Dear Interns!
This Tuesday we will be sharing "our stories" to assist us in being powerful, impactful speakers at the Making Space event on December 4th.
First of all: fundraising is tricky. Lots of us resist fundraising-- it is uncomfortable to ask for funds and we associate it with "begging" and people demand for a "sustainability plan" by the organization (i.e. people want us to "make money" in a "more respectable way" rather than asking folks to donate). Lots of negative connotations. Lots of questions, too. Do I have enough? What if I give it all away? Only rich people give money. Money is greed.
In The Soul of Money, Lynne Twist tells her story of fundraising and the direction of our funds to "our highest commitments." Her stories and her vision of money and sufficiency were important for me in my understandings of work and giving.
For this week, please take ten minutes and view this presentation by Lynne Twist about the "soul of money": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5xlJg9WxJg
On your blog take some time and prepare your response to Lynne's vision. Then, consider: what is your highest commitment? What do you commit your time and money to? One of the things you will be committing significant time (and possibly money!) to is CLP. Why? This is the story we will tell at "Making Space" on Saturday.
See you Tuesday night!
Samantha
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Great Quote, Great Resources
"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Outline for the "Better Together" Campaign, awesome tools for using Social Media to make a movement: http://content.delivra.com/etapcontent/InterfaithYouthCore/attachments/Interfaith%20Leader%20Action%20Calendar.pdf
Outline for the "Better Together" Campaign, awesome tools for using Social Media to make a movement: http://content.delivra.com/etapcontent/InterfaithYouthCore/attachments/Interfaith%20Leader%20Action%20Calendar.pdf
Saturday, November 20, 2010
[CLP-Interns] Reflection Entry (Nov 20)
Hello Karla, Cheng, Malcolm, Gilbert, Sara and Francis--
As promised, this week's reading/reflection is on “Why India?”/ “Why Riverside? / Why Mexico?”
To start us off-- why this?
As you know, our annual celebration/fundraiser, “Making Space: Two Years with CLP” is on Saturday, December 4th from 6:30PM-8:30PM at Back to the Grind Coffee Shop in Downtown Riverside. As I'm sure Kat would attest, the most important thing to communicating an idea is the personal story behind that idea. For example-- why you are in CLP and why I am in CLP is different, and should be different. The personal always moves us in a deeper way. We need to be personal at “Making Space.”
And, as you know: CLP does not just collaborate with our brothers and sisters in one country-- we collaborate in all three. Sometimes this is forgotten when people hear we “work in India.” The immediate assumption is that we only work “somewhere else.” And there is a feeling of frustration and defensiveness-- “Why not HERE?” Why don't you work here?”
What does that question mean to us? First of all, where is that question coming from? Why is that person asking the question? What emotions are behind it? Then, what is our personal response? And where does that response come from? This analysis could bring out some ugly-beautiful stuff: from our own (underlying) feelings of superiority, power or entitlement (as challenged by Ivan Illich) or our guilt for the past and the present or our vision for transcendence and transformation or our hunger for connection.
So, the question for your first formal blog “post” / travel journal entry: [Why India? Why Riverside? Why Mexico?]
To help you us started or inspire some thought, some light reading/viewing/listening. Skim them all or pick a couple to read/watch more closely to get your own mind/heart going:
(1) My sermon/reflection on on the soul and global wholeness: http://bit.ly/soulandwholeness_swilson
(2) An LA Times article on poverty in Riverside (Oct 2010): http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/08/local/la-me-inland-empire-poverty-20101008
(3) Audio recording of MLK on Gandhi, NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99480326
(4) Video interview of Arundhati Roy, Indian activist on Obama, war and the Indian government: http://www.zcommunications.org/acclaimed-indian-author-arundhati-roy-on-obama-s-wars-poverty-and-india-s-maoist-rebels-by-arundhati-roy
(5) Music video, Indigo Girls “Shame on You”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKqUglOC3_8
These five links are for triggering our own ideas/thoughts-- they do not represent a formal “CLP” opinion on anything (I don't think we have formal opinions, just principles). Use these to get your ideas and curiosities going. Your blog response does not have to be exact or perfect or complete (whatever that means)-- it can be bullet points, some varied ideas. We will be working on this question for a long time. This is just the beginning. Kat has many resources on this one.
