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Juliana Serrano 626.583.2731
jserrano@allsaints-pas.org
Catherine Swanson 626.583.2750
cswanson@allsaints-pas.org
The Office for Creative Connections (OCC) was established in 1984, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of All Saints Church in Pasadena.
The church wished to make a gift to the city to commemorate its centennial. The rector, George Regas, decided to commission a parishioner and educator, Denise H. Wood, to research the quality of life of city residents and produce a report.
Wood spent nine months poring over studies and interviewing more than 100 Pasadena residents representing the demographic diversity of every segment of the community. The resulting report, Experiencing Pasadena: The Needs, Promises and Tasks of an American City, was published by All Saints Church in 1984.
The report revealed that while Pasadena was rich with resources, many residents faced numerous challenges: poverty, hunger, homelessness, insufficient housing, inadequate health care, substance abuse, domestic violence, and employment inequities. Some efforts to address these issues were showing success, however heroic individuals and agencies often worked in relative isolation, undercutting the effectiveness of their activities.
Two imperatives were also identified and held up as crucial to the well-being of our city: 1) Pasadena must not be allowed to be a polarized city, one part poor and one part affluent, with an inequitable distribution of resources; and 2) the quality of life of all of Pasadena's young people must command our highest concern.
In response to the report, the Vestry of All Saints Church voted to establish the Office for Creative Connections as an ongoing gift to the city of Pasadena. Its role would be to serve as a facilitator, identifying needs, assets and opportunities, assessing barriers and bringing people together to work on creative solutions.
From its inception, the primary focus of OCC has been on issues affecting children, youth and families. Using the OCC Method of listening, discerning, reporting and connecting, it has addressed health care, the abuse of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, youth violence and after school activities, and structural racism.
These efforts have resulted in several programs. The healthcare research and report resulted in the creation of Day One and Young & Healthy, both of which are currently incorporated separately as non-profits organizations in the city. Summer Youth Employment and research done on after school programs resulted in the Youth Mapping Project as well as the creation of Internet website “Schoolsout.org.” Bringing together after school organizations resulted in CORAL, (Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning) and Youth Institute sponsored and funded by The James Irvine Foundation. In 2006 we restructured CORAL to serve children in kindergarten through high school and to operate at the CORAL Innovation Center under New Vision Partners, a non-profit organization incubated by All Saints Church.
In 2004, on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, OCC convened twelve roundtable discussions with 250 participants and conducted 50 individual interviews. The purpose of this study was to understand major changes that had occurred in the last 20 years affecting quality of life, identify current challenges we face as a city, and highlight successful local models that have transformed Pasadena in positive and exciting ways.
One of the challenges identified in this study was racial and ethnic conflicts and unrest. In response, Creative Connections has been convening and facilitating a series of conversations with community leaders over the past several years on issues of racism and other forms of oppression.
Beginning in 2004, OCC has overseen development and implementation of projects that provide ministry opportunities for All Saints parishioners. The first of these is Transformational Journeys, a series of local and global trips for parishioners and friends of ASC to experience people of different cultures who live in challenging circumstances. The second is the ASC/John Muir High School Mentoring Project, created to recruit, train, and support parishioners to become mentors to 9th grade students at John Muir High School.
In May, 2010, Lorna Miller retired as director of OCC after 25 years, and Juliana Serrano became the new director.
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