Moto, moto, gotta a lot of motivation. Dedi, dedi, gotta a lot of dedication. Motivated. Dedicated. To the Corps. Your Corps. My Corps. Marine Corps!”

I think we sang that cadence in nearly every run, hike or walk while I was in the Marine Corps. The cadence goes on to talk about our love for being a United States Marine. We could be 25 miles into a hike across the Mojave Desert in the scorching sun, carrying our increasingly heavy machine guns, on our last canteen of water, and each of us would still muster up the energy to scream out that cadence. I vividly remember those moments; the moments when I felt the passion for being a Marine pour out of me. I would have laid my life on the line for my fellow brothers and they would have done the same for me, without question.

Passion and dedication are powerful things. I’d argue that those two things can change the world. Ben Minnis tapped into these characteristics recently, and it won him 100 free t shirts. (and much more) Last week Envision Tees ran a promotion for all non profits in our community. It was simple, but par for the course for Tom Rauen, it was also genius. He asked non profits to tag themselves on Envision Tee’s Facebook page and the winner would be determined by how many likes their respective tags received. 43 organizations participated and 791 votes were casted for this contest. Breaking the Silence, the organization that Ben started at Loras College won with an astonishing 270 votes!

Ben stated this organization with the purpose of supporting individuals that struggle with mental illness. I started noticing his work this past year on Facebook with his empowering “what do you live for” campaign.

The campaign took off like wildfire. People were talking about the depression and anxiety they felt with people they didn’t even know. Breaking the Silence is effectively erasing the stigma that has existed with mental illness for decades. The dedication and passion Ben has for his organization is inspiring. He had me engaged in our first meeting together. I was ready to get involved and support his efforts.

When Tom announced his contest to all local non profits, Ben didn’t send a newsletter out to his volunteers, donors or constituents. Nor did he encourage all of his employees to vote for his organization. He simply asked his closest friends to “like” what he cared most about. And did they ever. But they didn’t do it because they are friends with Ben. No, I’d argue they voted in groves for Ben and Breaking the Silence because they know he lives and breathes his mission. If given the opportunity, he would meet with one person or a 100 people to share his vision, every hour of every day. Ben would spend every waking hour empowering individuals with mental illness and their allies.

We all want to be inspired and feel like we are part of something that is making a difference. Ben did that for 270 people on Facebook and undoubtedly thousands more.

Isaac could hardly wait to get home tonight to dig out his Optimus Prime costume and run over to the neighbor’s house to get some candy. Optimus is one of his heroes. He’s an Autobot that protects the human race from the likes of Devastator and his fellow Decepticons. When wearing his costume, Isaac feels strong and invinceable. He runs around the house, saving the day for his sister Lila.

It’s no coincidence that the Resources Unite t shirts you’re starting to see around town have a superhero feel to them. We are committed to giving a RU shirt to every person we meet that is making a difference in our community. They are regular people like you and me, but at some point in their day or week, they take on another persona. They transform into mentors, hotline advocates, and all other forms of volunteers. These individuals are our modern day superheroes. Every day they are changing the way we change the world.

It’s Halloween tonight and I’m hoping see a bunch of little ones at our doorstep, dressed in what they want to be when they grow up. When I toss a few pieces of candy in their buckets I should tell them to keep their eye out for the real heroes in town donning the orange shirts, supporting organizations and individuals in our community every day; changing the lives of so many.

Hello there, Jon here once again. I’m going to turn our blog over to Zachary Shay for a guest blog post. Zachary is working as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Circles Initiative as a VISTA Member. He’s writing to the RU community to describe upcoming volunteer opportunities and to spread the word on the good work Circles provides our community. Please give Zachary a call if you’re interested in finding out more about their program and any volunteer opportunities. Here’s Zachary…

The Dubuque Circles Initiative is a grassroots organization, modeled on the national Circles model, which uses community and relationship building to help people in our community out of poverty. Members of our community who have been living in generational poverty will go through an 18 week course called Getting Ahead, which examines how poverty impacts their everyday lives and exposes the hidden rules of the middle class.

Once they have graduated this class, they join the Circles Initiative which matches the community members making the transition out of poverty (now called Circle Leaders) with volunteer allies to create a circle of support. Together they work to set and achieve goals and build relationships to help the Circle Leaders make their way out of poverty.

The Circles Initiative is fairly new to Dubuque, we launched Circles here only 3 years ago, and we are in need of some new volunteers to help grow our organization! If you are interested in helping people in your community transition out of poverty, we have plenty of opportunities for you to donate your time to make an impact in the community!

There are 11 new potential Circle Leaders who will be graduating the Getting Ahead class in December. The Circles Initiative likes to match each Circle leader with between 2 and 4 allies depending on which allies will be able to help a circle leaders most. For example if a Circle leader is looking to be a home owner we would match them with one of our allies who has a network in the real estate business. Or if there is someone who is looking for a job as a Certified Nursing Assistant we would match them with members of the community who are connected in the health care field.

We are looking for skilled volunteers, even if you don’t know how your expertise could help someone in poverty, please come and check us out! We have a place for you! We need 25 to 35 new allies to match with this new class of Getting Ahead Graduates by January 2014!

Another great opportunity to volunteer with the Circles Initiative is with the Guiding Coalition. Since we are a grassroots organization, the volunteers have a large role to play in creating Circles and helping it function and grow. Much of the logistics of Circles is done by our volunteers in the Guiding Coalition. It is made up of 5 teams, each one with a specific goal.

One team, the Recruitment and Retention team, will go out into the community and do outreach and tell the community about Circles and bring in new volunteers. The second team, the Resource team, manages some of the financial resources that we have as well as connects Circle Leaders to the resources in the community that will help fulfill a specific need. The Community team secures meals for our weekly meetings as well as plans the schedule for the weekly meetings and collaborates with other teams to plan special events.

We have just added two new teams that are also seeking new volunteers. The Income and Education team organizes and runs what we call outcome circles which are groups of allies and circle leaders who are matched for a short time to achieve a specific goal such as passing the GED, getting a driver’s license or filing taxes for free.

The final team of the Guiding Coalition is the Big View team whose purpose it is to engage the community to break down barriers in the community that are keeping people from transitioning out of poverty.

If you are interested in any of these opportunities or would just want to learn more about what Circles does, either come to one of our weekly meetings at Prescott Elementary 5:30-8:00pm every Tuesday night, they are open to the public! We provide a meal and childcare! Or if you would like contact Zachary Shay at [email protected] or (563)690-6102.

We recently shared a story for our RU Giving project detailing the generosity of Bird Chevrolet. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, please take a moment to read that blog post first. In it we told the story of Tara, a single mother doing all she can to make a better life for her and her son. Tara is part of the Circles Initiative, recently earned a new job and is quickly becoming an inspiration to all those around her.

