The Chattanooga chapter of Project Management Institute is teaming up with McConnell Elementary School to pilot a brand new program called “Loan-a-PM.”
Through the program, local certified project management professionals offer their skills to help nonprofit and educational organizations reach a specific goal.
“The vision is that nonprofit organizations or schools can contact us and request a project manager to come and help them with a special project,” explained PMI Chattanooga Vice President of Publicity Roger Lowe, adding that the project must meet certain criteria to be approved by the PMI board of directors.
And McConnell has just such a project. A group of parents and teachers at the school spent the last year raising money to build a new inclusive playground for its students. The total project costs amount to $91,000, and exceptional education teacher Amy Thomson, who’s spearheading the initiative, said the school is about $30,000 away from being able to move forward with plans for the playground.
“It’s going to be so fun, an awesome playground for everybody,” said Thomson, explaining that the inclusive playground will be accessible to both students and caretakers with disabilities while catering to older children who need more of a challenge to stay entertained. “We can really promote all kids doing all things at our school.”
PMI member Jody Walton, who has a son in the third grade at McConnell, initially had the idea to partner with the elementary school.
“I was in both worlds at the same time,” Walton said. “[The existing playground] is a run-down playground … and not a safe environment for [the students].”
Walton has now joined the group of parents and teachers involved with the fundraising to help plan meetings, network with the community and more. PMI Chattanooga also donated $500 toward the project.
“What’s been great more than anything … is the spirit of everybody at school working together and really getting behind something meaningful,” said Thomson. “The process is just as important, if not more than, the product.”
Any of the other 250 certified PMPs in the local PMI chapter can be a part of the program, said Lowe.
“If they have expressed interest in joining this program, we’ll connect them [to an organization],” he said.
Not only does the Loan-a-PM program help the school, but Walton gains professional development units, or credits, through her work at McConnell. According to Walton, certified PMPs must acquire 60 of these units every three years to maintain the certification.
“[McConnell] is our pilot project for this initiative. We are now ready to open it up to other nonprofit organizations to come and ask us for assistance,” Lowe said.
Any organizations interested in receiving assistance from the Loan-a-PM program can email Lowe at vppublicity@chattanoogapmi.org. Learn more about PMI Chattanooga at chattanoogapmi.org.