LIVE UNITED Y’All!

By Gil Betz

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Undoing Racism Workshop offered by the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services. A number of our staff have attended this same workshop, although I did not take the time to talk with them about their experience. I will now.

There were many moments during the two and one-half days that awakened me from my unconscious state about “race”. There were many moments I felt sad, there were many moments I felt lucky, there were many moments I wanted to do something about what I learned. Awakening to what you do not know and awakening to what you know but learn is not accurate is sobering.

Do you know how “race” entered into the construct of our societies? Do you think “race” is determined genetically? How would you define “racism”? How do you define “racist”? Over time, have societies used race to reward some and deny the same rewards to others? Does our community have a “race” problem? Do you feel uncomfortable having conversations about “race, racism, racists”? Has our organization eliminated internal “racism”? Have you benefited from “racism”? Have you lost benefits because of “racism”? Does our community continue to foster “racism”? Is being “color blind” the answer to “racism”? How many of those who are reading my words now might prefer our blog not discuss subjects like this?

So did I get any answers to these questions? Yes I did. I learned how “race” was introduced into our societal construct. I learned that racism has two components, race prejudice plus power. Power is legal power, not spiritual or individual power. I now understand that “race” is a figment of my imagination. Racism is designed to keep people with a common experience apart so they cannot rebel, have power or position. The term “racist” is considered a pronoun and not an adjective. Racists are a collective group that benefits from “racism”. I, therefore, am a racist under this definition, for I have received privileges and access to benefits simply because I am white. My personal beliefs differ vastly from this categorization; however, I am part of the majority and as such am therefore a racist. Whites and people of color are equally responsible for keeping racism in place. We are a society that places more value on materialism than humanism. Racism is supported from Individual Acts being supported by Institutional Structures and by Cultural norms that nurture separateness between people.

So what do I plan to do now that I have awakened? I am not sure. I know I need to learn more about racism in our community. I need to know more about how our institutions may (government, educational, commercial, charitable, etc) support racism through cultural norms, policies and practices. I am hopeful that Metro United Way’s current “cultural competency” work will awaken us to the opportunity we have to LIVE UNITED.

Martin Luther King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” It is now up to me to not be silent (any longer) about things that matter.

Advocacy, Education, General race, racism

By Priscilla Henken

How often do you read to your child? Many families in our community are unable to help their child in this way because they do not have any books to read to their child, either because they can not afford them or have no access to them. That is where Metro United Way and our various agencies come in.

Metro United Way, in coordination with Borders Bookstores, is holding a book drive for these families. From August 1 to September 7 you can go into any Borders Bookstore in Louisville and purchase a book to leave for Metro United Way volunteers to pick up and distribute through the agencies to young children throughout the community.

This takes little to no time for you, just a little extra money. Then, the next time someone asks you how you LIVE UNITED, you can tell them that you helped get books to children who would otherwise not be able to have any. For many of these children, these books will be their first books.

So, the next time you are wandering through the various shelves and rows of books at Borders, remember the book drive and pick up something for the children in your community because that’s just another way you can LIVE UNITED.

Education, Events, General, Giving book drive, Borders Bookstore, kids

By Kelly Thompson

The year was 1971, a pretty good year for me. Things were happening…big things in my little kid life. Some memories of that time loom vividly and large even today. 1971 was the year I entered first grade, the year I got my 1^st pair of Sears Toughskin jeans (green, made up of a high-tech-sweat-producing blend of Dacron polyester, Nylon, and cotton), and the year I remember volunteering for the first time.

(flickr.com)

My parents were heavily involved in the local volunteer/civic organization here in Louisville. My mom was in her late twenties and my dad his early thirties. My brother and I were always with them for the rummage sales, the toy drives, the painting projects, and the barbeques they helped to organize, all in the efforts to make a difference in someone else’s life.

I remember the Saturday morning I accompanied my mom to a local orphanage. The week before we had lovingly made hand puppets made of socks, yarn, and miscellaneous buttons from my mom’s sewing kit. It was a couple of weeks before Christmas and we went to the orphanage that day to help put on a holiday-themed puppet show for the kids.  Crouched alongside my mother behind the plywood puppet “stage” our carefully-crafted puppet personalities sang a little ditty called “All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth”. I can still remember the silly voice my mom used while singing along to the 45 record playing in the background. The kids had a great time, we had a great time…I was hooked!

There are many things we eventually outgrow, some of them for very good reasons, and some perhaps we should never lose (like simple pleasures and silly songs). Sears sold their Toughskins with a guarantee that children would grow out of their jeans before the jeans wore out. I am here to report that sometime between 1972 and 1975 I outgrew my very special green “tri-blend” wonder pants…a fact makes me very happy to this day.

