These past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to travel the roads of Texas to listen, learn, and visit organizations and possible partners in our work of convening and supporting the process of getting resources to places they haven’t gone historically.
I have driven about 2,000 miles and still haven’t seen a giant portion of the state. I have been to San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, College Station, and Austin. And Buc-ee’s is quite amazing.
I have had the honor of talking to pastors, community leaders, business owners, activists, funders, investors, journalists, film makers, principals, academics, and practitioners. The work of all these folks individually is incredible, but when you put it all together, you begin to see the possibility of a shift happening.
I believe today even more that a just economy is possible and a seismic, systematic shift is on the way. It will take time and intention, but I can see it coming.
I talked to folks doing multi-million dollar projects and others meeting with a small group of people in their neighborhood. The beauty, my friends, is that these can be connected, and, when connected, can move the economic needle substantially.
Think about all the pieces like affordable housing, healthcare, local business support, education, job creation, houseless support, entrepreneur training and resourcing, repurposing church buildings, and loans to BIPOC business owners to scale. I have seen all of this over the last two weeks in one state, and now we must connect all these dots.
Imagine all these things represented in one place, and the networks that will come together from such a place. We will convene such a thing in February, and the place will be San Antonio. There will be local, regional, and national representatives, and you should be there. I will be there, and I hope to see you there, too..
Beloved community is sometimes used as hyperbole, but this is way more than hype. It’s a very real and practical possibility.