In September, 2007, Our Lord gave us eyes to see that our local community has been deeply traumatized by violence and poverty. This community trauma expressed itself as many residents just gave up on improving their lives and stopped dreaming. Thus, we were led to launch a three year community wide campaign challenging our community to “Dream Again.” As a result, under the Holy Spirit’s leading we initiated phase one of this strategy to reverse this social paralysis in the name and power of Jesus Christ.

Phase 1: Get People Talking and Dreaming Again

This early phase involved RPC members conducting over 150 one-on-one conversations within our congregation and over 600 conversations throughout our local community.  The heart of these conversations was to challenge people to reclaim the dreams that they once had, but no longer believed were possible. Our mission: to convince as many as possible of the love of Jesus Christ and the commitment of His church to come along side and help them realize God inspired dreams. Here was an opportunity to test the truth of scripture, “We can do all things through Christ who is our strength.” We conducted a six week small group Bible Study with 112 participants learning that God is the ultimate Dream Giver who has provided a process for claiming and pursuing our greatest dreams.

Phase 2: Get People To Pursue Their Dreams With Faith In God’s Power

Beginning in October of 2008, we commenced the second phase of our Dream Again Campaign - Pursuing Your Dreams. During this phase we invited church and community participants to write down and prioritize their biggest dreams.  In a special worship service these dreams were presented and consecrated to the Lord. We then gathered the dreams of our church and community into six categories.  These categories shaped a DREAM strategy, which begin to reframe the daily work of our RPC Social Impact Center, Inc

D - Debt Reduction
R - Realizing Personal Growth
E - Education
A - Asset Development/Home Ownership
M - Mental Wellness and Recovery
S - Spiritual Growth/Safe Neighborhoods

In addition, we conducted a Pursue Your Dream Fair. We invited experts in the six areas noted above to spend the day helping participants to work out a strategy to commence the pursuit of their dreams.  These participants met for the next six weeks in small groups, growing together spiritually while supporting one another in their initial efforts of God-centered dream pursuit. Today, homeowners, graduate students, small business owners, those who have broken free of debt have come out of these groups. Glory to God! Phase 3 (RPC Pursuing A Dream to build deeper, transformative relationships with the local community)

Phase 3: RPC Pursuing A Dream to build deeper, transformative relationships with the local community

 40 Days of Community/Adopt –A-School Campaign

On September 26, 2006, Roxbury Presbyterian Church (RPC) will Kick off stage three of our Dream Again Campaign.  On this day we will launch an ambitious and faith filled effort to adopt two local schools (Higginson-Lewis K-8 and the Dearborn Middle School) in the Roxbury Neighborhood.  For 40 Days, the members and friends of RPC will worship and study together around the theme, “We Are Better Together.”    In addition, our members and friends will engage with parents, teachers and students of our two adopted schools in a variety of ways.  They will mentor children, coming along side exhausted parents to be Godparents; our high school youth will serve as big brothers and sisters; teams of volunteers will work in classrooms, libraries, cafeterias and on improving the school buildings and grounds.  The goal: to build deep relationships between the church and these schools that will enable the schools to pursue dreams that they otherwise do not have the resources to pursue alone.
 
Roxbury Presbyterian Church Mobilizes the Community to Rebuild the Community

We will pursue the work of empowering 800 families and faculty members of our two adopted schools to dream again with partners from around the city: Roxbury Presbyterian Church Social Impact Center, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO), and Trinity Episcopal Church of Boston.  Both of our Adopted schools have developed dream lists that stretch from supplies, to field trips, to a variety of programmatic needs that are currently beyond their budgets’ reach.  Informed by these lists, and six months of preparatory work with both schools’ administrations, RPC has developed a variety of programmatic and relational approaches that will enable us and our partners to come along side our adopted schools in supportive ways.   The Roxbury Presbyterian Church Social Impact Center, Inc. (SIC) will offer coordination for the church-based mentoring program and recruit college students to assist with MCAS preparations.  Together with Trinity Boston Foundation, SIC will offer a five week intensive Academic and Cultural Leadership enrichment program targeting 24 students, with 9 college counselors during the summer. These students will remain a part of this program with ongoing support through high school and college until graduation.  Each year will introduce twenty four new students to this program.  During the Fall and Spring, SIC and Trinity will team  up to engage 8th graders from our adopted schools in a 12 week intensive preparation course to support them through the admission processes of selective high schools.

SIC in partnership with GBIO will continue the work started this summer by GBIO organizers.   These organizers are busy meeting one-on-one with parents and teachers listening to them and helping them to talk and listen to one another about shared dreams.  This work will be continued by RPC members and friends, with the support of GBIO leaders, as we work to establish real relationships (person to person) with the 800 families, students and faculty of these two schools.  It is our prayer to inspire, organize and support these parents, students and teachers in the process of building the necessary power to truly realize dreams that seem out of reach now.   And it is our prayer that by our work, the reality of Jesus Christ’s love will be visible, powerful and transformative.

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Purpose - Implement a program that initiates dreaming for individual self, family and community.

Mission - The goal is to inspire the members and friends of the RPC family and the families of the Roxbury Community to “Dream Again”. Furthermore, we will seek to initiate a process to equip and partner with campaign participants in their desire to move from dreaming to dream fulfillment. Life’s circumstances – violence in the community; devastating dysfunctions and disasters in the home; and unresolved issues and unhealed wounds among the people of God, have conspired over the years to convince many to stop dreaming and simply settle. Many have decided to accept life as it is, on its own terms. God calls for us to Dream Again. Through a fresh encounter with biblical principles, and corporate support, participants will discover that God is able to do more than can be asked or imagined according to His power at work in us (together), if we would but dare to Dream Again.

In the following video clip, Reverend Hamilton of Roxbury Presbyterian Church, encourages each of us to dream in such a way that we might reach our God-given potential: http://www.dogooder.tv/Orgs/ColoradoHealth/default.aspx?MovieID=812

The Dream Again Small Groups are now in full swing. We have approximately 25 groups meeting in the church and in the homes of people throughout Boston. There are also groups meeting every day of the week including Women’s groups, Men's groups, and Youth groups at the church. We are excited to see what will happen as we meet together to nurture the dreams that God has given us and learn how to move from dreaming to dream fulfillment.

Coordinators
Dr. Rhonda Hamilton, Co-Chair
Elder Dennis Johnson, Co-Chair
Florence Huffman, Campaign Director
Contact: 617 445-2116