Good comes from bad

Yay! The coolest thing happened today! I was communicating a hard decision when I got some unexpected support for our fledgling company.

I've been tutoring a great student at the Memphis Literacy Council now for many months. She's committed and at a pretty advanced level. Unfortunately, I don't have adequate time to prepare lessons and it is only getting worse with wanting to work on the business every spare minute. So, I'd decided to take a hiatus from tutoring and was telling the program advisor my decision when she inquired about the non-profit idea I am working on. I hesitated telling her because I was in a hurry...a common dilemma I create for myself. Well, for whatever reason, I decided to forgo the urge to run and instead began telling her about Community Collaboration Services. The woman LIT UP and started talking excitedly about how this is exactly what Memphis needs and that this is exactly what funding organizations are looking for. Turns out that the MLC just joined a coalition led by Mid-South Reads to work together on addressing the literacy issues in Memphis. They are defining the space each organization will work in and working together on some funding opportunities.

She also went on to explain that local funding sources are demanding not only that you work with other organizations in your space, but also that you can show progress and measurable results. She gave me materials from a workshop she attended on 5/1, which was put on by the Non-Profit Alliance...which looks like it might be a good company to work with on our goals. We also discussed several of the other organizations on my "must socialize idea with" list.

We closed our discussion with an assessment of Memphis. She took the words out of my mouth by saying that this city is unnecessarily hard on itself AND it always looking for another city to emulate, versus just taking pride in what's already here. We agreed that highlighting the progress would be a huge step forward. According to her, we have some unbelievably giving people, both financially and of their time. Her enthusiasm and support were infectious and I left her office flying high, anxious to get home and tell Cameron.

Add to that, during the car ride I heard the re-broadcast of Drake and Zeke from the morning. They were talking about how Memphians are flooding the city council with emails and phone calls because they are just sick and tired of the way Memphis is run. I really hope so...and maybe Drake and Zeke could be an ally! Listening to their rhetoric I could already hear myself on their show pitching collaboration......