Grounding a Slogan in the Real World

Our Strength is Our Community. It's our campaign slogan, and today I walked into a great nuts-and-bolts example, a meeting of the Jackson County Task Force on Homelessness. There I found about 30 dedicated people from a couple of dozen organizations, some of whom have been meeting monthly for 20 years to deal with this problem.

Think about it. Homelessness, spreading by the week at exactly the same time governments are cutting back on services, has to be near the top of the list of problems where people might throw up their hands and say "Man, it's really terrible, but there's no way we can solve it." This group of professionals and volunteer leaders somehow missed the memo that there's little or nothing that can be done. They're aiming not just to ease the worst pains of homelessness, but to eliminate it in ten years. And not by whistling a happy tune and thinking happy thoughts; check out their Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness and see if it doesn't raise the bar for you on what's possible in these rough times.

Making this plan work will take a mountain of effort, of collaboration, of tenacity and letting go of turf concerns. It will also take laser-focused leadership from County Commissioners. Not easy. But this report leaves you convinced it can actually be done.

And that Our Strength is Our Community.