Who Are You? Purpose, Vision, Mission

The second week of the Main Street Philanthropy program at Harmony High was another barn-burner.  After a check-in on last week meeting and their out-of-class assignments (sounds a lot nicer than homework, doesn't it?), I announced the six teams that had been organized based on their choices from the Make-A-Difference (MAD) card activity during Week 1.  The six areas they self-identified were:

• Family Youth, & Children
• Health Research & Education
• Public Health & Hospitals
• Religious/Spiritual
• Physical & Mental Disabilities
• Arts & Culture

After everyone got into their teams, they did a really great get-to-know-you-better activity called "Your Life in a Brown Paper Bag."  The assignment was simple:  find three small objects that tell something about who you really are and put them in a brown paper lunch sack.  Then in their teams, they took turns pulling things out of their bags and explaining why those chose that object to symbolize something about themselves.  There were some wonderful, unusual, and sometimes curious things coming out of those bags.  One girl brought a pair of 1940's pilot goggles, explaining that she loves adventure and she likes to see ahead clearly.  More often than not, the objects were mundane, everyday objects that came alive with meaning when the student who brought those objects explained what each object said about himself or herself. 

Next the teams had to think about their team purpose, vision, mission, and name. Here's how we picture that in Main Street Philanthropy:

Each teams had to roll up their sleeves and hammer out a purpose statement--why does our team exist?  To serve our community by __________  __________.--a vision statement--what do we imagine our little group might be able to accomplish if we really went at it?--and a mission statement--how do we make this happen?  They also picked a team name, a name that "said something" to themselves and the community about what they stood for.  I was really impressed with the diligence and passion they had as they wrestled with these really significant questions.

The last step was developing a list of organizations the team will be investigating to see if they would be good candidates for their service and their donations.  They will be bringing back lots of information for our next session.  Then I'll teach them how to crunch the numbers, to see if that charity is using wisely the funds they have been given.