“Unwrapping” a basic understanding of Child Homelessness

I am not an Object or a Commodity. I’m a Person.

By Ashley Thornton | April 6, 2014 |

by Ryn Farmer, Community Organizer, Waco Community Development Corporation (Waco CDC) I have really been soul-searching over the last few years about what it means to be culturally competent. It is a term widely used in the social work field and has also gained a lot of traction in the medical field over the past…

Unwrapping a Basic Understanding of Veteran Homelessness

By Ashley Thornton | March 30, 2014 |

by Phil York, Act Locally Waco Housing and Homelessness Policy blogger “It is simply unacceptable for individuals, children, families and our nation’s Veterans to be faced with homelessness in this country” – President Obama, June 18, 2009. Who is your favorite superhero? It seems like the silver screen is flush with superhero smash hits every…

Designing a transportation network with everyone in mind

By Ashley Thornton | March 15, 2014 |

by Felix Landry Since I moved to Waco and began working as a city planner, Waco’s poverty has been the topic of discussion I run into most. I hear it at work, church, in local magazines, the newspaper, the radio, from our city leaders, and even at social events. Most Wacoans I know seem to…

Living Hope

By Ashley Thornton | March 8, 2014 |

By Alexis Christensen What happens when we become disillusioned with the work at hand? With the community we’ve cried for, lived in, believed in? How do we keep the picture of the beloved community from being stripped from our minds and hearts? What happens when hope seems like a far off dream? As a community…

Leaving the Baylor Bubble

By Ashley Thornton | March 2, 2014 |

by Caleb Reynolds, Baylor Student “Did the faculty tell y’all not to talk to us?” are words that I will never forget. When a homeless man named Cody asked if my “Christian” college told its students to avoid the poor I nearly broke down. Meeting this man opened my blind eyes. I saw a reality…

A White person reflects on Black History Month

By Ashley Thornton | February 22, 2014 |

By Ashley Bean Thornton Like many White, middle-class Americans, I grew up understanding life as a competition, a footrace. The ones who run the fastest, and by that I mean work the hardest, win the prizes. I knew good, hardworking people – my parents for example – who were winning, and I expected to be…

Pressing Toward Collaboration

By Ashley Thornton | February 16, 2014 |

By Kelsey Scherer A couple months ago, I was driving through Austin on the way to a conference for work. I glanced at an overpass to see these words scrawled across the concrete wall: “Collaboration is currency” The phrase stunned me with its elegant simplicity. Encouraging community collaboration, dialogue, and connection is a huge part…

How will we know downtown Waco has “arrived?”

By Ashley Thornton | February 9, 2014 |

by Megan Henderson, Executive Director, Waco Downtown Development Corporation There are so many notions of what “good” means in relation to downtown. Some folks remember a time when the sidewalks were crowded and most of what a family needed could be – and was – purchased there. Young folks picture a place filled with hip…

How Can a Vuvuzela Impact the World?

By Ashley Thornton | February 2, 2014 |

by Josh Lawson, Mentoring Advocate and Director of Community Engagement at Antioch Community Church There is an old adage that says, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Or as some pessimists would chide, “The HOLE is greater than the sum of its parts.” As we look around our city, we can…