Blogging the Campus Values: COMMUNITY

This is the third in a series (see the first and second) of blog posts with some guest writers. I have asked some of my co-workers from the Campus for Human Development to write some personal reflections on the seven core values that are contained in our mission statement:

“Through the power of spirituality and the practice of love, the Campus for Human Development provides hospitality with a respect that offers hope in a community of non-violence.”

The core value in this post is community. As usual, Founding Director Charlie Strobel’s comments are posted first, then Martina compares the sense of community found at the Campus to experiences of her past. I follow up with an un-planned contribution to our thoughts about community.

DISCLAIMER: If you are my mom or grandmother, or someone who is like a mother to me, please enjoy reading Martina’s nice post. You might want to skip the part of the post that I wrote. Same goes for any potential Young Adult Volunteers who might be considering coming to Nashville to work at the Campus. For people who fit this description, it’s truly a lovely place where we just sit around a hug one another all day while singing camp songs with the underprivileged.

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Charles Strobel:

Everyone agrees that “no man is an island.” Often the homeless have isolated themselves on their own island with no connection home. Community offers the sanctuary of a spiritual home. This concept is not defined by blood since blood relatives can hate each other. A community provides the security of belonging somewhere. Such an experience is supportive and respectful through acceptance, understanding, growth, wisdom and reconciliation. Communities share common interests, goals and responsibilities. A community model is not the same as a democratic model, a prison model, or a military model, but more like a familial or tribal model where kin and kind are bound in relationships of love. This spiritual force unites the diverse personalities and calls forth commitment to one another as a priority.

For the homeless, this invitation is the most challenging, as they seek to do whatever is necessary to survive. Having many failed relationships in their families, education and employment, they legitimately may wonder if they can ever live within community.

Looking to the future, the obstacles they face require so much courage and determination from them that they often “give up,” appearing resigned and hopeless. Thus, they can be mistaken, on the surface, as “choosing” their lifestyle. When failure is so prevalent in their past, success is difficult to imagine. Here is where the Campus must model relationships among staff and volunteers in such a way that the homeless actually enjoy being here. When they feel our warm hospitality welcoming them, they can begin again to feel what it means to belong.

The Room In The Inn congregations are vital in providing them a sense of belonging. Vending machines can feed them, but only people can share with them a sense of community. As our homeless guests experience this night after night, our day services become the extension of that nightly hospitality. Although our interactions may take a bit longer, sharing our own love is primary, even though sometimes it can be difficult. “Joe, it is so great to see you,” is a simple yet powerful preamble to “how can I help you?” or “what is it that you need?”

Over time, we have heard people return to the Campus, not simply for services, as desperate as they may be, but to say “hello’” or to tell us that they did not feel they belonged anywhere else.

Of all the compliments the Campus has received over the years, hearing someone say that—that this is the only place where they feel they belong—is perhaps the greatest and the most humbling.

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Guest Blogger: Martina Condron



Jeff had hinted to me that he had selected me as one of his co-workers he was asking to write about the Campus’ core values. I was not sure which value Jeff would pick for me and restrained myself from offering him a suggestion. So when I got community it was the one value I would not have suggested for me. I began to think and reflect about what community means to me and how it has shaped my life.



Growing up we had a Parish Hall/Community Center, it was located in the basement of our new church, built in 1972 it came with all the mod cons. It consisted of a large room with a stage, rooms behind the stage for actors that doubled as mini conference/meeting rooms, bathroom facilities and a concession stand. The center was open seven days a week and served everyone in the congregation and neighbors. It provided space for senior coffee mornings, women’s groups, all types of classes and group meetings, girl guides, scouts, basketball, indoor soccer, Irish dancing lessons the list goes on and our youth club. Especially for youth of that time it was a safe space away from playing on the streets. Families tended to be larger and homes smaller leaving no other place but the streets to play in. Looking back I am not even sure who organized/arranged for volunteers to always be around teaching classes, encouraging and mentoring us. Whoever it was did a wonderful job at finding volunteers who where excellent role models, who where loving and giving of their time and talents and who really, really wanted to work with us. I also did not realize then that what we had in that youth group was a community.



