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Yvette Marrin

In these troubled times, a New York Times editorial I read more than a year ago, (February 25, 2001) struck a special note about the importance of helping people who live next door to you. It referred to the great New York reformer, Jacob Riis who early in the twentieth century often gave lectures. Jacob Riis' lectures frequently ended with the words, "The first, the all-important [task] is to find your neighbor." His strong belief: where there are chronic needs you must help close the gap between those needs and resources available to help resolve them.

For the National Cristina Foundation, getting computer technology to charities and public agencies with the commitment to stewardship on behalf of "our neighbors' needs" has been basic to fulfilling our charitable agenda. This has brought us together with corporations and the public across our great nation that have allied themselves with our cause because they have determined to help their neighbors in a local way.

This joint belief that both technological and human capital resources cannot be wasted gives important meaning to this grassroots process. If individuals within a community can be helped to achieve their personal vision, then the visions of the broader community will be realized.

So where do you begin those connecting links to your neighbors? Building a grassroots network takes time. The National Cristina Foundation has been working at this for almost 20 years. The diversity represented in this process means we have neighbors in rural and urban environments, relationships with schools and school districts, rehabilitation and other support agencies, collaboration with workforce development programs; all kinds of places. The technology donated by companies with a local presence or computers a person down the street no longer wants must be linked to places they know are helping their neighbors.

We at the National Cristina Foundation believe that people in a great variety of locations who want to learn how to engage in the re-utilization of computer technology can, as the old adage says, not only be given a fish but "be taught how to fish." Then they can get food for a lifetime. For us, a logical knowledge base is a critical factor in strengthening a neighbor's ability to develop the capacity to help his own community. People help each other for their mutual good. Initially, they can get help finding technology tools from others; gradually they can also learn to find them for themselves.

Our goal in the use of grassroots partnerships forged across the United States and internationally, is to center the thinking developed through the systems approach of the NCF Re-utilization Model to enable this process to make a difference to our world of neighbors.

Helen Keller once said, "Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood." For the National Cristina Foundation, the sharing of lessons through collaborative partnerships, brings them locally to you, both the technology resources and ideas of how to use them.

Let all of us, as we read about the activities of our grassroots partners in Cristina Connections, dedicate ourselves to implementing the vision of what can be - for ourselves, and, for our neighbors!