Tara’s story with RU started when we found out her car had a rusted gas tank which made it almost impossible to use. We reached out to Bird, as described in our last post, and we were ecstatic when they decided to replace the tank free of charge to help Tara. We ran the blog post and ended our week on cloud nine.

However, come Monday we found out there was a major hiccup.

Chris, from Bird Chevrolet called to report they were worried about the deteriorating state of the rest of Tara’s car. Sure they could replace the gas tank, but in doing so they worried they would disrupt other parts of the car. Fixing the gas tank might actually make the car worse, even unsafe. It was a devastating blow. We’d have to go back and tell Tara her gas tank wasn’t going to be replaced after all.

But as Chris continued to talk it became clear this wasn’t the end of the story. The good people at Bird discussed the issue and came up with a solution to make sure Tara’s story had a happy ending.

They decide they would give Tara a car.

Yep.

A car.

For free.

We had the same reaction everyone has when they hear this story. It takes a couple minutes to comprehend. But then when it sinks in, it sinks in.

Calling Tara was one of the best feel good moments of my life. Telling her about the inability to replace the gas tank but then quickly moving on to the good news. If it took a while for the news to sink in for me, imagine how Tara felt. She was on an emotional roller coaster of thinking she had a new gas tank for her barely functional car, to thinking she couldn’t drive her car, to realizing she was being given a free car. All in about 4 seconds.

Suddenly shouts of bewilderment and joy filled my ears. And then, after all the shouting, tears. Tears and gratitude. Gratitude to Chris and Bird Chevrolet. Gratitude that her life will continue in this upward swing she has created for herself. Gratitude that there are people in our community who will do what it takes to help their neighbor.

Tara recently sent this thank you message for us to post on her behalf:

“I wanted to thank everyone at Bird Chevrolet and the Resources Unite community for all your help. I truly can’t express the hope this has given me. It is such a relief knowing I have a safe and reliable car for my son and I. I have found full-time employment and now I won’t have to worry about whether my car will get me to work every day. It has been such an unexpected and incredible experience. I still can’t believe it happened to me.”

I ended the last post by saying this story is “community at its best.” I never dreamed I’d be coming back to add more “best” to this story. Thanks again community. And thanks again Bird Chevrolet.

Guest post alert! Jaclyn from the Care and Play with Me program is here to update the RU community on their first week! To read previous posts by Jaclyn, please go here, here and here.

Care and Play with Me has officially been open for a whole week now! We had an exciting week of meeting new people and discovering new things!

It’s always intimidating to walk into an unfamiliar environment, maybe even in an unfamiliar neighborhood, and join in like you’ve always been there. I understand how hard it can be to try out a new program, one that’s not just new to you but to the whole community. But we threw open our doors and put out our interest centers and hoped that everyone who stopped in would feel that they belonged, that they were a welcomed part of our program.

This program is best advertised through word-of-mouth and in past years at other YMCA’s around the U.S.A. it’s been shown that the best way to reach out to Caregivers is in person, not simply by putting up flyers and assuming they’ll come. We’ve done a lot of community outreach events, we were at Big Truck Night with Dubuque Parents as Teachers and most recently we were at the Library during Children’s Story Time. A lot of programs like our have not always had great success reaching out to Caregivers by week 1 of the program so I opened our program on day 1 with an understanding that I might not be expecting anyone at all but still hoping for people to have heard about us. I was so thrilled that a Grandma with her grand daughter came into our program on day 1!

We did our opening Circle Time, we sang songs, danced, and listened to music while playing in the interest centers. And at the end of the program time we wrapped up with our closing Circle Time. Already the little girl had gained a sense of the routine of the program and the next day she was ready for “school” with a backpack and a big smile for us!

By the end of the week we had gained a mom and her daughter who, due to scheduling conflicts, found this program so appealing not only because it was quality programming for free but also because it allowed them to experience an early learning environment on their terms, fitting in with their schedule.

We hope to continue to grow and are excited for each new week and every new face! We still need a volunteer for our Tuesday/Thursday class at St. Paul’s. Any caregivers and their children are welcome to come join us! Care and Play with Me runs Mondays and Wednesdays, 9am-11am at Immanuel Congregational United Church of Christ (1795 Jackson St.) and Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9am-11am at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church (2025 Jackson St.) For more information or to RSVP call the Dubuque Community YMCA/YWCA 563-556-3371 and ask for Jaclyn Sharp or Vicki Gassman.

Hello again, this is Jon. Once again I’d like to give the floor over to Jaclyn from the Care and Play with Me program. To read previous posts by Jaclyn, please go here and here.

That point in our journey has arrived, we’re ready to throw open our doors to the public! The furniture is in place, the toys are out, and the program components are set up. We’ve had some successful public outreach events within the community; most recently we were at the library during story hour on Monday and were able to connect with a lot of Caregivers. My hope is that our connections were genuine and lasting; my hope is that on day one of the program we will already have several Caregivers joining us!

To a point, sometimes that’s all you can do, hope. I hope that this program will make a difference, an impact in this community. I hope that we have created an environment in which Caregivers and their children feel safe and engaged. But mostly, I hope that each Caregiver that comes through our doors feels welcomed and has the opportunity to build lasting relationships with our staff and with the other Caregivers. At the end of the day, at the end of this journey, if even one Caregiver was positively impacted then it will all have been for the better.

I will update again after the program has opened, so stay tuned for more!

Our program opens Monday, Sept. 30th and will be meeting Mondays and Wednesdays 9-11am at Immanuel Congregational United Church of Christ at 1795 Jackson St. and Tuesdays and Thursdays 9-11am at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church at 2025 Jackson St. The program runs through the entire school year and is open to all Caregivers and their children, infants and up. Please join us!

Working on RU, whether it’s website creation, the RU Magazine, planning the Community Connections meetings or creating a volunteer center, is fantastically rewarding. On a daily basis something happens that makes us take pause, give thanks to our community and be proud to be a small part of it.

Today is no different, yet the stakes in the following story are much higher.

Recently we heard from a single mother we know. For the sake of this article I’ll call her Tara. Tara came to us looking to share her story and potentially problem solve her situation.

Her current obstacle was a rusted out gas tank in her car. Every time she went to fill up her car, half of the gasoline would end up running down the outside of the tank. But the rusted gas tank was just the most current obstacle. There were many more systematic obstacles that Tara has been battling her entire life.