The Campus is a lot like that community center and our programs are a lot like the classes we attended. Staff and volunteers at both centers have similar traits, understanding, encouragement, maturity and equality. In both places a person feels safe, secure, cared for and loved. In both places a person is expected to ‘participate’ to their own level. The expectation is that everyone be their best and do their best.





Martina, a native of Ireland, heads up the Campus's development team. That team...well, I'm not completely sure what they do, but I know it has to do with money, answering the phone, and coordinating volunteers. She also spends many of her winter evenings coordinating Room In The Inn. She also uses several phrases that we're not that used to in America, like "mod cons."

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Not-Much-of-a-Guest Blogger: Jeff Moles

Sometimes things become so clear that it’s like they hit you on the head. The sense of community that we share at the Campus between both staff and participants became apparent to me in a new way today when I was on the receiving end of an attack with a not-so-deadly weapon.

Today, as we were preparing for our regular Thursday lunch, I was called outside by another staff member to talk with some gentlemen who were drinking on our property. While I was outside in the parking lot, a different man, Joe, approached me and started talking. It was pretty evident that he had been doing some drinking, which is not unusual for this gentleman, who also suffers from mental illness. I offered him a place to stay at the Guest House, which is our safe space for the publicly intoxicated, but he was unwilling to leave his garbage bag full of empty beer cans outside. He wasn’t allowed into the Guest House since he wasn’t being compliant with the simple things being asked of him. On his way out, he stopped to beat on the windows of the Guest House, calling my coworker inside every name in the book. He seemed to calm down a little as he and I walked together to the alley so I could make sure he was leaving the property. As we stood at the alley, and I once again reminded him that he needed to leave, I turned to answer a question from one of the men from the earlier incident. As I was speaking, BAM!, Joe took his bag of empty cans and flung it to hit me on the back of the head. Now, fortunately, he didn’t hit me with a bag of full cans, or anything other than empty cans, so the blow wasn’t bad enough that it hurt me, but it was still pretty forceful. After taking about a half second to think about what had just happened, I told Joe that I was calling the police, so he started to lumber down the alley. Fortunately I wasn’t put on hold when I called 911 this time, but it did take about 20 minutes for the police to arrive, which made me thankful that he wasn’t still beating up on me.

So, how am I going to manage twisting getting whacked in the head with a garbage bag full of empty beer cans into a story about community? The community was found in the response. The first thing I remember seeing after realizing that I had just gotten hit and that I was in danger was the group of guys from the treatment program over at the clinic next door with shocked looks on their faces, walking toward me. I also remember hearing a pretty big gasp from the group of participants who were waiting outside to be called in for lunch. It blew me away how many people were ready to come to my aid and probably beat poor Joe up on my behalf. I motioned for the guys from the clinic to stay where they were, and I kept the other participants calm while he left. For homeless people in downtown Nashville thinking of me as one of their own, and having them be willing to risk themselves for me is not something I ever imagined would happen. The guys in treatment could have risked being kicked out of the program and their own recovery if they would have intervened physically. Numerous participants came to me to make sure I was alright the rest of the day. The staff also made sure I was alright—Martina and Rachel raced downstairs when I told them what happened, even though they really didn’t need to.

John’s gospel records Jesus saying “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” That is the very essence of community: sacrifice for one’s friends, sharing, being served by those I’m supposed to be serving. How fortunate I’ve been to be a part of such a community.





Jeff is me. When he's not being hit over the head with bags of aluminum cans, Jeff works on the education team, working at the support desk most of the morning. He teaches Internet and computer classes for Odyssey and the general population, and anger management for the men in the DTC treatment program. He will be a Young Adult Volunteer for less than three more weeks, and then he will look forward to receiving paychecks on a somewhat regular basis. As he told his superiors, his injuries from the canning incident today have probably affected his ability to think properly, which includes alphabetization, so he will no longer be able to sort the mail. (Rachel's overhead page to Jeff this afternoon: "Jeff, if you can make your way to a phone by yourself, dial 129...Jeff, if you are able to hear this message clearly, please dial 129." Jeff's answer: "Hello? Hello? I think I'm hearing voices!") It is strange to write in third person.