As many of you know I am currently in graduate school pursuing a Masters in Public Administration, and I’m excited to announce I will be done at the end of next month! So I do expect everyone to refer to me as Master Drew come August. That’s not too much to ask for, right?

Anyway, a masters degree has really been one of those goals I have wanted to achieve for quite a long time, and it’s going to be really exciting to have finished it. Goals are so very helpful to help guide our lives. They give us a roadmap and checkpoints to make sure we are going on the correct route. They also inspire us to do just that little extra in our daily lives.

What goals do you have? Do you have them written down? I have found that writing them down makes them real. It gives you something to look back on. Do you know the goals of the Community Services Block Grant, which is the core funding for Community Action? If not, they are listed below.

The six national goals for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) are:

• Goal 1: Low-income people become more self-sufficient.
• Goal 2: The conditions in which low-income people live are improved.
• Goal 3: Low-income people own a stake in their community.
• Goal 4: Partnerships among supporters and providers of services to low-income people are achieved.
• Goal 5: Agencies increase their capacity to achieve results.
• Goal 6: Low-income people, especially vulnerable populations, achieve their potential by strengthening family and other supportive systems.

Goals are important for both your personal and professional life. Write them down and always insure they guide your work. I know our Community Action Agencies here in Utah live up to these goals, and I hope you will do the same with your own goals.

I have been accused by friends and family of thinking things but not saying those things aloud. Worse, I have a tendency to think I said those things I was thinking of. Kind of like those known unknowns and known unknowns Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld spoke of a few years back.

I wonder if I think of thanking people but don’t actually thank them. I was reminded of this last Friday.

A group of us got to play golf at Hill Air Force Base and at dusk loud music was played. You could hear it all over the course (28 of us were playing) and realized it was to be heard in every corner of the base. There was a pause, then our National Anthem played. Players said they were looking for a flag though protocol says face where the music is coming from if no flag is visible. Our team’s carts luckily had Scottish, Irish and U.S. flags attached to reflect our team name so finding a flag was easy. As I looked down the course I could see friends all standing with hand over heart except for one who was saluting. He is a newer member of our league so after the match asked him if he served. His answer was yes and I thanked him. There are five in our golf league that have served (that I know of). The playing of our anthem got our foursome talking about the service. We are close in age from Wyoming, Utah, Missouri and Pennsylvania – big cities to rural towns. My parent’s generation was the WWII group but you never thought of thanking your friend’s parents for serving. My neighbor across the alley was blinded in that war, never thanked him, didn’t think of it. My generation was Vietnam. My high school had 27 alum killed. A neighbor became head of the city’s MIA group after he lost his son. The Iller house always had blue Christmas lights. They were never put up again after their son Ronnie died. My children’s peers have served in Iraq and Afghanistan with many other missions to untold places. A few close calls for some but no serious injury or death among their friends to date. I’ve talked to them about their military experience but haven’t thanked them.

Other thanks in life…..I had the pleasure of working with 162 volunteers this year in our free tax program (VITA). Did I thank them? Yes, I always say thanks in an email. I made the rounds to each site at season end to shake as many hands as I could and say thanks but is that enough? There are so many ways to say thank you.

We (Community Action Partnership of Utah – CAP Utah) just hosted a conference and it was considered to be a big success…did I thank the presenters enough? Did I miss someone?

Father’s Day was Sunday, a day to thank our dads…nice to have an official day to do that…maybe we need more official days to say thanks to people. Or we need to be aware of what and who we can be thankful for every day.

THANK YOU!

First off, it takes a village, and I am not talking about raising a child – I’m talking about putting on a conference. I can’t thank everyone here at CAP Utah enough for time they put in and the patience they had.  There were certainly times of stress, I mean how long could name tags possibley take????  What do you mean your cancelling a workshop??? And what happened to the network break food??? But, sometimes not everything works out perfectly, and in spite of that, the greater good is still achieved.

Laughing Stock Improv at our Evening Reception

Steve Chindgren - Talking about his Bald Eagle Liberty

Dale was such a great sport!

Pictures at our Evening Reception

Second, it takes a lot of faith in the purpose of a conference to actually carry one out. This is where I stand most impressed. CAP Utah, really believes in the work, skills, and education that happens through this forum. When we looked at what the second annual conference needed we knew we wanted 3 things:

1. Solution Focused

Scott (UWSL) and Sonya (SLCAP) presenting the Collective Impact model

 2. Highlight Best Practices

Roger highlighting successful coalition building

3. Tool Driven

Allison (Voices for Utah Children) talking about the legislative budget process

These 3 components drove our speaker selections, workshop content and overall length and timing. And through that I believe that we were able to provide a truly valuable service.  Non-profits, often, don’t have the funds to pay for professional development and trainings for their staff, which means a conference, like ours, should serve that purpose. This is a time to remind us why we do what we do, and how to do it better. I can only hope (and the workshop evaluations will tell) that we succeeded in doing our job.

Third, conferences cost money.  Conferences, in recent times have become less popular among our funding community and we are so grateful to those who generously sponsored the Community Action Partnership of Utah Conference on Poverty 2012.We certainly could not have done it without their support!

Our Board Chair with one of our sponsors - Ted Hill from Lake, Hill, and Meyers

Lastly, we want you to know how happy we were that over 220 people chose to attend our conference. We know how busy you are and hope that we continue to make it worth your while!

Poverty Simulation

Paul & Cathy

Gina, Mike, & Marti

Tamara & Stephanie

Myla & Leeann

Virginia & Tara

Until next year…. Poverty in Utah is real. It doesn’t have to be.