The Spero Project

Last March, we hosted an event called “Marked” that united 5 organizations to raise funds and awareness for women around the world.  Each organization works daily to empower, equip, and encourage women; each organization was under 5 years old; and each organization has the capacity to change the lives of thousands of women.  It was amazing to celebrate with them, to see how similar their hearts were even if working across the globe from each other, and to dream about what will have developed by the time we gather together in the upcoming year.  Everyone represented held the same belief: That women should never be marked by statistics of violence, oppression, or death. Rather, they should be marked by hope, love, and a future.  

And as amazing as it was, we think there’s more that can come from it.  So, this year, we’re going to host the one-day community-wide event again (because it was just too much fun not to!) AND we’re adding an Educational Forum following the event for the staff of the organizations that we’ll be supporting.  This means women who pour their lives out for others every day will experience community together, pray together, and dream together.  Oh, and they’ll get to do it while being led by experts in entrepreneurship, counseling skills, community development and more.  It is truly our desire to provide them the relationships and resources they need to take the next step in impacting marginalized women all over the world.

Would you partner with Spero:Aspire in working on behalf of marginalized women through Marked and other ongoing activities in the upcoming year?  Simply click here to make a monthly commitment.  

We have a new building!  It still needs a little (well, more like A LOT) of work, but someday soon it will serve as a Community Center focused on meeting the needs of International Refugees.  We have a great classroom space right now at an apartment complex where many refugees live that helps our partner churches and agencies meet needs through homework assistance, Rosetta Stone Language Lab use, and many other activities.  But, the space is just the right size for just one activity at a time.  And, as you can imagine, we’re busy with multiple activities at all times.  Also, there are two other apartments within walking distance that are now housing many refugee families.  So, the Community Center will allow us to expand the number of services we provide by doubling or tripling up at one time AND give us the ability to serve more refugees who live at complexes that don’t have a classroom space.  We’re so excited!

We’ll be using the space for our newly developing Youth Leadership Program, giving students from the refugee community the skills they need to effectively tell the story of their home country and act as cultural ambassadors to the U.S. about both the strengths and the needs there.  We’ll be using it to equip refugee women to teach cooking classes to American women, sharing recipes from their homes, practicing their English, and making long-lasting friendships.  We’ll be using it to give individuals and families a beautiful place for special occasions like weddings and Birthdays.  And, we’ll be using it for so much more!

Would you consider joining with us in making this Community Center a reality by renovating, furnishing, and staffing it? Simply click here to make a monthly donation to The Spero Project.  

We’ve added Satellite Sites to Spero:Resource, and we’re about to add more. (And we’re pretty excited about it!).  The Spero Project is passionate about providing AVENUES that move AWARENESS into ACTION.  We truly love seeing individuals, families, businesses, and churches become fully engaged in serving those in need in the city.  So, once a person/group becomes aware that there is a major hunger issue in Oklahoma, we get busy helping them identify what avenues they will take to actively combat the problem through relationships with those in need.

For some people, that means helping them identify a good existing food ministry that needs their help.  But, for some organizations or churches, this means helping them get all the resources they need to engage the hungry that live right in their own neighborhood.  We know that there are lots of churches and agencies that have GREAT relationships with the people in need in their community.  And, we know that the road out of poverty is navigated best (if not only) by strong relational connections with people who can help guide the way.  So, we want to resource those ministries that are involved day to day with people in need.  

Couple that philosophy with the fact that we are seeing more and more people at our current location that need emergency food assistance, and we simply can’t be open enough hours (or provide enough parking!) to meet all the needs, and Satellite Sites were born.  It’s this simple: satellite sites let us maintain the operations of a food ministry so those distributing food have more time to pray with, counsel, and encourage those receiving assistance.  This is the most vital part of what we do, so we want to enable others to do it freely.  The Satellite Sites schedule a monthly or weekly time with us to pick up pre-sacked groceries, deliver them to individuals or families, and invite those receiving assistance into a relationship with them or their church.  We love partnerships!

