Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Summer of Searching

This summer I do believe I was in an organization of searchers (not gonna capitalize it like Easterly does cause I find it annoying). One of the main reasons that I like this book is because it is all about getting to the point of helping people, not of setting lofty goals that no one is ever accountable for when they, inevitably, fail. So since this book is about changing lives and making a difference for people all over, I am going to talk about domestic searching and my experience this summer.

The United Way of Lake County is in most respects like other United Ways. We raise a bunch of money and give it to charities who have applied for grants and proven that they are making a difference in our community. Where we branch off is the fact that in finding out about these different organizations we learn a lot about the community we are serving. We use this information to create our own programs that are geared toward filling some of the gaps in service. The reason that this is important is because it works. All the theoretical mumbo jumbo doesn't matters less to me now because I've seen success and the process that good programs go through in order to be effective both in the community and with the limited funding they are given.

The main initiative for UWLC is called Success by Six. One of the greatest needs in our community surrounds the education of children in the poorer areas. These children are the ones who tend to get left behind by an early age and in order to get kids in school and keep them there we focused on early education and preparation for school. After sponsoring a study to find out what particular areas needed to be improved in the local kindergarteners we targeted these issues with several programs that get parents involved in education. These programs are specifically taylored to the community and help parents be their children's first teachers and begin to teach them the basics (alphabet, numbers, their name, colors, shapes, etc.) so that they are more prepared for kindergarten. The more prepared the children are the less likely they are to fall behind. We have increased the kindergarten readiness of our community by large percentages and now are moving on to supplement our programs and expand into the upper grades to keep this drive to learn and improve going.

Searching really does work and I applaud anyone who takes the initiative to do something for others and solve simple problems so that everyone can enjoy a better life. I was honored to be a member of the organization and I hope that all similar groups make that much of an effort and produce real change in a truly effective piece-meal fashion.

PS Didn't want to get into the hard numbers or anything, but if anyone is interested, doubtful but cool, I have several reports I can send you!

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