diversity Movie Month Free, Sept. 14, 6:30 pm A Third Place: Hispanic Community Focus

Weekly 12 Step Recovery Group, 7:30 pm Saturday, A Third Place

Weekly Thursday, 7 pm, Fire Department Meetings, Turley, 6404 N. Peoria

Last working day of month, 8:30 am Turley Water Board Public Meeting, 6108 N. Peoria

Sundays Weekly 10 am Church at A Third Place Worship, Rev. Ron Robinson

Much More To Come...

“Small Acts of Justice Done With Great Love Change The World”

Community Invite To Garden Party at Cherokee Saturdays Aug. 14 and 28, 8 to 10 am

2010-08-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

Full details at the wonderful new blog you can follow at http://www.cherokeeschoolgardenjournal.blogspot.com/.

Come help us this Saturday Aug. 14 from 8 to 10 am as we build a Vegetable Garden Playhouse Hut at Cherokee School, 6001 N. Peoria Ave., using cattle panels. It will be located in the vegetable garden area in the back or east side of the building off Quincy Ave. If you can't make it this Saturday morning (great place to come after being an early bird at farmers market), pass on the invitation to others who might like to help this school get ready to greet the students on their return.

Then, on Saturday, Aug. 28, from 8 to 10 am the focus at the school garden will be Garden Art. Bring broken items from homes and they will be made into mosaics, sculptures, etc. for placement in the gardens around the school. Come see the transformation that began with the big garden day last September.

On this day Aug. 28 we will also be working in the community with a new crop of OU graduate social work students, giving them a tour of our service area in Tulsa North and Turley. If you'd would like to join in the tour and learn about our "Four Directions Initiative" and learn more about the history of the area, its changes, and plans for its future feel free; the general public will be invited.

What we did last year with the big Garden Transformation Event at Cherokee in September, we are hoping to do again this year at Horace Greeley Elementary School at North Cincinnati and 63rd St. Tentative date is Sat. Sept. 18; more information will be coming.

For more on Every School a Garden and Every Child a Gardener and the plans for these events go to www.cherokeeschoolgardenjournal.blogspot.com.

Thanks,hope to see you there

Miracle Among The Ruins Needs You: Link of Links

2010-08-08T15:34:00.001-07:00

Pass this post on to others, church and youth and service groups; help us give the children here the Miracle Among the Ruins; we are $3,000 short of our goal and our deadline is Aug. 31. Donate safely and easily at the button above. See the links below for more.

See the plans and the links to all the links about the property and what it looks like now for kids at http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/06/channel-six-news-story-on-our-miracle.html.

The Channel Six news story is at http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12642450

For the OU social work students moving video about the place and the need for the project and for your donations, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhgFKD6_i_w .

For the OU Design Studio on what it will look like go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/miracle-among-ruins-welcome-table.html

For the background on why we are doing this community transformation project here go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/see-vision-miracle-among-ruins.html and to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/04/consider-thischange-this.html

For the bigger connect the dots link on how we have plans for all of our Four Directions area of Tulsa North and Turley go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/four-directions-initiative-tnt-vision.html

And after you donate share it with someone who will donate. Don't wait. Every little bit goes a long way here. Surprise yourself and the world. Just as our Miracle Among the Ruin will surprise the children who will see it rise where ruins were before, all around them.

Just a Bit Of What Our Children Will See On Way To School on N. Peoria: See below for helping us change this.

2010-08-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

Pass this post on to others. Children shouldn't be walking through these or past these, and these don't cover all the areas near us. Just a few of the photos of trash or abandoned houses with overgrown weeds creating risky unsafe environments. It is why we are doing the community gardening and beautification at the school itself, and why we are raising funds for the Miracle Among The Ruins project. Come to Cherokee 6001 N. Peoria on Saturdays Aug. 14 and 28 in the mornings to help beautify; pass on to others, church and youth and service groups; also help us give the children something different to walk past; help us give them the Miracle Among the Ruins; we are $3,000 short of our goal and our deadline is Aug. 31. Donate safely and easily at the button above.

See the plans and the links to all the links about the property and what it looks like now for kids at http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/06/channel-six-news-story-on-our-miracle.html.

