A degree in video post-production from Columbia College and all she gets is this lousy photo department job? The young woman at Walgreen’s photo department was discouraged. When I asked her about opportunities, she looked down and shook her head, “No. There are no opportunities.” She had sent out over 300 resumes. A natural beauty, Persian-looking, shy, chiseled features, she was grateful to work in the photo department instead of stocking shelves or working the check out counter.

Here’s an opportunity for her and her community: Gather to brainstorm every month and find out who needs what you have to give and who has what you need to get. In our marvelous, metropolitan melting pot, I guarantee that within a one-mile radius there are the following:

• people working hard to launch non-profit organizations and small businesses;
• dozens of good, honorable, retired or unemployed people who feel lonely and unneeded;
• children going home to empty apartments, eating junk food and surfing the internet unsupervised;
• people with marketing expertise;
• talented writers, including grant writers;
• people skilled at handy-man work;
• shuttered restaurants;
• hundreds of experienced food service workers;
• acres of used restaurant equipment;
• people who love cars, love to work on them, and could use some extra cash;
• cars sitting under-utilized on the street, day after day.

Somewhere in our fabulous city, video equipment that could be tapped to publicize a cause or a a small business is sitting idle. If communities gather regularly to brainstorm for solutions to universal problems, and say what they need to improve their lives and what they have to improve others’ lives, we will mobilize resources and see a resurgence of hope.

New Community Vision’s goal is to facilitate gatherings community-by-community, month-after-month, throughout the country, to brainstorm for solutions to our universal problems of child care, elder care, housing, transportation, jobs and social isolation.

If you long to live in a friendly, supportive, cooperative community, please contact Terry Edlin and let’s get your neighborhood cooking with regular gatherings.