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ACT

Anne Arundel Connecting Together (ACT)

JUNE/JULY 2024 NEWS

Click here for June/July 2024 Newsletter

APRIL 2024 NEWS

Click here to read about our recent victories in improving affordable housing opportunities for area residents.

MARCH 2024 NEWS

Click here for March 2024 Newsletter

DECEMBER 2023 NEWS

For those of you who could not attend the 5 Year ACT Anniversary Meeting at St. Andrew by the Bay; attached are some photos from that meeting; pleas use the attached link:

https://pixieset.david.choy.me/act-2023-11-02/

You can also view the entire meeting on the SABB Website on the Livestream Video.

As we celebrate ACT’s 5th Anniversary, it is quite clear that our growth and accomplishments could not have occurred without the valuable support and commitment of St. Andrew by the Bay. ACT is truly back, and we are anticipating your continued engagement and support in 2024! Reviewing the year-end accomplishments, this spring we completed a successful Listening Campaign where nearly 100 ACT leaders listened to over 1200 people.

The four priority topics resulted in creating 4 new Active Issue Teams: Housing, Mental Health, Education, and Gun Violence. Led by 9 new team leaders, these issue teams are now working with a core engagement of nearly 50 people.

During the summer, 57 new leaders were also trained in community organizing skills in ACT’s first-ever Summer Camp.

The 2023 rebuilding and reorganizing during the year also built the people power that enabled us to:

• Support the Turnaround Thursday Movement with participants attending weekly sessions and completing Essential Skills training and gaining employment.

• Organize a successful 5th Anniversary Action with over 425 attending -- challenging elected officials to address the barriers to affordable housing in the county.

• Continue our meetings with the County Executive, Councilmembers, Health and Education officials.

• Improve the communications to our members and the community with our new website and database; and

• Update our bylaws and begin a process for being more intentional about diversity, equity, and belonging in ACT starting with the creation of a Values Statement.

Building onto these gains, our 2024 plans are even bolder – which is why your support is even more important as we:

• Aggressively pursue actions to ensure that affordable housing exists for county residents through legislative and policy changes and collaboration with the industry community.

• Engage with county officials to increase mental health support for youth & educators in AACPS.

• Define the actions to initiate a Mental Health Training Program and resources for people living in communities experiencing gun violence.

• Work to gain access to beds or high-level mental health care for youth in our county; and

• Continue to develop leaders across our organization and prioritize the leadership of people from marginalized backgrounds and those with limited means.

For additional information concerning ACT or if you would like to join the team feel free to contact Michael Riggin: michaelriggin@gmail.com.

JUNE 2023 NEWS

We've finished our Listening Campaign - Join our Next Steps!

Over five months we listened to 1,268 people! Great work to everyone who was organizing and leading Listening Sessions in your congregations and organizations!

The ACT Strategy Team hosted a retreat this past weekend. 37 leaders from 12 different member organizations joined together to chart our path forward. We walked away with 4 new Action Research Teams! Mental Health, Housing, Education, and Gun Violence will be our new teams and each team will be led by wonderful co-chairs who stepped forward to lead!

Five experts joined us to share their knowledge and experience with us and we walked away with many new ideas about how to tackle these issues and some potential new allies. Each team decided when their next meeting will be (below).

Gun Violence: Tuesday, June 20 @ 7pm on zoom
Education: Wednesday, June 21, 7-8:30pm @ St. Philip's
Mental Health: Thursday, June 22, @ 7-8:30pm on zoom
Housing: Stay tuned

You can RSVP to join these meetings on our new Event Calendar. If you're not able to make one of these meetings, but you'd like to join the team or learn more, please email Katie.

We also discussed our values as individuals and voted to narrow down what ACT's Core Values as an organization should be. We'll be working with these ideas to present a first draft at our next County-wide Meeting (September 7 @7:00PM) and to develop an organizational policy for discrimination & harassment.

FEBRUARY 2023 NEWS

ACT Meeting held on January 30th was well attended. There were close to 40 people from six different churches on the Broadneck Peninsula. The meeting also included four different Pastors including Fr. Andrew and the new ACT organizer Katie Zinler.

For ACT Annual Report 2022, click HERE

As many are aware, Anne Arundel Connecting Together was organized five years ago to engage community members in a mission to address critical social needs in our county. SABB and a number of other Broadneck faith communities are included in in this countywide organization.

During these five years a number of important issues have been successfully addressed. Recently, ACT hired Katie Zinler to serve as the first Full Time Lead Organizer, an important step to enhance the value ACT can bring to our county’s mission to be “The Best Place for All”. Katie brings valuable experience, skill and new energy to ACT.

The purpose of this meeting to is to meet Katie, become updated on ACT’s current actions and goals, and to learn more about Listening Sessions as an effective tool to engage others in this mission.

Please feel free to contact Mike Riggin (MichaelRiggin@gmail.com)SABB ACT team lead, Marge Tsitouris (tsitouris@earthlink.net ) or Bob Kight (bobkight@comcast.net) with any questions or suggestions.