Stuck

     I have been trying to write this blog post for two days now.  The cursor just blinks on the screen, taunting me.  It is not that I am lacking for ideas.  I have begun posts on Faith vs. Fear, the Olympics, my Staff, the AmeriCorps program, Fall, Vision, Superheroes and more.  Some were paragraphs long.  Some were a only a title.  All have been deleted.  None of them seemed to be a good summary of where I am at or what I want to talk about.  None of them were more than a disciplined writing exercise.  So I have been sitting here.  At my computer.  Stuck.
     There is a lot to do at the moment, even as the skate park lies quiet during the State Fair.  There is a Board Meeting this week to prepare for.  There are new grants to apply for and old grants to close out.  There are shows to plan and camps to advertise and a skate shop to revitalize and kids to feed and coalitions to participate in and volunteers to coordinate and thank you notes to write and facilities to fix and partners to meet and staff to build up.  I love it.  I love every single crazy and chaotic piece of it...even the fundraising.  I love that my job requires that I learn 5 new things every single day and utilize them right away.  I love that almost every conversation that I have in this building includes at least one laugh.
     And yet I am sitting here, stuck on what to write.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  I am sitting here, stuck on what to do next.  Part of it is money.  Do I pay the mortgage or the staff or the garbage service?  Anyone who has worked with a nonprofit can relate with that dilemna.  There's also this building.  This great big, wonderful, expensive building that sits quietly for 18 hours each day.  What do I do in order to make 1890 Marika a better-utilized resource?  And then there are the kids.  Youth are inherently messy.  They break things and hurt feelings and never react the ways you want them too.  At-risk kids are also messy, but amplified.  How do we provide a place of fun and healing for them without their baggage hurting other kids, damaging our belongings or burning out our staff?
     It seems to me that the answer will not come through simply finding more grants.  The purpose of a grant is to help move your organization to the next level, not sustain it once it has arrived.  Community is what sustains organizations and allows them to grow into their new level.  The organization needs family, friends and supporters who believe in its value and invest themselves in order see it thrive.
     Joel's Place is a community resource that needs to grow its community support in order to survive.  We are asking our staff to do too much with too few resources...and that never ends well.  Imagine if people gave Joel's Place a portion of their time and money, precious assets both, and encouraged their friends to do the same.  Imagine if our building was constantly filled with field trips and birthday parties and concerts and families.  Imagine if youth could find tutors to help with homework or counselors to help with home problems in the same building where they were taught how to skate, play the guitar, cook and do laundry.  Imagine if there were a network of trusted adults who could not only give kids a ride here in the cold winter months but also help them find food and shelter if they were lacking.  Imagine if every young person in Fairbanks knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they could come to Joel's Place if they were in crisis and it would be okay.  How drastically would that change our city?
     I am sitting here stuck today because I have come to the realization that I cannot make this happen on my own.  Even if the Joel's Place staff and I poured our entire lives into this dream, it would not happen.  This will only become a reality when our family, friends and the community of Fairbanks come together and invest in changing the world for our youth.  I am completely and resolutely convinced that We can make this happen.  Not a doubt in my mind.  Consider this a formal invitation:  Come with us.  Join us as we work to replace fear and despair and death with hope and safety and life.  We need you and are eager to have you along.

     What can you do?

• Give financially to Joel's Place.  See that bar on the right?  Click on the giving link to help us climb out of the hole with our mortgage or pay our staff or sponsor a skater.
• Tell your friends about us.  We are the best kept secret in town.  Tell people you know, especially those whose lives have been touched by at-risk youth, about what we do.  Bring them by.  I would be happy to give them a tour.
• Use our building.  Consider using it for parties or meetings.
• Volunteer to tutor or cook or clean or do security or a dozen other things.
• Just stop by.  I am always happy to talk and brainstorm about creative ways that Joel's Place can connect with the community.

 Thank you all.  I am eager to see what happens next.