Do you feel like you were made for more?
What would you change if you could?
You WERE made for more and you CAN bring about your vision for yourself, your family and your community… you just need the right tools to do it.
How do I know that?
Because I’ve been right where you are now, wanting more, knowing I was
made for more…
·
a more fulfilling way to support my family...
·
deeper connection with my family...
·
a community that made me feel safe, whole, included,
and valued.
In short, I wanted what we all want; to know at the end of
our lives that we lived, we loved, and we mattered.
Does that sound like a wonderful dream, but not something
you could ever have?
I felt that way too. People told me “things will never change”,
“You’re just one person, you can’t do anything”, “You can’t fight city
hall”. The message was that I had to put
up with the neighborhoods full of crime and the drugs, where my neighbors and I
were afraid to even leave our homes because of the thugs that ran our streets. I had to shut up and accept the terrible
education my kids were receiving and support it with my tax dollars. I had to pay the high prices for the
low-quality food the local chain grocery store carried and accept that I
couldn’t have healthy, fresh alternatives. I had to force myself every day to
go to a mind-numbing job that barely paid enough to make ends meet.
Let me pause in the story for just a minute to introduce
myself.
My name is Lorinda Snyder, Lori for short. At the time this story was taking place, I
was a newly - single mother of six (yes, six) kids ranging in age from 4-16…one
in every school in my neighborhood. I worked
a full-time job (with some freelance work on the side) just to keep a roof over
our heads.
I was busy.
Too busy (I thought) to try to change anything in my life.
All I could do was pray for change.
That phrase makes me smile now, because we tend to think of
prayer as an ineffective, last ditch effort, but when I look at what happened
next, I know it’s the most powerful tool we have for change.
Let’s get back to the story:
Evidently, I wasn’t the only one praying for change because
very soon afterward, Divine Providence stepped in and created an alliance of
those of us who were trying to change things in our community. The group was called The Alliance for
Excellence and it brought together community residents and people with the
power to get things done. We had
representatives from the school district, law enforcement, city government, the
judicial system, and many local non-profit service providers.
It was a Dream Team for change…and it worked.
The Alliance took a holistic approach to changing the
community and worked to strengthen families, schools, and neighborhoods.
The impact we had together was phenomenal, and so was the
impact on me. I saw residents who lived
behind bolted doors and barred windows take a few hesitant steps outside and
eventually take part in neighborhood block parties. I saw drug dealers pack up and slink away
into the shadows as the renewed vitality of the community created a hostile
environment for their trade. I saw crack
houses torn down and vacant lots turned into community gardens. I saw families that had been torn apart by
addiction and apathy reunited and thriving.
I saw kids who typically moved three or four times a year finally be
able to have enough stability in their lives that they could take the time to
make friends and finish school projects.
As the community changed, so did I, and so did my
family.
All the changes I had wanted
were starting to show up in my life.
Like other kids in the neighborhood, my kids started working on
community projects and thinking about the things they wanted to see happen. They
showed up to bag and deliver farm-fresh produce from our alliance with local
farmers. They tutored and mentored
younger students in their schools. In
the process of it all, they learned to lead and how to create the world they
wanted no matter where they were.
We weren’t a huge team, we didn’t have endless resources or
a fat wad of government grant money to spend (or the restrictions that come
with it). We were a grass-roots group
who did what we could, where we were, with what we had; and proved in the doing
that lasting change trickles up, not down.
Changing one community and the families in it is certainly a
wonderful thing, but the important take-away from our story is that what worked
for us can work for every community, everywhere.
There was nothing special about us.
There wasn’t anything unique about our community.
The change we created is a formula that can be replicated by
any group of committed people.
The formula is built around the four foundations of a
community:
- Culture
- Leadership
- Environment
- Economy
When those four areas are strong and functioning properly,
the community is strong. If there are
weaknesses in any of those four pillars, the community will be weak as well.
Not incidentally, the same things that make strong
communities make strong families.
Families are the cellular level of a community. Strong families strengthen communities and
vice versa.
Fast-forward to present day:
It’s been almost two decades since I took those first few
hesitant steps into the unknown, fumbling my way toward a dream I could only
see with my heart. I’ve watched my kids
launch themselves toward their own dreams, armed with the tools and skills they
need to reach their goals as well as the confidence that comes from being part
of something bigger than themselves at an early age.
I’ve had the honor of facilitating change in other
communities since then, each one has had unique challenges to meet, but the
Four – Pillar formula has never failed to work.
As I write this, I’m in a new community.
It isn’t where I intended to be, but God had a different plan. This new place is full of challenges, but
ripe for change. I’m learning the
landscape, working to understand where the failure points are, and building a
new alliance.
If you’d like an inside look at how trickle-up change can
happen, in a person, in a family, and in a community, I’d love to share the
journey with you. You can get a front
row seat and watch this happen in real-time, just click the link below to get
regular updates and follow me on your favorite social media platform.
You were meant for more!
