Lighting UP, Lawrence
It was a brutal, hard day in Lawrence,
It did.
And it was in that spirit of new ideas replacing old that I walked those same streets over the past two days as I visited Kansas University, at the invitation of the KU Hillel chapter, to talk about change, social enterprise, Campus Kitchens and all our ongoing efforts at DCCK.
I really love college towns. They emanate openness. They have great graffiti. They are the last bastion of used CD stores. There’s always a whiff of social enterprise in the air from the fair trade coffee shops and local produce markets that have been at the forefront of the growing social enterprise movement in America. Most of all…they are full of the idealism and enthusiasm of young men and women who have grand expectations of the life they will lead and the world they will inherit.
And in all my gigs in college towns, I try really hard to help them keep true to those dreams of youth by arming them with the tools they’ll need to stay focused, ferocious and full of hot spit and cheap beer.
Well…that’s what works for me.
They really rolled it out for me. Mad props go out to the KU Hillel team (who visited DCCK earlier this year during their alternative spring break), and particularly The Free Store Five who took me out on my first night there for local beer and their take on the scene.
The next day I was up early for a meeting with local service providers. Like many small towns, theirs is a hodge-podge of programs. The Lawrence Community Shelter holds 30 by code, but often 50+ by necessity. Across the street, the Lawrence Interdenominational Community Kitchen serves about 170 at each of their meals (and I owe them plenty for inviting me for a great lunch). But that’s all about to shift. Down the road a spell, the local Salvation Army Family Shelter is about to close it doors, forcing the town to confront a new reality. They have to come together and deal with what comes next. Simply put–they have to build something new.
This drama is being played out across America–where local Chambers, City Council’s or landlords have ignored at best, or been hostile at worst to programs that serve the “chronics” or those who cannot or will not fit into the mold. You can almost hear the sound of their minds shutting down when the subject of a new shelter comes up.
But Lawrence has all the makings of a really cool future. As more and more groups have come to see that developing economic impact studies can take the wind out of the argument that homeless programs are a drain on the local economy or deter people coming to frequent main street businesses, the case can now be made that programs like those I visited in Lawrence actually HELP the local economy. Heck…the shelter and the kitchen are already partnering on a cool little dog treat business which creates income, job opportunities….and–kaCHING–revenue for the city.
So, by the time that KU students, local service providers and community leaders came together to talk later that night, we had the student union auditorium JAMMIN with ideas.
They have a road ahead, to be sure…but man oh man are they loaded with what to takes to make it. Energy, ideas, the ability to make a solid economic case for a new community opportunty center, a willingness to partner, GREAT established leadership, young folks ready to step UP (and even run for office)…but most of all—NECESSITY!!!
Don’t waste it, Jayhawks…..or like Quantrill’s pissed off ghost, I’ll come back and light to town back up.
ROCK CHALK.
Subscribe to this blog