Leader of our June 20, 2007 cafe, Robyn Frye is the Local Site Coordinator for Making Connections Providence and leads the Management Team. Previously she served as Director of Community Relations for West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation. In addition to volunteering at the ACI prison ministry, Frye serves as a mentor to women returning from prison. She is a 2002 Graduate of Leadership Rhode Island and was awarded the Volunteer of the Year Award 2004 by Volunteer Center of Rhode Island. Frye has also been nominated for the Volvo for Life Award twice. She was appointed by Mayor David N. Cicilline as a member of the Providence Public School Board and the Eli Broad Institute for School Boards where she was conferred the title of Broad Fellow. Frye has also served the on the Mayor's Council of Religious Leaders. Most recently, Frye was appointed to serve as Co-Chair of the City of Providence's Reentry Steering Committee. She has spent many years living and working in the Making Connections neighborhoods and has been active with Making Connections Providence since its inception.
In 2005, Robyn walked through the doors of Making Connections as it's new leader, and knew right away something was wrong: she had to put her mind, will and emotions to work to transform the organization to what it is today--fully engaged in the community, with the right team in place. For Robyn, it was about being able to say: "my baby can walk now..."
It was more than a transformation for the organization, Robyn had to heal the partnerships, reconfigure the engangement of the people the organizaiton served, and put process and systems into place that mattered...and were accountable to a "self-less" ambition.
Cafe
Below are the 2 key themes from her cafe that we would like you to add comments:
One of the key "seeds" the group took from Robyn's talk was about how being more 'humble' and 'vulnerable' is a tool for leading an organizaiton. Robyn said these two behaviors helped her to hire the right people, ask the right questions, make the best decisions, and importantly to let go of other people's expectations so she could yeild to the "roller coaster" ride. The difference between a “WEEE!” and a “Whoa!” is how much you’re willing to let go!
The second "seed" the group pulled from Robyn's story, was to trust what she knows...and the various ways in which we get information: from our gut, intuition, feelings, as well as our intellect. We called that the "know-her" and the conversation around this topic was how do we trust this know-her, and convey that to others?