By Jessica Jewell
It was a very pivotal week for our class as we came together to make our first major group decision: what is focus for giving and how will we state that focus in our Request for Proposals. We faced the challenge of choosing between 5 crucial areas in which we can help our community through grant giving: Youth, Environment, Hunger, Health and Homelessness.
We debated the needs within each category based off the information presented last week during our community needs assessment presentations. Everyone felt strongly about the topic they presented on, but everyone was also surprisingly flexible in considering how progress in any one area will inevitably affect the others so there really is no wrong choice. We will have a positive impact on the lives of many Missoulians regardless of where we choose to allocate our funds. We all strongly supported health as our area of focus by the end of the first day of deliberations.
At the beginning of day two we came to a clear group consensus that mental and physical health are at the root of many of the struggles people face. Then began the process of narrowing down our focus even more and clarifying what kinds of grant proposals we would like to see submitted. There were many things to consider.
Students gave valid points about how one area of health will affect the other, and how improvement in these areas will have ripple effects into other areas as well. We discussed whether physical health and life style choices will have a greater impact on mental health or whether mental health will promote better life style choices. Students weighed the impact of programs that focus on preventative measures versus programs that are more reactive and focus on coping mechanisms and treatments. We discussed supporting educational programs that teach skills rather than simply address symptoms. The entire class felt that the grant money will be best used on programs that focus on long-term solutions with a hands-on educational approach.
Together we created the following request for grant proposals:
Sharing our various perspectives helped us to see this grant-giving opportunity from various angles and gave us perspective on the impact our decision can potentially have. We saw how each area of need in our community is interlinked with other areas, both in cause and effect. It was empowering to realize that even a small drop in a big bucket can have a far-reaching ripple effect. We are all excited to see what grant proposals we will receive once our request goes public.
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