An Amazing Gift

Today I was given an amazing gift. The kind of gift that takes your breath away…. The gentleman who gave me the gift is Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year and founder of Be The Change/Service Nation. Mr. Khazei, an inspirational social entrepreneur, has been one of my heroes for the past 10 years. Today at a rally in the Boston Common Alan formally announced that he would run for Ted Kennedy’s senate seat. My gift came at the end of his announcement speech.

Alan has visited us at our Treehouse Community in western Massachusetts. Treehouse was on Alan’s What Works Tour – a tour of successful Massachusetts programs that Alan would like to take with him to Washington for replication. He understands the value of creating multi-generational communities that support families who are adopting children from the foster care system. He appreciates the strategy of asking people of all ages to become part of a re-envisioning of foster care. Like me, he would like to see Treehouse Communities built all across the country. Like me, Alan believes that citizen led initiatives are powerful tools for change.

Alan is an innovative thinker who envisions new realities and then works hard to make them happen. I remember when Time magazine named him one of the “Top 50 Leaders Under 40”. Alan and his wife, Vanessa Kirsch of New Profit Inc. have dedicated themselves to developing innovative solutions to social problems for almost 20 years. These two leading social entrepreneurs have collaborated with citizens, legislators, philanthropists, business leaders, social entrepreneurs and Presidents to bring much needed change to communities across America.

Alan worked side by side with Senator Kennedy to craft the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act that President Obama signed in April. The Act is considered to be a milestone for the national service movement. More importantly, it offers up a new public philosophy that encourages America to look to its entrepreneurs and innovators in both the public and private sectors for creative solutions to our most pressing social needs.

Alan’s keen intelligence, combined with an outstanding ability to bring people together and move them forward is awe-inspiring. At today’s rally a City Year alum spoke about the power of Alan’s approach to national service and youth empowerment. His leadership skills, combined with a deep dedication to making this country stronger, make Alan an outstanding candidate for our next Massachusetts state senator.

At the end of his announcement, Alan spoke about the need for Big Citizenship. He spoke about the need to look to what has always been America’s greatest natural resource – We the People. He reminded us that it has always been citizens that have led great change in America. He encouraged people to become engaged. Then he shared my story – the story of one woman’s personal journey from ordinary citizen to social entrepreneur, inspired by the children she loves and finds worthy of her investment.

In doing so he honored our children experiencing foster care. He extended his hand and said, “You are on the right track. You are motivating people to transform foster care.” It was a generous and kind act. In that moment Alan Khazei blessed my life and my vision. He gave me hope. Hope for my dreams, hope for my Big Citizenship ideas, and hope for our children.

Thank you Alan! Here’s to a whole host of new realities and opportunities for our young people in foster care and their peers throughout the Commonwealth. Here’s to a whole host of new citizen led initiatives that strengthen the lives of all of us who live in America! Here’s to you!

Stories of Hope

I remember that “Aha Moment” 10 years ago, as I stood in my toy store pondering a comment that a well-educated customer had just made about “throwaway kids” in our country. It’s a freeze frame moment: I am standing by the Lego section, 5 month old baby asleep in her Baby Bjorn carrier with her little head resting on my chest. My head is nodding slowly as I talk to myself. “ You know the real challenges children who have been placed in foster care face. You need to make a choice. Will you create new outcomes for this beautiful baby, her siblings and her peers in foster care? Do you have the courage to create new realities for our nation’s most vulnerable kids?”

The question that Marshall Ganz of the Kennedy School would have asked me would probably have been a bit different. I imagine he would have looked at me and queried, “Will you create a story of hope?” Ganz, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard has written, “A story of hope begins with the recognition that an urgent challenge can become a moment of choice.” It is that moment when we feel a current reality being replaced with new options and a sense of promise.

Ganz states, “By turning a bad, hopeless or overwhelming situation into a moment of choice, we have given the moment real significance. We are now in the midst of a new story.” Before we may have been resigned to an inevitable fate. When we are touched by a story of hope, we are moved to consider new possibilities. Stories of hope are created when we decide to make the right choices and take action toward shaping our desired future.

Since that day in the Lego section I have worked with fabulous teams of people to create stories of hope through my work with the Treehouse Foundation and Sibling Connections. The result: Many lives are being enriched, blessed, and honored. Together we have chosen to become members of a group of leading edge thinkers and doers who share a collective identity that helps each of us feel supported in the risks we take as we transform our communities and the nation!