Passion and Persistence Handles Change and Challenge

Journal of Trauma Nursing, Jan-Mar 2009 by Harkins, Deborah

As I thought about the best way to introduce myself to you, I decided that I really wanted to introduce you to someone else.

I have an amazing friend. Her name is Eleanor Josaitis. Her personal story, gracious personality, and endearing qualities have profoundly affected me. And, she has profoundly affected many others.

Eleanor is the cofounder of Focus: HOPE, a $27 million-a-year social service organization in Detroit. She tells her personal story a lot, often beginning with something like this:

I can tell you the exact moment my life changed .... I was sitting in my living room watching the Nuremberg war crime trials and was appalled at what I was seeing. Suddenly, the program was interrupted by the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama. I watched as policemen rode through the crowd giving electroshocks, turning on fire hoses and letting dogs loose. I cried my eyes out. I asked myself - If I had lived in Germany during that time would I have pretended I did not see anything? What am I doing about what is going on in my own country?

Following that day in 1965, Eleanor Josaitis thought and prayed about what she might do to make a difference. In 1967, in the wake of the Detroit riots where 48 people were killed and more than 700 injured, this tiny, white, suburban housewife and mother convinced her husband that they should sell their suburban home and move to an integrated neighborhood in the heart of Detroit.

Long inspired by Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Mrs Josaitis teamed up with her friend and mentor Father William Cunningham, a young priest who taught English. He too moved to Detroit and accepted the call to a small Catholic church. Operating on the theory that there can never be equal opportunity without equal capability, Josaitis and Cunningham together founded Focus: HOPE (http://www.focushope.edu). They began with a food prescription program in 1971 for 1,000 children and pregnant/postpartum women. That program expanded to include senior citizens and is now one of the largest supplemental food programs in the country serving more than 44,000 people each month.

Josaitis and Cunningham realized that providing food was not enough, so they created a program to help move people from poverty to financial mainstream. They established a Machinist Training Institute to teach skills in precision machining and metalworking. Then, they opened the Center for Advanced Technologies to combat the lack of access to engineering education among minorities followed by an Information Technology program to provide industry-certified training in network, desktop, and server administration and a Montessori school to assist students with child care and provide quality preschool education to local neighborhood children. You want statistics on their success? The best place to start is their 100% job placement. To date, Focus: HOPE has grown to nearly 350 colleagues (they are not called employees), 51,000 volunteers, and a $27 million budget.

Happy endings? Rosey trip the whole way? The decisions Eleanor made in 1967 were meritorious to say the least. But, while her personal success and the success of Focus: HOPE are undeniable, the road was not easy.

When Mrs Josaitis picked up her family and moved to Detroit, her mother hired an attorney and tried to take her 5 children away from her, intimating that her desire to help the poor was evidence of irrationality and mental instability. Her brother-in-law asked her to use her maiden name so as not to embarrass the family.1

I often find myself in awe of what Eleanor has accomplished. My main reason for introducing you to her, though, is that she has divined a straightforward approach to dealing with challenge and change, and I cannot think of a better time for us in healthcare to consider how we deal with challenge and change.

* PASSION

One of my favorite business books is Good to Great.2 The author, Jim Collins, very elegantly discerns between organizations that have plateaued and organizations that have made the leap to go beyond, always striving for the next level. In his research, Collins found that the presence of genuine passion was a quality that set apart great companies. "You can't manufacture passion or 'motivate' people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of those around you.",pl0S)

Josaitis exudes passion. When she tells her story, she always says: "Find your passion and wrap your job around it." When the road gets hard, it is our passion for the work that keeps us going. If you find your passion wavering, maybe it is time to infuse new ideas or transform yourself - mentor new nurses, become expert in a specific clinical arena, write a journal article, go back to school or take a refresher course, realize a new career path in nursing, or make your own path. We have so many options! Passion should be a gauge to let us know we are doing what we do for the right reasons.

* PERSISTENCE

"You never know where life will take you, sometimes you have to go around, over, up, or down to accomplish what you want. Don't get discouraged, that is just life."