Column: Live United, by Ann Austin

There is a quote I hear every once in a while: “Great minds think alike.” Just as I have often questioned our use of the line “ignorance is bliss” (because ignorance is not bliss, it makes life much more difficult), I question this quote.

From my experience in a leadership role so far, I have found the greatest minds don’t necessarily think alike — in fact, they think quite differently about things. The greatness in a mind comes from its openness and ability to understand another mind. Empathy is understanding another person’s emotions; so what could we call the act of understanding another mind?

I would call this the act of collaboration. Collaboration is an art; and it is not something that is simple or easy. When I started at the United Way, a friend gave me a book called “The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making” (I promise I will return it soon!). I have found this guide useful, and it so happens there are numerous other guides, workshops and degrees focused on leadership development and collaboration.

Collaboration is truly a natural process. If you think about it, collaborations have existed since we realized there are people around us who can help us live better (and who we can help). Many of us are engaged in the ultimate collaboration: a marriage. We all know it takes work and sometimes it doesn’t work out quite like we thought it would.

I don’t equate all the collaborations I’m involved with to marriages, partly because they involve quite a few people. But they all take work, and they are all distinct in the way they operate.

The Drug Education Task Force (a committee of Partners in Prevention) has been a great committee to be involved with — we focus on bringing speakers into the schools and getting information out to parents about the dangers of drug use. Our focus the past year was on prescription drug abuse, and we worked to get a program started at the Law Enforcement Center to properly dispose of medications. This collaboration includes law enforcement (both Albert Lea Police Department and the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office), truancy and probation officers, educators, environmental services personnel and medical employees.

Pioneering Healthier Communities has worked to increase education/awareness of local health resources, encouraging other modes of transportation (walking, biking) and providing healthy food options to our youth (snack carts at schools). This committee includes members representing education, seniors, recreation, businesses, nonprofit/public service, and the medical/health community.

More recently the community has gathered together to form Advocates for a Hunger Free Freeborn County and join a statewide effort focused on identifying how we can best address hunger. A letter to the editor, published in the Aug. 10 edition of the Tribune, outlines the issue of hunger in our area.

We have been able to receive grant funds to support some of our efforts, but most of the work is accomplished by bringing together our different perspectives, our various connections across the community and getting everyone on the same page.

Collaborations do take work; one must plan, one must communicate well, one must leave their agenda at the door and focus on serving others. But when collaborations work, it’s magic! And what happens is this: People talk and make connections. Where we could operate on our own trying to address the issues of heart disease, drug abuse or hunger and fail miserably at it; we find success by working together.

United Way of Freeborn County is not funding any of these efforts. We are glad to be part of these collaborations, because it helps us to understand how everything and everyone is connected in our community.

The United Way board did approve funding the drug drop box (just the box) at the Freeborn County Law Enforcement Center out of a venture fund (which is separate from the campaign and is used to address emerging needs).

To see what United Way funded in 2010, you can visit our web site: www.unitedwayfc.org and click on the “Give” tab. This also outlines all of the people who have been served (over 29,000 people in Freeborn County alone for 2010) with the various programs we support.

You can also keep up to date on local efforts by “friending” us (United Way of Freeborn County) on Facebook!

Ann Austin is the executive director of the United Way of Freeborn County.