In my last post, I talked about the exciting opportunities I was given right out of the gate at the United Way of LaPorte County, I have been able to dive deeper into the great work that this organization is behind. After my last post, I was able to aid local youth, of the Michigan City Police Youth Academy, in building cardboard boats for the Annual Boat races on Lake Michigan. The race was this past weekend, a beautiful Saturday for the community to gather to watch not only kids, but also adults put their cardboard creations on the water. (I have attached photos of both the building and the race day). It was fantastic to be able to work with some of the youth, just being able to watch them work together to get a task complete has made this experience worthwhile.

The community garden that I previously blogged about, is coming together nicely, with an ADA approved area for gardening to those with disabilities. Plants are planted, mulch has been laid to create paths, and the fencing is nearly complete. One neat occurrence around this garden is that someone anonymously delivered plants for the garden.

I have been spear heading a new way to raise funds through our campaigns. The United Way generally runs a campaign from August to February to raise funds for projects and other organizations that we sponsor. With that, our Executive Director suggested that we should use Network For Good, a non-profit that uses an online platform to raise funds for non-profits. Next week, I will be presenting this platform and how to use it to the Board of Directors. We are attempting to reach potential donors through Facebook and other social media platforms. It is a way to keep up with the adapting market while still keeping in touch with our prior donors.

Last Friday, a representative from the Indiana Association of United Ways, came and spoke with us and some other regional volunteer and staff personal to talk about ways to handle the new campaign season. It was nice to hear much of what he had said, was right in line with what we are trying to promote with this new platform to reach both previous and potential donors for this campaign season.

Being home has its perks. I have been able to utilize the contacts that I have made in the past, as well as creating new ones. Any social event that Kris or Dave (the Executive Director and the Manager of Community Engagement), I will tag along to learn as well as connect with leaders in the community.  I am getting near the end of my time with this organization but I have felt welcomed and that I was able to be a part of something bigger than myself. I am reminded of a phrase I heard at a very young age, “It takes a village…” meaning that it takes all of the people within a community to create change or promote societal well-being. Comment or questions, I will respond. Live United!

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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