You have the tools. Now use them.

You don’t have to get a Ph.D. to make a change.

Of course, no one is advocating that you shouldn’t go to school. It’s important to instill the importance of valuing education within our children daily. So, yes. Go to college.

But take a look at your talents. Then, take a look at the problems we are currently facing within our community. How can you use your talents to generate change?

Consider Jessie Dortch - talented videographer who also happens to be local. If Jessie wanted to, he could be utilizing his talents to enlarge the pockets of national networks such as NBC and ABC. Instead, he is the visionary, founder and operator behind CommunityTV1.com – the production company which highlights the positivity that occurs within this neighborhood and  the minds of community members. Because of the CommunityTV1 team, positive exposure of Dunbar has heightened. Local businesses and entrepreneurs are able to use broadcast technology to advertise for themselves. Local talent is able to reach beyond our community’s borders and share their content online. 

It’s a vision-turned-into-a-reality and it’s a talent that’s stimulating change within our community. 

Inspiration flows throughout the halls of Quality Life Center, as students are challenged to identify their talents and make an impact.  Perhaps you’ve seen Quality Life Center’s students perform in the area, using their talents to inspire others. But the identification and utilization of talent doesn’t always manifest through the performing arts. 

An important aspect of the Teen Outreach Program (T.O.P), which is sponsored by Children’s Network, is that it teaches teens to discover their talents without the input of anyone else. Challenged by this program, QLC Teens managed a holiday toy drive for Golisano Children’s Hospital. Aside from their desire to enhance the lives of others, Q Staff was inspired by the ability of the students to utilize their strengths to make such a project a reality. Students identified their talents in graphic design, marketing, collecting, mathematics and other fields. They then utilized their skills to collect over 80 toys for the hospital’s children. They didn’t need an assignment from their leader and they didn’t need a step-by-step guide to creating a toy drive. They simply needed to identify their talents and their desire – both of which helped QLC Teens to accomplish their goal. 

The time has come to be the change we desire to see in the Dunbar community. Our community members already have the talent to contribute to the needed transformation. It’s interesting how we don’t often talk about Kwanzaa until December, but yet its principles should be an integral part of our everyday life. We can find inspiration in them! Remember Kuumba ? Creativity? Its definition is “to do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful than we inherited it”. 

Discover your talent and challenge yourself to use your intrinsic value to enhance our community.