About Us

MISSION & HISTORY

The Mission: To build a network of transformational communities by equipping locally imbedded leaders with training and ongoing support for the work of shalom.

Transformational Communities Network is composed of churches and neighborhood partners engaged in the work of community development.

TCN began as an initiative of the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2017 with support from Methodist Healthcare Ministries.

Through this network, new models for applying community development principles and processes are emerging. Communities that have engaged the TCN processes are becoming reference points and/or teaching centers of spiritual transformation within the church and community.

WHAT WE OFFER COMMUNITIES

TCN CORE TRAINING
HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE in the application of Asset Based Community Development [ABCD]
Training in GROUP FACILITATION TECHNIQUES
ACTION PLANNING & APPLICATION
ONGOING SUPPORT

OUR TEAM has decades of experience

Abel Vega

Director of Mission, Service, & Justice Ministries

avega@riotexas.org

Abel Vega, Jr. currently serves as Director of Mission, Service, and Justice Ministries for the Rio Texas Conference. In this role, he serves as staff liaison to the Transforming Communities Vision Team –

which envisions the ministry of mission, service, and justice within the Rio Texas Conference.

Current portfolio work of the office includes the development of the Transforming Communities of Praxis learning cohort program and Community Development Network, network and infrastructure development of immigration / migration response and border ministries, and general outreach and mission ministry resourcing and support for local churches and communities of the Rio Texas Conference.

He previously served as the Director of Connectional Ministries for the Rio Grande Conference for ten years. Aside from general program administration duties, many of his responsibilities revolved around resourcing the conference through deep systemic change as well as resourcing the unification process of the Rio Grande and Southwest Texas conferences’ work in becoming the Rio Texas Conference.

His learning and formation in outreach ministries began in 1985 through involvement in local church youth ministries and through the development of a Children’s Sidewalk Church School program and summer and after-school programming for children and youth that eventually became a non-profit entity serving families on the west side of San Antonio and beyond.

In 1983, Vega graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture. Prior to his full-time work with the church, Vega worked on residential and commercial projects for various architectural firms in Houston and San Antonio.

He also served as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer working on building renovation projects in the Philippines. He lives in San Antonio with his wife Ann and two daughters, Elizabeth and Annabella.

Amy Moritz

Trainer / Consultant

amycmoritz@gmail.com

Amy is a Social Change Consultant who specializes in organizational development and community engagement with over 25 years of professional experience. Consulting led her to found and lead two faith-inspired nonprofit organizations: Uptown Alliance Community Economic Development Corporation (2001-2004) and Center for Transforming Communities (2008-2018). At Center for Transforming Communities (CTC), Amy was both practitioner and coach in authentic community engagement that leads to healthy and more vibrant neighborhoods. She trained and coached eight neighborhood coalitions in Memphis, TN and over 40 congregations.

Alongside training and coaching at the grassroots level, she has shared the practices that lead to deep, sustainable change with institutions such as Memphis Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt Divinity School/Turner Center, Tennessee Episcopacy of the UMC, and Texas Rio Conference of the UMC through Transformational Communities of Praxis.

Amy has an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MAR from Memphis Theological Seminary. She has been certified as a national training for Communities of Shalom and a trainer/coach for Communities First Association.

Rev. Robert Clark II

Trainer / Coach

bclark@riotx.org

Bob Clark is an ordained elder in the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Bob received a Bachelor of Christian Ministry from Wayland Baptist University, completed the basic five-year course of study at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas, and did his advanced work at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

He has served communities in the Rio Grande Valley, the southside of San Antonio and is currently serving as lead pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church. Early in his career, Bob’s service on the Texas/Mexico border awakened a passion for working with communities to build communities. That passion led to his work as CEO of the Pharr Community Outreach Project and to eventual certification, in 2010, as a regional trainer for Communities of Shalom.

Bob also served the former Southwest Texas Conference as coordinator for Communities of Shalom and as a coach/consultant for the Healthy Church Initiative. He has specialized training in community organizing, group facilitation, church planting and revitalization, and Asset Based Community Development.

Dionisio Salazar

Trainer/Facilitator/ Consultant

dgsalazar3@hotmail.com

Dionisio is a Community Change Strategist. He provides training, facilitation and consultation services in the areas of community, congregational and leadership development. He trains community and faith-based organizations in asset based community development (ABCD), facilitative leadership and organizational transformation.

He is a certified Technology of Participation (ToP®) Facilitator (CTF) and trainer. He is an Associate with Partners in Participation, a facilitation and leadership development company based in Phoenix, Arizona. He previously served as Executive Secretary for Hispanic/Latino ministries for the General Board of Global Ministries. He conducted strategic planning workshops and trained clergy, missionaries, staff, and lay leaders in annual conferences throughout the UMC denomination. He founded and directed the Wesley Center for Family and Neighborhood Development in Austin, Tx. He also worked with several government agencies at the city and local level.

Dionisio has a Master’s degree from the Massachusetts of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University. He attended Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He completed training as a Lay Missioner for the National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministries at Perkins Seminary.