On the weekend of November 14th, the entire Rebuilding Together Southeast Michigan (RTSEM) staff had the privilege of attending the 2019 Rebuilding Together Training Institute (RTTI) in St. Louis, Missouri. RTTI is a national progressive training where all of the Rebuilding Together affiliates throughout the nation get the opportunity to learn, network, and grow together through special workshops and programs chosen by the Rebuilding Together national office.
While RTSEM is usually only able to send one or two staff members, all five of us were able to attend this year. This meant that we were able to take part in more beneficial workshops than ever before. Some of the sessions we attended covered topics such as equity, diversity, and inclusion, community revitalization partnerships, powerful storytelling, website and salesforce guidance, the future of Rebuilding Together, AmeriCorps, asthma trigger reduction, and networking opportunities. Between the five of us, we learned a great deal and are eager to implement our new ideas and lessons into our affiliate in Southeast Michigan.
In addition to these outstanding workshops, RTTI also included two dinner events. The first focused on thanking one of our national sponsors, Charter Communications, while the second event was an awards ceremony. Awards were given out to individuals for the Volunteer of the Year and the AmeriCorps Member of the Year and to affiliates for Excellence in Community Engagement, Excellence in Programming, and Excellence in Overall Leadership. We are incredibly proud to be able to say that RTSEM was the recipient of the 2019 Excellence in Community Engagement award thanks to the work that our Community Development Specialist, Chris Perkins, has done expanding our affiliate into the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood.
Overall, we had a very memorable time at the 2019 Rebuilding Together Training Institute, which we are so thankful to have participated in. It was absolutely inspiring to be able to see what programs and projects other affiliates have been implementing. I think it’s safe to say that we left St. Louis with an abundance of new ideas, new supporters, and new motivations to bring back to Michigan.