The Rotary Club of Akron had the privilege of listening to Kemp Boyd, Executive Director discuss the mission of Love Akron during our Tuesday, February 22nd Club meeting.
View the presentation by clicking here or copy and paste this link into your browser https://youtu.be/1YBGulRQAEE
View the presentation by clicking here or copy and paste this link into your browser https://youtu.be/1YBGulRQAEE
The mission of The Love Akron Network is Connect, Convene, and Collaborate with Change-Makers to make a Collective Impact. Their vision statement is “A Christian-based organization, an intersectional hub working to unify the colors, cultures, and congregations to see Greater Akron thrive.Love Akron challenges Christian leaders of the local church, para-church ministries, marketplace, and nonprofit sectors of Summit County to... ...unite as a prayer network for the purpose of leading communities and congregations in prayer strategies as one church. ...tear down the walls that divide the colors, cultures, and congregations and to build bridges of understanding for the purpose of creating strategies that promote unity and harmony. ...invest their collective resources for the purpose of the whole church taking the whole Gospel to the whole county.
Love Akron was established in 1995 by Pastor Mark Ford, Pastor Knute Larson & Rev. Dr. Ron Fowler. The first event was a prayer meeting, hoping it would grow into a city-wide prayer movement, and has since been successful. With the retirement of its founding leader in April 2019, Love Akron hired Executive Director Kemp Boyd.
Mr. Boyd is committed to empowering others to make Greater Akron thrive. What this means is Love Akron wants to listen together and learn together, so that we can lead together as a city and not as separate organizations. As Mr. Boyd stated, “Better together collaborating with community change agents resulting in collaborative impacts.”
Love Akron, through the guidance of Kemp Boyd and his staff, attempts to help the community celebrate our differences not just acting when there is a tragedy. What unites us, not divides us.
Love Akron attempts to bring awareness to what resources are available in Akron already, and then bringing together a team of players to address a concern.
Love Akron has 3 Initiatives for 2021. One of those will be to address the challenge of 850 children being served by Children Services Board and only 170 foster home beds available.
- Love Akron has several initiatives. One of those initiatives is related to Mental Health and Wellness. Love Akron’s Mental Health and Wellness Initiative focuses 100% on the unmet needs in the Greater Akron communities. The unmet need is that individuals have not been exposed to the benefits of Mental Health treatment for many reasons, one of which is due to the stigma surrounding this subject.
Love Akron is working in partnership with community organizations to provide support and help to a very underserved and undiagnosed population. Their focus, mission, and goal are to change the culture of mental health so that those in need will receive the care and support they deserve, all while addressing misinformation and raising awareness on such.
- Another initiative is their Grieve Recovery Program. According to Mr. Boyd, grief is the normal and natural emotional response to change or loss of any kind: death, divorce, moving, financial changes, health changes, relationship changes. Grief is also the result of unmet hopes, dreams and expectations and the loss of intangible concepts such as safety, trust, security, respect, faith, dignity.
- In collaboration with Summit County ADM Board (primary investor) and Summa Health, Love Akron has trained Fifteen (15) specialist to lead and conduct both of these initiatives (see more information about these initiatives on their website).
For additional information on Love Akron you can visit their website at http://www.loveakron.org
Yours in Service,
Terry Dalton
Akron Club Secretary & Scholarship Chair
