A Change in Season!

Hey Team,
Congrats on a successful fundraising event! The art auction / concert / dinner "A Change in Season" brought in between $500 and $600! Well done for working hard as a team to pull off this event. We heard nothing but great feedback from the community. Also, special sparkles go out to Shiew-wen for getting $500 for her rain barrel project and Adam for getting $100 for the bamboo garden beds, and Kelsy for completing an astoundingly professional sponsorship letter! Let's keep supporting each other like this for the rest of the summer; it's amazing to see people working together!
See ya'll tomorrow!

Our First Community Meal!

I'm so excited it's finally here!!! And Ryan & I got to contribute 4 bags of tomatoes from Ozark Slow Foods, which is exciting. Going to drop work and help cook now.

Update one hour later:
Dang that was good. :)

Minor Technicalities

Wanna know a secret? I wish I could be in SoS! All your projects sound so amazing, and have the potential to get at the root of many problems facing our world. But instead of building a mobile marketplace or window farms, my time is spent in trying to address whatever comes up. Why didn't 4 people show up to the meeting today - are they still committed to their projects, or not? What should I tell the library about the time frame for completing the herb garden installation, and why is it so far behind? Why is the shed locked and the key missing - who took it? Why is someone's parent angry at me, and someone else's parent making them leave training early? Is it illegal for 14 & 15 year-olds to get paid, and how much, and what's the necessary paperwork? Why aren't most people fundraising and how can they be motivated? Can non-profits give out interest-free loans?

Meanwhile, I should really be arranging farm trips, guest speakers, creating TLC curriculum, OMNI strategic planning in membership development, checking in with mentors and partner organizations, hiring a program coordinator for next year...

But it would be a dream to be a solutionary!
I want to garden, too!

The Simple Life

I really adore not having internet at home and focusing on making it a home instead of entertainment. But, because after my work was done for SoS today I only have 10 minutes of internet time left at the library, I am choosing to read your blogs rather than write a long post. Suffice to say I'm busy, but excited to see how things are going with all of you! :)

Work as a Choice

Work is a really odd word. My high school science textbook explained it as any action expending energy or force, or something like that.

What's even weirder are the actions we choose to define as work, our measure of effort, and the choices we make based on mismeasurement.

Since the storm just got stronger here at OMNI, guess I'll elaborate...

I was in college once not too long ago. Whenever there was something I truly wanted, I'd put any amount of work into getting it. Usually it was a trip, since I love traveling. I'd invest tons of energy planning the route, researching destinations, buying maps / gas / tickets / lodging, etc. When a challenge came up, like a blocked road, broken down car, lack of money - I'd even lose sleep over ensuring that I could still take that trip.

But for homework, college jobs, or something I had to do but didn't really want, I'd invest tons of energy avoiding it or trying to minimize the amount of "work" that needed to get done.

Let's compare a few common measurements of work:

Not Work:
Concerts
Arts & Crafts
Reading

Work:
Time Management
Sewing
Research

One day in 2008, when I was working as a secretary who felt forced to staple papers forever in order to pay for graduate school, it dawned on me that the difference between work and not work is CHOICE.

If you noticed, the "Not Work" category can be made into a job, and the "work" category suddenly becomes "Not Work" when paired with its job. Time Management is super fun when you're a musician arranging a tour or series of gigs. Sewing isn't that bad if you're suddenly getting paid for your handicrafts. And research is definitely better if you're reading because of something you really want to learn, or being paid as an editor to check the facts for a publication.

So, in January 2009 I quit my job, lived off savings for 8 months and helped write a grant for OMNI Center to get them 3 AmeriCorps*VISTAs and started working with TLC. It was hard, but the best investment of my life.

If many people realized that they did have a choice in their work (or at least their perspective of work) and invested as much energy in that choice as a college trip (with all the sleep deprivation, planning, and expenses) the very least consequence of that realization would be the instant abolishment of fast food.

My actions were extraordinary, yes, and I think that's a crying shame.

Is Deprivation the Key to Empowerment?

So, tonight I'm stranded at OMNI Center due to the thunderstorm, and figured I may as well do work while I'm waiting for the lightning and rain to stop. (We bike to OMNI frequently.)

I've had yet another breakthrough in my understanding of capacity, and the SoS program in general. Lately, I've been racking my brains trying to figure out how to empower the team, and OMNI Center as a whole. Empowerment seemed to be a unicorn; quite fanciful, out of reach, and potentially a hoax.

Suddenly I realized what empowerment means: wanting something you deserve but can't have, and to be shown how to get it for yourself.

This could be civil rights.
This could be education.
Or it could be a green job.

Do we want green jobs, really? Have we fully, deeply, and comprehensively come to understand the deprivation we experience daily: our immediate need for money, being
forced to acquire money in unsustainable ways, use it to buy food that's almost poisonous, take jobs with no concern for us, other people or the planet...it goes on and on.

