L.E.A.P. and Community tried alone. This mind set can be applied either personally or professionally. Within a strong community the goal should always be to help each other succeed. When one succeeds, we all succeed. By: Karen McFarland, Community Member My husband, Bob and I have been on numerous mission trips over the years. Our passion is to be able to serve those in need. As amazing as the trips were, we discovered the one thing that we felt was missing. A longstanding, consistent and caring community. Our dream became to serve those in need but do so while creating a community where everyone feels loved, encouraged and accepted while providing for their basic needs (L.E.A.P). This mindset applies to those we serve and to those who choose to come alongside us to serve. We wanted to build long standing supportive relationships that can only happen within a community. That is why we began L.E.A.P Toledo, where we feed anyone who is hungry every Tuesday at 12:00 pm in downtown Toledo, right in front of the library. We have been doing this for over 2.5 years. Our community we serve has grown immensely since we fi rst started. Those we serve know we will show up every week despite the weather, with a hot lunch, a cool bottle of water, some basic needs. And most importantly this is all done in love, with a smile and absolutely no judgement. These are the relationships that help get you through the hard times or simply put a smile on your face just by being together. Page 4 Sometimes these relationships just happen naturally. You fi nd that common connection with someone and it instantly starts to build and grow. Sometimes you stumble into it and other times, it takes work. We have to build trust, create boundaries, and have a willingness to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Building these relationships takes time and effort. We as individuals are guarded, cautious to trust and protective of our time. Personally, years ago we stumbled into a community where we served with some amazing people, under fantastic leadership. The “stumbling in” was the easy part. Making the most of the stumble, that took time and courage. We had to be willing to put ourselves out there for potential rejection. We are so grateful we took the risk. This community has become our family over the past 20 years. We are all in different states now, however we still make time each week to meet up virtually. We are intentional about staying connected. Our lifelong friends were built out of a community we stumbled into. Absolutely, priceless. When we focus on building a stronger community, we create relationships where we can access connections to help one another. This in and of itself makes us more apt to succeed. When we utilize each other’s strengths, more is accomplished than if we had We were designed to live in community with each other. When we do this well, we have a greater chance of success. We need encouragement, love, support, to be held accountable and sometimes reprimanded for our actions. Alone, we will not accomplish as much as we will together. Together we are stronger, more capable of doing the impossible, than we ever will alone. By living life in community, we benefi t from one anothers’ gifts and skills. Where we lack, others succeed and vice versa. When we fall they pick us up. We do the same for them. We are safer and stronger when we are living in community with one another. The com munity we like to create is one where the doors stay open, everyone is accepted, no one is turned away. Community doesn’t run out of space, it makes space. Together we are stronger and always will be. Children Thrive in CommunityFocused Environments By Chelsea Garver, Elementary School Teacher When I think about the word community I think about the amazing opportunity I have to build a community in my classroom each year. Educators often support one another in the teacher community, people who live in neighborhoods often place themselves participate in communities because of the many aspects they enjoy, adults often place themselves in communities of friends and coworkers where they feel safest. My role as a teacher is to give my students that same experience, that same comfort, safeness, community feeling, every day. When they walk into my room, do I expect that feeling instantly? Goodness no. Building trust, relationships, and laying a foundation takes work. While the curriculum is very important, I cannot expect these children to learn anything from me when they don’t even know me or respect me yet. The fi rst two weeks, we focus on getting to know each other, we assign jobs in the classroom to help foster that togetherness, and we listen to one another. Then we create and list our community rules together, instead of me laying out the classroom rules for them. Each year may look different with the rules but the general basis is that we respect others, we show responsibility for our actions and our learning and we are kind to one another. As we begin a new school year, my heart hurts as I think about what this will look like for the students. If they are online learning, will they be able to build the relationships needed within their community? If they are hybrid and only go two days a week, will they feel loved and safe coming into the school behind their masks? Teachers, parents, and administrators have to work together full-circle to give our students the best chance of accomplishing this. During a time where we are told we can’t do a lot of things, there is still a lot we can do. We can check in with our students’ mental health daily, learning can be fun and adapted to the current state of the world, laughter can still happen and kindness can still be spread. Whatever the school year will look like, we are still one class, one family, one community. On Community By Nakia Williams, Tiffi n University Student Often when we think of community, we think of the area we live in. Is community just a place surrounding us outside of the personal bubble we create for ourselves or is community deeper than that? Does the community we live in shape who we are and the decisions we make? Community is typically defi ned as a group of people living in the same place or having characteristics in common. Fostering Community
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