The Power of Collaboration

Earlier this month, I attended the opening of the Chase Legacy Center, the new community center on the campus of Arsenal Technical High School on Indianapolis’ Near Eastside. It’s one of the signature achievements of the Super Bowl festivities. A crowning achievement, really, particularly for the residents and future residents of a neighborhood that has never before been graced with a rec center, YMCA or Boys and Girls Club.

As I stood listening to the Tech drum line bring the place to life and the dignitaries comment, one after another, about the impact the place will have on a neighborhood and its families, I felt pride (and a tear or two) to be there on behalf of REALTORS® and all the affiliated real estate professionals who know a thing or two about neighborhoods and families. It’s true that the Legacy Center is not part of MIBOR’s Centennial Building a Living Legacy project. Building a Living Legacy is about homes and the stability and security that comes from waking up each morning in a place that allows you to know that anything good you want for your life is achievable. The Center is part of the package, however. Just like the Building a Living Legacy homes are part of the package. Each is part of this sense of place; a place that has been energized and ignited because many people and many groups of people cared and then collaborated.

That’s what hit me the most on the day of the Legacy Center opening. REALTORS® have not only understood the need to help others, but the power of collaboration in order to achieve great things for others since the beginning of their organized history 100 years ago. The REALTOR® Foundation has been the leader in that effort for more than 25 of those years, providing structure to the way the real estate community helps others, but is was happening long before that.

Being part of the team that compiled the history for the book and video that celebrate MIBOR’s Centennial allowed me to see in the early copies of the minutes and in so many photos that REALTORS® never really wanted to do it all themselves. They collaborated in those very early years and in all the years since with builders, affiliates, chambers of commerce, government and so many others to create an industry that helps families and neighborhoods. It’s a great model that continues today. The power of collaboration is real and tangible. If you want to see an amazing example, drive through St. Clair Place to see the renovated Legacy homes, new street lamps and sidewalks and stop by the Legacy Center on Tech’s campus. You’ll see it around you. 

Claire Belby
Communications Director, MIBOR