Lack of emotional security growing up as a child in her family. Intense emotional and physical abuse in her early relationship. As you can imagine, this lead to depressive states which lead to difficulty holding a job, which lead to financial difficulties which came around in a viscous circle and compounded her depression. The cycle was spinning and Tara and her son were just barely hanging on.

Through all this, however, Tara continued to strive towards a better future. She continued to educate herself. She sought and received therapy to battle the emotional juggernaut that was her past. She focused on her relationship with her son. Through it all, her best attribute was her tenacity; her will power to never give up even under daunting pressure and against the odds. She understood her cycle of depression, her strengths and her weaknesses.

She would be too humble to accept what I’m about to say, but she’s been an inspiration to those who know her. Her story is truly one of perseverance and courage.

Recently Tara became involved with the Circles Initiative. It still warms my heart to remember her excitement when she called to tell me she had been accepted. She realized Circles could offer her a fresh start and the tools necessary to stop her world spinning out of her control. She’s attends faithfully.

Her excitement for being accepted into Circles was bettered only by the next source of good news; a new job offer. Not only did the job offer a good living, but it was also rewarding work. Good hours, good pay. Tara felt in control of her life for the first time in a long time.

So as she pulled in to the gas station one morning she felt like she was on top of the world. She had hope, which had been missing for some time. She had a community in Circles who was not only helping her achieve success, but was allowing her to help others. She got out of her car, grabbed the gas nozzle and began filling her tank.

As the gas leaked out onto the ground and formed a puddle at her feet, the self doubt blasted back in to her life. Was all her hard work just a wasted effort? Her world began spinning again.

Fortunately, she was able to get enough gas into her car and drove to Bird Chevrolet. After a quick diagnosis they determined the problem, the aforementioned rusted out gas tank. The entire gas tank would need to be removed, a new one purchased and installed.

Over $500 worth of parts and labor.

Tara was devastated. She didn’t have enough money to fill her gas tank, let alone replace it. She quickly began problem solving. She could get a used part to reduce the cost. She could get a friend to fix it, saving money but increasing other risk factors. She could cobble together a home remedy to get her through the winter (using a garden hose taped to the end of a gas can was discussed).

She had a job opportunity and she needed transportation. She was determined to make this work.

When we first heard from Tara we knew she should be included in a RU Giving story. RU Giving is our program where we pick a cause on Monday and with community support solve the problem by Friday. Tara’s story was a perfect candidate.

At first we thought we would try to raise money through individual donors in the community. But then we realized fundraising might complicate things and what we actually needed was a much more direct approach. We know that local businesses want to give back to our community. We hear it all the time. So we figured we’d simply call up Bird Chevrolet and make the ask if they would be able to order and install the gas tank for Tara, free of charge.

We called and asked Chris Muir at Bird Chevrolet. He didn’t even hesitate. He ordered a new tank and said they would have it installed. Done deal.

This success story is much more than simply installing a new gas tank. What Chris and Bird Chevrolet gave Tara was a reclaimation of hope when hope was a literally a puddle at her feet. At the exact moment when the vicious circle was restarting and feelings of “here we go again” were filling her mind, the community lent it’s talents to bring resolution to her troubles.

With a new tank, stable transportation and continued motivation, Tara and her son are well on her way to a better tomorrow. The appreciation Tara feels, expressed through her words and tears of joy, is something I’ve been thinking a lot about over the course of this week. It’s been inspiring to watch hopelessness turn to surprise then to exuberance and then to intense appreciation. This is community at it’s best.

At nine years old, I stopped growing up. Sure I got older, grew taller, graduated high school, went to college, got married, became a father, and even started to look old. But in some ways I’m still nine years old.

You see, I’m an unashamed geek and I love superheroes. I think of this as remnants of my inner nine year old. With this love comes unabashed optimism and lofty dreams. Anything is possible when you problem solve with a nine year old mentality and ideals. Anything is possible.

For instance, changing the way we change the world.

When we were founding RU we were hoping to purchase the domain www.resourcesunited.com. Fortunately, in hindsight, it was already taken. This forced us to explore a couple of other options before eventually settling on ResourcesUnite, sans “d”.

At first glance, ResourcesUnite doesn’t make much sense as a name. And in truth it has caused some confusion. After all, if resources are going to band together, wouldn’t we would say they are “united”?

But what if we set the stage in a different way? What if the resources in question weren’t objects but instead were living, breathing things? And what if these living resources banded together, put on some tights, flew to the rooftops, put their rings together and heroically called out, “Resources Unite!”

Now that would be exciting. And it was. From the onset of RU my 9 year old self was indulged. However, being mindful we didn’t want RU to be thought of as a comic book company we started to tone down the comic book motifs while keeping the playful theme of exuberence.

I ended up creating a rocket ship in the initial logo for the site. The rocket set the tone for what RU wanted to do: blast off, reach for the skies, launch new ideas and ideals. Simply, to take us to new places not yet explored.

I know, lofty.

The rocket logo would continue to be reduced visually on the site in subsequent revisions. But eventually Kari Bahl brilliantly placed the original rocket in the “R” of our RU logo. For me, seeing the rocket come full circle, subtly in our logo, yet still so prominent, was a perfect blend of my 9 year old spirit and my adult ideals.

Now lets come full circle.

Tom Rauen from Envision Screen Printing and Embroidery was interested in partnering with RU to help spread our message of “Changing the Way We Change the World”. We quickly realized if we were going to make RU T-shirts they had to be RU Orange and they have to have the RU logo on the front. We immediately agreed the logo should be a heroic call to action for anyone who wears the shirt.

We came up with a simple emblem that looks like something you would find on the chest of a super hero. And while we have a ton of icons, content and tag lines we would like to share we knew the front needed to be bold, simple and heroic.

But how will a shirt be heroic? Well that’s where you come in.

We’re giving 500 RU t-shirts away for free. But there’s a catch. When you receive one of our shirts you need to tell us one thing that inspires you about our community. This could be an act of kindness you witnessed, a time you volunteered or any other action that made a positive impact on people’s lives.

We want to capture the inspiring stories of our communities everyday heroes.

Once we give away 500 shirts we’ll have 500 stories of heroism to share. We’ll post all 500 stories of inspiration and volunteerism and create a team of RU volunteers and inspiration leaders.

A team of RU superheroes if you will.

Please let us know if you want a t-shirt through our Facebook page or reach out to us on Twitter @ResourcesUnite.

500 heroic t-shirts, 500 heroic stories.

I stood in the empty space again today for the 1,000th time. I looked around, imagining people sitting around, talking, working, and connecting with one another. I for one have never been in anything like I am imagining. Think of it as a coffee house on steroids. You’ll be able to get a cup of coffee, maybe a protein shake, and even a bite to eat. Nothing extravagant, but enough to help with connection. I think you need food and drink to help with connection.

