Vibrant & enFocus'd

I have recently joined a movement. It is an effort to strengthen the sense of community in the place I have called home for almost 30 years.

Elkhart, Indiana is a city where things get made. Our largest industry is Motor Homes and Recreational Vehicles. Some call Elkhart the "RV Capital of the World." But Elkhart County is more than RV's and other manufacturing. It is a place with all kinds of interesting things to see, some cool places to go and fun to be had. It's a great place to work and a nice place to live. The problem is that those things are not talked about often enough or loud enough.

Vibrant Community Elkhart is an broad reaching undertaking to make things happen throughout the county. Through an exhaustive planning effort with loads of community input identified 77 action items that fall into 15 different clusters. These are projects, policies and place-related ideas that encompass all of Elkhart County. It is ambitious and exciting and I like it.

The initiative is now at the point where things are lined up and ready to go. On some projects there has been some progress. For others, a few first steps have been taken. It is not surprising that something this big can be slow to take off. It can be daunting and it is. That makes it tough to get traction and give this movement some momentum. That is why I got involved.

I like to get stuff done. I also have little patience when things that matter get caught in that limbo between idea and action. That's where Vibrant Community Elkhart stands today.

I have joined the leadership team to bring my knowledge and experience to this movement. The action items tell us what to do. It is a matter of who, how and when. I hope to help put the processes and systems in place that are able to help get things going and keep them moving toward completion. I hope to grease the wheels so we can get things headed toward completion. I also plan to support the whole Vibrant Community project by working with a group of young people who are smart, skilled and energetic.

enFocus is a program that brings the best-of-the-best recent college graduates to the area and gives them the chance to do some very significant work. They spent 70% of their time on projects that are intended to have a major impact on the area. The other 30% of their time is to work on something that matters to them. They are paid a nominal salary and given both the freedom and support to produce significant results. They also have a mentor to help them along the way. That is what I am doing with the enFocus team in Elkhart County.

I am jumping into this Vibrant communities thing with both feet. Wish me luck.

To learn more about Vibrant Elkhart County, go to the website: vibrantelkhartcounty.org

To find out about enFocus, check out: sbenfocus.org

Over the next year or so you will be hearing about what I am doing. I will write about some of the things I have learned and how that newly gained wisdom might be useful to you.