Will Acuff on Building Relationship and Improving Communities

16 Apr 2018

Today I had a Penny Chat with Will Acuff discussing how organizations can form relationships with communities. Will should know, he and his wife Tiffany founded Corner toCorner a group that made huge inroads into helping underprivileged communities in Nashville. The reason that I want to learn about this is because my church, (New Garden Church), is making a concerted effort right now to better connect to our community. In some ways we are positioned perfectly to do this - our church services are in Dupont Tyler Middle School. However we have yet to make meaningful relationships with the people in our community outside of our congregation. So we’re looking for help!

The Story of Corner to Corner

Will started the conversation by telling us how Corner to Corner got started. When Will and his wife first moved to Nashville, they decided to make a difference in their community. Tiffany was the first to make an impact. She started working as a rehabilitation counselor in the prison system. A problem she found was that inmates had trouble getting jobs because inevitably their jail time would come up during interviews, and it became an obvious sticking point that kept them from getting jobs. Tiffany developed a curriculum where the inmates would practice having that conversation. Rather than an negative summary of the details of their crime, the conversation would positive - they would own up to the crime and but move the conversation into a discussion about the lessons they learned and the character they gained while in prison. Will was next to make a move, he identified community centers and find the people who were making things happen, then he helped them make it happen. Soon he was leading efforts in the community through things like tutoring programs and after-school programs.

Advice for Building Relationships and Improving Communities

After reviewing the history of Corner to Corner, the conversation turned toward advice for our church and general tips for making a difference in our community. Here are some of the insights that Will had for us:

• Focus on the assets already present in the community, not the needs. Though it is not intuitive, handing out food and clothing, etc. often backfires. It provides a short term “high” for the provider (“I feel good - I provided someone a meal.”) but it doesn’t really help the individuals in the community to better provide for themselves. What’s more, it can place these individuals into a bad mind-space where they think of themselves as not being able to provide for themselves. Instead of focusing on needs, it is often better to go into a community and look for their assets. What hidden things does the community have going for them? How do we highlight those things and build them up further? This create a much more healthy “can-do” dynamic in the community.
• Relationships come first. Lots of “churchy” folks lead with the Gospel message because, after all, a relationship with God is ultimately the important thing. But leading with this can have the opposite effect from what is intended. Religion (like politics), is a touchy subject, and bringing it up too soon can cause people to become very uncomfortable. Additionally, it may seem disingenuous - like your just checking the boxes. Rather, Will recommends that your effort should be on first getting people’s attention, then helping people, forming relationships, and only then moving on to deeper discussions. For instance, Will said that if he was to have a 10 week financial education program, his goal would be to have 45 people sign up, have 30 people make it through the course (because that is the typical attrition), and then form lasting relationships with maybe 5 to 10 of the people.
• Lead by following. You can’t be the guy on the stage for every program you put on - and you don’t want to be. Get people from the community to lead and be the first to follow. Catalyze others to help, and then you work in the background to make them a success. In doing all of this you pull more people and more types of people into the situation, you gain efficiency (because you can’t do it all), and you still get to meet people and form those relationships.
• Play the long game. Churches are often looking for the weekend service project or the easy place to put their Sunday contributions - and there’s really nothing wrong with that, it does help people out. But if you really want to make a difference in your community it requires a sustained, consistent, and long-term investment. Again - you’re looking to make relationships and relationships take time.
• Engage in your own neighborhood first. Do you want to help out your community? Well how many of your next-door neighbors do you know by first name? If the answer is zero then you need to start practicing relationship building right around your own home. Relationship building isn’t a behavior that you turn on and off - it’s a lifestyle.

And finally, my church is in a a particularly interesting situation this year because we’ve decided to dedicate 100% of our Sunday contributions to our community. I’m on the generosity committee that decides where this money goes, and I’ve got to tell you it’s hard work to find impactful places to place our money. (Hey! And if you have any good ideas, then let me know!). Here’s is Will’s advice for this. Our money should be spent roughly in 3 equal parts: community, training people in the church, and non-profits. Spending money on the community means building programs and having charitable events for the community (for example holding a Financial Peace University class, having a food drive, or tutoring). Training people in the church helps activate our membership and helps them to understand how they can engage with the community. Finally, we’re finding out that it’s very hard to find enough community programs to spend all of our contributions, so funding worthy non-profits is a great way to help out the larger community and put money toward a good cause.

Thanks for the great discussion Will, I learned a lot!