I’ve been blessed with two beautiful children. I’ve also been cursed by Father Time, because I am now watching these two young people become self-sufficient adults who no longer need me. Distantly, Fiddler on the Roof’s “Sunrise, Sunset” starts to play in my head when I reflect on all the piggyback rides and Little League pitches we shared all those years ago.
As I travel to many of our communities to encourage and verify our work, two ideas continue to be reinforced for me. While I know it intellectually, I still find the similarities amazing in person: We all enjoy competitive games. We all want good health and educational opportunities for our children. Our desire for competence, honesty and transparency from our elected and appointed leaders is the same in any language.
Together, we are building mindful, compassionate, self-sufficient communities. Kevin Prine, President & CEO
I’m equally amazed by how different we are from each other, when it comes down to the details of our respective realities: Games have different rules and objectives; the construction materials we use to build the walls of our homes and schools are dissimilar; when we sit down for family dinner each evening, we tell our stories over plates bearing significantly different ingredients.
At Outreach, these differences are an opportunity, not an impediment. Together, we are able to educate one another, create new learning opportunities and the expand potential for broadening our collective wisdom. It also reinforces for me the importance of incorporating our partners’ experiences and agency throughout the arc of problem-identification and solution-implementation. Just as all politics is local, to an even greater extent, so too are solutions to poverty. Take a look at our results from any of our communities, and you’ll see the pride that emerges when local leaders apply local solutions to resolve local issues.
Together, we are building mindful, compassionate, self-sufficient communities. Taking stock of their accomplishments, our partners find themselves empowered and adroit to the extent they no longer need Outreach’s facilitation. While they have always been our equals, it is in this moment that they become our friends.
Kevin Prine, President and CEO
Together, we’re forging permanent solutions and making lasting change. Look closer.
