Dear Watershed Community,

A few years ago I watched a video where a man asked the question, “what is poverty?”  The answer will probably surprise you as it did me.  He said that most of us will list a bunch of “lack of’s” – lack of food, lack of housing, lack of healthcare - but he said it comes down to lack of relationships.  Most of us have people in our lives who will help us through tough times…give us food or shelter if we are desperate.  However, most people in poverty lack these crucial relationships that lend a needed helping hand.  These are individuals who lack the basic factors so desperately needed in order to break the cycle of poverty in their family units and in life.

The idea of relationships is central to Watershed’s mission regarding both blocs (our micro-communities) and justice.   When we seek to make an impact on poverty locally, nationally, and globally, we ask that our community allow their lives to intersect with those we are seeking to help. 

I understand that this may be a new and challenging concept for some who have attacked poverty from a distance, but at Watershed we ask that you step closer to poverty and find that it’s not just a cause that we are seeking to support, but rather it's people (just like you and me) that we are helping.   Making the first step is often the hardest part of diving into anything, and so we’ve created many ways that you can take that first step to challenge yourself. 

You may wonder where to start, especially when you face the daunting reality that there are many challenges in this world that contribute to poverty.  I ask this question myself when I look at the community and world around me:  “If I could wave a magic wand and change one thing in my community, what would it be?”  Although there are many answers to that question, for Watershed one of the main areas we are seeking to confront is education through relationships.  We believe that this is the key to breaking a vicious cycle of oppression.  So our focus is not on where we can find a magic wand, but instead realizing that the magic wand is us.  What resources (time, energy, talents and money) do we have that could help create the change we want to see?

We ask that you look at all the different opportunities we offer and dive into that first step.

With Love,
Scott Miller

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