The Channel Six news story is at http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12642450

For the OU social work students moving video about the place and the need for the project and for your donations, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhgFKD6_i_w .

For the OU Design Studio on what it will look like go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/miracle-among-ruins-welcome-table.html

For the background on why we are doing this community transformation project here go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/see-vision-miracle-among-ruins.html and to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/04/consider-thischange-this.html

For the bigger connect the dots link on how we have plans for all of our Four Directions area of Tulsa North and Turley go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/four-directions-initiative-tnt-vision.html

And after you donate share it with someone who will donate. Don't wait. Every little bit goes a long way here. Surprise yourself and the world. Just as our Miracle Among the Ruin will surprise the children who will see it rise where ruins were before, all around them.

Party Among The Ruins Wednesday July 28 7 pm at Community Garden Site 6025 N. Johnstown

2010-07-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Your Invitation, and Please Invite Others

What: "Party Among The Ruins"
Make real the Miracle Among the Ruins project to turn a block of abandoned properties here in TulsaNorth/Turley into The Welcome Table Community Kitchen Garden Park. Come tour the proposed site and area and discuss the plans; even consider ways you might replicate such a project in your own part of town if you live elsewhere. See the video produced by the OU Graduate Design Studio of what it can look like and be even as we are partying amid what it is now. Beverages and ice cream social and watermelon and refreshments provided for freewill donations. Beat the heat with a water balloon fight. Listen to music. Meet others committed to community renewal, health, food justice, one block at a time.

When: Wednesday, July 28, 7 to 9 pm. We have a July 30 deadline to finish raising the funds to buy the property. Come celebrate and let us say thanks for all your donations. Bring friends who haven't donated yet, or take this opportunity to have fun and bring your own donation, or in the spirit of generosity and abundance give again if you have donated already. Surprise yourself as we surprise our community, so often seen as powerless and struggling and stereotyped, with this venture so needed here, and now.

Where: 6025 N. Johnstown Ave., between Peoria and Cincinnati, due west up the hill from Cherokee School. Enter the property off Johnstown. Park along the street or in the parking lot across the street at the nearby Methodist Church. This hilltop neighborhood has outstanding views of downtown Tulsa and out east toward the horizon of the Bird Creek bottomland; to the north rises Turley Hill. The party will take place in the center of the property on abandoned foundations between run down buildings. You will also get a chance to see the infamous resident-made walking trail people use going to school and stores on foot, some of the area we have raised a few experimental gardens already, and walk the paths in a native grass and plant area. Also tour our A Third Place Community Center at 6514 N. Peoria Ave. while you are in the area.

How: Just come, or if you can help by donating beverages or refreshments such as ice cream for an ice cream social part of the event; or come help fill up water balloons for those who want to "stay cool",. We are a grassroots group and we like our events to grow from the grassroots as well.

RSVP and also pass this invitation on by email, in announcements at church, synagogue, mosque, temple, or your civic group this weekend, pass it through social networking sites, to family, friends, colleagues and coworkers.

In case of rain, say a prayer of thanks and a halleluia and come drive by the area and stop for the Party at A Third Place Center, 6514 N. Peoria where we will move the event. If you haven't seen our unique approach to community renewal, this is a great time to visit, and to bring others who might not have been here yet. In fact, this past few weeks talking with medical students, we found out again that many of them have grown up in Tulsa but never been to the northside or been this far into the northside. If you know of anyone like that, use this opportunity to expand their horizons.

And be one of the folks who push us over our fundraising goal to purchase this property. We can't do it with just you alone (unless of course you can donate or arrange for a donation of $7,000), but we also can't do it without you. And we mean that. True, we have a ways to go still and a short amount of time to do it in, but we wouldn't call it a "miracle among the ruins" if it had been easy to do. We do have a commitment from Tulsa County to remove and clear the property for us once we purchase it, and we have volunteers ready to transform it; all we need is to own the land. Find out all the wonderful plans and donate now at http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/06/channel-six-news-story-on-our-miracle.html or send checks made out to A Third Place Community Foundation at 6514 N. Peoria Ave, Turley, OK 74126.

