Partnership for Compassion takes shape in Bonita

For the last five months, the mayor and local religious, civic and business organizations around Bonita Springs have been working to make the city more compassionate and caring, without regard to denomination.

Volunteers from service clubs, religious and neighborhood organizations, business leaders and social service groups have been collaborating with the help of Bonita Springs Mayor Jay Arend to start the Bonita Partnership for Compassion.

The group was started to address human needs and social concerns within Bonita Springs, and includes a steering committee and members list of more than 50 groups.

Groups like Worthington Country Club, Project Hope, Cafe of Life, Bonita Springs Area Chamber of Commerce, and Area Foundation are discussing the need for a volunteer network to help the city and Lee County Emergency Management in emergency responses when disasters, like hurricanes, strike.

A steering committee was formed, which includes Arend, David Hanson, H. Rhea Gray, Samuel Hernandez, Nancy Keefer, John Lawson, Florwer Lizano, Ron Miller and Dave Shellenbarger. The group has been meeting monthly to develop the group's initiatives.

Hanson, of Restoration Church Partnership in Housing, provided an overview at Wednesday's Bonita Springs City Council meeting of what the new group's goals are and what they have done, so far.

"We will be working with all the agencies," said Hanson, the steering committee chairman.

The mission of the group, as approved on March 20, is "to enable concerned organizations and individuals of Bonita Springs to meet identified and emerging human needs in our community".

Unfinalized operational values include ideas such as collaboration with independence from the mayor, city council and city staff; raising and advocating human needs and quality of life issues; addressing needs by both immediate assistance and enabling self-sufficiency; providing and promoting partnering and collaboration among organizations, recruiting and coordinating volunteers, creating alliances and networks, and raising funds for projects and programs; providing motivation, training and assistance for organizations and programs geared toward the same concerns the group has, and respecting religious freedoms of all participating groups and individuals, while keeping the main concern focused on the needs of humans in the community.

Council member John Joyce voiced his concern with the representation within the list of groups involved.

"There's no Catholic churches represented here," Joyce said.

Hanson explained letters had been sent out to all churches inviting them to the monthly meetings, and encouraged any group to get involved.

According to a "working paper," initial steps will include tackling issues such as an emergency volunteer network, the homeless and hungry, the Christian Soccer League, Day of Prayer, or a prayer breakfast, and a matrix of identifying needs and services.

In May, the group sponsored a National Day of Prayer at Riverside Park, which has occurred in the past, but not for the last three or four years.

David Hanson said Wednesday that they are also currently working closely with the Salvation Army in Bonita Springs to create a resource matrix that would take a look at all the members of the Bonita Partnership for Compassion and organize it into a con cise database to evaluate where the most pressing needs are with in the community and who is responsible for which things.

Council member Martha Simons said the group should contact the fire department to find out about community response teams and emergency training programs it might have, which ties in to the groups desire to have a grassroots volunteer network in the case of a disaster. If it's already in place before a disaster, such as storms and flooding, the network can assist FEMA, the fire department, and Lee County Emergency Management to pass out water, food, and help out in any other way they might be needed.

H. Rhea Gray, who has worked with the partnership since the inception, has been e-mailing in an effort to establish an identifiable network of volunteers who pass on information to their neighborhoods.

"We want a coordinating person from each (city) district," Gray said, urging council members to e-mail who they would like to see coordinating in their elected areas.

The Bonita Partnership for Compassion meets next on Wednesday, June 28, at 9 a.m. in City Hall.

"We'll do all we can, for wherever we can, for whoever we can," Hanson said.