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Two of life's inescapable truths are much on our minds this week, in the final days leading to the Fourth Congress of The American Dream Practitioners, scheduled for Thursday.
The first of these truths, in the hands of TAD folks, is freed from its typical sinister undertones: It's not what you know, it's who you know.
Given its annual emphasis on networking, past TAD congress participants have a better grasp on whom to call for help, from alleviating a crisis to expanding on a good idea.
The second truth smooths the day-to-day operation of person- to-person social work: Knowing the right answer is less important than knowing where to go to get the right answer.
The first three TAD congresses overflowed with thoughts about how to stretch scarce resources, how to avoid redundancies, where to find reliable supplies of volunteers and how to show up on the radar screens of local media and lawmakers.
Best of all, however, is that participants have returned to their offices with organizers stuffed with contact names and business cards enabling the holder to slice through the protective shield of bureaucracy designed to say, ``No!''
Something For Everyone
Conservatives should embrace the ideals of TAD because its ambition is to create a well-oiled machine of interaction that makes the most efficient use of government grants to social agencies while making absolutely no mention of increasing government payments to them.
Instead, TAD stresses luring the private sector into partnerships by demonstrating how smart, helping-hands assistance to Pasco's poor communities plays to small business' self-interest. Briefly: The better our poorest citizens become at embracing and understanding the tools of success, the better the private sector will do.
Furthermore, TAD's early efforts have produced eye-catching results in the realm of faith-based initiatives. Trilby's New Life Assembly, led by David Raley, both pastor and force of nature, has been particularly enthusiastic about seizing opportunities to bridge the gap between the sacred and the secular.
Liberals should embrace TAD for similar reasons, and more: TAD has proven it can deliver ground- level support to Pasco's neediest, as projects such as the yuletide Food for Tots and the ongoing STEPS (School Tools that Empower & Promote Success) program indicate.
A Word To The Wise
In short, at a time when America's domestic critics are decrying the widening gap between our richest and our poorest, there is absolutely no reason not to be enthusiastic about TAD's potential to reshape our approach to poverty.
Attention should be paid. The best way to do that is to show up Thursday (8:30 a.m. registration) on the Blanton Road campus of Pasco-Hernando Community College in Dade City. Signs will guide you to the meeting place.
This invitation goes especially to those who guide nonprofit and charity organizations in Pasco County. Agency chiefs, pastors, school principals, city and county officials. Learn how you can help, and how you can be helped.
Past TAD congress participants have discovered the most encouraging truth of all: They're not in this by themselves. The wisest of them will be there again Thursday.
Columnist Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219. |
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