Sunday, September 26, 2010

Mission Statement

To rebuild the legacy of greatness, once honored by our culture and people.

To revive the wisdom of our elders, in order to inspire, direct, and empower our youth.

To help restore our communities and cities, through a networking circle of multicultural affiliations , resources, organizations, and ideas.

To embrace the many, with like minds, to achieve our purpose.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Welcome to the blog of the United Urban Network, Inc, and the official site of the Northwest Indiana region of the Steel City Renaissance Pardi-Gras Event & Parade.

Cassandra A. Cannon, C.E.O./Founder -

"I believe I was born a person of vision. Raised by my grand parents so my parents could pursue their careers and activism, I became a conduit to their life experiences and rich family histories.

At my grandparent's home, I often recall ascending a long flight of narrow stairs that led to a huge, dark, and forboding attic used as a storage place for old family furniture and keepsakes. I knew there were mice, and some times a rat would get caught in one of my grandfather's homemade mousetraps. All these things I feared as a child.

Large, cold, dark spaces with shadows, from the family's treasure, which took on erie shapes like ghosts and monsters, not to mention the scratching and scampering noises heard through out the room. Still, everyday I'd sneak and climb upon a stack of boxes I'd found to remove a broken lock and ascend those stairs. Even to this day, I still remember feeling my way through the darkness to find and sit upon that top step. And even though I was all alone, the fear would always just melt away. Day after day, I would sit in awe and watch as a single ray of light came through a broken window in the attic, the only window in that huge place. It had been boarded up and finally supposedly repaired.

Yet each morning that same small beam of light would cut through that darkness like a laser and separated the room, illuminating everything there it streamed passed yet never touching a thing. It would extend all the way back into a smaller pantry and then disappear. It would last until what seemed like forever, and I would sit alone but not afraid, as it slowly began to dissipate back to where it came.

I didn't know it then, but between my grandparents' stories of perseverance, and prevailing in spite of overwhelming odds to achieve their vision, and that small beam of light cutting through that dark room , these have become the principles and ethics that would shape and inspire my entire life. They taught me that light and truth always find a way to pierce through fear, ignorance, and darkness, and that somehow we all must become like that stream of light; and be unafraid to illuminate where ever we can."



Vision Committee


We are the acting catalyst for change, within our communities. We represent no one political or religious agenda. Our beliefs are as diverse in scope, as the areas within the wide spectrum of communities we represent. It is the mission, and the objective, "success for all people as one people", that defines our motto "One Vision, Many Points of View"

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The United Urban Network