It can appear to be a
staggering task to get involved with your community, but what will happen
to your community if you do not get involved?
Commonly, people use
their limitations as excuses to validate why they are incapable of engaging in their
‘community’. The greatest leaders and
inventors in history embarked on change by using the limited resources they had
at their disposal.
It is anger,
frustration, and being fed up that typically incites people to take action. There
is also something to say to those who do not act out of these emotions but
rather provide maintenance and sustenance even in terrific times. They are the ones to keep the movement going
when everyone else looses interest.
Though we live in a reactive
society, human beings have a great ability to harness powerful emotions toward
common interests.
Some will say: “But how
can I do anything? I have no money or I have little time.”
Let's take a look at
Susan B Anthony. She was a leader in the woman's suffrage movement in the
mid to late 1800's. She fought for teacher’s equal pay, coed education,
and college education for girls. Prevailing by use of her skills to
lecture, she educated, facilitated, and congregated women together.
When organizations refused to let women participate, she harnessed her
leadership powers to initiate her own groups including the first women's
Temperance Association, Woman's Loyal League, and The National Women Suffrage Association.
One of the ultimate resources she had was her ability to teach. She used it to
help enact the first laws in New York that granted women rights over their
children and property. Remaining driven and focused she initiated a
group of women to the polls, though she was arrested and sentenced to a fine that
she refused to pay, the other woman replicated her integrity and united
until the case was heard in front of the Supreme Court. She used the potential
of education, focus, and leadership as tools to govern change.
Next let’s look at Rosa Parks;
she harnessed the ability to remain stead fast and unmoved from her seat on the
bus. This sparked Martin Luther King JR. to launch the Montgomery bus
boycott movement where over 17,000 black Montgomery residents boycotted the
buses for almost a year. Because of Rosa
Parks’ refusal to compromise her dignity, worth, and virtue, her bravery drove
a pivotal stage in the civil rights movement.
Eventually, the Supreme Court declared segregation on
buses unconstitutional. Unity, perseverance, and remaining
stead fast were tools used to engage community involvement. This event not only
proved to be a victory in the legislation but it also showed the power of
community unification.
In North Africa and in
the Middle East groups of women formed an organization called MENA. This
organization is a business women's network designed to launch social progress
and economic development.
In New York, Vivian
Gonzalez works as an Employment Counselor, with the NYS Department of Labor in
downtown Brooklyn. Mrs. Gonzalez previously
served as an activist and advocate for incarcerated women at the Women’s Prison
Association, where she advocated for their release and reunification with their
families. She volunteers her time holding recreational events for geriatric patients
in hospice and also helps to connect people in her Bronx home town to job
opportunities. She wakes up at 5:00 am every
morning to begin her day. She is a
professional, a wife, a mother, an entertainer, and a vital connection to jobs
that provide people with independence in her community.
In Pennsylvania,
Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant Tara Simmons has helped to
start an organization in her community called Building Bridges. Building
Bridges helps children that have issues interacting inappropriately with
others. She uses her willpower,
motivation, and dedication to support her community, even when there is
resistance. It is her act of kindness that
keeps the vision alive.
Earl Lucas of Reading
Pennsylvania created the Afro/Latino Magazine over 7 years ago. The bi-weekly magazine is distributed to thousands of
places throughout Berks, Dauphin, and Montgomery County. His
magazine provides affordable advertising to many of the local
businesses. He has also been able to use his brand to launch a yearly
parade in which the community comes together to enjoy each other’s culture, food,
and activities.
These individuals are
only a few of the numerous amounts of people who have and are becoming involved
in their communities.
In almost all cases these
individuals pulled together the resources they had accessible to them to ignite
change. Providing vital services to their communities and using action to
inspire others.
It is not what can I do
but rather how can I use the resources I have accessible to me to begin serving
my community.
We all have the ability
the harness the power that is within us.
