Lexington, KY - Wow. These have been a few challenging weeks for all nonprofits in the Bluegrass. We have seen an increase in demand for services along with limited resources to help due to the challenging economy. In only seven days following the start of the recent ice storm, United Way 2-1-1 received over 700 calls for information about shelters, food resources, generators and more.
We all need to be better at connecting the dots. 2-1-1 has helped and will continue in that role for our regional community.
It can, does and will continue to be a 24/7 central source for connecting regional needs to regional resources. But those resources have been strained. I want to offer a special thanks to WKYT for going live on Monday, February 2, with staff in the studio and callers pledging over $11,000 to help efforts. The Blue Grass Community Foundation also stepped up with $65,000 to assist the immediate needs of Central Kentuckians.
I spent that day from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. answering phone calls at WKYT that came into the donation center. I also spoke with several callers who phoned in because they needed help. I will always remember a call from a young single mother with four children under 10 years old who did not have power, a generator, or even money to go to a hotel. Because of the outage, all their food in the refrigerator had spoiled. The family was trapped - no power, no transportation, and no food. As a regional community, we have to have a process that operates in a disaster situation, and that process needs to be recognized by the regional community.
There must be a regional disaster approach that is understood and marketed at a regional community level. United Way 2-1-1 will always take on the coordinated support with its information and referral network. The regional community should always forward and access 2-1-1 for continual and ongoing support of referral information. As we all know, life is changing, but with change comes opportunity.
I recently ran across a book I had picked up at a conference entitled Make Hope Real - How We Can Accelerate Change for the Public Good. The author Rich Harwood speaks to pockets of change. He writes: "The emergence of many pockets of change, vigorous and more pervasive is the good news. But this emergence of change needs to be nurtured, and it puts before us a demanding, two-part challenge. The first part is that we must actively work to spread and eventually connect pockets of change so that they become a broader and deeper force that helps to alter the prevailing direction of public life and politics, whether in a single neighborhood, a community, or across the land. At the same time, we must exercise caution in the pursuit of this task. It is at this very juncture that critical mistakes can be made. In our efforts to accelerate progress, we must not choke it off, which we can do by overly controlling what happens, or by trying to coordinate too many activities and thus killing off creativity and innovation, or by skipping important stages of development out of impatience or hubris. This challenge is first and foremost about how we think about change and how it unfolds."
This year and beyond is and will continue to be about change. The nurturing and engagement is up to us. Let's go.