2022 Christmas Greetings

Hello and Merry Christmas, I am Lorenzo Watson, your interim CEO & President at CCDA. I've stopped by the podcast to say thank you. Thank you to all of our CCDA members and friends who have given of your gifts, talents, wisdom, and friendship throughout the year. Your commitment to justice and community transformation continue to inspire me. It is because of you we are seeing people and communities experience God's shalom across the nation. I also want to take a moment to celebrate some awesome things happening in our community. Did you know that CCDA has reached our largest membership ever? Membership has been a way for us to accomplish our mission and vision. We are elated to have over 2000 members part of the CCDA family who are committed to seeing their communities flourish. This year we've been able to expand our practitioner-led networks. Yes, we have a growing set of affinity-based networks that we soft-launched this year, with members dedicated to both connection and addressing the most pressing and relevant issues in our country. In addition, we onboarded several new local networks and a handful of them held their own regional conferences this year! We've also been able to increase our educational and equipping opportunities. For example, Understanding Trauma & Healing Centered Engagement Strengthening Your Organization Women of Color Executive Coaching Circle Thinking about Padilla & Perkins' Philosophy Event Radical Imagination Series and much more! Thank you to everyone who joined us in Charlotte, NC for our 2022 National Conference. It was an incredible time of inspiration, training, and connection around the theme of Wellbeing. We can hardly wait to go back together in Cincinnati with even more new and expanded opportunities! I'm also grateful to everyone who has subscribed to this new podcast. Thanks to our friends at the We Raise Foundation, we are able to connect you to years of powerful content from CCDA conferences, interviews, and training courses. All of this material has been curated into bite-sized episodes for your enjoyment and formation. Lastly, I want to thank everyone who has visited ccda.org/give2022 to contribute to our end of year campaign. We're over halfway through to our goal. Thank you for investing in this community. With your help we can continue and grow our efforts to support CCD leaders around the country. Once again, Merry Christmas and I'll add happy new year.