The beginning: Raising Purpose started at home. It started as an idea just for us, a Midwestern family of 4. It started as a gut reaction to the growing challenges we see in the world. It started the day after the election.
It became an opportunity to engage our family in meaningful discussions about the impact we want to have on the world. It became a plan for how we will take action to bring love, hope and justice to our community. It became bigger than us when our friends, colleagues and even strangers began asking for help in creating their own family plan.
The first Raising Purpose plan: To create our plan, we answered five questions as a family:
- What is great about each of us?
- What are our values as a family?
- What do we have that we can share?
- What impact do we want to have in the community/country/world?
- What will we do, where can we give, and how will we grow as a family?
After a few hours of creativity, conversation (and a couple of melt-downs) we came up with a Super Totally Awesome Rad (STAR) Plan (named by our 6 year old).
Our family’s impact statement is: “Build a family that is focused on faith, love and compassion. A family that treats everyone with equal love and respect. A family that chooses to share the things we have to make the world a better place.” We think of this as our family’s purpose.
When friends and colleagues began asking how to make their own plan, we realized that we needed to share this thing to make the world a better place, and the idea of Raising Purpose was born.
Why should we bring this product to the world? We are parents, community members and people who genuinely care about the well-being of everyone in this world. We’re not perfect parents and we don’t think we’re miracle-workers. But, we are hard working. We’re Iowans, afterall. We’re also lucky enough to have some special talents, and friends and colleagues who will help us create these tools for your family.
Jordan Vernoy was a part of leadership at one of the country’s largest non-profit organizations before starting his own consulting firm. He works on both national and local strategies for addressing major social issues through targeted interventions and systematic change. Prior to working at a national level, Jordan worked at local and statewide nonprofits. In these roles he was a problem solver for people who were struggling to make ends meet. He also served as a tireless statewide advocate, asking elected officials to change systems and policies to better care for everyone in our community. In this role, he worked to give voice to people who are not usually heard in our political system. Jordan has studied nonprofit management and social change. Earning both a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in the fields. Today, he’s still a geek, reading nearly everything he can get his hands on about how to make our world more just.
Jordan, also once aspired to be the replacement for Steve on Blues Clues, because he loves engaging children in fun conversations about the world around them (and his high school choir teacher said he would be great at it).
Katie Vernoy is affectionately known as super-mom around the Vernoy house. She works full time at a large retirement firm, while also managing to be the operations director for our household.
Katie’s strength is to help support people, one by one. She’s the type of person who includes the person who is being left out, makes people feel comfortable, and engages in opportunities that make meaningful change. She is authentically generous and always wondering how she can do more. She too studied social change and nonprofit management. She is a key volunteer at our church and other youth serving organizations in the community. Katie’s is our eye for detail, and keeps our feet on the ground.
Together, we are working to bring a truly grassroots project to anyone who is ready to take a step in defining how their family will live life with purpose.
We have ideas for other products and tools to help spark conversation and learning, as well as ideas about creating a community of families who want to live out this work together. Whether it is a social network, guest bloggers, or more tools to add depth to your plan and drive actions, we have a hunch that families want to dig deeper and make their values shine in their communities. We are excited to imagine how we can learn from other families, and share all of that great work with a network of families who are raising purpose.
Raising Purpose 