Coming into being as a nonprofit has its own trajectory that is determined by the vision of its core leaders. Worry Free Community's journey started out with the three basic guiding principles that have been promoted by many leadership coaches around the globe in different packages:
- Trusting in God's plan - we do our best and leave the rest to the forces of the universe and we learn to be content with the outcome.
- Our deeds depend on our intentions - 'what we sow is what we reap' is a universal fact and a natural law, therefore one must work on purifying their intentions since they guide our behavior.
- Actively engage in enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong - As a single human race, we all share a basic understanding of social justice and strive for reinstating basic human rights and values so harmony can prevail.
These three socially responsible guiding principles became the basis of our strategic planning and operational policies. However, we were missing the core values we needed to inherently represent these natural laws, provide the momentum for the development of our programs and help in setting quality metrics in a way that the community will find beneficial. After all, the state of "worry free" can only be achieved at a community level since all of our stressors are stimuli and all behavior is a matter of choice.
As students of science, we are taught to "start from the known to go to the unknown." This elementary school lesson guided us to tailor the series of monthly Community Stakeholder meetings as part of the PCORI funded project, Equipping Muslims with PCOR-Based Action-Oriented Research Tools, EMPART. PCORI's Engagement Rubric provided many insights into the mechanics of engaging community members and stakeholders towards a common goal of patient-centeredness. As we researched the topics to structure the meetings; exploring and dissecting the PCOR Engagement Principles with the community members seemed to be the most logical thing to do. It was self-evident that in order to bring diverse stakeholders to focus on achieving a common goal, we all needed to abide by the same rules of engagement.
As we explored each principle, the entire sequence of engagement process unfolded itself generating momentum and providing direction for the next logical flow. Many new relationships and collaborations were formed and initiated despite the lockdown due to the pandemic and social distance void that has ripped us of eighty percent of our nonverbal communications. The PCORI engagement principles had survived the test of time and proximity! The effectiveness of these principles was clear as we concluded our series with "Honesty, the final step towards establishing the Culture of Trust" on March 21, 2021.
At the beginning of Ramadan 2021, in the middle of April, the WFC board of directors decided to adopt the PCORI Engagement principles as its CORE VALUES. We are indebted to PCORI to have funded the EMPART project which not only revealed the secret as to how engagements work but strengthened the organization at its core to fulfilling on our mission.