At the website for A Third Place Community you will also see the multitude of other ways we are giving back to our neighborhoods in our area between 46th St. N. and 86th St. N. and Highway 75 and Osage County Line. All of these need support. The Miracle Among The Ruins project is a vital one for us here in the zipcode of Tulsa with the lowest life expectancy and a fourteen year gap between us and mid town just a few miles away, but the kitchengarden project is part of a bigger picture connecting the dots in what we call "The Four Directions Initiative" for TulsaNorth/Turley; a true "TNT" vision explosion for renewal.

Thanks and blessings and see you for a "party among the ruins." Don't forget to share this with all others.

Ron Robinson
430-1150 home; 6913223 cell, 7944637 office
A Third Place Community, a 501c3 grassroots, 100 percent into mission, neighborhood movement
"Small acts of justice done with great love change the world."

Tulsa World Article On Our Partnership with OU

2010-07-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100620_11_A18_TheRev414018&archive=yes

Read the article linked above in the Tulsa World about A Third Place Center and our growing partnership with the University of Oklahoma, the community health, the social work, and the design studio. We hope to increase and spread our partnership with OU into other departments, and also to partner with other universities in the Tulsa area especially.

Thanks to Dr. Lisa Byers of our A Third Place Community who helped bring others at OU into partnership with us back in 2007 when we had just opened our doors. From the first days with the mobile health van to our health clinic indoors here now, from the first community forums with OU social work students to our recently completed first Community Academy, to the work by the Design Studio on our radical transforming Miracle Among The Ruins project to create The Welcome Table Kitchen Garden Park where a city block of abandoned houses and weeds now reigns at one of the most beautiful spots in our area overlooking both downtown and much of the Bird Creek bottomland area, the campus and community working together are, in small ways, changing the world here.

Come be a part of it. Spread the news.

Our Summer Lunch For All Those 18 and Under Continues

2010-07-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

We sponsor and pay staff for the summer lunch feeding program for anyone 18 years or under, from any place, no ID required, at Cherokee Elementary School, from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm Monday through Friday, at 6001 N. Peoria. We have been up to some 80 children lately. Part of that is that we are continuing the program all summer long and some of the schools in our area, who have to rely on school staff, must close their program when their summer classes are done. Since we are community based we are paying for it all summer long and we are getting children from many areas, including day cares and church groups, who are bringing their children to us.

This is a great community service. If you can help donate for it, or for any of our programs and services you read about here on this site, please do so easily and safely through the Donate button at the top of the webpage.

Heat Alert in our Area Continues: We are a Cooling Station

2010-07-17T17:46:00.000-07:00

All this past week we have been open with water and a cool place to relax for those especially journeying by foot, bus, or bicycle. We will continue it as this next week looks like the heat alert will continue. We have also gone out to deliver cold bottles of water to those waiting at bus stops, on foot, or on bicycles in our area. If you know someone who has no electric power especially to run air conditioners or fans, tell them to come by. And we encourage you, if you are able to, to also take water around with you to distribute to those who find themselves outside and in need of it. We have supplies for you at the Center.

Take Your Community Life Survey at the Center

2010-07-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

As part of one of the partnerships between A Third Place Community and the Graduate Social Work School at OU, we are taking surveys of how people feel about their neighborhoods and their community health. These surveys are available at the Center and take some 20 minutes on average to fill out. They are done anonymously. The data will help us shape future grant requests and programs to help meet the real needs of our residents. An OU student or Community Center volunteer will help you with any questions about the survey. Come add your voice to those of your neighbors.

This is the latest of the surveys and community forums we have partnered with OU to do over the past two years. The results have been real. We have community gardens, and we have abandoned properties scheduled to be removed, and we have a new and expanded Food Pantry, and projects underway as a result of the Springtime Community Academy program.

So your voice is being heard and is being turned into better life in the neighborhoods. There is still so much to do, so every bit helps. Thanks.

OU and A Third Place Tulsa North/Turley Poverty Education Workshop Friday July 23 Helpers Needed

2010-07-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

We still need a few more folks to sign up to help us in the poverty education workshop Friday July 23 at O'Brien Park, 6147 N. Lewis, with OU Graduate Social Work students. Helpers will get free lunch at noon during an hour of easy training for the workshop which then take place from 1 to 4 pm in the gym. Pass it on to those you know who might be interested in the program. RSVP to Ron Robinson 691-3223 or 430-1150.

