Harambee Community

Mission Statement

To equip young men and women to be leaders in family, community and global transformation through Christ. 

• Spiritual Growth
• Leadership Development
• Discipleship (Mentorship)
• Community Living

Community Structure

1. Community Residents- College age men and women fulfilling these requirements:
   1. Undergrad, Grad or Perkins Intern 18- 25
   2. Seeking Jesus and willing to live by Contract and Living Agreement
   3. Completes Application/ Interview Process
   4. Develop Leadership Portfolio while in House
2. Resident Manager:  Resident Manager is accountable to the Community Director and helps fulfillthe following duties:
   1. Responsible to live in house and be aware of what’s goin on.
   2. Helping to resolve disputes between housemates
   3. Helping with Big John recruiting and promoting
3. Community Director- Provides the oversight, leadership and enforcement of the community legislation.
4.  Board for the Community  (Mentor Oversight)- The board exists to provide oversight and accountability for the direction of the house. The board will be comprised of men and women who oversee the Harambee community houses and are involved in one or more of the following ways, providing personal mentorship and expertise, living in/ moving into the community area, and recruiting from sphere of influence and/ or helping financially with scholarship/ community funds. 
   1. Requirements- 
      1. Meeting 3x/ year (before start of year, during school year and debrief of year in the spring).
      2.  Involved with strategic planning and expansion
      3. Responsible for giving oversight to House Management and content of the house mentorship.
      4. Freedom to make adjustments to requirements and create new requirements toward establishing a community that accomplishes our mission statement.
5. Community Families and development (Vision for the Future)
   1. Families buying, owning and living in houses in the community with the mission of relocating to invest in the Harambee Community and help with the mission of training and equipping young men and women to be leaders in family, community and global transformation through Christ. 
   2. Seattle Bridge and New Partnerships-National and Global network of likeminded communities with student exchanges encouraged.

Spiritual Growth  

1. Bible Study- This time is a weekly opportunity to learn wisdom from the Scriptures, while being guided by the Biblical teaching and personal leadership of Drs. John and Vera Mae Perkins. This will be an early morning (5:30am) Bible Study in order to develop discipline and demonstrate commitment. Spiritual
2. Retreats- These spiritual retreats will be opportunities for the house members to bond with one another and have an opportunity to grow personally in their walk with God. The retreat will include focused time, free from the distractions of daily life to learn and begin applying Biblical principles. This will be done through games, shared meals, fun together and focused time with a mentor. 
3. House Meeting- This bi-monthly meeting will be to address the personal and practical issues of the house and the Harambee Community. The time will not only be used for distributing important information, but will also be used as a regular time for deeper and more intentional connection with housemates. This will involve each member of the house having an opportunity throughout the course of the semester to present their story and a personally meaningful scripture. It will also involve personal sharing and praying for individual and corporate prayer requests. 

    Leadership Development

1. Community Transformation- While living in the West Jackson Community we are committed to following the example of Jesus in caring for the surrounding community. This means that as a result of living together in community, we hope to learn from the neighborhood experiences and positively inspire others. 
   1. Community Functions: One of the ways we hope to do this is to host community functions and events that bring the surrounding community together around food, fellowship and constructive conversation.  Possibilities include, but are not limited to: Christmas parties, community service events, community bible studies and reconciliation dialogues (Crossin’ the Tracks).
   2. Event Planning: Each member of the house will have an opportunity to grow as an organizational leader through the event planning team. The planning team will be comprised of community members with different experience levels. The purpose of event the planning team is to equip all house members with skills of learning to plan, delegate responsibilities and see the event through completion. This will teach marketable skills for the business world and help community members grow in teamwork. It is our hope that during the Harambee Community experience, each member will have an opportunity to be both a leader as well as team member in the planning process.
2. Greater Community Service- As a part of living in the house, each member will be required to participate in some sort of community service. This is designed to help in applying the commitment to loving God by loving our neighbors. This may include: Volunteering/Interning with the Perkins Center, Talks Mentoring, Leadership with an on-campus ministry or another community organization approved by Harambee Community management. 
   1. Business Track- This also could include a business track where a student could be pared as an apprentice with a local entrepreneur in order to gain knowledge and develop necessary skills to create resources for the community. 
3. Global Leadership- This component of the house is designed to allow the house members to be exposed to global issues and meet people from around the world who are interested in following Jesus and loving their communities. Some of the main opportunities will be CCDA’s (Christian Community Development Association) annual conference, Washington Student Leadership Conference (Seattle, WA) or World Student Leadership in Malibu, and various wonderful training opportunities with global leaders.

Mentorship

1. One of the main values of the Harambee community is to learn from the wisdom of others and to pass wisdom on to others. House members will connect with older mentors who can help give wisdom and candid godly counsel from past successes and failures, will be encouraged to learn peer mentoring, and to learn to mentor younger people.
2. Personal Mentoring- These relationships are designed to give the house members a chanceto 
   learn from a high quality mentor from Jackson, MS specializing in different areas of expertise. Asaresult of these dinners, house members will have an opportunity to initiate a personal relationship with high quality mentors from the Jackson, MS area and have potential for longer term mentoring. At sometime throughout the year, house members will be invited to the house of a mentor for dinner and to observe their interactions at home and with their spouse to see a living model of a godly family. During a portion of the dinner, we will have mentors teaching on such issues as:
   1. Reconciliation: Good news about Jesus
   2. Church as Mission
   3. Relationships/ Marriage Prep/ Singleness 
   4. Personal Finance Management
   5. Personal Character Development

Community Living 

1. We want to help one another stay accountable to a community vision and have come up with the
    following recourse in case we are not living up to our commitments or showing up to houseactivities. This means missing a house function without planning in advance or letting resident manager know the case. Resident Manager will let community members know acceptable reasons for missing: sickness, out of town, emergency. The bottom line is that other things may be more important, but in general, you plan around and don’t break community commitments.
   1. Conversation- Resident Manager and housemates ask how the person is and why the person wasn’t able to make it. Housemates responsible for keeping one another accountable.
   2.  Meeting with House Director- Talk about reasons for not being able to fulfill commitments and see how we can get back on the right path.
   3. Warning Meeting/Action Plan- The warning meeting is wake up call that lets the person know that something needs to change or they will be choosing to be find a new residence. 
   4. Transition Meeting- Resident manager and House Director will meet and will come to a final decision to evict or an action plan for recovery.
   5. Violations of the Community Contract may result in immediate dismissal at the discretion of the Community Director.