Laura Bouwens' passion for quality doesn't stop at the lab; it extends to her personal life to help young women make a difference in their communities. Bouwens--an ASQ member and a system-wide quality analyst with the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory--has volunteered for the past 13 years at The International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, a nationwide youth organization that helps young women develop leadership skills. By using her quality skills to teach young women the value of helping others, Bouwens radiates Quality for Life.
Bouwens understands the importance of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls firsthand, since she was a member during her youth. Focusing on girls between the ages of 11 and 20, the Order uses community projects as an outlet for young women to use and develop their talents toward community works. When community service projects failed to be completed at Bouwens' local section in Vacaville, Calif., young women were not able to realize the benefits that could be gained and would choose to drop out, leading to a sharp decline in membership. Bouwens realized that something had to be done to get these service projects back on track.
"We needed to find a way to successfully prioritize and execute community projects," said Bouwens. "I thought; why not handle this like I would at work?"
Bouwens' first step was to form a small focus group of girls to brainstorm ideas about what they would like to see enacted to make community projects interesting. At the next meeting, Bouwens took all of the ideas, categorized them into a checklist, and asked the girls to prioritize them. From there, they flow-charted the steps of overseeing a project and started a binder that catalogs each project from start to finish.
The results have been impressive. In the last year, membership grew from 13 to 19 members by successfully executing community service projects on a regular basis. A few of the projects included: making lunches for a homeless shelter, writing letters to soldiers, and baking cookies for the civil servants of the community. Over the past year, the group of girls has completed more than 400 hours of community service.
"I know now that quality can play a part in everyday life," concludes Bouwens. "Quality tools helped these girls gain ideas, prioritize, document their progress, and most importantly, succeed while having fun."
If you have a story about how you used your passion for quality to make a difference in people's lives, we'd like to hear from you as part of our Quality for Life initiative. Please submit stories to qualityforlife@asq.org. Also, be sure to visit our blog at http://www4.asq.org/blogs/quality-life/.
