Live United, by Ann Austin

This will be our third year helping to organize the Rocking the Block effort in the community — and what an exciting process it has been!

Years ago United Way used to organize a Week of Caring. It was a remarkable way to engage community members in helping local organizations, but we recognized a need to expand that engagement out to the greater community.

During a conversation with the Housing and Redevelopment Authority Director Jon Ford, we recognized an opportunity emerging to help people address some real concerns with their housing: replacing leaky roofs, crumbling/unusable bathrooms, general repairs that weren’t getting done, painting to improve “curb” appeal.

We knew this was too great an undertaking for any one organization to accomplish so when the opportunity emerged to partner with Shinefest and the volunteers they were organizing through local churches, the idea quickly began to take form.

Habitat for Humanity emerged as another partner within the next year and with the guidance of new United Way staff member Amanda Irvine, the idea became a reality. We all committed to partner for three years and then re-examine the effort.

We decided as a group to focus on health and safety issues first and work within three areas of the community that were determined to be areas of concern in the 2009 Housing Study.

Our first year was a learning experience, but it was also a great inspiration that the work we were doing was truly having an impact on our community. We found more people stepping up to be “project managers” and increased interest from community members to be engaged in future efforts.

The group has been thankful to receive support from local businesses through grants and in-kind donations to continue efforts.

The second year was more organized and we found as we promoted the project, more people had heard of it and were glad to see the community coming together to help neighbors.

As we have worked to organize the third year, our leadership team has been thinking about sustainability. How do we want Rocking the Block to look in the future? What will work best for addressing the community’s needs?

There has been a waiting list for projects at the Housing and Redevelopment Authority—the work could continue decades from now. Is this something our community is willing to commit to? Have we been able to create a model that we can continue, even as leadership changes? This is something we are asking ourselves and something any organization that is addressing a need in the community needs to examine. How do we ultimately maintain and grow the momentum? The need is so great and more of the community is interested in stepping up to do their part.

One idea is to select projects that are in most dire need based off health and safety concerns and who would be served. Project managers could then identify the project they feel most capable of addressing and we would all work to engage volunteers who could help address the need. Work could be accomplished year-round, whenever it fit people’s schedules, and in this way we could include other groups not available during the summer. This would also allow us to take a larger scope—to the outlying areas of the county that have great need.

Habitat for Humanity has worked to establish their “Brush with Kindness” effort, which focuses on painting/exterior improvements. This is an effort we could engage large numbers of community volunteers with during the Shinefest week in August.

Discussions will continue and I’m sure there are many other good ideas — we have enjoyed this experience so greatly and many people have found hope from it — either by receiving the help or participating.

We are all so grateful the community has been engaged and inspired by this effort. Any way you can help out — whether volunteering during the Week of Service, Aug, 9-16, or by offering suggestions for how to sustain efforts or by volunteering to lead a project in greater Freeborn County. Please call the United Way if you are interested in being involved, 373-8670 or visit our web site to sign up to help out this year.

Other events/contacts for Shinefest:

Community Sew Day: Senior Center; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 9; contact Sue Westrum, 383-8977

Oil change: Freeborn County Fairgrounds; 9 a.m. to noon. Aug. 16; contact Kris Gil, 377-1412

School clothes giveaway: fairgrounds; 9 a.m.-noon Aug. 16; contact Dale Grotsun, 383-2766; need lightly used school clothes

Blood drive: fairgrounds; 8:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Aug. 16; contact Dale Grotsun, 383-2766

Block party: Location to be announced; 4 p.m. Aug. 16 (2 p.m. set-up); contact: Susan Piper, 383-0565

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