Kingdom Networking / S.O.A.R.

When I reflect upon my personal employment history, I've worked as a busboy, a waiter, a babysitter, a land development intern, a roadway engineer, and as an outreach worker here at Neighbor to Neighbor (n2n). While all those jobs on the surface might be unrelated, there is a key link between all of them. To get my foot in the door, I needed a connection. While they are needed and very helpful, I didn't need a youth employment program or anything else along those lines. I simply needed a connected neighbor that was willing to share their networks with me.


We are about to begin the S.O.A.R. program (more information below). Within our S.O.A.R program we have a 30-hr paid internship available for each participant that completes the 8-week Jobs for Life training curriculum. Upon completion, we will have a graduation and a job fair aimed at placing each participant with a career-based employer.


Below is a list which identifies our participant's work experience and/or key areas of interest. If  you, your employer or someone you know would consider bringing on an intern during the month of July, please have them call or email Cas directly and he will personally meet with them and discuss in detail the program and each participant.


Participants key areas of experience and interest:

• Truck Driver
• Moving Company
• Landscaping
• Warehouse
• Painter
• Computer network/IT
• Interior Design
• Light Construction
• Retail
• Business (office assistance)
• Building Maintenance
• Youth Outreach
• Restaurant/Cooking/Wait staff
• Carpenter (licensed)
• Metal Stud Framing

At n2n we are called to build communities of hope, justice, and compassion. Lack of opportunity and resources is a justice issue. Come partner with us as we aim to provide equal access to the resources of God's kingdom.

Sharing  your networks and connections are vital to the success of the S.O.A.R. project. Would you consider partnering with us by sharing your networks and connections?


Information on the S.O.A.R. Project:  S.O.A.R. (Southeast Raleigh Pastors Organizing for Action and Results) is a collaborative group of churches and non-profits that desire to see significant change in the gang crisis affecting our city. This project seeks to target 20 young men, 18 and older, who are at-risk of gang involvement, and provide them with job-training, internships, male mentors and various support services. This project has been funded by the Department of Juvenile Justice and will fuse Jobs for Life curriculum, male mentorship and a MAD House Basketball-type league. Upon graduation from the Jobs for Life class each participant in the program will receive a paid 30 hour internship at a place of employment.

To get a hold of Casanova (Cas) Womack, our S.O.A.R. Director, call him directly at 919-389-6301 or email him at casanova@n2noutreach.org

Misguided Cuts

One of the headlines today in the New York Times read: School Districts Warn of Even Deeper Teacher Cuts

"School districts around the country, forced to resort to drastic money-saving measures, are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June."

Budget cuts.  Money-saving measures.  What that is, is simply sacrificing the future for the present.

Couple that with the fact that prisons look at 2nd/3rd grade test scores to determine how many prisons they should build to accommodate the future prison population.. and you have a very broken, very twisted link between the present state of education in our country and the future prison population.

Geoffrey Canada says, that right now we are experiencing the "educational equivalent of Hurricane Katrina".  Sadly, I think he may be right.

Our Vegetable Garden

The garden box is 4' x 8'.  Once we prepared the soil we (Emily and I) dug trenches to put in our border.  If you are facing west (or away from the road) the slope in our yard goes to the back left corner of our box.  If you look closely you can see some stones (or riprap for all my civils out there) that will act as erosion control because it drains to that corner (the wood along that edge is purposely not as deep as it should be so there is a gap of about 4 inches at that corner).  You can't see it well, but the rows are diagonal so that the water will flow towards that corner.  My North Carolina State education is going to work!  I usually don't post personal stuff like this on here.. but I was just too excited about how great this thing turned out.

Hopefully we'll be able to grow romaine lettuce, jalapenos, green peppers, basil, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes.