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The Power of Community, Part 1

Written by: Shameco Moore
June 13, 2025

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A few years ago, Give Something Back (a 20-year-old non-profit youth organization) decided that they  wanted to build inroads within the communities they served. That is why they hired me. And let me tell  you, I have had an amazing time! Over the next few blogs, I will share my story with you. I do so with a  purpose. I want you or someone in your organization to take the lead on community engagement.  

Most people think that as a non-profit you only need to “engage” with your sponsors. But I disagree. I  boldly disagree. We need to work together as a community which means we need to combine efforts  with other non-profits organizations, school districts, churches, sponsors, politicians and local  businesses. We all are stakeholders in the development of youth. 

When I first started with Give Something Back, I had no connections in the Will County community. The  head of the Illinois office asked me “if” I wanted to keep the memberships to local chambers. I said, yes!  I knew that the chambers would be the place where I would meet community leaders.

Give Back was affiliated with five chambers: Joliet, Plainfield, Romeoville, Bolingbrook and Lockport.  Through the chambers I was able to represent our organization at meetings. I had the opportunity to  present information about our organization at several chambers and after each presentation I was  asked, “what can we do to help?” I saw firsthand that our communities had very caring people that  wanted to be involved. I started tailoring my presentations to end with two things that people could do  if they wanted to be involved. 1) volunteer to be a speaker for one of our youth programs or 2) sponsor  a program. 

We saw an uptake in sponsorship and volunteers. But it wasn’t until I was invited to a meeting with a  local mayor that the needle on community engagement really started to move. I told her about my idea  to share information in large assemblies during the school day to junior level students about skill sets  that would help them gain internships and employment. She was inspired by our conversation and  introduced me to a local superintendent via email. This was the first time I had an audience with a  superintendent in Will County. The outcome of that conversation was full access to their 1600 junior  level students (in two high schools) for training in the areas of workplace basics, employability skills,  phone and email etiquette. The juniors also heard from a panel of local business professionals (many of  whom I met during chamber meetings). 

We were delighted to host Workplace Readiness event at another school district (also with two high schools) with 1400 junior-level students. During the Workplace Readiness Initiative’s pilot year of  2023/2024, we knew we had something that would benefit the marketplace. It was meeting the needs  of students and providing a platform/opportunity for local businesses to interact with schools in their  business’s territories.

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