The room will be filled with natural light. Imagine the most inspiring and comfortable space that you have been in and then multiply it by 10…maybe 20. The decor will be modern and retro. It will be an open floor plan with mostly modular furniture. We want spaces in which one person will be comfortable sitting in a corner looking out the window while working on their laptop and allow groups of people to work collaboratively on a project. It will be a hub for networking. People are going to get to know each other and their respective strengths.

The RU center will support people in pursuing their dreams. Imagine someone starting their own business and needing a logo, or maybe needing help with designing letterhead. Maybe the same person is in need of 10 volunteers. All of those things will be found in the center. It will be the volunteer center for the community and so much more. The RU Center will be a place where all volunteer opportunities will be known. This is where newcomers to the city and Dubuquers will go to learn how to get engaged in the community. They will have the opportunity to meet with the volunteer director and will help match people’s interests with volunteer needs in the community. Organizations will be given the opportunity to showcase their work in the RU Center. We will help advertise the good that so many people and businesses do for our community, resulting in additional support for their work.

You will walk into the RU Center and find a whiteboard in which you or anyone else can write down a need that they may have. Maybe an organization is in need of 100 DVD’s for children in shelter. This very specific need will now be seen by the entire community. RU will broadcast this need to our partners. I’m confident that before you know it, those DVD’s will be realized. People want to give; they want to get involved in the community. I believe though that we sometimes just don’t know how or where to start.

The space would have every resource and piece of technology needed to support people and organizations. We realize that many non profits or other groups don’t have conference rooms or specific technology to use when in need. We would provide that. (kinda goes with our name…Resources UNITE)

We want to turn everything on its head. We’re going to serve coffee, but most of the proceeds are going to go back to the community. People will have the opportunity to buy an extra cup for someone that might be in need later. Wouldn’t that be cool? Spend a few extra bucks to support someone you may never meet? We also want to serve lunch, but in a very different way. Lunch would be catered in from various companies much like it happens at bigger corporations in town. It would be a fairly inexpensive, good lunch with one major hitch. The company serving the food, would be donating the food. Every dollar of a respective lunch would go to a designated organization or community project. Again, how cool. Right? You could buy a 5 or 10 dollar lunch and know that EVERY dollar goes back to the community. Wouldn’t you go out of your way to eat lunch there?

Speaking of turning things upside down, the RU Center will largely be staffed and supported by the community. As mentioned previously, there will be a volunteer director, but we envision most of the support coming from volunteers. And why wouldn’t it? The entire space is for the community. I think if given the opportunity, volunteers will commit to much more than stuffing envelopes and running errands. Volunteers want to feel engaged and feel that they have a purpose. I know I do anyway when I’m volunteering.

The space will transform during the evenings and weekends into a place in which events will take place including classes that would engage the entire community. Yoga, dance, fitness, and anything else that people are interested in teaching and learning. I also think there will be classes led by community members with specific skills that would benefit others. Imagine someone that’s been in the marketing world for 20 years. She could give a class on effectively branding your mission. Another person might be a retired employee from John Deere with computer skills that could benefit so many.

There’s so much more to the RU Center and I’m hoping you will contribute to those ideas. Let’s build this together…as a community.

Hello everyone, Jon here. Jaclyn is going to take over this blog post in a second to update everyone on the status of the Care and Play with Me program. The program is starting soon and she is still looking for volunteers so we are reaching out to the RU community to help fill the spots. The program is only two days a week. Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering for this wonderful program and we will get you in touch with Jaclyn.
Here’s Jaclyn:

While searching for a site to house our program, there are a lot of things to consider. We want an environment that everyone can feel comfortable and welcomed in. Truly, just one site alone may not offer enough diversity of location or space to accommodate everyone’s individual expectations. We want a space that feels safe, inviting, and engaging; a space that can adapt to change and grow with the program.

I’ve done a lot of research into the concept of a space or classroom like environment going beyond physical attractiveness to something that can become a sacred space for a child. They need to know they will be safe, take care of, respected, happy, and have fun. We also want to engage our caregivers in our environment; we want our Caregivers to feel a connection to our site as well.

We have toured a lot of spaces and discussed options with many organizations around town for rooms or spaces to meet our needs. The Dubuque Community YMCA/YWCA has narrowed the selection down to 2 possible sites. One site would be for the Monday/Wednesday group and the other site would be for the Tuesday/Thursday group. Both sites are in the down town area and are within walking distance to many homes and buildings. Both sites are also located inside churches of different Christian denominations. We feel that both sites are warm, inviting, and safe places that go beyond being just a room with early learning items inside. Both sites will transform into a home-like environment allowing our Caregivers and their children to open up and engage with the space and activities.

Our hope is to connect with the congregations of the churches and increase their connection to the community through our program. Many places have a desire to serve and connect with the community but simply no program or man power to do so. We hopefully will be providing the means and programming for these churches to expand their community connections.

After firmly deciding upon our sites we need to set our focus on finding dedicated volunteers for our program. The program is going to be directly run by the facilitator, me (Jaclyn Sharp). Then 2-3 volunteers per session will be helping me engage and interact with the children and caregivers as well as help with the set up and clean up process. We will need volunteers to commit to at least 2 sessions a week from 8-12 (either the Monday/Wednesday sessions or the Tuesday/Thursday sessions) and then be open to meeting with me at some point (most likely during Friday mornings) to discuss program planning, ideas, and feedback. Ideally we would like the volunteers to continue on with us throughout the entire program, which runs until the end of June but if someone wanted to volunteers for a few months at a time we would definitely discuss that option.

We’re looking for people who value our local Friend, Family, and Neighbor Caregivers and their impact within this society. People who want to support these Caregivers and partner with them to bring about a united front in good child care practices and kindergarten readiness. We want to help the children through supporting the Caregivers that are caring for them and impacting their lives on a daily basis. We want to work with these Caregivers to help the children become as ready as possible for kindergarten.

Starting up a new program like this can be a long journey, but it has been an enriching and valuable journey to undertake. I’ve learned a lot and grown within the community. I want to serve this community and truly help bring about a change for the better. These Caregivers are doing great work with their children and I want to acknowledge this and help them continue to flourish and grow. As with every process for change, you have to start by putting one foot in front of the other. I cannot help anyone if I don’t have the program set up in a successful manner. So we’ve found our sites, and now we need volunteers. We want people in the community, our Caregivers to know about our program, to come to our program. We need our name out there. One foot in front of the other, and step by step this long journey will continue onwards for a brighter tomorrow.