Helpers, community residents and activists, will take on roles of staff from health clinic, law, social services, school, bank, etc. as the incoming graduate students take on different roles of residents and try to access necessities. Play money is used but it is not a game; it is a way to begin raising understanding.

Come be a community educator.

Community Health Discussion for TulsaNorthTurley on Friday July 16 1 pm at A Third Place Center

2010-07-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

Hi come listen to a great discussion of community health issues and needs and community life stories for our area this Friday, July 16 at 1 pm at A Third Place Center as we complete our conversations with Univ. of Okla. premed and medical students as they seek to learn about various communities and their health needs. The joys and struggles of living here and living here and growing healthy families, the changes in medical care, and more. Rev. Ron Robinson and Dr. Bonnie J. Ashing, M.D., will lead the conversation.

Free Movie and Meal and Discussion Tuesday July 13 6:30 pm

2010-07-12T14:42:00.001-07:00

Come hear about the community garden plans and activities and ways you can help; and everyone can help...come have a free meal on us...come watch the acclaimed movie directed by Robert Redford, "The Milagro Beanfield War" about community, justice, land, water, farming, and risk. Tuesday, July 13, 6:30 pm at A Third Place Center.

This Saturday at 2 pm during Festival: Oklahoma State House of Representatives Proclamation Honors OU and Turley Area Partnership with A Third Place

2010-06-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

University of Oklahoma-Tulsa Relationship With A Third Place Community Center in Turley Honored by Oklahoma House of Representatives; Ceremony Scheduled For Sat. June 19 2 pm
Date: June 16, 2010
For More Information, contact Dr. Lisa Byers, 814-7562 or Ron Robinson, Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation, 918-691-3223 or 794-4637

A public ceremony honoring the accomplishments of the campus-community partnership and relationship between various schools of the University of Oklahoma and the residents of far north Tulsa and the adjacent unincorporated area of Turley will take place Saturday, June 19 at 2 pm at A Third Place Community Center, 6514 N. Peoria Ave., featuring State Rep. Seneca Scott, who serves the area, and OU and A Third Place officials.

An official proclamation from the Oklahoma State House of Representatives will be read and presented to the University of Oklahoma thanking it for its programs, especially in community health, social work, and design, which have created positive change in the lives of residents in the immediate area, one of the lowest income and least serviced areas and with the lowest life expectancy in the Tulsa region. A Third Place Community Foundation's service area is from North 46th to 86th Streets and from Highway 75 to the Osage County Line. Certificates will also be given from OU School of Social Work to local residents who recently participated in all sessions of community project organizing classes sponsored by A Third Place and OU.

For the past three years, OU has worked for community development in the local area in partnership with A Third Place Community Foundation, a grassroots non-profit community renewal organization working in Tulsa North and the adjacent unincorporated neighborhood of Turley, OK. Major accomplishments of the partnership just in these past few years include a Community Health Clinic and medical information in the Center, ongoing community forums for citizens to participate and plan programs, community gardening canvassing, identifying the high rate of abandoned run-down homes and properties in need in the urban unincorporated area especially, nutritional studies and assistance, volunteering at the Community Center, establishing a resource center and practicum site for graduate social work students to help residents, helping to establish a Food Pantry, donating trees after the 2007 ice storm, initiating a free Community Academy of classes in community organizing, and helping to design a current proposed project to turn a city block of abandoned homes in the area into a community kitchen garden park.

The ceremony will be held during the weekend's Fourth Annual Turley and Area Free Festival, a Juneteenth and Local/Whole Foods Week celebration that will run Friday and Saturday, June 18 and 19 at the A Third Place Community Center and at O'Brien Park, 6230 N. Birmingham. A panel discussion will take place following the ceremony on "Next Steps For Building Our Healthy Community." The many volunteer opportunities in the area, especially for food and gardening and animal welfare and safety and other issues, will be highlighted, along with the Juneteenth focus on the need for continuing efforts toward reconciliation along race, ethnic and other means by working together for the good of the wider community, according to Ron Robinson, Executive Director of A Third Place, an all volunteer group of local residents celebrating this month the third anniversary of the creation of the Center located on North Peoria.

