Showing Up

When I first began as the Executive Director of Urban Connection Austin, it was a pretty modest start.  Like a missionary in a foreign culture, I spent all of my time just showing up and listening to individuals and groups.  Against all of my impatience to just "do something," my boss, Larry James of City Square (formerly Central Dallas Ministries), kept assuring me that there are no bad meetings and to just keep showing up.  I started in the 78758 zip code where we live and specifically in the Northgate neighborhood that most folks had written off as too far gone to reclaim.  I talked to apartment residents, local ministers, Parent Support Specialists, and principals, just to name a few.  With each one I asked, "How can I help?" and nearly everyone gave me something to do, from distributing flyers to carrying groceries and taking people to the clinic.

Then I got an invitation to join a distinguished group of natural community organizers and create a Family Resource Center at J. Frank Dobie Middle School in the 78753 zip code (north of the St. John's neighborhood and east of the one where I had been working).  Soon I had the opportunity to call meetings as well as attend them.  And little by little I've seen the value of just showing up.  It seems like every day that I encounter someone I met at those early meetings and with each one another part of the big picture seems to fall into place.

I thought of that today when I got a call from someone at a city-wide educational organization about some plans they're working on in the neighborhood where I began - the 78758 zip code.  He said I was recommended by one of those Parent Support Specialists I had encountered and offered my help.  I must admit I was a little surprised by the recommendation because I really don't think I did much for her. But she remembered me and recommended me.  That's all that counts.  That's the nature of such grassroots community development - one person meeting with another person and then another and another until the sheer force of such numbers begins to "move the needle." Who knows what collaborations will result from such meetings?  I'm glad I showed up.