Thank you for reading the Care and Play with Me postings! If you have any further questions or comments about the program please feel free to contact me at [email protected]

It was mid July in 1995 when I felt it the first time. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew one thing for certain: I needed to listen. I had just graduated from Kirkwood Community College and was looking for direction. I was walking to my car after the graduation ceremony and bumped into a Marine Corps recruiter. Two hours later I signed a four-year contract and was on the phone with my mom. I couldn’t explain it, I told her. All I could say was that I just knew this what I needed.

After finishing my term in the Marines, I found myself at the University of Northern Iowa studying criminology. Shortly after graduation, I felt it again. I couldn’t explain the feeling I had to any of my friends or family, but I just knew that I needed to move to Los Angeles to join the Los Angeles Police Department. I never did join the LAPD, but I found my wife and my real career out there.

I’m now married and have a couple of children, have a mortgage, and a job working for an organization that I love and have given every ounce of my energy to for the past 8 years. This is where I should be. Everything makes sense, but for one big exception. I feel it again. And it’s stronger than ever felt before.

I’ve been thinking a lot about where I’ve been and what I’ve learned along the way. I’ve been fortunate to work with incredible organizations that envision a community free of violence, work with at risk adolescents, feed the homeless, and protect our country, to name just a few. Although every one of those missions were very unique, they were also very much the same. They all wanted to create a stronger community. They realized their greatest success through collaboration and partnerships.

Nearly three years ago I thought I was just helping create something that would make my current job easier. We set out to create a directory for our community. We wanted to make sure that if anyone ever needed any type of service, they could find what they were looking for in one place. That was the birth of Resources Unite. Late nights and weekends were spent sharing stories about clients that needed services, services that struggled to deliver, and a belief that if everything was somehow united or connected, we would all succeed. We’re weren’t bold enough to write it down at the time, but what we were setting out to do was to change the way we change the world. And when I say “we,” I mean all of us. The entire community.

Now, that boldness has arrived. The boldness has come on like a freight train. Community resources are meeting monthly, sharing information and ideas. Both traditional and non tradition partnership have been forged. Our website has expanded well beyond a resource directory. In November, of this year, the RU Magazine debuts. A partnership with TH Media has resulted in a magazine that I believe will be the most effective tool in connecting our community. And last, but certainly not least, as 2013 comes to a close, a RU community connection center will be created inside of the Schmid Innovation Center in the Millwork District. This is the place where people will learn about all volunteer opportunities in our community. Most importantly though, this is the place that you will go to be inspired. People will bring their laptops down there to work on a project alone or as a group. They will sip on coffee and start hatching plans to change the world…together.

And so, this brings me to the third time in my life in which I have felt something in my soul that I cannot ignore. I have resigned from Riverview Center and will be working with the Resources Unite team full-time. You will find no one more committed to the mission of Riverview Center. I believe it goes without saying that I will always support this incredible organization. Although this is a bittersweet transition, I believe in my heart that the work I will support with Resources Unite will in fact strengthen the efforts of Riverview Center and many other organizations in our community.

My mentor and good friend asked me recently who I am and what I hold most important in my life. He talked about the importance of finding balance and listening to that inner voice. I sat out on my deck later that night doing some real soul-searching. ”Who am I? ” What kind of question was that? It turned out it was the exact question I needed to hear. I remembered that who I am is a person that finds great joy and satisfaction in working with others. I love getting to know people; hearing their stories and finding connections along the way. It’s why I do the countless Tough Mudders, why I’m deeply committed to my FXB family, and why I invite anyone that will join me for a protein shake or coffee any chance I get. (I don’t even drink coffee!)

I want the connection.

Today’s blog post is a written by Jaclyn Sharp. Jaclyn is the Early Learning Readiness Program Facilitator for the YMCA and she is starting a program called “Care and Play with Me”. Jaclyn reached out to RU for assistance in spreading the word on the program, for help recruiting volunteers and even for any ideas regarding finding a permanent location to house the program.

Of course, we are all about spotlighting organizations doing good work in our community, so publishing a blog post was a quick and easy decision. But I felt it would be best to have Jaclyn speak about the program herself, in her words. When I met with Jaclyn it was clear she lives and breathes the Care and Play with Me mission and is committed to assisting as many families in the community as possible. Our community needs a programming like this and I’m excited to watch it grow.

So without further ado, here’s Jaclyn:

Care and Play with Me is a program that seeks to partner with and support friend, family, and neighbor caregivers in our community. The program is unique in its target audience and is needed in our community. Dubuque has large pockets of friend, family, and neighbor caregivers and we want to reach out and support their efforts.

When deciding to work with the program and in learning what the program had to offer I kept coming back to one dream: I want every caregiver and child to have the same golden experiences as I had with Auntie Glo.

Auntie Glo is not related to my family, she was a neighbor who watched over all the neighborhood children and was recommended to my mother as an excellent caregiver. Some of my best childhood memories took place under her care, I remember experiencing fruit trees for the first time in her backyard, making new friends, and eating wonderful home cooked food.

Today, we are still in touch and I visit her every time I’m in the neighborhood. I want every child to have this experience, to be ensconced within awesome early learning environments with caregivers that truly care and are dedicated to their growth and development.

The Care and Play with Me program will support these caregivers and help them enrich their programs. We want caregivers to enter our early learning environment and be able to take away practices that will help enrich their program. We also expect and desire to learn from their experiences and commentary and use that to further enrich our own program. Our goal is to create a friendly, partnered community between ourselves at Care and Play with Me and the friend, family, and neighbor caregiver community.

The progress for this program has been steady, with few bumps along the way. We’re looking for a site to hold our program and we’re looking for dedicated volunteers who have a passion for what we do. I’ve been dedicating a lot of time to going out into the community and getting to know our potential community partners. I happen to be new here, I just recently moved from Arizona and working within this program has been a blessing for me as I’m not just meeting community partners as a part of an organization but I’m also meeting my fellow community members for the first time. As I travel around the city meeting people I marvel at the architecture that is all around. I’ve observed Dubuque as a warm community with a lot of willing hands and hearts wanting to help in community outreach programs.

I want to thank everyone so far for their wonderful support and commitment to this program. I look forward to continuing developing this program for the good of the community and getting to know everyone I encounter along the way.

Thank you all for reading and I look forward to writing future posts on RU to keep everyone updated. If you have any further questions or comments feel free to contact me at [email protected]

Some people just know what they’re supposed to do when it comes to supporting a community. Donna Ginter knew for decades that it was her calling to serve Thanksgiving meals to those in need. Bryce Parks learned from his father the importance of giving back and now makes sure that every child in need has a Christmas gift waiting under the tree for them through his Toys for Tots program.

