United Way for Southeastern Michigan

Just commented on Mike Tenbusch's post about "Pink Slips and Layoffs" (http://www.liveunitedsem.org/page/community/blog/miketenbusch) ... as Denny was laid off yesterday, along with 700 of his co-workers across the country. He's going to be fine however, as we are blessed with a severance package and his Air Force pension .... others won't be as fine. Makes me think of the work we do here at United Way and all of those we serve .. and the importance of educational preparedness (esp. the transferable skills that help us cope with change), financial tools that help us to get and keep financially stable and the fundamental aspects of food, shelter, physical safety and more that just help us to cope. How many of those we serve, and esp. the folks recently laid off in various industries, don't know about what is available to help them - or even know to call 211. We have a big role in informing, engaging and utilizing everything in our community to pull us all together to help each other. If you are reading this and have thoughts about how this can move forward, e-mail me!! :::::::::::smile::::::::::::::

It hit me yesterday, during a workshop, that the work I've been doing in some form virtually all my life has been around connecting people - to each other, to ideas, to action, to "The Work". And part of the way that many of us have approached it (me included) was around "what's broken - let's fix it" or "what's wrong" or "what are the gaps". And during this workshop a new door opened ... looking at ASSETS. Now, yes, I know a fair amount about organizing things, people, resources based on building on what works - or assets - but the workshop was about "Asset Building Community Development" or ABCD for short. And in the midst of the workshop, when the presenter said "Don't ever waste a crisis" and my brain linked it with working with assets ... well, something shifted for me. I strongly adhere to spiritual principles of positive thought, action, personal accountability - and yet, for whatever reasons, hadn't connected the personal with the spiritual with the political with the community work with the generation of action toward NEW outcomes that matter. OK, so I've worked with ABCD in some form (it had other names ...) for decades (gads .. that makes me sound so OLD!), drawing on the best in people and places, counting on what worked there, adapting. But this felt different somehow so I'm going to have to figure out how I'll use this feeling - translating into action. Maybe linking the campaign workers that I walked with to something. Maybe finding a focal point (like one of our UWSEM initiatives) to get my own neighborhood behind ... hmmmmm......