"A Sense Of Life"

                                            Radiating Grace

                                            "A Sense Of Life"

                                            by Desiree de Angelise                                                                   

 I am offering my campus/community program created many years ago for you with its ideas to consider offering in your community or area Now.

"A Sense Of Life" was a campus/community program which I created partially to bring together

the campus and community which was very split at the time, and partially to have a group, a Steering Committee,  working together offering plans and solutions to what was happening in the community, including suicides, addictions etc.  

In addition to those goals, since I had created "brown bag" programs at the campus, I also wanted to prove that with creative innovative ideas etc., grants and big funding was not necessary!   

ASOL funding was requested to cover the cost of very specific projects only, and I spoke to community groups requesting that.   Everything else was volunteer.  

The Chancellor of the campus liked the "A Sense Of Life" idea and covered much of the funding needed by allowing for the printing etc. of various projects.  A local community church and group was also very supportive of the whole idea of "A Sense Of Life" and gave funding for various projects.

I presented the idea of "A Sense of Life" at a City Council meeting, and it was accepted after I had written a requested proclamation.  The City Council also approved and sponsored a banner which was then created to hang over Main St. at special times.  The City provided the blank banner, painting was done by art students, and publicity was from many sources: students working on publicity projects, the local paper and the local and campus internet services.  

The "Steering Commitee" had representatives from the following: campus admin. & faculty and counselling,  police, city council, mayor's office,  school district, school board, ministerial association, library, library friends, students from the campus, high school, jr. high, chamber of commerce, local mens and womens organizations, and interested individuals.  

Our first project was to create small "depression symptoms" cards, print them with the helpline phone no. and give them out to the schools and campus.   Bright posters were made with our logo, taken from a friend's painting, with the helpline no.  and shared throughtout the community.  Another project was to create a "bookmark" with information to be added by each person re what they liked, who they could talk with, what activities they liked etc.

We requested the "A Sense Of Life" banner be hung at specific times of high suicides.  The banner for "A Sense Of Life" stated "We Care".  "A Sense of Life" Week was to be declared during those high times, and it was when we also had specific programs given, taped and shown by the campus and city internet and available at the city and campus libraries.  At those special times we also created colorful displays with art, books etc. at community and campus libraries.  Note:  faculty needed to do community service in order to get promotions, so were very helpful in offering no cost programs.

A four-part talk was an example of cooperation as they were sponsored by four groups in the community who came together to offer and pay for that.  It was taped and available in libraries and on the community and campus internet services.

The ASOL "Steering Committee" met once per month and over time there was more working together and the sharing of ideas/plans took place.  Often representatives either worked together on a similar idea and pooled resources or realized that there was no need for duplication of effort, so chose something else to focus on.  

The biggest accomplishment besides the "We Care" was that the campus and the community began to work together, rather than apart, and many special things including a new auditorium at the campus was built in order to bring in plays etc. which both groups could enjoy, a large swimming pool and area was shared, and a number of beautification projects took place.

My original idea was to chair "A Sense Of Life" for a year or two and turn it over to someone else on

the Steering Committee.  That did not happen as no one else was willing to do it.  

At this point I think a major factor in the success of "A Sense Of Life" was that I had connections with

both those on the campus and the community and was able to call together those who also saw the

importance of doing small things to "make a difference."  

 My Recommendation For Each Community:  Get a Person/persons to head the "Steering Committee."   That person(s) needs to be very involved in the community, really care, and be willing to focus and get others to focus on his/her/their community's specific needs and possible solutions. 

Funding coming directly from the community and its groups gives a sense of ownership, belonging and caring.  Using innovative ideas, we also requested funding in ways that worked for everyone.  

One example of how this worked was "bookmarks."   A Social Welfare professor and I created the "ASOL bookmarks."   A group sponsored and printed them and and the police when visiting schools passed them out to the students.  That was one of the ways the community worked together.

After the success of "A Sense Of Life" in the community in which I lived, when I moved to Michigan's UP,  I talked about some of its ideas which an area group accepted.  Those ideas were also used by a tribal group for a grant.  Given this use by others of the ASOL ideas, makes me aware that these ideas are still important and can be used by many, especially Now.  

Cooperation and caring by many people allowed my "A Sense Of Life" vision to become a reality.

May each of you continue to consider ways to innovate and offer your own ideas and visions to "make a difference" in our world, and I hope you will consider using some variation of ASOL ideas, too.