Day 74 ❦ Who knew? Just Give.

Day 74 ❦ Just Give

THE GIFT: 60 piece toolkit

Working with and for non-profits gives me daily opportunities to give of both my time and other resources. When I moved from Boulder. Colorado to Austin, Minnesota I made the conscious decision to let go of my professional aspirations and find meaningful employment - something that moved me and that I could be passionate about. There was few opportunities in Austin for women, yes - even in the 1990s, the corporate culture of the community is one that does not encourage women to work professionally outside of the home. That is an entirely different book, which I am working on. So after several years of making waves in the community, making things happen as a volunteer, and resigning my professionally paid career over - I found a non-profit that really needed the skills I had to offer.

Like many non-profits in the 1990s and on, they had risen and grown as a result of an awareness created by newly found “women’s rights” and “children’s rights of the 60's and 70's. A lot of domestic violence prevention and child abuse prevention organization rose from that time and awareness. The Parenting Resource Center, was just such an organization - a small non-profit doing lots of good in the world by well-meaning pseudo volunteers. Looking at their wages, you too, would understand what a pseudo, or “paid volunteer” is. Added to that, they had moved in the organizational life-cycle from an emerging organization through their growth stage and were needing to develop structures and an administrative infrastructure that could support their growth. Right up my alley, and more importantly, I could do most of what they needed from behind the scenes, which was important during this time for reasons which will be explained more fully in my book about the protracted lawsuit I initiated (currently under construction).

As the years went on, my business skills helped the PRC grow into an innovative and vibrant organization which expanded its geographic scope of service delivery and became a leader of responsiveness of programming for families in Southeastern Minnesota. One program that was highly successful was called Families and Schools Together, which brought together families, the schools and serving organizations all together in a research-based model to strengthen assets and reduce risk factors - it was an incredible program. You can find many of the successes in the evaluation reports that I wrote for the evaluators at the University of Minnesota on the internet, or by requesting copies from me - it was an awesome program with high efficacy and long-term benefits.

One of the components of the FAST program is to provide families with the skills and tools needed to be successful. At each session a family wins a basket literally of tools for success, from toilet paper and socks to measuring spoons and other items we may not always consider luxury or tools of success, but for some of these families make a huge difference. And the great thing about this is that the families write down things that would be most useful for them, so they have a role in asking for, and receiving what they need. There is a lot of research about the importance of this, but perhaps that will be yet another book...

Today I had a huge office supply delivery for one of my upcoming workshops and included in one of the boxes was a 60 piece tool set, complete with case and a lot of fun extras - really super fun stuff. And, the second I saw that tool set - I knew it was going into the FAST drawing tonight because the family that was getting the drawing had indicated that they needed a screwdriver - Yipee - I LOVE it when everything happens so perfectly. I bring the toolkit with me and drop it in the drawing basket - and this time I get to see the excited faces as it gets pulled out of the basket by the winning family - SUPER COOL!

❦ Who knew? Just Give.