Building a life and career is each and everyone’s dream. What brings special meaning to your life is helping others, no matter in what way. Such efforts not only help the community but also the individuals who walk along such paths. Amit Warkad, Officer of the City of Plano, is indeed a personified definition of this ideology. Always enthusiastic, Amit is setting an example of how an Indian can amalgamate with the nation and society they are living in while contributing to its betterment.

Initial Journey and Background –
Amit’s journey in the early years is typically like that of any small-town Indian guy who kept on scaling heights. Born at a maternal place in the Nagar district of Maharashtra. Amit was schooled and completed his graduation for Mechanical Engineering at the city of Aurangabad in 2001. Soon after finishing his MBA from the reputed Welingkar Institute of Management, his professional journey started. He began in a sales team in Emerson network India Pvt ltd and in 2005 moved to L&T Infotech, beginning his reputed career in Mumbai. Later after working for about five years in Mumbai, he shifted to Plano, Dallas in the year 2010 and since then has been a part of the active community in Plano and all around the US.

Entrance in Community Service –
While working on the professional end, Amit also started taking part in the social activities of the Maharashtra Mandal. He always had been a social person and has a huge friend circle may it be in India or US. Around the year 2015/2016, while working in a social field and getting involved in local community efforts he and some of his friends in the neighborhood noticed that there is a gap between Indian American community and the mainstream American political system. Indian Americans are not much aware of the political and administrative systems while the political representatives do not have much knowledge about the issues related to Indian Americans, Amit and his friends found. Even in Indians, priorities are different depending upon your Visa status. There was a need for a platform to educate the Indian Americans on the American political system and educate the American politicians about the Indian American issues and priorities.

The inception of US IMPACT –
There was a need to give voice to Indian American priorities. There was no outreach from either side, the political system, and Indian American community. This issue triggered the need of working on this front and Amit along with his peer’s started efforts of bridging the gap. This urge saw them involved in local elections, connecting political representatives with the Indian community, participating in their election campaigns for them in a variety of forms, and other such things. They started an organization – US IMPACT to make it more structured. They registered it as a state and federal-level Political Action Committee (PAC). Under the umbrella of PAC, they began supporting candidates and building the bridge between the politicians and Indian American community. They were able to coach the local people about the political system, Information about ISD’s, State and federal structure, and opportunities available for participation and functioning of these entities in different stages. They encourage people to take part in the political system and recommended people for volunteer-level positions with the city & ISD. Amit told US IMPACT PAC is more inclined and aligned towards the Republican Party of America.

Appointed on the Board of Community Relations Commission of the City of Plano –
While doing all these things, Amit decided to personally participate in the Community Relations Commission for the City of Plano and formally applied for that. Completing the formal process, he got nominated and started working for one of the important Commissions of the City of Plano. He is designated as an officer of the city and his designation as a Commissioner. This commission is responsible for recommending funding allocations to City Council from three different grant funds. They do the evaluations of the projects and provide recommendations to the city council. The Final decision is taken by the City Council based on the recommendations.

To provide a solution, be the solution – 
They also formed a non-profit organization WE IMPACT, which is working on providing workable solutions to various social problems. In the Indian community, some women who come to the US face domestic violence, for some or other reasons. Helpless without financial independence, they need support in this regard. WE IMPACT works for such women and provide them helping hand. In addition to that, WE IMPACT also has projects in the area of Tracking Internationally adopted children. Each year 1000s of kids are adopted and brought into the US from different countries (India and China being the most prominent countries from where the kids are adopted). There is no formal tracking process to check on the wellbeing of these children once they are adopted. WE IMPACT is taking an advocacy initiative with the Attorney General’s office to implement a basic tracking of adopted children. It also organizes programs like Yoga for New Beginnings for the rehabilitation of soldiers who suffer mental and emotional trauma.
“Our basic idea is to connect Indian American community to the mainstream here and bridge the gap as much as possible. Now People emphasize Amit to enter electoral politics, but there are no such plans for now- said Amit. Through WE IMPACT and other work, we are purely concentrating on social purpose and problem-solving. Being in an active social circle has always been part of my life since childhood. That is still alive there and I enjoy what I am doing now for the community,” reacts Amit.