Energizing a Community, continued
Anyone thinking that "collaboration" is just another buzz word should stop by the South Lorain Lincoln Community Center on 31st in Lorain. The Center is an effort by the Coalition for South Lorain and partnering agencies to bring needed services to the neighborhood as well as to energize the local community. And, they are doing just that.
This isn't to say that community centers have not been around for a while nor housed multiple services. However, what distinguishes this center's effort is that Lincoln's leadership "gets it" regarding the community piece. They understand that their organization is not just a stand alone "silo" of service programs. Silo thinking once dominated the Lorain County landscape. It has long since been abandoned by successful companies and organizations. A look at any day's business page speaks to the reality of the global thinking and the success or failure of those who understand what genuine collaborations mean.
The web site www.touroftheplanet.com describes silo thinking well: Silo thinking is a metaphor drawn from the large grain silos that are seen in the continental Midwest. It is a term of derision suggesting each department or organization is a silo that stands alone, not interacting with of the other departments. Silo thinking is prevalent in many businesses and may go unidentified until well out of control. The main point is that it is dangerous and will almost always cause a business to flounder. Silo thinking is extremely treacherous..."
Those words ring especially true when it comes to delivering health and human services, when people are seeking critical help or are hurting. The web site's sentence could very well read "The main point is that silo thinking is dangerous to someone's well being and will almost always cause help not to be given to the extent possible." That is why our United Way requires evidence of genuine collaboration before nickel one is given to a program. The reasoning is simple: individuals needing assistance should have easy access to services and those services should be inter connected to related services because needs usually have many dimensions.
The programs partnering at Lincoln Community Center show that they understand multi dimensional needs:
- El Centro de Servicios Sociales senior program
- The Lorain City Schools and the system's preschool, speech pathology, early reading and the English as a second language classes
- Boys and Girls Club after school and summer program
- Nord Center's mental health services program
- Lorain County Community College's registration and information services offering
- A Tuesday A. A. meeting
- Frame Works Program which offers introductory lessons to the fields of photography and video
- A Lorain Police Department's community resources officer
- A Lorain County Children's Services work station and meeting area.
- Boy and Girl Scouts recruitment and meeting offerings
- Lorain County Court's Community intervention program
- The Lorain Furniture Bank
- Common Ground youth art program
- We Care We Share Ministries food and clothing banks
- Calabri Hispanic Dance Group classes
- Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority community computer lab and Commstar Credit Union education classes, soon to be part of the center
Other providers, also, are being approached to join in this collaborative effort. An effort that seeks to improve the entire fabric of a neighborhood by bringing services and opportunity proximate to where the need exists…. in the neighborhood where the people can both access and make them their own. Now that is a definition of community!
Jerry Skully
Executive Director
United Way
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United Way's 2008-10 fund distribution application process opens September 1, 2007 and closes on October 31, 2007. Healthy Agency application packets will be available online during that time at www.loraincountyunitedway.org. Healthy Agency applications will be due back at the United Way office on October 31, 2007 by 4:00 PM.
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