LSA News

No metro. No car. No Uber. I walked. For my first two weeks, in the blazing, DC summer heat, I chose to walk the 30 minutes from my temporary place of residency to the headquarters of Lutheran Services in America (LSA). Aside from collecting rare Pokémon along the way, I walked to get a feel for DC, a place that I would be calling home for the next year. As I walked, I was captivated by the scenery. I marveled at the ambitious people: locals waiting for the bus, little children walking to day camp, joggers, Hill interns, White House staffers, tourists, and government officials. My daily walk to LSA confirmed that the road to resilience for this Buffalonian would be one full of growth and adventure.

How can we prepare youth aging out of child welfare to be happy, productive adults? Is it important to for youth to have a permanent, positive adult relationship as they age out of the foster care system? How can we help them establish and maintain these relationships? These and many other questions were raised by members at the June meeting of LSA’s second learning cohort with the Provider Exchange®. The cohort met in New York at The Children’s Village, a nonprofit organization that works with children and families, to discuss improving permanency outcomes – both formal and informal – for youth aging out of the child welfare system.

On May 5-6, I had the unique opportunity to represent Lutheran Services in America at the Climate Action 2016 summit in Washington, DC. The summit was a two-day event designed to drive high-level engagement with global leaders addressing how to deliver on climate commitments and how we can embed changes across the globe in government, key sectors and among the general population. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the gathering by proclaiming, "Together we can build the world we want."

What makes the LSA network so unique? In the words of LSA President and CEO Charlotte Haberaecker, "we grow and we do." It is in the "doing together" that our network of Lutheran social ministry organizations achieves true impact. It is in the doing that we combine our collective strength to achieve better outcomes for the people we serve.

The Washington, D.C. area has been preparing for the arrival next week of Pope Francis, leader of the global Roman Catholic Church. During this historic visit, the Pope will be welcomed by the President at the White House, will hold a special mass at Catholic University and will address a joint meeting of Congress, in addition to visiting local congregations and volunteers and a stop at an organization affiliated with Catholic Charities USA that feeds the poor and homeless in the city.

Christian Balodis, a rising junior at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, is joining LSA this summer as a Member Engagement intern, supporting the team responsible for serving and connecting our membership. Christian is a Political Science and English major who is active with multiple student organizations, including Muhlenberg Student Government and the Muhlenberg Dynamics a Capella group, for which he is the business director.

Miranda Joebgen is a rising senior at Valparaiso University in Indiana. She joins LSA via the university’s Calling and Purpose in Society (CAPS) Fellows Program which prepares honors students for lives of leadership and service through intensive experiential learning opportunities. LSA was one of the pilot locations for this program in 2014, and we’re honored to have again been chosen to help provide a fellow with a reflective workplace experience to better develop long-term career aspirations. Miranda will be working on marketing and development projects with LSA.

At the Annual Conference in San Antonio a few weeks ago, our members took some time during the CEO luncheon to honor and recognize two of their colleagues who are retiring within the coming year – Rick Herman, the CEO of Wheat Ridge and Gene Kaseman, the President of the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch.

Welcome to the new and improved website for LSA. We’ve rebuilt our site to make it easier to find information you need, more interactive and to provide more resources and content with value for our members and supporters.

As many of you know, our director of public policy and advocacy Bob Francis has transitioned out of his public policy work with LSA to pursue a doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. We wish him many blessings, and I’m confident he will stay in touch with our network as he pursues the next step in his life’s journey.