See you all, and your blog entries, on Tuesday night. And for some of you, see you in the next couple days as we get started on your projects.
Yeah!
Samantha
As promised, this week's reading/reflection is on “Why India?”/ “Why Riverside? / Why Mexico?”
To start us off-- why this?
As you know, our annual celebration/fundraiser, “Making Space: Two Years with CLP” is on Saturday, December 4th from 6:30PM-8:30PM at Back to the Grind Coffee Shop in Downtown Riverside. As I'm sure Kat would attest, the most important thing to communicating an idea is the personal story behind that idea. For example-- why you are in CLP and why I am in CLP is different, and should be different. The personal always moves us in a deeper way. We need to be personal at “Making Space.”
And, as you know: CLP does not just collaborate with our brothers and sisters in one country-- we collaborate in all three. Sometimes this is forgotten when people hear we “work in India.” The immediate assumption is that we only work “somewhere else.” And there is a feeling of frustration and defensiveness-- “Why not HERE?” Why don't you work here?”
What does that question mean to us? First of all, where is that question coming from? Why is that person asking the question? What emotions are behind it? Then, what is our personal response? And where does that response come from? This analysis could bring out some ugly-beautiful stuff: from our own (underlying) feelings of superiority, power or entitlement (as challenged by Ivan Illich) or our guilt for the past and the present or our vision for transcendence and transformation or our hunger for connection.
So, the question for your first formal blog “post” / travel journal entry: [Why India? Why Riverside? Why Mexico?]
To help you us started or inspire some thought, some light reading/viewing/listening. Skim them all or pick a couple to read/watch more closely to get your own mind/heart going:
(1) My sermon/reflection on on the soul and global wholeness: http://bit.ly/soulandwholeness_swilson
(2) An LA Times article on poverty in Riverside (Oct 2010): http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/08/local/la-me-inland-empire-poverty-20101008
(3) Audio recording of MLK on Gandhi, NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99480326
(4) Video interview of Arundhati Roy, Indian activist on Obama, war and the Indian government: http://www.zcommunications.org/acclaimed-indian-author-arundhati-roy-on-obama-s-wars-poverty-and-india-s-maoist-rebels-by-arundhati-roy
(5) Music video, Indigo Girls “Shame on You”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKqUglOC3_8
These five links are for triggering our own ideas/thoughts-- they do not represent a formal “CLP” opinion on anything (I don't think we have formal opinions, just principles). Use these to get your ideas and curiosities going. Your blog response does not have to be exact or perfect or complete (whatever that means)-- it can be bullet points, some varied ideas. We will be working on this question for a long time. This is just the beginning. Kat has many resources on this one.
See you all, and your blog entries, on Tuesday night. And for some of you, see you in the next couple days as we get started on your projects.
Yeah!
Samantha
Friday, November 19, 2010
CLP Internships!
Hello, community!
Glad to be here updating you all on our CLP Interns!
They'll be joining us soon and posting a link to their blogs as a comment to this page. This is the first, and certainly not the last, challenge.
:)
Glad to be here updating you all on our CLP Interns!
They'll be joining us soon and posting a link to their blogs as a comment to this page. This is the first, and certainly not the last, challenge.
:)
Thursday, April 15, 2010
"This is Major Tom to Ground Control!"
I write from a hotel room in Miami, FL.
I've spent my day of travel and subsequent afternoon in a sleepy state of vegetarian-pizza-eating reading and relaxation, browsing the internet, catching up on email and repeatedly falling asleep. I've also been listening to David Bowie's "Space Oddity" with an uncanny sense of identification-- maybe its that floating in a "tin can" part (American Airlines kind of looks that way?) or perhaps its the "feeling very scared" but your spaceship knowing which way to go, so you go with it?
This is my third Clinton Global Initiative University gathering. In 2008, I made my first commitment to work on CLP.
