The "Community" Piece of "Parent/Community Outreach Fellow"

Somehow, I think I may have managed to go over half a year without mentioning an exciting project that I've been working on since I arrived at NYCCD: our brand new Junior Board! This coming Tuesday, we will be holding the first meeting/orientation of the Junior Board, which will be the fruits of about six months of slow but steady labor. The concept for the Junior Board was conceived months before I began my fellowship. Ideally comprised of about 20 well-connected young professionals, the Junior Board was envisioned as being an arm for raising both funds and awareness for our mission in New York, with the concrete goal of contributing towards the building of a new center-based preschool. Yet while multiple planning sessions had already taken place when I first came on board, very few concrete steps had been taken towards finding the right group of people to get involved in this endeavor and developing suggested strategies for them to use in order to work towards our larger goals--mainly because the staff members involved simply did not have the time to dedicate to essentially create a Board from nothing. So, I have had the opportunity to take the lead on many aspects of this project. Among other efforts to move the project along, I reached out to the New York Junior League in order to partner with their Nonprofit Board training course, so that those who are taking the class would learn about our Board. I also developed materials to send to Board candidates, and I researched other Junior Boards in order to create an application in line with what other established nonprofits ask prospective Board members to complete. After many conference calls with staff and Board co-chairs, we have a very impressive group of about 25 young professionals and parents, who will be meeting each other for the first time on Tuesday to learn more about our agency's work and discuss their goals for the year. I'm really excited to see the whole group together and hear their ideas for how NYCCD can advance its mission in the city. With any luck, I will hopefully see the results of my efforts pay off for the agency--literally as well as figuratively!