Free live music, food, games, children's activities, tye-dye art, community information, and programs on the area's past, present, and future will be held from Friday June 18 noon to 9 pm and Saturday June 19 from 10 am to 10 pm. Free swimming will be offered at the Tulsa County O'Brien Park pool for all who bring at least two cans of food for the A Third Place Food Pantry.

For more information, contact Dr. Lisa Byers of OU-Tulsa School of Social Work, or A Third Place Center, 691-3223 or 794-4637.

Food Pantry Expansion Celebration Thurs. June 17 3 pm: More Than 900 Pounds of Food Arriving

2010-06-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

Come help us bless, dedicate, and stock our Food Pantry with our first order from the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma; 900 pounds of food to distribute. Come sign up and learn how to be a volunteer. Come take. Spread the Word.

Thank you to our OU Tulsa graduate social work student this past year, Adriane Jaynes, for all her hard work getting us to this point, to all the students with the OU classes who worked with Turley and Area residents on this project in community forums, and to the hard working Board members and volunteers of A Third Place Community Foundation for having the original vision and donating funds and sweat and equipment to set it up and get it ready for the food coming on Thursday. A great beginning and only a small piece of our Food Justice Work, but a big step.

Channel Six News Story on our Miracle Among The Ruins project for The Welcome Table Community Kitchen Garden Park

2010-06-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12642450

Thanks Channel 6. One correction as folks will see in the blog posts below is that we are seeking to purchase one acre with 12 city lots, a full city block, for the gardens, kitchen, play area and community space. You can donate easily and safely through the button above. You don't have to have paypal. We just need in all of Tulsa area, or from elsewhere as we would love this to have a global connection, 90 people to give $100 each and we will have it, but of course any amount donated is dearly appreciated. Or pass the story on to a few other friends and go together to jointly raise the $100 or more donation. Or you can mail a check to A Third Place at 6514 N. Peoria Ave. Turley, OK 74126 or drop it by the community center. Don't wait, Donate. Be an owner of the park. Donate in honor or memory of someone who loved community, justice, gardens; or for the future, give in the name of your children or grandchildren; all donors will be recognized at the site with a sign.

http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/see-vision-miracle-among-ruins.html
This takes you to a full description of the project, and its unique need, and links to videos.

http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/06/ou-tulsa-graduate-design-studio-and-our.html
This links to the full OU Graduate Design Studio proposal documents

http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/miracle-among-ruins-welcome-table.html
This link goes direct to the video of the project prepared by the Design students.

http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/four-directions-initiative-tnt-vision.html
This link gives you the bigger picture of our community renewal and development vision, and puts this garden park project into our total perspective for our full two mile service area from 46th to 86th St. N. and from Highway 75 to the Osage County Line.

http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/06/experience-miracle-catch-spirit.html
And this link will take you to some of the ever evolving news of our Fourth Annual Turley and Area Free Festival For Juneteenth and LocalFoods Week this coming weekend. A great way to come see for yourself hope growing, and find a way to be a part of it.

Thanks OU Tulsa Graduate Social Work students also for helping our local residents dream the dream from our community forums the past two years where we heard stories of hunger and nutrition and no access to healthy food, along with abandoned properties in our area that never get cleaned up, and in general the sense that people didn't have community spirit and proud.

Come see our many many projects of hope going on, all by volunteers here grassroots; see other posts here for our coming events and happenings this week, this month, this summer.

Experience The Miracle! Catch The Spirit! Adventures in Living! Fourth Annual Turley & Area Free Festival For Juneteenth/Local Food Week June 18-19

2010-06-07T16:20:00.000-07:00

4th Annual Turley & Area Free Festival
June 18-19, 2010
A Third Place Community Center
6514 N. Peoria
Celebrate our Past, Present & Future as a Healthy Community
http://www.turleyok.blogspot.com/
Everyone Is Welcome!
Be a Part of Local Foods Week

Friday June 18
Free Lunch & Kickoff noon-1
Band & Games 1-2
History Presentation-Turley Tour 2-4
Free Supper and Band : Turley and Area Jammers 4:30-6:30
Hands on History Project 7-8
Band and Games 8-9
Juneteenth Display

