Expanding the Vision

Outsiders can broaden perspectives and warn about traps that result from a narrow vision.

There are major projects now:

• Teach for America, which provides outstanding college graduate teachers to schools in needy neighborhoods.
• Generation Wow, a new initiative by Donna Orender’s Generation W organization that promotes women’s leadership.

The foundation will house all of the credit union’s charitable giving. The current budget is about $100,000, but the goal is to push that to $1 million, said CEO John Hirabayashi in a meeting with the Times-Union editorial board.

The nonprofit status will allow the foundation to raise funds through grants, too.

Part of the goal is finding a project that will make an impact locally. Special emphasis will focus on financial literacy, education and health and welfare.

Certainly there are many worthy educational goals that fit with the credit union’s culture. The Times-Union suggested one possibility that ought to resonate with Hirabayashi, an active leader with Jacksonville Community Council Inc. This community needs to address the needless deaths resulting from suicide and a serious lack of mental health services.

As a suicide survivor wrote the Times-Union, “We need to address the awful stigma of mental illness.”

And what could be more meaningful than saving a life?

JCCI Forward, the young adult group, studied teen suicide a few years ago, funded by the Times-Union. But there is a need for a broader study of suicide and mental health as well.