I am also very happy to report about something I haven’t outgrown: a passion and commitment to making a difference through my volunteer engagement with the issues I care about most in my community.  The puppet show was only the beginning for me,  thanks to my mother.

Perhaps one day I will be making sock puppets with my children and silly songs too, a legacy I look forward sharing with them.

Advocacy, Volunteering civic, engagement

Change is an incredible thing.  Without change (or progress), we wouldn’t have the microwave, cell phone, or digital TV—and don’t we all love our cell phones.  Additionally, without change, men and women alike would not have the right to vote; without change we wouldn’t celebrate July 4^th every year as there would have been no Independence Day. 

What about the smaller changes that happen all around us everyday?   Have you ever watched and thought about how the smaller change in your life affects the larger change in our community, and nation.  Look around.  For instance, when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879 it didn’t happen overnight; there were a number of other individual influences leading up to his work (actually starting as early as 1806..imagine that!).  Think about when you reach out a hand—

-To watch a neighbor’s child while they go to work

-To help your elderly neighbor take out their trash

-To send out “thinking of you cards” to homebound individuals

-To clean up the community park

-To give your input and ideas on a local board

-To read to or mentor young children

With anyone of these you are acting as an agent of change.   There are the immediate results you can see and the not so immediate results.  I think about the relationship I have with my sister, Rachel, who is 11 years younger than I am.  Reading to her as a young child, and now mentoring her through her high school years as she prepares for decisions such as which colleges to pursue, and which courses to take for her senior year, etc.  I am able to watch the change and impact I am able to have in her life.  Some of those are immediate, however often it’s a process over time.  And, I am one of many individuals to impact her over the past 17 years of her life, and there will be many others. 

We have agents of change here at Metro United Way, throughout the building where we work, throughout the community where we live.  From those who come and volunteer their time on the Campaign Cabinet to raise resources, to those who serve on the Program Review team to make funding decisions, to our partners who work beside us.  Each of these individual’s have a lasting impact on what our community will look like each year, and into the future.  For instance, the Campaign Cabinet in Southern Indiana (and in each of our counties) works each year to raise resources.  These volunteers are the “feet on the street”, and are advocates for the work of United Way.  (Thank you to all our volunteer teams.)  Without the resources this team volunteers to raise our community would look very different.  In fact, last year through Metro United Way this Campaign Cabinet, along with companies, individuals, foundations, brothers, sisters, moms, dads, the whole of Southern Indiana raised and contributed a total of $1.86 million dollars.  These resources equate to change.

Look into the future, can you see what it will look like with and without this change.  It could be the difference between sunshine, and rain for someone you know.  Be an agent for change.  You can learn more at www.metrounitedway.org, or choose to change the face of your community by visiting www.give5forall.org and use your resources to change one life at a time. 

Giving, Volunteering give, Volunteer

By David Caldwell

Think back to when you started kindergarten. If you didn’t go to kindergarten just think back to when you were a little kid. If you’re my dad, find someone who remembers when you were a little kid and ask them to remind you.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a paleontologist. I thought dinosaurs were the coolest things ever, and I wanted to dig up their bones. Over the years, my career aspirations have changed, but my desire to be something awesome has not. (I still think dinosaurs are just about the coolest things ever by the way.)

This year in Kentuckiana about 12,000 kids will begin kindergarten. How do you think they would answer that question? Probably the same way we did. Astronaut. Teacher. Fire Fighter. Rock Star. Doctor. President.

I bet that none of them said they wanted to be a drug dealer, or a prostitute, or living on the streets, or in jail. The reality is that some of them will end up in those situations and many more that we all would consider equally as horrible.

We can change that. We can turn those horrible realities into wonderful possibilities. We can give children hope. We can make them believe in themselves. We can give them the tools they need to be successful.

How? That’s what Metro United Way Success By 6 is working on. Our goal is that by 2018, all children will enter kindergarten prepared to be successful in school and life.

We need your help. What ideas do you have? What are you willing to work on? What support do you need? Let us know. Visit the website, give me a call (502-292-6157). Let’s make this happen – together!!!

Photo Credit: boynumber1

Advocacy, Education Children, make change, making a difference, Success By 6

By Jan Sherrell

Again I’m throwing myself under the bus and exposing my fuddy duddiness. The term Social Media is everywhere. There are books and webinars and consultants for Social Media. I’m trying to jump on that band wagon. I’m working to stay informed of what social media entails and why I need to use it. But the term Social Media keeps flashing me to 1977 when my best friend and I would sit in her dad’s company truck and talk on the CB radio to boys. CB radio was early social media. We had secret “handles” – (that’s the old term for screen names or Login) that made us anonymous on the airwaves as we talked inanely about life as a 14 year old. Wow, maybe I’m a trendsetter and I was hip to social media before the term was even coined?