My swirl of confusion as to why SoS Fayetteville has at least double the resources and less than half the motivation of all the other cities may be caused by one simple oversight on my part: we don't really want green jobs, because we don't realize how much we need them.

We have television sets and cookies, how could American youth ever be deprived? For one thing, when presented with the tools of empowerment, they ignore them.

What does that say about our daily lives, if we can actually reach our dream but choose not to? Most of us are not faced each morning with horrible segregation, or prevented from voting, or beaten. A much more subtle yet destructive deprivation is going on inside our own heads, in moments when we purchase food, in moments when we apply for work. It's got very real consequences, and real solutions; but still we may choose to ignore them merely due to their subtlety.

When a youth becomes an entreprenuer, it's "extraordinary". When a youth succeeds in a career in acting, music, art, science, literature, you name it - this is considered a special case, a child prodigy, a gift from God just for him/her, or at best an ability that all other youth lack.

This is a lie.
There's a good book called TALENT IS OVERRATED by Geoff Colvin proving that this cultural misconception needs to stop. It's obviously disempowered too many of us.

Deprivation may be the foundation for empowerment.... but the key to empowerment is to want it.

Revolving People Fund

Today I had a huge breakthrough in my understanding of SoS.

WHO WANTS TO NEVER FUNDRAISE AGAIN?
Me, me!

So I thought, why not delete that word from the SoS program structure?
We can replace it with a revolving fund!

Organizations, businesses, and even individuals can loan each SoS full-time participant the amount of their stipend. This becomes an investment. After your green job is created and you're receiving income from it, you can pay back the loan with little or no interest. Then the loan goes on to another peer who wants a green job, too.

We have to figure out the details, but I think it will be a heck of a lot easier getting you all paid and showing real results in SoS if we're being loaned the money and then paying it back with the fruits of our labor. None of this "you'll only be paid if you fundraise your stipend" stuff. You'll get paid up front, and be expected to succeed in creating a job that can then support you in the future.

Where in the World is....SoS National?

Lately I've been doing a lot of work for building the foundation of SoS Fayetteville. Things I'm considering are: team cohesion, internal motivation, shared vision & collective action, relationship to national administration, connection to other cities doing similar things, etc..

I've also been getting a lot of inspiration from you all! Keep it up team!

So in between administrative tasks and handing out flyers and getting donations and writing letters, I have the great priviledge of dreaming alongside all of you. The reason I'm here is to see your dreams succeed.

Sorry I never have time to post; right now I have to go sell t-shirts at the Peace Hero Awards Banquet for OMNI. Reminder: I'd like to see everyone writing about their mentor meetings like Shiew-wen did. How's that going? Are you making successful partnerships with your mentors?

Goin' at it like Rabbits

Beautiful weather! Green grass, white clouds, fragrant rain...I'm lovin' it all.

This weekend Ryan & I made a breakthrough about turning S.M.A.R.T. goals into a task timeline process. The result is sitting on my desk right now, and I can't wait to share it with you all in hopes that it will make the summer easier.

We're preparing for the Library event tomorrow from 3:00 - 4:30, and really missing some members of our team - Andrea, Jeanie and Joel. So far we're planning on serving food, showing a slideshow and powerpoint, discussing Grand Aspirations & Summer of Solutions National & Local, unveiling our individual goals, and of course...touring the bamboo herb garden!!! It's looking great so far and I'm excited to see it at the library's facility. Tomorrow will be a great day :)

Back to work on a zillion tasks that multiply like rabbits.

While Ya'll Farm, I'll Darn Some Wool Socks

Capacity building is not glorious. It isn't public, it isn't heroic or heralded in any newspapers. Yet I love it.

While most of the SoS team is out at Farmer Jesse's learning about planting sweet potatoes, or building bamboo raised beds for herbs, I'm here at the library trying to ensure that we continue to receive community support.

Today I worked with Greenhouse Grille to begin negotiations which will hopefully lead to mutually beneficial results. I spent a lot of time arranging the July 6th even with the library - they needed specifics, which seems to be the word of the week. Tonight is the national August Gathering call, when I present the green business & restaurant options Fayetteville offers. It's a little scary that our project will be scrutinized by so many eyes from around the country, but, it's great motivation to make everything look nice.

Capacity building for a project is a lot like darning wool socks in summer to prepare for a cold winter ahead when you know you'll need 'um to keep walking forward.

Oppression: is it real?

Yesterday I asked myself if oppression was still obvious, rampant, and what role it actually plays in the 2010 emerging green economy. I envisioned something like interstate highways dividing neighborhoods of color from community resources. I certainly didn't feel like it would affect Fayetteville Summer of Solutions.

But in the meeting with NCAT today, as I watched youth who had prepared measureable goals internalizing the condescending labels placed upon them, it dawned on me.

