By Lacey Mills
Who Knew Reno County?
One of the things I have learned since becoming CEO of United Way of Reno County is that community change is rarely as simple as it looks from the outside. There are a lot of organizations doing good work in Reno County. Sometimes we are working on the same issue. Sometimes we are working with the same people. Sometimes our work overlaps. And honestly, I think that is a good thing. The key is understanding what each organization brings to the table and how those pieces can fit together.
I was reminded of that recently during a conversation with someone in our community who was asking about how our work intersects with the Hutchinson Community Foundation, and it led me to think about how fortunate we are to have a strong working relationship with our local community foundation. Our teams talk regularly about what we are seeing, where our work intersects and where we can collaborate. We are intentional about understanding each other’s work so that we can build on it rather than duplicate it.
I often think of community work as a layer cake. You need all of the layers, but they don’t all serve the same purpose.
At United Way, we are often very close to the day-to-day work happening in our community. Through our funded partners, we see programs being delivered directly to individuals and families. Through our community impact work, we hear from people working in those systems and learn where they are running into barriers. That proximity often brings us into conversations about challenges that need attention right now or over the next year or two.
Housing is a good example.
United Way is involved in housing in several different ways. I serve on the Hutchinson Housing Commission, and United Way also convenes the Unhoused Coalition focused specifically on our unhoused population. Our work with funded partners gives us a close view of the barriers that housing instability creates for individuals and families, particularly those who are ALICE or below.
But housing is much bigger than homelessness. It involves availability, affordability, workforce needs, development, transportation and a host of other factors. It is a complex issue that requires us to think beyond what is happening today and consider what our community will need years from now.
That is why I have such an appreciation for the work the Hutchinson Community Foundation is doing around housing. They are not only bringing community partners together to think about housing from a longer-term perspective, they are also making a substantial investment in that work and helping move our community toward a plan for what we need over the next decade based on the recent housing needs assessment. Their leadership in bringing partners together around a shared vision has created tremendous momentum, putting our community well on its way toward the goal of adding more than 1,000 housing units over the next 10 years.
United Way isn’t leading that initiative, but we absolutely need to be part of the conversation.
And I think that is an important distinction when we talk about community work: we don’t have to lead every initiative to have an important role in it.
Sometimes our role is to bring a perspective from the people and organizations we are closest to. Sometimes it is to help fund work. Sometimes it is to convene people around an issue. Sometimes it is simply to sit at the table and listen. The role can change depending on the issue, the need and where our organization can add the most value.
The same is true with ALICE.
United Way has a goal of reducing the percentage of Reno County households who are ALICE (asset-limited, income-constrained, employed) or below from 42% to 37% by 2030. That goal comes from being deeply connected to the people and organizations experiencing those barriers. The Community Foundation has also asked questions about that goal and how ALICE fits into the long-term work they are doing.
That conversation matters because when organizations understand what one another are trying to accomplish, we can start connecting the dots instead of creating separate efforts that never quite meet in the middle.
Collaboration doesn’t always mean doing the same thing together.
Sometimes collaboration means one organization is looking 10 years down the road while another is focused on what needs to change in the next two years. Sometimes it means one organization is investing resources while another is bringing community partners together. Sometimes it means an organization is sitting at the table because its proximity to a particular population brings a perspective that wouldn’t otherwise be there.
Those roles may look different, but they can still be connected.
The Hutchinson Community Foundation brings an important long-term perspective and investment to our community. United Way brings a perspective rooted in our funded partners, our community impact work and the people experiencing barriers today. Neither perspective is enough by itself. But put them together, along with the many other organizations, businesses, nonprofits, government entities and community members doing this work, and we have a much more complete picture.
That is the part of community work that I find really exciting. There isn’t one organization with the answer, and there isn’t one initiative that will solve a complex issue. There are layers.
And when those layers are connected—when people are willing to share information, listen to each other and figure out where their work fits—we have a much better chance of actually moving our community forward.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Hutchinson Community Foundation team and genuinely enjoy working alongside them. I am grateful that we have built a relationship where we can pick up the phone, ask what the other is seeing and talk honestly about where our work intersects.
Because ultimately, community change isn’t about who owns an issue.
It is about all of us understanding our part in it.
Lacey Mills is the executive director of United Way of Reno County and can be reached at lmills@uwrenocounty.org.