Community Impact - how can you achieve it?

On Sunday, I did an interview with the Dunwoody Crier about the book release! Stay tuned for the link to the published interview.

During the interview, the reporter and I discussed how the book (on Irish women) could be galvanized for a call to action for all women.

As the busy mother of four and a full-time professor, it would be easy for me to lose sight of the challenges facing my community today. Time is precious, and family is a top priority for us all. But I want my children to have a better community and see the impact that they can make too - this is why I bring my children with me once a month to deliver meals at a local non-profit organization to chronic and terminally ill clients. The kids also help me pack up their used clothes and donate them to a unique community programme that promotes reunification and healing of children with their mothers battling substance abuse.

These small efforts contribute to a larger vision of community empowerment, and they do not take too much time. Small efforts can yield great rewards. These are small actions of community impact, taking ownership of our role in my community. It is community impact.

How can you impact your community?

In writing this book, I was inspired to deepen my commitment to voluntarism and community impact. I was also able to recognize the powerful (often unrecognized!) role that women can play in their communities - as daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, PTA volunteers, community volunteers, employees, business owners, cultural advocates and neighbors.

I was also inspired to say thank you to all the women in my life who have supported my community - from those "room parents" who volunteer in my children's classrooms to those advocates fighting the commercial sexual exploitation of Georgia's children. Every sacrifice that these women have made to impact their communities has fostered my community.

But most of all, I am grateful for my mother and my grandmother who instilled in me a compassion for all people and a commitment to act on the values I hold most dear. 

I would like to ask you to thank a woman in your life for what she has done for you and your community. Please don't let her efforts go "footnoted!"