But really, that commitment had been made in India, on long bus rides and international dormitories where I felt like a Grade-A-Bump-On-A-Pickle. But, an observational pickle-- one aware of the potential of transnational action that could take place, if said pickle were willing to risk.
Like, for example, Major Tom!
After one day here, I will be "floating in tin can" to Connecticut. I've never been to that part of the USA before-- a more "radical" journey (if you'll allow this) than going to India. In fact, planning this trip was far more intimidating than planning any of my CLP trips to India! Why is my own country, sometimes, so unfamiliar and big and intimidating? Is it us or is it me? When I step into India, I feel like I enter a world of "Annas" and "Akkas" (brothers and sisters)-- why not here? Or maybe it is less explicit?
Probably the latter. Today, as I checked in to my hotel, a friendly front desk clerk, Alfonso, hooked me up with my vegetarian pizza. And the driver, an older gentleman from francophone Africa, got lost WITH me as we discovered my California accent and his West African accent confused both of us, and we were both (simultaneously) "too polite" to check with one another again. After ending up in a neighborhood of pink and baby blue houses and palm trees, we pulled over, read the directions and realized his "1800 SW" was my "8200 SW". Laughing, I said "Well! C'est la vie!" to which he replied, "You speak French!?"
En peu?
And even though, by the end of it, his meter read "$50"-- he charged me $35, and we said "goodbye" to one another in a flurry of apologies and smiles for the linguistic confusion.
As of Saturday morning, right at the stroke of midnight, I'll be at the Global Health and Innovation Conference at Yale for the rest of this weekend, sponsored by Unite for Sight. I've been scrolling through the presentations and participants, highlighting names and reading webpages to get an idea of the folks I need to hunt down, "court and woo," and learn with. I attend this conference by myself, as Sydney and Rachel stay at Clinton Global Initiative and continue forward in recruiting and connecting with other college students eager to get connected to something real.
Its 12:26 AM on Friday in Miami and I'm restless. Restless with energy to move, to read, to meet. Restless in my desire to fall into a deep, mountainous sleep. I mean mountainous in that timeless, slow-moving, granite way. I want to sleep, literally, like a rock...
... but that will wait. Or it will come in pieces. And I'll make a mosaic of rest and restlessness.
More on that later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LVC9eW9Q4E
I've spent my day of travel and subsequent afternoon in a sleepy state of vegetarian-pizza-eating reading and relaxation, browsing the internet, catching up on email and repeatedly falling asleep. I've also been listening to David Bowie's "Space Oddity" with an uncanny sense of identification-- maybe its that floating in a "tin can" part (American Airlines kind of looks that way?) or perhaps its the "feeling very scared" but your spaceship knowing which way to go, so you go with it?
This is my third Clinton Global Initiative University gathering. In 2008, I made my first commitment to work on CLP.
But really, that commitment had been made in India, on long bus rides and international dormitories where I felt like a Grade-A-Bump-On-A-Pickle. But, an observational pickle-- one aware of the potential of transnational action that could take place, if said pickle were willing to risk.
Like, for example, Major Tom!
After one day here, I will be "floating in tin can" to Connecticut. I've never been to that part of the USA before-- a more "radical" journey (if you'll allow this) than going to India. In fact, planning this trip was far more intimidating than planning any of my CLP trips to India! Why is my own country, sometimes, so unfamiliar and big and intimidating? Is it us or is it me? When I step into India, I feel like I enter a world of "Annas" and "Akkas" (brothers and sisters)-- why not here? Or maybe it is less explicit?
Probably the latter. Today, as I checked in to my hotel, a friendly front desk clerk, Alfonso, hooked me up with my vegetarian pizza. And the driver, an older gentleman from francophone Africa, got lost WITH me as we discovered my California accent and his West African accent confused both of us, and we were both (simultaneously) "too polite" to check with one another again. After ending up in a neighborhood of pink and baby blue houses and palm trees, we pulled over, read the directions and realized his "1800 SW" was my "8200 SW". Laughing, I said "Well! C'est la vie!" to which he replied, "You speak French!?"
