Teambuilding Through Values & Shared Purpose

Last week’s tragedy in Uvalde, just one of far-too-many school shootings, left our team hurting and angry, and searching for ways to help. We are mothers, aunts, sisters and friends with children in our lives.

We also are actively working with valued client-partners in K-12 education in both public and independent schools, as well as clients supporting youth violence prevention programs. So, some of our team members had to quickly go to work counseling clients in responding to this awful news in their own schools and communities.

We had conversations and aired our fears and frustrations, and it was difficult to determine how we – a PR firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio—could make a difference. As a team, we took the opportunity to simply bring our voices together to support those in Texas and to help prevent this type of tragedy from continuing to happen.

Living our purpose of creating change and connection, and acting through our values of authenticity, integrity and resiliency in the face of challenge, meant we had to do something. As a start, Inspire chose to make donations from the firm to three national organizations, lending support to Uvalde:

• Sandy Hook Promise = Protecting Children From Gun Violence; Sandy Hook Promise envisions a future where children are free from shootings and acts of violence in their schools, homes, and communities.

• Together Rising = Together Rising identifies what is breaking the hearts of our givers as they look around their world and their community, and then we connect our givers’ generosity with the people and organizations who are effectively addressing that critical need.

• Everytown for Gun Safety - Every day, more than 110 Americans are killed with guns. Donations help Everytown work to prevent gun violence and save lives through education, advocacy, grassroots mobilization and amplification of survivors’ voices.

In helping our team do their part, Inspire also matched individual contributions to these (or other) organizations working on this cause. Beyond our initial donation, we are proud that our team collectively raised more than $1,000 in additional support for organizations helping Uvalde.

Bringing our team together behind a critical need to help and to find purpose in the chaos matters. As we considered and implemented these actions, it became clear that this, too, is teambuilding. Perhaps not in the traditional sense of happy hours or summer picnics, but in a more intentional way to create a better future. And that’s a good thing.