TrueWorks

This makes my heart so happy! From a TrueWorks non profit business lab to a beautiful partnership between two entities that are doing amazing things for the youth of Houston. Congrats Jaciel, Amanda, Marvin… For the good of the city indeed!

At TrueWorks, we’re taking the summer months to reflect, dream, and grow. As we joyfully celebrate our second anniversary, we are thrilled to share the exciting journey that lies ahead. Change is inevitable, especially for a young organization like ours, but thanks to our dedicated and passionate team, we have laid a strong foundation for our future. We are delighted to announce that Co-Founder Kate Thomas will now be leading us as Interim Executive Director. With her extensive background in business and nonprofit leadership, coupled with her integral work in building and growing TrueWorks since 2021, Kate is not only highly qualified but also deeply passionate about our mission. Her dedication and vision make her the right fit to steer TrueWorks into our next phase. We are confident that under Kate’s leadership, our organization will continue to thrive and make a meaningful impact. Doug Meikle continues as Board Chair and Rachel Quan continues to support the work of TW as its newest board member. And, this summer, we’ve been growing the TW Team that Kate will be leading, specifically in the Ventures space. Read all the details here: https://lnkd.in/gawgHGBw

This Fall, we are inviting Houston non-profit leaders and founders as well as founders of early-stage businesses or start-ups to deepen their imagination and accelerate their practice of redemptive entrepreneurship. Join us for a weekend of learning and connecting with the TrueWorks team, mentors in the non profit and business realms, and other leaders and entrepreneurs who know what it’s like to try and find the redemptive path in an ever-changing landscape. Developed by our friends Praxis and taught by the TrueWorks team, this weekend has been developed just for you. For more information and to apply, click here: https://lnkd.in/gGBDunyK

A recent New Yorker article entitled: WORK SUCKS. WHAT COULD SALVAGE IT? takes a look at new books that examine the place of work in our lives—and how people throughout history have tried to change it. In the article, Elizabeth Anderson, philosopher at the University of Michigan notes that the idea that the good life occurs mostly outside the workplace has a long history, including among figures who were sympathetic in other ways to work-ethic thinking. “Advocates of the progressive work ethic…always look beyond the work ethic to a broader vision of life…” And here is exactly where H-town Fellows comes in. What exactly is a Christian’s broader vision of life? And how does that connect with our work? Does our work mean anything at all in the larger story? Does it truly matter? Or is it merely a means to an end? Is it just a way to make a living and then give our money to work that we perceive as more valuable? Your theology of work is important. And H-town Fellows is here to help you uncover what that is. Take a very personal journey to discovering why your work matters a great deal. The course is challenging, thought-provoking, and as many past Fellows would tell you - Life and Work Changing. Apply today! We are offering two different options at two different locations and times. For more info go to: https://lnkd.in/gm9JETbs

Over the past two years at TrueWorks, we’ve focused a lot on our anchor programs. We’ve ensured they are taught well and that they are executed with excellence. Somewhere along the way, we saw something beautiful happen that wasn’t all about our teaching or coaching. We saw what happens when we merely GATHER people. We saw true CONNECTION with others who at one point might have felt lonely on their journey in integrating their faith and work, and suddenly are in community with someone who very much understands how it feels to be on the same journey. We saw COLLABORATION born of those connections. Suddenly, people who didn’t know one another were working on projects together, or offering advice, or mentoring others in the space. Here’s how Rachel Quan describes getting to see what happens when we gather people in the TrueWorks space. Come GATHER with us soon! We’d love to see you!

Please help us in welcoming Cynthia Stielow as our newest TrueWorks Board Member! Cynthia has a remarkable track record in strategic fundraising and communications. She was formerly the Chief Development & Communications Officer at Kids Meals, Inc., here in Houston and played a pivotal role in driving organizational growth and mission buy-in. Under her leadership, Kids Meals, Inc. experienced remarkable expansion, raising $32 million in operating funds and delivering over 11 million meals to hungry children in Houston’s most poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Her dedication and strategic vision led to a 258% increase in the organizational budget, along with spearheading a $31 million capital campaign for a groundbreaking facility. This past Spring, Cynthia took on a new assignment as the Chief Advancement Officer for the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County in Franklin, TN where she continues overseeing exceptional fundraising efforts, brand strategy, communications, and social media management. We’re excited to have Cynthia as a part of our Board! Welcome!

It was our Quarterly Houston Redemptive Business Lab cohorts meet up this morning! We enjoyed coffee at Bitty & Beau’s in Rice Village - whose mission is close to our heart. Next week we’ll be sharing about what TrueWorks Gathers is and why it is at the core of all we do. These amazing people have become a support network for one another in the Houston business and non profit space and every time we get together, we are so deeply grateful for the privilege of getting to be a small part of the myriad of stories in this city. In that vein - if you’re looking for a Third Place for getting work done, having meetings and drinking great coffee, Bitty & Beau’s is the place to do it! Stop on by and find out all about what makes this place incredibly special and important to the Houston ecosystem.

April 3rd was a beautiful morning atop The Post HTX with so many of you at our first breakfast fundraiser - long time friends and new friends. We gathered, we were present in an amazing sunrise, we enjoyed the SkyFarm and all that was growing in the middle of our downtown landscape, we relished the fellowship. As an update, we have reached the $92,000 mark towards our stretch goal of $100k and we have been so encouraged by the generosity that has surrounded us from the beginning until now. Thank you, friends. What’s next? We are currently in a season of recruitment for our programs - both H-town Fellows and our labs. Our Redemptive Lab Professional Services Edition will take place in June and we’d love to talk to you about it! If you’re in the workforce of Houston and wondering what you might be called to redemptively do in your current position, this lab has been designed for you! DM us or drop us an email if you are ready to journey with us. We are so grateful for this community in our beloved city!

We live in a world where we want a quick, self-help formula that gets us where we want to go in life. At TrueWorks we know this just doesn’t exist. We like to say it’s NOT about a formula. It’s about FORMATION. And that formation comes when we begin to understand what it means to see our work as intrinsically valuable to God, erasing the sacred / secular divide, and becoming part of a workforce that changes our industry and then our city For Good. A recent H-Town Fellow (soon to be graduate) commented to our team yesterday that the program was not at all what he initially thought it would be. To quote him: “it went about 75% deeper than I would have ever guessed.” And another Fellow commented recently that it completely changed his life. Those are big statements. But we know them to be true. Listen to what our founder, Doug Meikle, has to say about it - and apply today or contact us for more information! Application link: https://lnkd.in/gK6DrH28

Last April, the TrueWorks team launched our first Redemptive Business Lab, designed by our friend @praxislabs and taught by TW. This lab set the course for our future as an organization in a very distinct and unique way. Here, we met Natasha and Sunny Paradeshi, founders of Solace Media a marketing agency that serves nonprofits only. Here, we also met our dear friend Sam Newman, who was tackling Houston’s food desert with the Little Red Box Grocery store. And in the fall, we offered the lab to 10 nonprofit leaders in Houston. So many great relationships came from our labs - including the ones Kate talks about here in this video - infoFluency and @framedance! The result has been coaching and consulting from our team for many of these organizations. This June we will be offering our Professional Services lab! And this one will be presented with incredible folks from across industries. This lab will also help fund our labs for the founders and nonprofit leaders we will be working with, Fall of 2024. If you or anyone you know might be interested in attending any of our labs, email us! We’d love to share with you how to get signed up! Email us at info@trueworkshouston.org.