the OCP blog

Myths About Homelessness In August I presented on myths about homelessness for a large turnout at the Mayor’s 2nd Forum on Homelessness. Flanked by Shannon Porter from Mercy House and John Whitfield from Blue Ridge Legal Services, we presented...

The Story of a Muscovy Duck and a Rooster For over two decades now, Our Community Place has been able to create an atmosphere of joy and acceptance and a sense of belonging to beings most of the community overlooks. People just walk on by them,...

Featured Volunteer of the Month: Richard "Gilligan" Entsminger “It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life’s story will develop.” Dieter F. Uchtdorf Just like the previous heart-warming and...

The Blessings of Service Annie has been working with a long-time community member. We’ll call him Abe. In recent months we all noticed Abe was getting slower and thinner, even falling asleep at the table at OCP.  Abe was getting so bad he just...

Featured Volunteer of the Month: Symonè Bolden “You are a person worthy of love. You don’t have to do anything to prove that. You do not have to earn love. You simply have to exist. We are worthy whether or not we accomplish anything.” – Sharon...

Our Partnerships With Local Universities Each semester, OCP hosts a number of college interns and classes who are assigned to work at OCP. For this last year, we especially want to thank Cecily (a work study student) for her energetic service...

Love's Agenda “As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” –John 9:1-3 I had a frustrating interaction at the community center a couple...

Featured Volunteer of the Month: Kevin Waters "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." -Frederick Douglass Due to the many ways that our featured volunteer of the month, Mr. Kevin Waters, has shown a spirit of volunteerism, it took some...

Featured Volunteer of the Month: Larry Jones “Resilience: The way the water knows just how to flow, not force itself around a river rock; then surely I can stretch myself in the shape my own path is asking of me.”  - Corina Fadel Mr. Larry...

Support OCP in the Great Community Give! Dear OCP Community, By now you’ve probably heard about the GREAT COMMUNITY GIVE. This is a one-day event on April 18 created by our local Community Foundation to inspire online giving to local...

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