Turning Outward

Last Week United Way Staff, Board Members, and community volunteers gathered for a day long workshop with The Harwood Institute to learn about how to strengthen our connection with the Community.  Founder of the Institute, Richard Hardwood lead the discussion and encouraged the group to "turn outward" to the community.  To turn outward, we must have an open and honest discussion with the United Way community around their shared aspirations.  Identifing these shared aspirations will allow us to align our work around what is real for our community.

Below is my aspiration for our community.  Feel free to use this handy format and add your own aspirations in the comment section below.

My aspiration for the community

Utilize Information Technology to create greater communication between individuals and the organizations they are associated with.

The challenges we face in reaching this aspiration are:

1. The general public's access and understanding of Information Technology (the digital divide)
2. Organizations willingness to maintain transparent records online
3. Intuitive designs that can display complex information architectures.

What we need to change in the community to reach this aspiration is:

1. Commitment from the technology community to close the digital divide.  (This includes everything from creating public broadband access to volunteering your time to teach someone how to add attachments to their email.)
2. Educating organizations on the benefits of full disclosure.  (It's only a weakness if you try to hide it)
3. Reinforce the technology community's commitment to sharing their knowledge. (This is already strong, but can always get stronger)