What a year. I try to bounce back and recover from the challenges life presents. Resilience can help us manage emotions, overcome serious hardships, and think of challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. Yet, there are times in our lives when this feels more difficult than others. Our health, family, community and, yes, politics, can create stressful situations, often making solutions feel out of reach. However, despite the seemingly all-consuming negativity surrounding us, we have the ability to hold ourselves accountable to a higher standard and ask ourselves, now more than ever, “how can I help?”
This mindset is at the heart of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation’s work. Serving the community and supporting the efforts of those who seek to improve the lives of individuals living with spinal cord injury (SCI) is core to the Neilsen Foundation’s mission. This commitment is unwavering and demands reflection, requiring us to continually seek solutions that serve our constituents more effectively.
Over the years, the relationships we’ve built in the scientific, philanthropic, and nonprofit communities, have shaped our understanding of the role we can play helping others bring their aspirations to fruition. Collaborating with these partners has strengthened our understanding of how to facilitate growth, as an organization and as people, and continues to drive the evolution in how we serve. We find inspiration in the inventive ways researchers try to solve problems as well as the energy of grassroots organizations who hit their capacity, only to then develop ways to expand their services and further benefit their communities.
Our job is to support our grantee partners by giving them some of the tools they need to get things done. Sometimes support comes through funding but, support can also come by just talking through what someone needs. We know that the polarized world around us impacts grassroots, nonprofits, and academic institutions that are already under great pressure to fill gaps in both services and scientific innovation. We must trust our communities, broaden our thinking, and find creative ways to move forward toward our goals.
How can we expect individuals at organizations, who are already giving so much of themselves, to give more? I see the frustration and the fear that differing opinions might hinder progress. Colleagues have shared concerns that our collective ability to work collaboratively is withering, not growing. In both the scientific and nonprofit world, the worry about what might happen has always been there, but we can’t be stopped by the “what if?” Now is the time for meaningful dialogue—an opportunity to remain steadfast in our values while being open to new ways of working together.
The ability to transform people’s lives is a truly humbling challenge that keeps things in perspective and motivates me to maintain a positive outlook. It feeds my resiliency as well as my desire to be of service. I encourage you to nurture your own resilience, strengthen the will to accept change, and, in the process, find your own answer to how you can help.
Listening to different perspectives on how to be of service can often create an opportunity to recenter thinking—to look beyond yourself and focus your energy towards a greater good. Imagine the solutions that could be uncovered if we open ourselves up and explore options outside our comfort zone. As I reflect on the shared progress of the thousands of grantee partners who give of themselves and use Neilsen Foundation support to improve the world for people living with SCI, I am in awe. From all of us at the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, have a safe holiday season and I hope you continue to find moments of joy.
All my best,
Kym Eisner, Executive Director