Help the Community from the Bottom Up

You are only as strong as your weakest link, right?

Well if that's the case, you need to look at your community and find the people on the bottom and gt them to be top performers.

This morning I had the privilege of attending the Community Service Center's Breakfast Club in Orlando. The event was great and I met a ton of motivated people all looking to make Orlando a better community by working from the bottom on up.

Orlando Blueprint Initiative
Orlando has some great, albeit controversial initiatives. Blueprint is one of them. Blueprint is essentially the project to make the new Orlando Magic arena, renovate the Citrus Bowl and build the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. Whether you like the idea of the $1.1 billion project is up to you. What I liked and wanted to share was how they were going about this construction. Through a partnership with Workforce Central Florida, they are looking to help the homeless and those below the poverty line get work in not just the construction, but in the longterm running of the facilities.

(FYI - this initiative is supposed to bring in 7,500 jobs annually to the Central Florida area)

How does this compare to online communities or network groups?
It gets the people involved and makes the community tighter, cleaner and friendlier to outsiders. By taking your bottom line users and giving them power in shaping your community, you are giving them a reason to believe in your product or service.

It took a lot of high powered people to make the Blueprint project go through legislation and that that government mombo-jambo. It has to start with the top and realizing that getting everyone involved is the key to future success. By allowing the less fortunate not only the dollars today to build the facilities, we can give them a better future by providing long term jobs and use.

The bottom line
We are all concerned with our bottom line in these economic times. We would be lying if we weren't. The companies that are going to come out ahead are the ones that are making the most of everyone in their community, promoting their strength and togetherness and looking to make everyone in their company better today.

How to lose
The companies that are failing are the ones that are looking for the quick dollar, the flashy headline and the current trend. They are looking to fatten their pockets at their users and clients expense. When the tide turns, other businesses will be leagues ahead and ready to catapult on the businesses falling into the toilet.

What to do

• Find your weakest link
• Find a way to get them involved at any level
• Create long term impact for all of your users - why should I come back tomorrow?
• Stay away from the quick buck if you are going to turn people off
• Start with your leaders and influential personnel and get them involved - it is their pockets that are going to suffer in the long run when the company flops
• Remember the word community and what it means - then make your community the definition

How do you get everyone in your community involved? What can you do to help the lower bracket of your community?

Please leave your feedback, so that we can begin to understand the needs of communities and build stronger relations with those that matter.

-Greg Rollett

(Here is a Guide to the Blueprint Project for people in the Orlando area looking for more information)