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.  

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.

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!