ONE Wake at Full Throttle
2024 Annual Meeting and Issue Campaigns
ONE Wake now appears to be in full throttle, with well- developed Action Teams and strategies. Pullen Church is a participating institution, contributing annually from the Mission and Outreach budget and providing input and people-power for some of ONE Wake’s efforts. According to its website, ONE Wake is “a non-partisan, multi-ethnic, multi-issue group of religious congregations, associations, and other non-profits in the Wake County area” which works to identify issues of common concern, mostly associated with marginalized individuals or groups, and works to effect solutions and systematic changes for the common good. The organization gives voice to those who often do not have input into societal and governmental processes. The organization has been active in Wake County for several years now, holding listening sessions, taking early actions on identified issues, and developing plans.
ONE Wake’s 2024 Annual Meeting was held on March 7th at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Southeast Raleigh in front of a full house of attendees. Three Pullen representatives were present, with possibly more joining on-line. The purpose of the meeting was to present 2024 Action Proposals for endorsement by the assembly and also to present the 2024 leadership team (Strategy Team) and the 2024 budget. The 2024 Action Proposals covered the areas of homelessness, housing and home ownership, energy cost burden, mental health and transportation. A strategy of ONE Wake is to involve people being served by the campaigns in the decision-making and advocacy. Thus, speakers for the various proposals included leadership team members and members of the community impacted by the issues. As an example, we heard through a translator from a Hispanic woman about her struggles with displacement by the pending closure of the Chatham Estates mobile home park in Cary. After the issue presentations, the assembly broke up into small groups of the various participating institutions to discuss the proposals and commit to the efforts. The assembly then came back together and gave each institution an opportunity to report. The proposals, Strategy Team and the 2024 budget were unanimously endorsed by those groups present. Overall, the meeting was well organized, had engaging speakers and presentations, and even ended 20 minutes earlier than its projected 2hr length.
The ONE Wake issue campaigns approved for 2024 are shown below. Each one has the potential to have a huge impact on our Wake County community. For each item, a QR code is provided which can be scanned to obtain more information about an issue and to volunteer to support the effort. Some very near-term opportunities are highlighted in green. Some of the volunteer opportunities are limited to people living within certain municipalities (Example: Cary-ites to attend Cary Town Council Meetings) so pay special attention to those within your area. One very easy-to-perform task (HOMEOWNERSHIP TO EQUITY) is signing a Nehemiah Petition Form advocating the setting aside and rezoning of Public lands to build affordable housing at-scale in Wake County. This can be done by scanning the QR code and takes just a couple of minutes to accomplish.
I would like to encourage all Pullenites who have ability and interest to engage in one or more of these very important efforts with ONE Wake.
- Boyd Rogers
