I imagine it’s no big secret that I love to meet new people and to have a good time. Over the past couple of years, I have been fortunate to meet a ton of really cool people while writing this blog and while looking for “content” to write about. The amount of people that are connected downtown and who are making a difference has been truly inspiring to me.
Back in March, I wrote a post about some really cool people at the “Stand and Serve Central Corridor Initiative.” (SSCCI) Back then, our mutual friend, Kimber Lanning had introduced us in thinking we might have some similar interests in discussing communities along the light rail. Turns out, she was right!
SSCCI is a youth-focused coalition of organizations, schools, families and community members committed to safe, healthy and respectful lives along the metro light rail. The group meets monthly at the Phoenix Library, and I have been able to attend a couple of their meetings and get to know some of the people involved. Our friend, Marty McNeil from Metro Light Rail has been very active with the group, as well.
This past week, I had coffee with Jennifer Rauhouse of “Peer Solutions” and Chuck Fitzgerald, who works with Arizona DES and who is doing some amazing things to help fight child hunger in Arizona. Turns out, Chuck and I have a mutual friend in Pat McCalla, who also does some really great work in downtown Phoenix. “Coincidentally,” Pat works with my friend Brenda who I met via Twitter. 🙂
While there are many people that just don’t “get” social networking or understand that the true goal is to bring online relationships to “face to face” interactions, there are many that look forward to spreading their reach into the community for some real benefits.
The main reason for me getting together with Jennifer and Chuck this week was to talk more about how SSCCI can reach out to the community. We talked about effective ways to convey their message and about joining forces to find even more mutual friends to help them in their efforts. The terms respect, responsibility, and unity were things that Jennifer brought up several times. In the near future, they will have a louder voice from a blog, from Twitter, and a Facebook Fan Page. Social media is here, it is a way to communicate, but does not mean, as some still don’t understand, that it simply exists on a computer.
I am excited to see what SSCCI does next and am glad they thought enough of me to see if/how we can help.
Community can be built many ways. I’m thankful for knowing that…
Sounds like a fantastic organization that has the right idea about how to connect people. Social media and building relationships should be viewed as a process that almost always ends in face-to-face interaction. I think many nonprofits are building a social media presence without taking the time to implement that crucial step. Thanks for sharing!
Katie, you are one of the people I have been wanting to share their vision with. They are a non-profit and I know you know a lot about that area. I hope to catch up with you soon. 🙂
Great post Nick. And I love that Jennifer referred to respect, responsibility, and unity since those are the things that I think the best communities are built on. Those are your pillars of success both in life and in Social Media.
And you know I agree that the IRL (in real life) meetings are the things that make a community something really special. Phoenix would be a very different place without IRL events like all of the #FN's, Ignite, Gangplanks and Social Media Club to name just a few.
And on another note, you'll be catching up with Katie this week at #SMCPHX as she will be a panelist with you.
Cheers!
Thanks Jack! I look forward to seeing you this week at SMCPHX
Thanks Jack! I look forward to seeing you this week at SMCPHX