What a Difference a Month Makes
By: Angie Ditsler
About a month ago I changed roles at Metro United Way. I am now the new Manager of the Gheens Bridges to Tomorrow initiative. I, by no means, expected the transition to be easy. I fully expected to encounter a huge learning curve as I settled into my new job here in Louisville and slowly adjusted from my previous role in Shelby and Oldham Counties. With so many different partners involved in Bridges, I honestly expected that the most difficult part of the transition would be coordinating the volume of activities and people, and keeping up with the pace of how quickly things move here. If there is one thing I don’t have to worry about learning, I thought, it’s getting to know the agencies themselves that participate in Bridges. After all, I’ve been working at Metro United Way over four years already, and I already know all about all the agencies we serve!
Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong! Even as an employee at MUW with a background in social services, I must admit that spending time at each of the four Bridges centers this past month and learning more about the role each of them plays in the community has been a very eye-opening and humbling experience. For example, in the three years since I last volunteered at Americana Community Center, it has opened a health clinic on its property and now operates a Family Program that focuses on the time parents and their children spend together. I had no idea that Neighborhood House is home to a JCPS “STOP” program that works to prevent truancy among middle and high school students, and Presbyterian Community Center is preparing to open the doors of its new Child Development Center, making room for 50 additional young children in its program! Did you know that Louisville Central Community Centers is in the middle of an enormous capital campaign that will expand its facilities, attract small businesses, and hopefully generate dozens of new jobs in central Louisville? I didn’t know all this is going on, and I consider myself an active and knowledgeable member of my community!
What I’ve learned in my first 30 days at my new job is that there is a lot I didn’t know about my community, and a lot I still don’t know. There is always something new to learn and experience in our own backyards. Being an advocate for our neighborhoods and community is not just about sharing what we already know and believe; it’s also about being open to learn and talk about thing we don’t know much about either.