En peu?
And even though, by the end of it, his meter read "$50"-- he charged me $35, and we said "goodbye" to one another in a flurry of apologies and smiles for the linguistic confusion.
As of Saturday morning, right at the stroke of midnight, I'll be at the Global Health and Innovation Conference at Yale for the rest of this weekend, sponsored by Unite for Sight. I've been scrolling through the presentations and participants, highlighting names and reading webpages to get an idea of the folks I need to hunt down, "court and woo," and learn with. I attend this conference by myself, as Sydney and Rachel stay at Clinton Global Initiative and continue forward in recruiting and connecting with other college students eager to get connected to something real.
Its 12:26 AM on Friday in Miami and I'm restless. Restless with energy to move, to read, to meet. Restless in my desire to fall into a deep, mountainous sleep. I mean mountainous in that timeless, slow-moving, granite way. I want to sleep, literally, like a rock...
... but that will wait. Or it will come in pieces. And I'll make a mosaic of rest and restlessness.
More on that later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LVC9eW9Q4E
Sunday, April 4, 2010
New books!
My reading list...
Parker J. Palmer, "A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life-- Welcoming the Soul and Weaving the Community in a Wounded World"
James R. Brockman, "The Word Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero"
Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein, "Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism"
David Batstone et. al, "Liberation Theologies, Postmodernity, and the Americas"
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, "Color of Violence: the INCITE! Anthology"
Arundhati Roy, "The Cost of Living"
Arundhati Roy, "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile"
Arundhati Roy, "Power Politics"
Melvin Delgado and Lee Staples, "Youth-Led Community Organizing: Theory and Action"
Peter Block, "Community: The Structure of Belonging"
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity"
Myron Weiner, "The Child and the State in India"
Mohandas K. Gandhi, "Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth"
Frantz Fanon, "The Wretched of the Earth"
Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum, "Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry"
Simeon Terry, et al. "Through the Eyes of the Judged: Autobiographical Sketches by Incarcerated Young Men"
Greg Mortenson, "Stones Into Schools"
Parker J. Palmer, "A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life-- Welcoming the Soul and Weaving the Community in a Wounded World"
James R. Brockman, "The Word Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero"
Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein, "Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism"
David Batstone et. al, "Liberation Theologies, Postmodernity, and the Americas"
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, "Color of Violence: the INCITE! Anthology"
Arundhati Roy, "The Cost of Living"
Arundhati Roy, "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile"
Arundhati Roy, "Power Politics"
Melvin Delgado and Lee Staples, "Youth-Led Community Organizing: Theory and Action"
Peter Block, "Community: The Structure of Belonging"
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity"
Myron Weiner, "The Child and the State in India"
Mohandas K. Gandhi, "Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth"
Frantz Fanon, "The Wretched of the Earth"
Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum, "Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry"
Simeon Terry, et al. "Through the Eyes of the Judged: Autobiographical Sketches by Incarcerated Young Men"
Greg Mortenson, "Stones Into Schools"
Notes from a recent CLP India Volunteer Training...
CLP India Curriculum: “What can we create together?”
Space for the revolutionaries
Meaningful, relevant education that can be applied to real-life
Conversations with parents, teachers and the community
Emphasis on “mutual transformation”
Students are not numbers, know them as human beings
Youth-led activities and organizing whenever possible
Students as experts
Reclaim IZZAT in a “CLP” way
“How” of learning for students, more than memorization (include all ways of learning)
Addressing issues that can't be addressed at home or in a “typical” classroom
Remember-- you are NOT alone! (Many others are dealing with these issues-- build community)
Remember to emphasize “values” and the “universalisms of learning”
Develop a “culture” and set of life-tools that can be used, comfortably or fluidly, in their lives beyond CLP programs-- we are the “mayonnaise” on a sandwich of their lives (make it tasty, work in the system and daily life)
Be real as facilitators and co-learners-- use y(our) stories
Role play for practice, to make it something our bodies actually do
Inclusivity of all people involved
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