Using Gifts and Experience to Make a Difference

​In my twelve years of working in nonprofits, I've noticed one big difference between lackluster programs and energetic, life-giving work: the freedom for employees to bring their whole life experience and creativity to work. 

Each of my colleagues at Project 1.27 is brilliant, with their mixture of professional programming sprinkled with grassroots magic. I see my colleagues using their gifts, developed in the tears and joys of their own home lives, to enhance their roles here at P127. That personal wisdom is one of the keys to ensuring every child we serve has a nurturing, well-supported home. 

Jackie, my counterpart and Matching Manager in the Neighbor Program is a foster and adoptive mom. After three years of faithfulness as foster parents, a foster care agency asked Jackie and her husband Ryan to mentor other families through a monthly support group. Now five years into leading the group, they've held the hands of dozens of parents through heartbreak, isolation, and joy. They can personally attest to the long road of foster care and encourage others to stay the course. Jackie spoke at our Colorado Springs story slam this fall, sharing her own story as a child in kinship care. This personal knowledge allows her to train volunteers in the sensitive nature of entering a kinship or foster home to deliver a monthly meal, respecting the child's story and the caregiver's need to feel cared for.

Alex is our Director of Community Engagement, author of five books, and keynote speaker for thousands of audience members. She started her career in a home for teens without a place to go. I watched her take the stage at a local church this winter to share her keynote, "Loving My Actual Christmas." After sharing practical tips on managing the expectations and stresses of the holidays in 21st-century America, Alex invited the audience to step out of their social circle and become a Neighbor or attend foster parent training. From Alex's blending of her pre-Project 1.27 speaking skills and her drive to fill our program with quality volunteers, twelve people expressed interest, and four are already in the process of taking monthly meals to a kinship or foster family.

Lisa, our Director on the Western Slope, has a full house of teens and elementary kids. Thanks to her lengthy commitment to fostering 96+ children, she trains foster parents in Mesa County, explaining that while this is not easy, it is worth it. Her hard-won wisdom lets parents and future foster parents know that when they feel like everything is going wrong, they can keep showing up faithfully. Along with her husband, who serves as a CO Responder with Mesa County Behavioral Health (assisting the Sheriff), Lisa sought (and received!) funding to lead connection groups between kinship families--often grandparents or older siblings--with others who are unexpectedly caring for their relative's children. Together, they hosted an advanced training on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, a common diagnosis in their local community.

I'm proud of my colleagues. They put their hearts into this work because they've lived it themselves. They see the needs daily in their own home and want every child to get the personal attention, love, and heartfelt effort they give their kids. Families in Colorado are more nurtured and well-supported because Team 1.27 brings both lived and professional experience to our programs.

By Hope Forti, Neighbor Program Founder & Director