A World We Dare to Imagine Part III

CommunityConnect is an organization served as a social platform for small business owners and entrepreneurs to connect with their local community. Our mission is to bring good cause and good people together so that people could give back to their local community and positively impact their business as well. CommunityConnect is an effective solution to get your social service team’s name out there and reach out to potential sponsors who live in the same area and care about your growth. We provide the opportunity for the local community to seek support from local business, and through the outreach you can attract more people to participate in community-serving activities and support your cause.

Community-based social ventures often focus on serving the community based on their targeted niche and long-term goal. However, CommunityConnect expands the focus and equally emphasizes on the local business as well. We let the local business owners know that they are not just devoting their time and money for a good cause, especially when time and money are crucial to small business. They will in return get exposure, build credit and relationship, and embrace the idea of social responsibility and continue giving back more to the community.

Many local entrepreneurs and small business owners are passionate about their ideas and extremely interested in sustaining and growing their business. Their targeted customers are likely within the local community, such as a food truck on Figueroa targeting USC students. Community involvement is one of the easiest way to increase brand awareness. Why not get involved in your surrounding community by joining a service club, or supporting a youth team? Why not take your employees to volunteer at food bank or teach kids at school? Business longevity is rewarded when your business becomes part of the community you are in. Connecting with potential customers through good cause will help to ensure that they will remember your business and will be on your good side. Local customers trust companies and businesses they recognize. Keeping good names in front of local customers helps build loyalty and beat the big companies' advertising. Involvement in community activities can also bring business owners together to share experience and support each other’s growth. As the network expands and relationship grows stronger, the value of synergy will positively influence your business and the business environment in your community.  

AMDP should invest in CommunityConnect because our concept demonstrates what AMDP is looking for. We start from small businesses and early age of companies to educate social responsibility and build social enterprises. We help foster relationship and support within the community and help grow a strong sense of belongings. Our clients will be proud of living in the community and serving the community.

Small steps to make the world a better place

When I think of making somewhere a better place, I think of the places around me: my apartment suit, my college campus, my workplace, my community. Instead of thinking about hungers, diseases, natural disasters or abuses taken places on the other side of global, I would be more interested in focusing on things happened around myself. Though it seemed selfish and unconcerned as a global citizen, I think it is easy for people to accept and get actively involved.

One thing I could start doing is to reduce one's negative impact, especially on the environment. For example, I had spoiled food in my refrigerator. I usually never completely finish my meal if I ate outside. Leftovers create food waste and I should avoid over-buying. This should also apply to shopping. I buy new cloths, shoes often and never think of donate or resell items I don't want to use any longer. For me, recycling creates a lot of trouble and does not earn me any value unless the item on resale was originally really expensive. But recycling adds value in terms of improving the environment. People should be encouraged to do so.

Another thing I could think of is volunteer regularly, like once a week at a homeless shelter or children's center. Volunteering enables people get into an unfamiliar community and the process creates a shared experience that helps people with different backgrounds understand each others. It's not just about helping people, but also helps the volunteers opening their minds and learning a different perspective.

Even though I am purposing small steps, it is still a challenge for people to keep doing it if they are alone. I would suggest building a community, local or online, so that people can share their experience with each others and somehow competing on the good things they did.

How it's like to volunteer at DPSS

Last week I volunteered at Department of Public Social Services office and provided advocacy to people in need for emergency food, shelter and transportation. 

Before I went to site, I was a little confused on what kind of role I would be playing. I thought I was going to explain the application requirements to people and helped them fill out paper work, which would be explaining the same rules all day. I tried my best to memorize all the details in the handbook one hour before the volunteer work started. However, it turned out quite different. There was no one exact way of how to make things work here. In fact, I was surprised that every one’s case was so different that I never had a previous example to follow. I had to either came up with something myself or ask the group leader and the liaison how to proceed every time I encountered a client. I truly understood the saying that people’s life could be difficult in every different way. I got involved in multiple cases at the same time, because a single could proceed slowly. I also had to keep asking for updates for all my cases, otherwise it got buried under new-comers.

One of my cases was an angry applicant waiting for hours to see his worker. I got his information and asked the advocacy liaison to search for his case in the system. It turned out his assigned worker had to see an emergency case first and could not possibly having extra time to see him. If he had not get impatient, if we had not take actions, he could spend his day for nothing.  We helped him reach another available worker and allowed him to finish his application. 

A lot of the times I approached a person and offer legal aid help, and the person was usually defensive showed no interest. But when asked more about his or her application, waiting time and potential issues, the real problem showed up. The most memorable client had for the day was a recent immigrant. When I first approached and asked a few questions, all he was saying was “yes”. “no”, “OK”, which seemed like he did not need help. It turned out he only had limited English Proficiency and only spoke French. I found an interpreter to help complete his application and provided more information on finding job to support himself.

I believed the most important lesson I learned from the advocacy was to take initiative.  This also applied to the social entrepreneur presentation we had in the class. To make a change, we have to step up and start from somewhere.