The Power of Community Engagement: Find Your Place. Find Your Space. Give Back.

I am a first-generation college graduate and a non-traditional technology professional. I didn’t grow up knowing how professional networks worked. I didn’t have a roadmap for navigating corporate America, technology, law, higher education, boards, nonprofits or leadership.

What I learned along the way was the power of community.

I believe that in the spaces we inhabit—professional, civic, educational, neighborhood, industry—we should find some way to give back.

Not because it looks good on a résumé. Or because we need another board title for LinkedIn. And certainly not because the goal is to see how many organizations we can cram into a bio.

Community engagement is about finding a mission that connects to your north star and deciding that some of your time, talent, expertise, voice or resources belong in service to something bigger than you.

Community gives back, too.

Over the years, I have been involved with a lot of organizations and initiatives. I share that experience not as a boast point, but because I want people—especially those earlier in their careers—to understand just how many ways there are to engage.

You don't have to become a board member, chair a committee, or even write a giant check. Sometimes an organization needs someone to work registration at an event. Someone to help manage inventory. Someone who understands social media. Someone who can review a document. Someone who can mentor a student. Someone who can make an introduction. Someone who will simply show up.

Yes, you are contributing your time and expertise to advance someone else's mission. But here's the part we don't talk about enough: You get something from community, too.

• You learn.

• You meet people you might never encounter in your everyday work. 

• You gain exposure to new ideas, industries and perspectives.

• You can find belonging.

• You inspire people—and sometimes discover that someone else has inspired the heck out of you.

And on those long, arduous days filled with action items, budget conversations, project plans, meetings about meetings and 37 emails marked urgent, there is something wonderfully grounding about walking into a room with people who have gathered simply because they want to make something better. Community can be joyous.

Start early

When I mentor early-career professionals, I encourage them to find one way to get involved.

Volunteer for a committee. Help at an event. Join a professional association. Mentor someone younger than you. Participate in an alumni group. Help an organization with a skill you're trying to strengthen professionally.

You don't need to arrive as an expert. In fact, community engagement can be one of the places where you become one.

You can learn how to organize an event, manage a budget, facilitate a meeting, work with a board, write communications, fundraise, speak publicly, manage volunteers, navigate conflict or build consensus.

And yes, you will network. But unlike walking into a giant reception and trying to figure out what to say to strangers holding cocktail napkins, working alongside someone toward a shared goal gives you something immediately meaningful to talk about.

The relationship grows from the work.

At mid-career, the opportunity changes

For mid-career and senior professionals, community engagement can become something different.

It can become a place to develop and demonstrate thought leadership.

You can help influence policy. Bring industry expertise into education. Advocate for people who aren't represented in important conversations. Mentor emerging leaders. Help organizations understand technology. Introduce organizations to funders or corporate partners. Use your platform to amplify work that deserves more attention.

And sometimes your greatest contribution isn't leading at all. Sometimes it's using the influence you've accumulated to open the door, make the introduction and then get out of the way so someone else can walk through it.

That's leadership, too.

It isn't about collecting boards

I have served organizations in many different ways during my career—sometimes as a founder, sometimes as a board member, sometimes as an advisor, mentor or volunteer.

My own community journey has included:

• Founder, Indiana Women IN Tech Week

• Board Member and Volunteer Guardian ad Litem, Kids' Voice of Indiana

• Board Member, Indiana Youth Group

• Board Member, Child Advocates

• Board Member, Women & Hi Tech

• Advisory Board Member, Franklin College Digital Fluency Council

• Board Member, Rooted School Indianapolis

• Founder, Empowered Women of Central Indiana Annual Photo Shoot

• Advisory Board Member, Six Sigma Racial Equity Institute

• Board Member, Indiana Technology and Innovation Association

• Mentor, The Starfish Initiative

• Volunteer, Indianapolis Children's Museum Technology Resources Working Group

• Volunteer, Indiana VEX Robotics Competition

• Board Member, The Gifted Gown

• Volunteer, Indianapolis Bar Association Low Asset Will Program and Ask a Lawyer

• Volunteer Speaker, Indianapolis Bar Association U.S. Naturalization Ceremonies

• Walker, Alzheimer’s Association of Indiana, Alzheimer’s Association of Utah

Those experiences span technology, education, children and youth, racial equity, LGBTQ+ advocacy, mentorship, the legal community and women's advancement. There isn't a perfectly straight line connecting all of them. What connects them is a belief that access matters. Representation matters. Education matters. Belonging matters. And people deserve opportunities to build lives bigger than the circumstances into which they were born.

That's my north star.

Yours may be completely different.

Find your north star

Somewhere in your city—or somewhere across the country or world—is an organization working on something you care about. Maybe it's technology access, homelessness, animals. Maybe it's literacy, veterans, girls in STEM, food insecurity, entrepreneurship, the arts, environmental sustainability, elder care, LGBTQ+ youth, financial literacy or workforce development. 

Find it. Ask Claude or ChatGPT. Search LinkedIn. Ask five people in your network what organizations they support. Look at your city. Look at your professional associations. Look at your alma mater.

Then start small.

• Attend an event.

• Volunteer for two hours.

• Donate $20.

• Amplifying awesome individuals

• Share a post from a community organization.

• Introduce someone to an organization. 

• Or, just ask, "What do you need?"

You don't have to save the organization. You don't have to run it. You don't even have to stay forever. But you can contribute. You can learn. Find belonging. Or you can help someone else find their way.

And in a world where there is no shortage of things that need fixing, you can make the decision to be some of the good that someone else needs to see.

Find your place. Find your space. And give back.