Iowa Heartland Habitat is committed to continuous improvement and was able to start up some Community Book Reads along with other partner organizations through the grassroots Community Learning Collaborative. Check out the photos, flyers, and summaries of learnings below!

May-August 2023

"Next Steps" Community Book Read

One of our longtime volunteers and current board members, Donna Brown, met with me to plan the very first Book Read for a group of interested community members to gather, discuss, and think about their current investment into the community through the lens of one of the founders of the Christian Community Development Association, John Perkins.

We had an attendance of 9.5 people per session on average, which showed how interested people were in the idea of learning about community development from a Christian perspective.

I offered to write discussion questions and sent them to the group most weeks in advance of the discussion.

During this "Next Steps" Book Read, the group had lots of conversations about how people view poverty, systemic disinvestment in neighborhoods, and what it means for those of us who are non-residents trying to make an impact in the community. We reiterated this point throughout the book read that is so important: we want to be doing activities WITH the residents, not TO/FOR neighbors.

Another discussion during this group was that the group was entirely white, and we didn’t seem representative of the neighborhood in racial makeup. After the course, I spoke with Molly Juza from Orchard Hill Church to see if I could watch some race-related videos to further my own understanding and education. From that, I watched the free version of "Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom" online by myself. We also later offered 4 film showings of this same film to the community in November 2023, January 2024, and June 2024, at different church locations.

The next book read after this one took place in January-February 2024. We read the book Toxic Charity by Bob Lupton.

January-February 2024

Toxic Charity Book Read

Toxic Charity is a book written by Bob Lupton of FCS Ministries in Atlanta, GA. He has done work and lived in communities experiencing needs for over 40 years. His book is a critique of the ways that churches typically do missions and charitable giving.

This book read was scheduled to last for 6 weeks.

We started this series with the first meeting having Karin Rowe, the Executive Director of House of Hope CCD, speak about House of Hope’s work as a local non-profit that focuses on housing and empowerment for women experiencing homelessness. This served as a great example of an organization that has broken away from traditional models of charity that many folks in the room may be familiar with through their churches or organizations.

A key objective from this book read was to highlight the way that many organizations and countries are doing charity that are not helpful, and explore alternative solutions to the issues that we face.

One of my favorite portions of Chapter 1 talks about the Oath for Compassionate Service. If interested, you can actually check out a very similar version on the Lupton Center website: Oath for Helpers | Lupton Center. 

We also really love this book because Bob Lupton is such a champion of having a neighborhood focus. I highly recommend reading and applying this book to your local context!

We had an attendance of 8+ people per session on average at the Toxic Charity Book Read. As you can see in the photo above, we had a lot of people there that day.

We chose to meet for this book read at the Willie Mae Wright Community Room at the All-In Grocers store, with the option to purchase a delicious hot lunch from Grandma's Hands restaurant if you wanted. Many group members patronized the restaurant and store when visiting for the book read.

The Community Learning Collaborative was officially formed after the Toxic Charity Book Read ended.

This February, we are in the midst of studying an applying Dr. Ruby Payne's "A Framework for Understanding Poverty" during a 4-week book read that meets at the Waterloo Public Library. We hope that you can join us for a future Book Read!