Introductions of Atlanta Dwellers

Over the next couple of weeks I’d like to take some time to introduce you to the folks who are participating in our year long program, Dwell. Our Dwell program seeds intentional Christian communities where young adults can put their faith into practice by living together, serving the neighborhood in which they live and creating a routine of spiritual disciplines. The majority of our Dwellers are local folks who are either working or are in school and are creating the space in their lives for exploring their faith, developing deep relationships and being a neighbor as described in the Bible.
Alison is the newest member of the Capitol View Dwell house. She moved to Atlanta after serving for a year in the Hollywood Dwell YAV program. She is getting a Master’s degree in Public Health from Georgia State University. Here are some of her reflections on her studies, intentional Christian community, living in the neighborhood of Capitol View and going to church at Emmaus House.
“Living in the Capitol View Community helps me have a higher awareness of others needs and perspectives. Specifically, living in a place where you see environmental and economic injustice helps me to make the health disparity issues I am studying more real. I understand what I am reading in my textbooks about health. I’ve found my church home at Emmaus House which is an Episcopal church and ministry in the Peoplestown neighborhood. I go to a Sunday school class where I am the only white person and the other students in the class have empowered me to talk about race issues. I have hopped on the bus in front of the Dwell house and been the only white person on the bus and felt surprisingly nervous about it. But I have a church community that is supportive as I explore these race issues. But what is also interesting is that these same people that are helping me understand these racial issues, have moved out of Peoplestown. They live in places like Decatur and still come back to go to church. It is really interesting to have conversations with them about my neighborhood. They don’t understand why I would choose to live in a neighborhood such as Capitol View. Success for them would be to get out of a neighborhood like Capitol View. But my hope is that the people in my neighborhood would have better opportunities but still be able to live in the neighborhood. That there might be another option for success than flight.”