1000 Strong
Over the past month, I’ve been doing some traveling. Some for work, some for family. Seeing other parts of the United States are things that I’ve enjoyed in my life. From the small rural towns we pass through to the big cities, in each place we meet people, learn about their town, taste their food (which in my opinion is the best part of everything), and just be present in their world. I love it.
One stop this month was the Lexington Kentucky Community Action Council (https://commaction.org). If you’ve ever played the game 7 Degrees of Separation, that played right into this. One of my wife’s college friends is the current board chair for this community action agency. She connected with him, and he set up an opportunity for me to meet with their Executive Director Sharon Price and their Director of Sustainability Melissa Tibbs. One thing they do which is very exciting is their use of YouTube and podcasts. Their “Lex Talk More Action” podcast (what a great name BTW) and their “Unapologetically Woman” video series are great uses of online media to help educate and inform their service area. Taking suggestions from their community they craft conversations about topics that are important and share information in a very easy-to-digest format. They are doing some great things for Central Kentucky, and we’ll be borrowing some of the ideas we learned from them here at CVCAA in the future.
If you pause for a moment and look around, you’re going to see that the Community Action Network is vast, offering services to every part of the United States. Each agency is targeting the needs of their communities and working towards Helping People and Changing Lives. The National Community Action Partnership (https://communityactionpartnership.com/) is there to assist us in connecting with other networks and helps us do what we do. Here in Texas, the Texas Association of Community Action Agencies (https://tacaatx.org/) works with 30 agencies in their work to assist every county in Texas. If you’re reading this, you have some connection to the work we are doing, and chances are you know someone who might need some assistance. The Community Action Network reaches all corners of our country, over 1000 agencies strong...all working to help those in need. I’m proud to be a part of this network, and I hope you choose to support us and other agencies like us in our work.
Over the next few months, you’ll be hearing more from CVCAA about our work in our community. We’re about to start our next Community Needs Assessment (CNA), which we do every three years. This is an in-depth look at our counties, the people, and what the big needs are. From there we will create a plan to hit those identified needs. We completed our last CNA in 2021, as the COVID-19 Pandemic was in full swing. Things have changed some since 2021, but some things haven’t. Our team will assess what the top needs are and then we’ll get right to helping out. It’s exciting work.
I hope the rest of the summer finds you doing well, and staying out of the heat as much as possible. If you or anyone you know need some assistance, we’re just a phone call or an email away.
For Everyone Born,
Mike
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