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that didn’t want to make a difference. In the end, isn’t that what it’s all about? Everyone wants to matter to someone or some thing. We want to know that we made a difference; that we’ll be remembered for the impact we made. We’re all difference makers you see, some just do a better job of showcasing it than others. Don’t believe me? Get in a room full of people. I don’t care who they are. Stand up and tell them what drives you most to make a difference. Maybe it’s mentoring. It could be working for a crisis center. Or maybe it’s being a mom or a dad. Let them see into your eyes the passion that you have. Look them back in the eyes and convince them that nothing gives you more joy than the weekly meeting you have with the child that you mentor at the Multicultural Center. Let the passion pour out of you. Flood the room.

Suddenly that room full of strangers are now your best friends. You are connected in a way that you don’t initially understand. Individuals you’ve never met are telling you and others about their love for character education. You’ve got people introducing themselves to you, wanting to tell you about the work they do at the Boys and Girls Club. A guy over in the corner is pushing back tears telling someone about the youth group he leads in his church and how last Sunday one of the kids pulled him aside and said “thank you.”

The room flooded with passion is coming. Very soon you will have a place in our community to go that will inspire you to do more…so much more. It will be the epicenter of change and connection.

I can hardly wait.

“I wanted to thank you again. I appreciate your help more than you will ever know. Its great to know that there are other people willing to share my dream”.

I met with Kevin Greene the other day to help him in his effort to raise $5,000 to support the eradication of diabetes. He has joined the Diabetes Action Team and will be running the Chicago marathon in October. One of the most favorite things I like to do is meet with people to hear about their passions and dreams. As I sat there last week eating my sandwich at A.J.’s Cafe, listening to Kevin’s dream, I became immediately inspired. He got me. I was ready to sign a check. He talked about being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, how is mom was diagnosed and the toll it took on her, and how he got the motivation to change his lifestyle, resulting in no longer being diabetic.

Kevin talked about how much it would mean to him to help just one person in this journey, and in his “wildest dreams maybe help a lot of people.”

Kevin is one of the reasons we started RU. We believe that our community is FULL of Kevin Greene’s; guys and gals that want to make a difference in the world; people that at the end of the day, want to change the world. They already have the spark and just need a little nudging from others to realize their dream.

I can’t wait for October. Kevin is going to reach his goal of $5,000, and if I were a betting man, he’s going to exceed that number. He’s going to cross the finish line after 26.2 miles and feel a sense of satisfaction that he may never have felt before. And then, he’s going to want more. He’s going to realize that he is changing the world and will set new goals and will probably engage others to do the same.

Funny thing is, Kevin is already changing the world, and he doesn’t even know it…yet.

When we first came up with it during a brainstorming session I was initially turned off by it and wanted to stuff the words back in my mouth. I mean, who the hell are we to think we can change the world?

But I liked the boldness and for some reason it felt right. As I kept thinking about why I liked it so much, I realized it was because it’s exactly what RU is hoping to accomplish. We aren’t saying we are going to change the world, we’re saying we want to help organizations and communities change the world.

We want to facilitate sharing of knowledge, increase community efficiencies, increase inspiration through story telling and increase the uniting of resources.

When all is said and done, the tag line isn’t really that bold at all. It’s just who we are.

Our doubters incorrectly assumed that the company was built simply on our initial idea, rather than the problem we were trying to solve and the people working to solve that problem.

Eric Paley, Inc. Magazine, June ’13

Mentoring is the gift that keeps on giving. Especially when we’re talking about mentoring youth. One mentoring relationship, one connection, can change a life. I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. The power of a mentoring relationship is palpable.

You may not know this, but there are multiple organizations in Dubuque who need mentors. But one of the roadblocks to becoming a mentor is understanding how and where to get involved. At RU we’re all about eliminating barriers so we partnered with the Dubuque Mentoring Partnership (DMP) and assisted them in creating a mentoring walk through. In a couple easy steps we will connect you to the mentoring opportunities you’re most interested in so you can start making a difference in someone’s life today.

If you have the time, the interest and the willingness to experience a whole new level of giving, please visit our Mentoring page to learn more about the organizations associated with the DMP and to begin your path to becoming a mentor.

We’ve all had this experience. We’re out to eat with family or friends and a question comes up. Either no one knows the answer or there’s a debate over which answer is correct. In a matter of seconds a cell phone is pulled out and in a matter of a couple more seconds the dilemma is put to rest. Answer found.

One example of knowledge organization is Wikipedia the granddaddy of crowd sourcing. Wikipedia is created and monitored by millions of people, there is no expert, just a team of authors, a million fold. People are learning from each other. Correcting each other’s mistakes. And finding the adjacent possibles.

When it comes to social services, when it comes to changing the world, our community really doesn’t have a Wikipedia version yet. This bothers us. And so we’re starting the shift. RU is setting out to create tools to help spread information. If an organization has cornered the market on knowing the best practices of fundraising, we need that organization to be sharing their knowledge with the rest of the community.

But wait, what about competition? You might be thinking, “Why in the world would one organization want to teach another organization how to fundraise better? That’s just increasing competition!”

As charitable or social service organizations our goal is bettering our community. There is no room for competition. I agree, sometimes organizations feel vulnerable, as if there are limited resources, limited charitable funds, limited volunteers. But it’s not limited. We need to engage each other, help our fellow organizations become better; more efficient, more effective, and more sustainable.

The only limit on resources is when a community is not vibrant, not engaged. The more organizations that are engaging our community, the more opportunities and resources are available. The more people who are served and assisted through viable and effective organizational work and mission, the more citizens are available to engage in community life and missions. So the competition argument falls flat.

If every organization in a community is sharing their knowledge and resources they will receive much more than what they put in. We’re not talking about oil, or money or copper. Knowledge is easy to share and it’s unlimited. Sharing knowledge is cyclical; what comes around goes around. The more we share knowledge the smarter we become collectively.

Can we borrow your brain?

We’re looking for smart people. Dedicated people. Engaged people.

The kind of people who get it.

The kind of people who get it and take it to the next level.

The kind of people who will be involved.

Who will learn from others. Teach others. And grow with others.

We need well-informed people. Open-minded people.

Are you these people?

If so, come join us.

We started ResourcesUnite a couple of years ago with a vision of connecting the community to resources and to one another. That vision remains the same, but how we get there has changed dramatically. Time and time again, we found that individuals didn’t know of the services offered in our community. Our thought was to create an online directory of all community resources that is provider generated and allows the user to find exactly what they are looking for depending on their specific needs. We were sure that by building this tool, we would effectively connect the community.

