A number of families in our community cannot afford to buy backpacks and school supplies for their children. What if the backpack drives in the area produced an overabundance of backpacks at one school and a scarcity of backpacks at another school? Different areas in our state are sometimes prone to fires or flooding. What if a natural disaster left a number of families homeless but their community wasn’t prepared to quickly respond? What if outreach programs and services in the community could have an even greater impact on the people they serve by coordinating and leveraging resources?
Non-profit organizations, churches, businesses and governments do so many good things for our community. However, when these same non-profits, businesses, faith-based and government organizations bring their leaders together to strategize and coordinate projects as one body, their reach into the heart of the community’s needy can be so much more powerful than it would be if each organization worked independently. How does a group of people with a wide range of knowledge, passions, politics and beliefs move from talking about issues together to designing solutions together and acting on them? Care Inc. is a civic non-profit organization that helps with this process. Care Inc.’s ultimate goal is to help bring solutions to the needs of the people by serving local government, faith, non-profit and business leaders. Care, Inc. facilitates the process of bringing together leaders across many sectors to work as a unified body to not only formulate solutions that meet the needs of the people but also to implement those solutions for maximum impact.
How does Care Inc. successfully unite and empower such diverse groups to strategize and serve together? Through its program called “For Our City,” which exists so far in 10 cities across Arizona including Tempe, Gilbert, Mesa, Chandler and Maricopa. For Our City works to ignite change at the grassroots level by bridging gaps in community needs with sources of locally available aid. For Our City works to match up the service needs of a city and nearby non-profits with the service resources of faith-based communities, employers, businesses and other organizations. Through this process, For Our City aims to create collaborative volunteerism, community preparedness and the implementation of community best practices. After Care Inc. founder Jon McHatton initially meets with a city’s mayor, he then helps the city form a host committee made up of a variety of community leaders. Once a director is chosen, the director and/or host committee completes a training program, Bridging the Gap. The committee then begins by trying to gain an understanding of actions currently underway to improve the community, to understand what types of improvements could be made, and to identify what could be falling through the cracks. The mayor and city council then set the overall goals and direction for the committee. Once organized and trained, the host committee is ready to begin meeting, strategizing and implementing!
Tempe For Our City implemented H.U.R.T. (Holistic Urgent Recovery Training), as one of its first collaborative strategies. This initiative is unique in that it’s the first strategy involving multiple faith-based communities working together. The goal of H.U.R.T. is to train, equip and empower faith-based organizations to implement and facilitate a 72 hour emergency preparedness plan for individuals and families in their faith organization. It is a FEMA IS-22 program adapted to include a spiritual aspect in addition to mental and physical preparedness. Care Inc. also sponsors COMPEF (Community Preparedness Exercise & Fair) to assist organizations (rather than individuals) through an annual fair comprised of speakers, preparedness workshops and tabletop simulation exercises. The Department of Homeland Security recently designated For Our City Tempe’s H.U.R.T. and COMPEF programs as “best practices”.
Perhaps one of the most poignant examples of how For Our City is making a difference occurred in Sahuarita when a flood left 12 families homeless. Host committee members immediately made contact with their associated charities and churches to find housing. Whether it was literally driving around to find available apartments or making phone calls, For Our City obtained housing or enacted housing plans for all 12 families within one hour. During this same time period, 2 organizations began receiving funds for the families. Such quick and effective reaction could not have been possible without the shared coordination, resources and relationships already in place between these non-profits, faith-based communities, businesses and government organizations through the For Our City program.
A before and after picture of the way one valley city implements their backpack drives demonstrates the difference collaboration makes in this community. A For Our City host committee had just been established in this city and at one of their first meetings, the discussion centered on the good things happening in the community. One individual stood up and talked about the successful backpack drive her organization had just completed. One after another, people stood up and talked about the successful backpack drive their organization had just completed. As it turns out, 6-7 different organizations had independently conducted their own backpack drives and distributed backpacks at nearly the same time! The mayor finally laughed because he envisioned a kid with an abundance of backpacks trying to figure out how to sell them. The city now conducts a collaborative backpack drive with multiple collection and distribution locations and unified communication. One year a surplus of 300 backpacks was even donated to other cities!
Care Inc. is working not only within communities but across cities as well. On December 8, 2011, mayors of 5 valley cities endorsed Care Inc.’s annual PMT For Our City Golf Classic to be held on February 25, 2012 at Superstition Springs Golf Club along with a food drive. Plans are also being made to conduct a 5 city food drive later this year with multiple collection points. The goal is to replenish supplies at valley food banks. This food drive will be the first regional For Our City collaboration with the hope of more such regional collaborations to come in the future.
In an effort to involve individuals in impacting their communities, For Our City launched 100 Hours in 2011 as a challenge to individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations and faith-based groups to volunteer their time. This program seeks to ignite volunteerism for change throughout Arizona communities by meeting urgent community needs. 100 Hours also commemorates the 100th anniversary of Arizona’s statehood coming up next month. Volunteers can sign up and track their hours on Care Inc.’s For Our City website.
For Our City is just one of the programs created by Care Inc. Check out Care Inc.’s website for details about all of Care Inc.’s programs, info about For Our City in your area, and volunteer opportunities.
When organizations and individuals work together, they are able “bridge the gap” and impact the community in a greater way. Be a part of it. Check out Care Inc.!
Many thanks to Jon McHatton, founder of Care Inc. for sharing his experiences and insights.