Because of the volume of food we distribute, we cannot rely solely on donated food items.  So we must purchase much of our food from the Regional Food Bank and need more monthly donors to increase what we can do through our Satellite Sites.  Would you consider partnering with us to minister to more people in the upcoming year?   Simply click here to sign up for a monthly donation to The Spero Project.  

You may have noticed that we've been hosting a lot of events lately.  While we in part do this because we sure like you guys and love a good event to bring us all together, we also planned a cluster of events together to comprise our B.R.I.G.H.T. month.

B.R.I.G.H.T. will come around once a year and is the time when we focus on Building Relationships and Investments that Generate Hope Together.  You see, we're a pretty optimistic crew here at Spero. Even though we get to spend our days being a part of some very inspiring work that benefits a lot of people in Oklahoma City and beyond, we still get together and dream of how much more could be accomplished. 

Here are just a few results of those 'Dream Sessions'

• We're adding "Satellite Sites" to Spero:Resource.  This means we'll partner with ministries who are doing great relational work in impoverished communities and help them meet needs by providing groceries for hand-out or home delivery.
• We've purchased a building that we will be using for a Community Center that will meet the needs of an ever-growing international refugee population in Oklahoma City and allow us to include even more churches in the process of investing in this population.
• We're creating "The Common," a Community Partnership Program for Spero:Resource which will network 16-20 churches to manage Spero:Resource together.  This will increase the amount of pastoral care, job training assistance, and life skills coaching to those receiving assistance while creating avenues for faith communities to work together to take action against poverty in Oklahoma.
• We've just created a city-wide online database of small group serving opportunities.  We will be managing this database to help connect small groups with nonprofits in need of volunteers.
• We're launching a Youth Leadership Development Program for refugee youth, equipping them to speak out for their home countries while learning valuable tools such as public speaking, project management, and journalism.
• We're expanding Marked this year!  This is our annual event designed to raise awareness and funds for organizations working on behalf of women around the world.  This year we're adding a week of training for staff of the benefitting organizations, bringing in experts to train them on microenterprise, counseling, and more.
• Our Networking Intensive 2010 was amazing, and it's already on the move to being bigger next year.  This event brings together nonprofit, ministry, and business leaders that are passionate about a specific area of need in the city to make plans on how to strategically address these issues together.

We are so excited about the year to come, but we need your help to make it happen!!  We simply MUST have a dramatic increase in monthly donors to complete the projects outlined above.  It is our goal to gain $10,000/month in new monthly donors.  That's just 400 people, families, or businesses giving $25/month!!  Would you consider joining us in this work?  Just click here to start giving monthly today.

Interested in knowing more about any of the specific projects listed above?  Stay tuned to our blog fo the next few days as we share in more detail about some of our upcoming plans!

The staff at The Spero Project believes in your ability to positively change our city.  We believe in our ability to help you make that happen. We’d really like to know what you care about and give you an opportunity to hear about the things we care about. You can learn more about us here.

We’ve had our eyes fixed on September for months now.  Realizing that we are growing and needing to expand our services and our staff, we spent some time planning and dreaming about the future.  We then set a donation goal of $10,000 per month and set about planning a month of fundraising events.  You guessed it - that month is upon us!

Saturday, September 4 - 5K Run/1 Mile Experience Walk (thank you for making this a huge success for us!)

Friday, September 10 - Cause+Metology
Wednesday, September 15 - Keep It Local Day

Saturday, September 18 - Passport to the World International Children's Festival

Friday, September 24 - BRIGHT Night Denim & Diamonds Banquet

We would love it if you would participate in any (or all) of the events we have planned.  Please follow the links for full details.  We hope they’ll be fun for you, create a desire in you to be actively serving your community, allow us to get to know you better, and help us to raise 100% of our budget.

Thank you to the many of you who already support The Spero Project in a variety of ways.  While we provide the framework to reach out to the marginalized in OKC, we know you deserve the credit for every accomplishment.