Our directory is a great tool, but we quickly learned that it was not “the” tool. We learned that in order to connect people to one another in any given community, multiple tools need to be provided. We spent hours upon hours on Jon’s deck brainstorming with our white board. As the weeks and months passed, we learned a lot from our community. Through a number of meetings with individuals, organizations, companies, and community leaders, it was clear that people wanted to connect; they wanted to get involved in our community, but didn’t know how.

Fast forward two short years and we are on the verge of creating something amazing. Our vision of connecting the community has led us to the plan of creating a volunteer center for the city of Dubuque. This volunteer center is going to be so much more though. This space is going to bring people together for work and play. It’s going to be a haven for connection and inspiration. I envision people leaving their traditional work space to work inside of RU because they long for the community connection. People will go to this place because they want to learn about volunteer opportunities and they will be given all of the information and skills needed to effectively connect to the right opportunity.

I see people sitting in RU, drinking coffee with friends, and talking with great excitement about what they are doing in the community. They will inspire one another. Goals that were once thought unattainable, will be realized. More people will begin to believe that they can make a difference.

And what’s most exciting about this vision is that we recognize that we don’t know it all. This realization has led us to some amazing partnerships. We’ve been meeting with the City of Dubuque, the Greater Dubuque Community Foundation, Loras College, AmeriCorps, RSVP, St. Mark’s, the Multicultural Center, Hillcrest, Clarke University, the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, and so many other organizations/companies in the hopes of not only gaining invaluable insight, but to also create a team that will help sustain this important effort. I must say, we have assembled an all star team.

We’re incredibly excited for this next step and we are hopeful that if you are reading this, you are too.

If you’re reading this blog, if you’re interested in RU, you understand our goals. You see the struggles our community faces. You see its difficult for change to happen at a macro, community level. But you also see if we work together, if we become united, we can mend our community struggles. And by community I don’t mean government. By community I mean you. I mean me. I mean us.

Us as a community.

In order to make lasting change a reality, we need to inspire and engage more of our community. We need to get people to join the “tribe”. But to get them to join we need to invite them. And not only do we need to invite them, we also need to give them the freedom to create a movement. We all know what helps a movement grow; commitment, fearlessness and unabashed joy.

RU is different than most ideas, but that’s okay. We understand it’s different. We understand becoming more engaged might feel odd. There may be some hesitation to stick our necks out at such a community level, when everyone is watching. We feel it too. That’s why we want to provide the community with a “social cover”.

Social cover is a term I ran across in a video during RU’s infancy. When RU was just an idea in my head. Before it was a website and certainly before it was a nonprofit organization. I’ve searched for that video many times since but I keep coming up empty. However, I distinctly remember the video and how the seed of social cover was firmly planted in my head.

The video was recorded on a hillside in San Francisco. Hundreds of people are sitting in the grass watching a concert take place below. The video shows a man slowly walk to an open area on the hill and begin to dance in the middle of the crowd.

For some very uncomfortable minutes the man is watched by others around him. He’s perceived as strange. People keep their distance.

Then spontaneously, another person comes in from off panel and begins dancing with the lone man. There is now a pair.

Suddenly, a third. And a fourth. A fifth and a sixth.

The man doesn’t seem so strange anymore.

Over the scope of minutes, the entire hillside transforms into a mass of dancing people. The majority of the dancers are people who were sitting and judging the strange dancing man only minutes before. But now they were part of the community. They found their social cover.

What social cover do you need to become more engaged in your community?

I spend a lot of time thinking about message and how I can take my message to more people. I’m constantly reworking a presentation, creating a new advertisement, or looking for a new audience to reach. There’s been times where my message was right on and other times where it definitely fell short. I’ve learned a lot, and still have so much more to learn.

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in the work of engagement is that in order to be effective, you don’t need to reach everyone.

To create change, you simply need to reach the right people. What you and I need is to connect to a group of people willing to take our message and share it with others. I often close my presentations making the point that I can’t do this work alone. In order to realize change, it takes the entire community. Truth be told though, I’m aiming that message directly at the believers; the people in the audience that will leave that room and start telling others about what they learned and how they believe in the work. These are the people that have the most influence. You get paid to do your work. They’re along for the ride simply because they believe. That is powerful. That’s the kind of stuff that changes the world.

Now in order to engage those believers you have to be the biggest believer out there. This sounds pretty obvious, but from my experience, a lot of people could work on believing their own message. Do you believe? Could you convince me?

People want to be inspired. They want to believe in something bigger than themselves, and most importantly, they want to be a part of it. You need to engage them and let them in, but not by thinking they are going to come to you. No, you need to go to them. You need to learn about them and create a message that connects with their own values and beliefs. The overlap exists, trust me.

ResourcesUnite just completed an amazing 6 months. We redefined our mission, redesigned our site, collaborated with the Chamber of Commerce to create the monthly Community Connections meetings, and developed the Dubuque Mentoring Project application walk through. It’s been a wild 180 days of discussion, collaboration and creation. And it’s been a blast.

As summer approaches and we take time to reflect, we begin looking forward to more ideas and collaboration. And, pardon the cliche, RU’s future is bright. We’re looking forward to tackling our upcoming projects, all in the name of changing the way we change the world.

We’ve begun work on the RU magazine, affectionately called RU Mag. We continue to meet and plan the Volunteer Center. We continue to discuss and design the RU Volunteer App. We’re continuing to think big. It’s what gets us excited; thinking big.

But recently the question hit us; why aren’t we thinking big out loud? While all this thinking is going on at our office, over lunch, in committees, or on my back deck, these are still mostly private ways of thinking big. In our envisioned world where everything is united and connect it seems pretty limiting to keep our ideas isolated from our website.

Beginning this month, Josh and I are going to begin broadcasting our thoughts. We’re going to start sharing our ideas. The good ideas and the ideas that aren’t so good. The right ideas and the wrong ideas. Our successes and our failures, for better or for worse. We’re going to write, simply to write. As an exercise in public thought. We’re giving ourselves permission to publish our ideas without concern over grammatical errors or whether the idea is correct/acceptable/too transparent. We will write even when we don’t think we have something to say, because what we find is this is how “thought experiments” works. Taking “adjacent possibles” and pulling at that little thread until the idea unravels in our laps.

Some posts will be updates about RU, some will be informational about our community, some will be ideas we’re fleshing out and some will be our dreams and aspirations. We take a tremendous amount of pleasure in thinking, collaborating, and creating community engagement tools and services. We believe you do as well so we might as well put our brains together.

This post is permission to ourselves to flesh out RU in public. Josh and I will be posting daily during the week and sporadically on weekends. One post per day by each of us. First one to blink loses and buys the winner a steak dinner at Texas Roadhouse (our go to wager). You will definitely be made aware of the outcome, most likely through a cocky blog post written be the winner.

