ADVOCATING FOR EACH OTHER & BUILDING COMMUNITY
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opportunity to connect with other Yelp Elite across our city and across the country . And all it took was attending my first event back in 2013 . Events are highlighted on the current Yelp Louisville community manager ’ s profile , @ LaurenH on the Yelp app , and @ YelpLouisville on Instagram .
The next organization , I ’ d like to highlight is the Leadership Louisville Center . My first experience with this organization was back in 2014 . I participated in the Focus Louisville event . This is a two-day seminar where you get a nice overview of things that are going on in the city . This relates to government , the school system , arts and nonprofits . It became a wonderful opportunity to connect with individuals in our community who come from different sectors , like banking , government and marketing . Some of the friends that I ’ ve met through this are still people that I am in touch with . It helps you bridge connections to individuals that you may not meet in your clinical life . I also became a lifetime member following that experience . Since that time I ’ ve now participated in Ignite Louisville and the flagship program , Leadership Louisville .
The Leadership Louisville Center also hosts a variety of events across the year that allow opportunities to learn from different individuals . They have a “ 100 Wise Women ” breakfast series where you get to hear from prominent women leaders and hear their stories . They have community conversations with notable people , for instance , University of Louisville President Dr . Kim Schatzel . In election years , they also bring candidates together to have conversations you can hear from both sides . The space for the Leadership Louisville Center helps foster more communication and networking .
The third organization I ’ d like to reference is Twitter . Yes , I know , I ’ ve brought up Twitter a lot . Yes , I know Twitter does not seem to exist in the same form as it did before , but I want to share why it was valuable in the past . I created my first Twitter account at the end of medical school which was April 2010 . In the process , I was sharing stories about TV shows I enjoyed like Lost , basketball games or award shows that I was watching . As a result , I ended up becoming friends with other individuals in the Louisville community who shared similar interests . We started meeting up in person after a few years at events called FaceTime Lou , these were opportunities to meet the individuals in person with whom you were constantly communicating on Twitter . And I know right now this sounds like the scariest idea in the world . However , at the time , Twitter was more of a community space where you could have conversations and find individuals with similar interests . Now I know it doesn ’ t exist in this form anymore , but there are ways to meet these types of groups and it might be by utilizing social media in a way to help you find your community . Facebook groups are actually an excellent way to meet like-minded people . I found that Instagram hashtags like # louisville or the account @ liveinlou has been helpful to find a community of individuals . Social media can be a focused way to find your community .
Sometimes we just have to be willing to get out there and experience it and be open to new experiences . Some experiences will not pan out the way you desire , but in the long run , you ’ ll learn something about yourself , you ’ ll learn something about your community and you ’ ll find what ’ s important to you .
Dr . Tailor is a practicing internal medicine physician at Norton Community Medical Associates : Barret .
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