Connecting to Community
This spring, Higher Expectations launched our Community Fellows program in order to hire consulting fellows in key areas of our work, like community engagement and data analysis, and help train and support their professional development.
In April, we hired Leanna Johnson, a community leader, as a Higher Expectations Community Fellow. Leanna is a proud Knapp Elementary School parent and COFI parent leader. COFI, or Community Organizing and Family Issues, strengthens the voices of parents and parent leaders in their communities. She is a mom of 3 and has lived in the Racine area her entire life. Leanna’s work with COFI helped her engage with her community, her school, and other families. That work brought her to Higher Expectations where she works as a Community Fellow. In that role, Leanna is working to share the parent-led COFI model and is coaching other parent leaders to engage in community engagement and advocacy efforts.
One of the first projects Leanna identified when she started was bringing new donations into the community as families grappled with the safer at home orders due to the COVID pandemic. Having former work experience at Amazon (MKE1), she was able to connect with Amazon’s nearby Kenosha branch and let them know she was working to support her community. Leanna learned that Amazon was looking into launching a new system of donating damaged items rather than destroying them and she took on the opportunity to connect Amazon with a local non-profit so that they would pilot this new program here in Racine.
Amazon was able to offer snacks and drinks where the packaging had been damaged or that they had an excess stock, and Leanna wanted to be sure that those items would be able to be distributed in her community. In her role at Higher Expectations, Leanna was able to reach out to the YMCA, who had been coordinating a food pick-up site at their George Bray Neighborhood YMCA.
On Friday, June 5th, after navigating a few speed bumps, four pallets of foods and drinks filled with healthy snack items, meal sides, coffee k-cups, drink mixes, protein bars, and candy were donated to the YMCA to distribute to families!
The YMCA recently installed a brand new community kitchen at the George Bray Neighborhood YMCA, and they hope to use many of the items donated to make hot meals for the community and add to their weekly meal pick-ups.
Leanna hopes to continue to coordinate donations from Amazon with the community, if you are interested in learning more about this donation program, please contact Leanna at communityfellow@cradle2career.org.
If you are interested in learning more about the Higher Expectations Community Fellow program, please contact Elizabeth Erickson, Communications & Outreach Manager at elizabeth.erickson@career2cradle.org