Thanks for coming along for the ride. To make sure you don’t miss out in any updates, please follow us @resourcesunite and on Facebook. Or, if you are geeky like me, subscribe to our RSS feed. I’ve been using the excellent RSS reader Feedly and recommend it highly.

As always feel free to email us at jon(at)resourcesunite.com or josh(at)resourcesunite.com or post a comment.

There’s something in the air.  It’s electric and I want to bottle it.  I want to learn how to reproduce it and share it with everyone.  People are pouring into our offices with countless presents for our annual gift drive in hand, and they are overjoyed to do it.  Our conference room is filling up…quickly.

We figured out a way to connect our need with the community in a way that inspires people.  We connected.  But how?  I think it’s about how we tell our story.  Everyone loves a good story, but as we all know, there are good storytellers and not so go storytellers.  I was thinking about this last night when reading a book to Isaac before bed.  I was reading “The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot,” and I was bringing my A game.  I was transitioning through a number of different alien voices, and my sound effects for the robot were believable.  I was really into it, and it was clear that Isaac was eager to get to the next page to hear more.  But he’s heard this story before.  He knew what was on the next page and he’s rarely been this excited about this particular book.

It’s evident that every one of the 22 employees and 63 volunteers of Riverview Center believe in our mission wholeheartedly.  We believe that we are going to realize our vision of a community free of violence.  We are aware of how bold that statement is, but we stand by it with confidence.  Everyone connected to Riverview Center is telling a story that they truly believe in.  You can hear it in their voices and you can see it in their eyes.  Those strongly held beliefs are now being shared with our community, resulting in amazing things.

And so we tell our story.

I want to better connect with you and help you do the same.  But how?  I needed to go to my place and give this some more thought.  Armed only with my iPod, shuffling through various albums of Audioslave, I took to the hiking trails of Whitewater Canyon.  If you’ve never been, please ask me to take you out there sometime.  I would love to show you around.

Today was definitely a day for reflection, so I took a left and headed for the overlook.

In order for me to connect with you in a way that really matters, I know I need to make myself vulnerable, and vice versa.  That’s where the most meaningful connections are made.  This is excruciatingly difficult for me.  I rarely let myself be seen; seen for who I really am.  I put so much effort in trying to be someone who I’m not; someone who I think others want to see.  And in the end, I’m left feeling alone.

As I stood atop the overlook taking the incredible view in, I began to reflect on the experiences that I have had in my life in which I felt deeply connected to another person.  The first thing that came to mind was when I was in the Marines.  I would have given my life for any one of my peers, that much is certain.  And what’s even more interesting, if any one of those guys were to call me today, nearly 14 years removed, and tell me they needed my help with something, I’d have my bag packed and would be headed out the door in a moment’s notice…without hesitation.  No question.

What if our community felt that type of connection?  Can you imagine what might be realized?  I think about this a lot.  I believe much of the pain and struggle we experience would be eliminated.  I believe we would experience a level of happiness that has not yet been realized in our society.

I know the path we must take together is a path in which we are left feeling exposed.  If we really, truly want to realize something incredible, we must.  I’ve seen what’s at the end of the trail.  I want to share the view with you.

Be vulnerable.  Give me the opportunity to get to know the real you, and I promise that I will do the same.  Truth be told, I’m being vulnerable right now.  It’s been difficult for me to even write this.  I don’t care though.  It’s worth the risk.

Josh recently shared an article by one of our favorite bloggers, Seth Godin. The blog post, “Non-profits have a charter to be innovators” reminded me of my favorite quote by Samuel Beckett:

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Fail better. I love that phrase. It seems so oxymoronic. The idea of positive failure seems odd, but it’s so accurate. We rarely see the multiple failures which occur before success. The politician who loses several races before winning the White House. The innovator who fails with many products before launching a world changing device. The baseball pitcher who toils in the minors for years before winning the World Series. We’re so blinded by success we quickly forget the preceding struggle.

In my daily work as a mental health counselor I often use Beckett’s quote. As human beings we are fallible. We will fail countless times. But as long as we continue striving for improvement, as long as continue to fail better, we find life becomes more rewarding.

At ResourcesUnite, that’s been our goal since the beginning. Fail better. We started with some simple ideas and continued to expand as we had success in some areas and failure in others.

Seth’s blog post talks about nonprofits needing to be bolder, to be braver. It’s an intoxicating idea, one that we’ve enjoyed struggling with at RU. We are squarely in the social service field and our major goal is to assist all social service agencies and nonprofits in realizing their mission more effectively. In doing so we will all have a much greater impact on our community.

Communities have lots of problems. Fortunately, communities also have people who are driven to make a difference. So let’s continue to be a bold community. Let’s be brave in our dreams and plans. Let’s challenge the status quo and welcome failure. And then fail better.

(And let’s never forget the RU Rally Cry that started it all. Join our conversation on Facebook.)

There are several organizations which have successfully leveraged the internet to create awareness and ongoing discussion for those coping with mental health issues. Bringing awareness to mental health issues, be it law making, treatment, or supportive services, increases the likelihood that individuals and families receive the services needed to continue living successful lives.

We’ve done the homework for you and found the following online discussions which look to raise awareness and serve the population. Please note, the following links lead to Facebook groups and may require you to sign in to continue.

Mental Health America

MHA is the nation’s largest and oldest community-based network dedicated to helping all Americans live mentally healthier lives.

Bring Change 2 Mind

This is where the stigma ends!

BringChange2Mind.org is helping to combat the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness. Spearheaded by actress Glenn Close, the organization provides a global forum for people to share their stories and shed light on the unfair shame that’s inflicted upon those living with mental illness. With videos, news, events and more, BringChange2Mind.org is a hub for all resources related to eliminating mental illness stigma and discrimination.

World Federation for Mental Health

WFMH is an international multidisciplinary organization with individual, voting and affiliate members in over 100 countries. Its members include mental health professionals, citizen advocates, consumers, family caregivers and members of the general public with an interest in international mental health service, advocacy and policy issues. For 60 years, WFMH has been working to make mental health a global priority.
Mission

The mission of the World Federation for Mental Health is to promote the advancement of mental health awareness, prevention of mental disorders, advocacy, and best practice recovery focused interventions worldwide.

Psych Central

Mental health love on the Internet, since 1995.

Mental Health Foundation

We use research and practical projects to help people survive, recover from and prevent mental health problems. We are unique in the way we work. We don’t just see mental health as a medical issue. We recognise that the way we think and feel is also influenced by our emotional make up, our social and family experiences and the way we respond in different ways to events in our lives. We aim to lead the way in helping ordinary people understand and manage their own mental health, whatever their age and wherever they live.