From the beginning, I have been immersed in an atmosphere of learning and hands-on work. For those of you who do not know, I am originally from LaPorte County, so this opportunity is quite special to me. I have been taking part in numerous discussions related to United Way, as well as group collaboration within the community to create a team to hit on key issues that are afflicting our area. This organization is looking into how they fund others, by working to collaborate on three key issues, that seemingly do have a great deal of overlap: Health, Education, and Financial Stability. We are looking to incorporate both public and the private sector to ensure that we cover all of our bases and encompass all of our community’s needs for change.

One neat feature of being in my home community, is that I am able to lean on people whom I have met while growing up. Allowing the organization to expand and make new connections with people that were otherwise uninvolved with the United Way. I am hoping that using these connections with government officials will help us to expand on our mission to reach all demographics of LaPorte County.

With that, I have been doing a great deal of research to examine how other communities have gone about making large scale changes for the better. One area that has stood out to me is that of Tupelo, Mississippi. I learned how one writer from the local paper was able to convince business owners that if they wanted to see profits rise, they needed to invest in the lowest/poorest people to build a stronger community. It is more about changing the culture of a community than just throwing money at something. I was able to attend an event entitled “Toxic Charities”, where the main take-aways were that we should be enabling people to better themselves, rather than enabling them to become entitled or in a constant state of need. Robert Lupton was the keynote speaker, who has been doing work in urban Atlanta for most of his adult life. He as been at the forefront of changing communities with basic need changes – such as helping to bring in grocery stores, rather than just convenience stores that are generally more expensive, with little to no fresh food for consumers to purchase. I have also been researching different types of software that we would be able to use to track changes to our set goals for each of the three areas that the United Way is trying to aid. I have also taken part in the creation of a community garden in LaPorte, in an area that has a need for fresh, healthy food because they are in a food desert. I have attached a few pictures below: one of the garden, and another of the filming of the documentary that we have made to capture the process that the United Way went through to make the garden possible. Comment below if you have questions!

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