What I struggle with is how does all this Social Media apply to work? Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flicker…..Sure if I’m a liquor salesman or a photographer or website designer – I see how having tons of “friends” and tweeting quick little ditties might prove beneficial to business. Posting cool photos I’ve taken or sharing a to die for drink recipe. But recruiting Facebook friends and reading postings while at work just doesn’t feel like it is going to help me do a better job – then again I am looking for some volunteers. But do people really want to hear about that on Facebook or Twitter?

I’ve made the plunge – I have a Facebook page. But sadly, after a couple of weeks a swarm of folks have not searched me out and invited me onto their friend’s list. I have eight friends. Okay, in my defense I’ve only been on the site twice and I have a fear of posting something embarrassing for the world to see – I’ve been warned this is how employers and banks research you. It doesn’t feel natural to invite people I haven’t talked to in years to be my friend. Perhaps I fear the rejection – or don’t know what to do with them after they are my friend?

I’m starting to see the social aspect of it – you can know things about people without really investing much time or using all those social skills like phone calls or cocktail party etiquette. But that feels so anonymous. And truly my life is okay without knowing every move, every sandwich ate, every cd purchased, every random thought. Maybe what is lacking for me is the “social” part of Social Media. Perhaps I have enough social in my life? A good time to me is reading the paper on my back patio or a lone motorcycle ride on a country road.

How is Social Media helping you work better?

So do I rally my interest and go recruit some friends and get a little more embedded in this social media hype? How about you good buddy, you got yer ears on? Over.

General social media

by Kelly Hutchinson, Donor Relationship Manager

Working at Metro United Way is fun. That’s right, I really did say FUN. Yes, there are many days that are very challenging. It is a workplace with a very diverse and talented pool of driven people who have different personalities and skills while sharing in a collective desire to advance the common good and deliver significant impact and results for our community. As an organization, we seem to keep our individual eyes focused on mutually shared goals and objectives that will move us along in our work and accomplish the most good for our community.

While we are advancing the common good we do find the opportunity to laugh with one another. We celebrate the happy occasions in the lives of our co-workers like the recent and upcoming weddings of several. We are also an extended family that mobilizes and rallies around to help each other when someone experiences the loss of a loved one or a challenge is facing them in their personal life. Did you know we have a resident Birthday Fairy who makes sure that when you come to work on your birthday you are showered with email wishes from peers?

If you have been following along with our blog, then you know that in Resource Development we ring a bell whenever someone from our team wants to share good news. This simple act causes us to pause in our day, share in the good news and inspire each other when we hear how someone has grown the participation in a company campaign, a sponsor has partnered with us, a donor has informed us on their gift, or a company decides to run a campaign for United Way for the first time. We celebrate new members in our Giving Clubs like the Allen Society, Tocqueville, Young Leaders, Red Feather and the Women’s Initiative.

Since this post is about the lighter side at Metro United Way I will let you in on a couple. I have seen a royal blue, foam filled Superhero Suit that is Captain 2-1-1. I have not yet seen a co-worker wearing the suit but I am guessing it is only a matter of time. Or perhaps this is like Clark Kent and one will never know for sure who Captain 2-1-1 is. We have glamorous recognition awards for our Loaned Executives who are so important in our work. We couldn’t do what we do with out our volunteers and during the campaign season Loaned Executives come on board to work in the community. We want to make sure they know they are appreciated and that we celebrate their accomplishments also. So if you see a girl with one Golden Shoe, someone with a Pen the size of a baseball bat, or glitter-laden angel wings on the back of a desk chair, then you may have just passed a Metro United Way award winner who is on the campaign trail.

I hope as you are reading that you may think of some of the silly things that go on in your workplace or of simple ways that you can add a little humor to someone’s day because, life is really just too short to not learn how to roll with the punches, have a good time while doing some hard work and to flash your pearly whites and share a smile with those you work with.

If you need a little inspiration to help you loosen up your funny bone then you are encouraged to join us for a fun night out? Join us in your LIVE UNITED t shirt –or whatever shirt you like—we will host a night out at the Comedy Caravan in Louisville on July 30^th at 8 pm. It is a fundraising benefit for our employee campaign and each $8 ticket sold will benefit Metro United Way. RSVP by July 26^th via email to kelly.hutchinson@metrounitedway.org if you would like to get tickets. It would be great to see our event filled with YOU, our friends of Metro United Way who make a difference in our community by giving and volunteering.  There are simply too many people in our community right now that are struggling and that is no laughing matter.  But…the Metro United Way Comedy Caravan Fundraiser with Russ Nagel will be something to laugh about! Can you join us?

Events, General, Giving, Volunteering awards, Common good, Community, donor groups, Volunteer, workplace morale

By Ashley Cecil, www.ashleycecil.com

We are all familiar to some degree with the organizations Metro United Way contributes to, but often times that familiarity is merely on a surface level. I’m very fortunate to have been much more deeply involved with many of these organizations firsthand, and so I thought I would share one example of how those donation dollars equate to tangible outcomes.

