Sanctuary Collective Turns One

A few days ago, my credit card was billed for the Sanctuary Collective domain, marking our official one year mark!  Micah and I spent a good portion of 2009 meeting with friends, advisors, and prospective participants before launching our programming in mid-2009. Now, at the start of 2009, we have a lot to celebrate from the past year.  Here's some:

• Launched, sustained, and grew NYC Community Nights which serve as a hub for Sanctuary Collective volunteer activity in New York and led one participant to apply for the Discipleship Program (more on that later)
• Traveled from Austin, TX to Lynchburg, VA meeting with prospective participants and supporters to asses needs, generate interest, and recruit participants
• Accepted our first class of nine Discipleship Program participants!
• Began to document stories of young adults organizing for justice on our blog, Flickr, and YouTube pages

I am excited that you are part of this movement and look forward to sharing even more adventures with you in the months and years to come.  Here's a preview of things to come

Community Night NYC
We will continue to meet weekly in New York City for fellowship and service.  Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend.  Drop-in between 5:30 - 8:30 PM on Thursday evenings.

Local Community Nights
In the coming months, we will be helping supporters across the country launch community nights in their communities.  If you want to get plugged in to a local community night, email micah@sanctuarycollective.org. If you are interested in starting your own local community night, fill out our volunteer interest form and we'll help you get started.

Night of Celebration
In April, we will have our first ever Night of Celebration.  It will be something larger than a community night and smaller than a national conference. It's a time to gather friends who can make it to New York for a time of celebration and sharing.  We will screen videos from our participants, display photographs from the field, showcase spoken word, and offer opportunities for input and collaboration.  Get excited and keep an eye out for more information!

Discipleship Program Participant Blogs
If you haven't done so already, visit the Discipleship Program page to meet some of our fantastic participants.  Many of them have agreed to blog publicly about their experiences.  Those entries will be posted February 3rd (next Wednesday) so make sure you know how to find our blog (tip: you can subscribe in an RSS or Google Reader to keep up-to-date).


Here's to an exciting and fruitful second year!

Brian G. Murphy
www.sanctuarycollective.org