Local non-profit Project Interfaith has been granted $10,000 from the Iowa West Foundation to assist in funding its RavelUnravel project. The mission of the Iowa West Foundation is to improve lives and strengthen communities in southwest Iowa and eastern Nebraska. The foundation has special interests in community development and beautification, economic development, education, and human and social needs.
Founded in 2005, Project Interfaith is a non-profit organization that grows understanding, respect, and relationships among people of all faiths, beliefs, and cultures. It offers a wide array of face-to-face and online programs that bring community members together to share, learn, and connect.
Project Interfaith started the RavelUnravel project (formerly known as the Community Mosaic Video Project) in September of 2010. Thirty-five volunteers, ranging in age from 20 to 80 years old and belonging to 14 different religious or spiritual identities and multiple ethnicities served as interviewers for the initial phase of this project. The goal was to have the interviewers armed with handheld, cordless Flip camcorders capture 150 videos of community members of diverse beliefs and cultures in the Omaha and Council Bluffs metropolitan areas answering the same set of questions about their religious and spiritual identities, stereotypes they encounter, and how welcoming our communities are for them to follow their spiritual and religious paths.
For more information, call the Project Interfaith office at (402) 933-4647 or visit them online at www.projectinterfaith.org.