My love of meshing the visual arts with social causes led me to the Louisville Visual Art Association (LVAA) in 2008 to manage a program called Open Doors. In this program, local artists are hired to facilitate the creation of community art projects with disadvantaged participants recruited from other nonprofits in the area. This June, LVAA hired artist, Guy Tedesco, to work with clients of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentuckiana (a MUW organization) and youth from the Metro Park Department’s Baxter Community Center on a large tile mosaic.

Through a grant from the Kentucky Arts Council’s Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial, LVAA was able to develop a project that combined Lincoln’s history with the arts and community outreach. The youth from this group went on a series of field trips, including to the Filson Historical Society and Farmington Historic Planation, to get ideas for their mosaic design from the historians’ stories and their collections.

Currently, the project participants are meeting weekly at the Baxter Community Center implementing what they learned about Lincoln through colorful tile. The finished artwork will be installed at the Beecher Park on 9^th street/Roy Wilkins Ave in downtown.

Liberty Park

This project has been an excellent example of education through the arts, as well as the power of collaboration. The youth will be unveiling their artwork to the public sometime this late summer. None of this would have been possible were it not for the long list of organizations, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentuckiana, who have come together with LVAA to execute this grand plan.

To really see the impact these opportunities have on the youth we serve, visit LVAA’s website (www.louisvillevisualart.org) to get information in the coming weeks on when to attend the public unveiling of the mosaic. I hope you will join us.

General, Giving Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentuckiana, Louisville Visual Art Association

By Cori Gadansky

Unsolicited advice – we’ve all gotten it and perhaps we’ve all given it. I have noticed that as a parent, I get a lot more of it than I did before. Now, I’m not saying that I know everything. And I’m not saying that I don’t seek out advice as a parent. I’ve mentioned in previous posts how fortunate I have been to have so many friends, family and experts to go to about issues that come up with my son.  But that’s the difference – when you ask for it and when you are just going along minding your own business and someone feels compelled to share their brilliant insight with you.

For example, Luke is not exactly a small child. (He weighed over nine pounds at birth.) He’s tall and he’s solid, and he is three. So, I still pick him up and hold him sometimes. The cook at his child care center never fails to tell me that “he’s so big he should be holding you.” Of course, almost any time she ever sees us together is at drop off time – when he sometimes takes a minute or two to say good-bye to me, or at pick up time – when he is excited to see me. It’s not like I walk around the house holding him, or I try to squeeze him into a Baby Bjorn. I pick him up the same way that many people I know pick up their three-year-olds – to comfort, cuddle, and love. So, although he may look like he is about to start kindergarten, he really is still at an age where (I think) he needs to be held, comforted and protected from this world that he is still trying to figure out.  Of course, I know that the cook at his school is completely well-intentioned.  He weighs over 40 pounds. In fact, one of these days my back might let me know that Luke really is too big for me to hold. But I never asked for her opinion.

I think there is a lesson to be learned from this related to the work that I do. Success By 6 has a lot of parent education resources that are available to anyone who wants them. I just need to be intentional and thoughtful about the distribution of these materials, because I know first-hand that receiving advice when you never asked for it really isn’t all that helpful. On the other hand, I know that receiving advice and information when you are hungry for it is extremely valuable.

When have you gotten advice that you didn’t want? When have you been in need of information about your children? Did you get what you were looking for?

Photo Credit:  purpleslog

Education parents, Success By 6

Recently I was looking at some scrapbooking supplies and I ran across a package of stickers with various words on them. When I read them, I was struck by the wisdom in them and I couldn’t help but think how surprising it is where we sometimes find the reminders we need to put our lives back into perspective. Who would have thought stickers in a craft store would have had an impact on me that day?

I took a few minutes to take those words and put them into sentences that meant something to me. I would like to share them with you. Here are my scrapbooking words of wisdom.

Always remember to …

• Be thankful for what you have.
• Learn as much as you can.
• Listen to what the world has to say.
• Wonder what could be.
• Love what you do.
• Believe change is possible.
• Share what you have.
• Wish for more to share.
• Dream bigger.
• Imagine the impossible.
• Trust that you can.
• Hope for a better tomorrow.
• Care about the people you meet.
• Work harder than you think you need to.
• Laugh at yourself.
• Dance when you can’t dance anymore.
• Stand up and be proud.
• Sing when you want to be silent.
• Whisper when you want to shout.
• Pray for strength and serenity.
• Try harder than ever before.
• Play a part in the whole.
• Smile as often as possible.
• Cherish your friends and family.

And always be who you are.

You are someone special.

I challenge you to make a list of your own and share it. I’d love to see it.

Photo credit:  lars hammar

General Community, learning