HISTORY
2022 August 19- At One Heart McKinney, we believe hearing feedback from every corner of our WHOLE community makes us stronger. The first convening of the OHM Advisory Council took place on Friday, August 19th with representatives from McKinney’s nonprofits, businesses, churches, school district, emergency services, government, and media in attendance. The purpose of the Advisory Council is to ensure OHM keeps our finger on the pulse of the city, so that we may stay ahead of the next crisis and respond quickly and efficiently. Housing was immediately identified as the current greatest need and much brainstorming took place amongst Advisory Council members to determine how we may respond together to help our citizens in need.
2022 August 8- One Heart McKinney’s pilot program is officially underway with the first twenty Network Partners. Within the OHM Network, service providers can efficiently and effectively refer clients to one another in a closed-loop system, ensuring the client receives all the services they need. Thank you to our pilot program Network Partners!
2022 July- We’re thrilled to welcome seasoned nonprofit associate Cheneda Samuel to the One Heart McKinney team. Cheneda will serve as our Navigator Manager. She comes with over 20 plus years of working or volunteering in the non-profit world and a vast professional career in engineering and retail management. During her professional career, she has done community outreach, database creation and management, operational management, human resources, and more. She has a passion for helping people and getting them to their desired goals. She is excited to be part of One Heart McKinney and looking forward to the success of the organization.
2022 February- Scott Elliott assumed the role of Executive Director at OHM, to shape the organization’s initial structure and lead the collaboration forward. Scott previously served on the McKinney City Council for 4 years, and on the McKinney Community Development Board for four years. He has extensive business experience in the corporate sector, Executive Director of Community Lifeline Center (CLC) and startup environments.
2022 January- McKinney community leaders including Mayor George Fuller, MISD Superintendent Dr. Rick McDaniel, McKinney Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Lisa Hermes, Wells Group founder Rick Wells, and others are excited to announce the official formation of a new community collaboration called One Heart McKinney (OHM). Since the beginning of the pandemic, the group raised and distributed almost $200k in grants to support this mission.
The OHM effort will focus on five core needs to maximize well-being in daily life, including food and hygiene; health, including physical, mental, and spiritual; housing; economic stability; and education. These five core needs were initially identified in a 2019 study performed by The Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas, funded by the McKinney Alliance.
The McKinney community currently has many resources in place to address these five core needs, but there is significant opportunity for us to better coordinate our efforts to maximize the impact of these resources on the community well-being. This is objective of OHM.
2021 November- Gathering of the One Heart McKinney task force and preparation of handing the baton over to Scott Elliott, new executive director, starting February 1st. We would like to thank them for their hard work in creating the framework for the new One Heart McKinney organization.
2020 March- The informal One Heart McKinney collaboration initially formed in March 2020 as a response to the early COVID crisis, when leaders from across McKinney came together on a weekly basis to assess current needs and rally resources to address them.
The initial group of leaders included representatives from McKinney city government, businesses, MISD, first responders and law enforcement, nonprofits, and faith communities. Based on the trust that was built through this collaborative experience, the group decided to continue working together in a more formalized manner to coordinate those seeking to address on-going community needs, as well as to remain mobilized for future crises that occur.
“For the first time, the entire community collaborated in a unique way that sets us up for success in addressing our 5 core needs of food, health, housing, education and jobs,” continued Hermes. “From the relational equity forged through the COVID crisis, One Heart McKinney has come together to unite everyone who wants to work in collaboration to build a flourishing community that benefits all of us.”