How many times have you found yourself wanting to help someone who is obviously in need but not knowing how to go about it?  Would it be helpful to you to find out what kinds of services are available in the city?  Or be more aware of and informed about the biggest issues our city faces?  Would you like to have a voice in how those issues are addressed and get involved in some way?

Well, the OKC Networking Intensive is back!  This is a few days we set aside each year to say that we truly believe OKC can be changed when non-territorial, no agenda-holding, like-minded people converge in one space to work together to impact our city! 

We welcome ministry leaders, nonprofit leaders, business leaders, and individuals to come together for a focused time of brainstorming, encouragement, and prayer as a community of people longing to meet the needs of individuals in Oklahoma City.  There will be opportunity for you to both contribute and receive information, ideas, and resources. Through focused break-out sessions designed to create discussion among those in attendance, we invite you to dream big for Oklahoma City.

If you, like us, believe more can be accomplished for the Kingdom working together rather than separately, join us Wednesday, August 25 through Friday, August 27, 2010 at our Networking Intensive. We would love for you to attend all three days, but you are free to choose which days you feel are most applicable to your interests. The cost of the event will be $25 for the first day, and $10 for each additional day. This brings the three-day total conference cost to $45 per person. We will be hosted at Frontline Church, 714 N Broadway Ave, Oklahoma City

Full details, schedule, or registration can be found by clicking on these links.

Thank you Oklahoma!

The Spero Project was voted one of the Best of the Best Nonprofits in OKC by the readers of Oklahoma Magazine.  We are truly honored to be mentioned among such good company as Infant Crisis Services, United Way, and the YMCA.  All we can say is, we have the best volunteers and supporters anywhere.  Thanks to all of you who have contributed and volunteered to help us thrive.

And while you're here, check out BRIGHT Campaign 2010 for all the events we have coming up in September.  To sign up for any of our festivities and get all the details, click here.

While it's always fun to look back and celebrate what you've accomplished, we are definitely focused on the future and all the ways we can help you move Awareness into Action!!  We invite you to come along with us.  Make a contribution online or find an area of interest where you can become involved.  We're here to help!

In Oklahoma, there are over 9500 children in foster care, but only 1300 homes approved to receive these children and young adults. In America, there are a shocking 120,000 kids in the foster care system waiting to be adopted.

May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, and we want to invite you to get involved in your city and state. How can you serve the fatherless, orphaned, and suffering in our nation?

Here are some suggestions to getting involved in Oklahoma City specifically: 
- Attend an Avenue Class at Spero, where you can hear from individuals directly working with this issue in our city, and how you can join them. The next Avenue Class will be May 25, 2010 at 7pm at the Spero offices.
- Pray with us! On May 17 at 7pm, Spero is joining with Cornerstone to hold a prayer vigil for the foster care system, children, and parents in our state and nation. Join us at Skyline Church in the SandRidge Auditorium.
- Open up your open to a foster child, or considering volunteering with or donating to Christian Services of Oklahoma and their work in our community. 

We are proud to announce Marked 2010 a SUCCESS!  It was a great event able to raise awareness about women worldwide and what we can do to fight on their behalf. We are also excited to announce that with ticket sales and donations from local businesses, we were able to donate generous amounts to our five organizations represented at Marked.
We would like to thank everyone involved, including the local businesses who donated items and services, staff and volunteers that put the event together, and the public who attended to support us! Marked could not have been done without you.
If you would like to continue to get involved in the fight against human trafficking, we would like to welcome you to our Aspire Avenue Class coming April 20, 2010.  Check out our calendar for more information. 
Thanks again to everyone who played a part in Marked 2010!

We are so excited about Marked, an upcoming event presented on behalf of women worldwide. On March 27, we will have a day full of activities to raise funds and awareness for organizations working for women's issues.  It's an all-day event at Bridgeway Church, and for just $10 (kids under 12 are free) you can come and go as you please all day, enjoying these activities: