“People who differ can work together. Maybe it’s idealistic. But you can’t have goals without idealism and ambition.”
— Keeley Rosenthal, Dublin
Recently, over a period of several weeks, 17 people from throughout the Pennridge community came together to experience a process called “A Small Group” (ASG).
ASG is designed to offer participants alternative ways to build community through structured conversations that focus on new possibilities to old situations. Hosted by the local nonprofit organization, justCommunity Inc., the ASG participants included five Pennridge High School students, 10 adults from the greater Pennridge community and two co-facilitators, Lee Rush, lifelong Pennridge resident and executive director and founder of justCommunity and Dan Joyner, a justCommunity consultant.
“Originally the idea of holding these conversations came about as a follow up to the event we participated in back in the fall of 2020,” recalled Rush. “Along with the Peace Center, the Pennridge School District and all five police departments serving Pennridge, (Bedminster Township, Dublin Borough, Hilltown Township, Pennridge Regional, Perkasie Borough), we participated in the online showing of the film, “Walking While Black, L.O.V.E. is the Answer,” which attracted over 160 pre-registered participants.”
The film has been shown to hundreds of Bucks County residents over the past 18 months and has engaged citizens and police officers in critical conversations about their experiences and interactions with each other.
“While there was much interest in the film, the key to any change has got to be followup,” Rush said. “And it has got to be an intergenerational, interracial mix of people that come together to discuss what is possible, so I reached out to the Minority Inclusive Club at the high school to participate in ASG and asked for interested adults who viewed the film to be in touch if they wanted to continue the conversation.”
“Then in January of this year I noticed a small announcement in the newspaper that our local bank, Penn Community Bank, was awarding small grants to nonprofits and businesses, so we applied,” said Rush. “A couple of weeks later much to my surprise, I received an email from Bernard Tynes, senior vice president of marketing, communications and data analytics for Penn Community, telling us that out of 200 applications, our organization was one of only 11 recipients who were awarded the grant.”
Tynes explained in a phone interview, “We wanted to be impactful to the community. The work that justCommunity does aligns nicely with our focus around diversity, equity and inclusion, but more importantly, with our overall mission as a community stronghold in Bucks and Montgomery County.”
The structure of ASG is based on the book “Community: The Structure of Belonging,” by Peter Block. Using a series of questions designed to engage people to focus on imagining “what’s possible” instead of “what’s wrong,” everyone who took part in the meetings committed to attending four two-hour online sessions and to prepare each week by reading chapters from the book.
Joyner, of Cincinnati, a community leadership consultant and veteran practitioner of ASG, co-facilitated the sessions with Rush. “I was impressed by how quickly people connected with each other. By the end of our time together, they formed a community of practice,” remarked Joyner. “They began taking turns running the groups themselves. The best outcome was that people saw how they could take the conversations into their lives at home and at work.”
During phone interviews, four participants shared their reasons for joining ASG and what they gained.
“I wanted to be a part of group that is looking for change,” said Keeley Rosenthal, of Dublin, Bucks County Emergency and Court Services coordinator and mental health delegate. A mother and stepmother of four, she hoped the meetings would help create “a more diverseand inclusive community.”
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