Schedule of Events June 19
10-noon Tye Dye Tshirt Making
10-noon Turley Community Renewal Projects
Noon-2 Free Lunch & Band Johnny and the Oklahomans
2-4 Tye Dye Tshirt Making
2-4 Community Presentations by State Rep. Seneca Scott and University of Oklahoma followed by Panel Presentation: Our Healthy Community Future: Plans & Visions
4:30-6:30 Free Dinner & Band
7-10 Your Voice for “Tulsa North Turley” Map of the Future: Four Directions Initiative
8-10 Closing Celebration and Band DNR classic rock and blues

Free Swimming at O'Brien Park, 6230 N. Birmingham near 61st and N. Lewis, with two cans of food for the A Third Place Food Pantry

Children’s Activities!Wii Games
Giant Book & Clothing Giveaway
& More!

Celebrate Whole Foods Week and Juneteenth.

We are all volunteers. We pay for this together. Freewill Donations on site or online at http://www.turleyok.blogspot.com/ to make it happen.

Email: thirdplaceturley@aol.com or revronrobinson@aol.com
Call: 794-4637, 430-1150, 691-3223
Find A Way To Help. Pass The Word.

OU Tulsa Graduate Design Studio and our TulsaNorthTurley Transformational Garden Park

2010-06-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

http://tulsagrad.ou.edu/studio/turley/A%20Third%20Place%20Community%20Foundation%20Community%20Garden%20Park.pdf

Click on the above link to go to the full presentation on the plans for our Garden Park project in our area. Pass this on to others. Catch the hope. Make it real. Donate easily and simply at the button above; you don't have to have paypal to use it, or send a check to us at A Third Place 6514 N. Peoria Ave. Turley OK 74126.

Miracle Among The Ruins: The Welcome Table Kitchen Garden Park project i...

2010-05-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

Type your summary hereType rest of the post here

See The Vision: Miracle Among The Ruins.

2010-05-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?video_id=KN_3HJTdLxM&ns=1

Above is the link to the video produced by OU Design Studio and A Third Place Community for The Welcome Table Kitchen Garden Park project, transformation "TNT" vision in TulsaNorthTurley. Go be amazed at the possiblities and share this post with as many as you can.

Below is the link for the video that shows a part of the property and area the way it is now, from a first video produced as a project by OU Graduate Social Work students working with us at A Third Place. The project has morphed and evolved into the vision of the video above, but we thank the students for helping us imagine this project last summer and fall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhgFKD6_i_w

The next video we need to make will sure the surrounding area and the number of burned out still standing and other vacant abandoned homes around this proposed. This project is one of several we have going on, but it is our major one at the moment and is connected to the larger plan of community renewal that calls for action for justice. We who live here are beginning it, but we invite you to be a paret of our "E.P.I.C." movement, experiencing and participating in the imagining of community, especially here where community has been fragmented.

In our area of the lowest life expectancy in the Tulsa area, in a healthy food desert, with 40percent of vacant homes abandoned, with school cutbacks especially in science in our area, with gang activity nearby, with community centers being shut down, a group of local residents are organizing community in an association called A Third Place, 6514 N. Peoria, and we are transforming in our area a city block of rundown property on a hill overlooking downtown Tulsa, in an area bridging two diverse ethnic neighborhoods, 60th and N. Johnstown Ave.

What you see is the garden park project divided into three overall areas.

The southern third of the transformed city block will be an open space with a gazebo for entertaining; this is the side with the best views of downtown Tulsa from this hilltop; the middle third of the park will have a portable and fixed kitchen areas for demonstrating and teaching and family use for grilling or dehydrating etc. the food grown on site, and it contains a fire pit for community or family gatherings, picnic tables for eating and meeting, and a playground;

the northern third will be the community garden beds, many raised for accessibility; what isn't shown as much will be the compost and toolshed areas. We have volunteers ready to go and are lining up other groups to help us with hands on volunteering, grantwriting and fundraising to augment our phased in creation of this vision

We are working with the OU-Tulsa Graduate Design Studio, which made this movie and our architectural plans, and with the OU Tulsa Graduate Social Work Department which helped us launch this dream, but our Miracle Among the Ruins can only, will only, happen with your donation by going to www.turleyok.blogspot.com for more info and to donate and only if you share this with someone else.

Thank you for your action.