Having good ideas for green jobs isn't all we need to do. Half the battle for creating green jobs is fighting oppression by empowering youth and resisting the image that we're "cute".

We don't need to wait until we're older to have meaningful work. We don't need to wait until we're desperate for income to create value in what we do. The time to create green jobs has always been and will always be right NOW.

Wonderful Weekends!

I've been thoroughly enjoying weekends. Such wonderful things come from them, like drive-in movies and having clean laundry and dishes. After putting in 91 hours of work during training week and the weekends surrounding it, then working 9.5 hours today, weekends are such a sanctuary.

A combo of poor time management and random internet access has resulted in no posts since last Wednesday, sorry team! I've been busy mostly with helping empower people on a one-on-one basis. On Thursday, the National Center for Appropriate Technology called (it was Katy) and presented a possibility of financial support for SoS. That sent Ryan & I into a bustle of activity creating a goal-empowerment powerpoint presentation and trying to get everyone ready to present their goals tomorrow. It's coming up so fast, and I wish the best of luck to you all!

Speak from your heart with honesty.

Not Just Work

Today I felt we needed to start off with inspiration, to envision the food system we know is possible. At the meeting this morning, Ryan read a story about Will Allen and the ways he impacted Milwaukee and Chicago urban farming. There are so many ways to connect to the community with gardening - through the prison system, the medical system, schools and entrepreneurship training for teens, by cleaning up pollution and lead-poisoned soil with your garden, saving native species like butterflies and birds, welcoming immigrants to grow cultural foods, creating artistic and living masterpieces, cleaning city water...and the best part: one garden (with proper management) can do ALL of these things!

Today it seems to me that growing things is the root of all good, in the way that money may be the root of all evil. This isn't just a job for me, it's a way of life.

What I've been up to:
*convincing OMNI that youth are good, even good leaders, and will not dig up holes in their yard (anymore)! and that saying "we need leaders for the culture of peace" is not the best way to get people engaged

*e-mails to partners, reminders to restaurants that may give giftcards, phone calls to guest speakers, and meaningful assistance to SoS participants throughout the day

*crafting an agenda for Friday's "remember your training" goal-revamping meeting for SoS

*killing flies in OMNI's kitchen and sweeping the floor (which reminded me that we need weekly chores and a basket to draw them from - so I created one)

*compiling and e-mailing the results of Training Week evaluation, and filling out and SoS National Training Evaluation for program leaders

*working in, and despising, various Google Docs for SoS

My next step is inching quickly towards more capacity-building tasks, and less SoS-maintenance tasks. Making a timeline will help with that.

On a more personal level, today is my Dad's birthday, which somewhat surprised me because he's going thru chemo just like Farmer Jesse and I didn't really expect him to have another birthday. I'm not close to my Wisconsin parents, and in a way, helping Farmer Jesse is like helping my dad.

The Ultimate Sponsorship Letter

My main goal today is finishing up a Publisher letter to as many potential sponsors I can think of. For this letter, I need everyone's summer goals, like getting food stamps accepted at the market, making a trailside marketplace, bicycle rickshaw delivery, inner & outer city produce coordinator positions, etc. Once I get these compiled, I'm putting them together with a photo (you select one of yourself!) of each person next to their goals. Hopefully no one will be able to resist throwing a few bucks your way to support your mission this summer! Which I really, really like - you guys did a great job expressing your passion for local food and farming:

Vision: We envision a sustainable and accessible community food system that increases awareness and consequently creates a higher demand for locally produced, healthy food. This would be an efficient, mutually beneficial network that ties the community to its producers.

Mission:

Summer of Solutions: Fayetteville, a youth-led organization, strives to increase:

1. Awareness of the advantages of a local food system through educational events, workshops & other outreach programs
2. Production by utlitizing existing resources to develop urban and rural agriculture
3. Accessibility of local food by creating innovative networks of interaction between producers & consumers
   

First Work Day of Summer of Solutions!

Despite a groggy morning, we soared into our first work day for SoS Fayetteville. Thanks to Irish Breakfast Tea, I was able to stay awake during our first meeting and tried to provide support and reminders. Between nervousness at being the "adult", and tears of joy at seeing the cycle of empowerment take off in our group, I'm mostly excited to see what you will create for yourselves and the community in your green jobs this summer! I'll always be here if you need help.

Today, I reached out to some potential mentors, helped Havilah vacuum the offices, assisted with general tasks that came up at OMNI related to ya'll's projects, filled in 2 weeks of timesheets, created this blog, met with Gladys, talked to Opal the Arkansas VISTA coordinator and e-mailed her an update, watched and rejoiced at the video's progress, brainstormed where to send it to raise awareness and get sponsorships, considered the budget & payment issue, practiced time management and made my week's time map with work hours and goals, then went grocery shopping at ONF where I debated on the values & purposes behind not eating meat vs. not eating dairy. My biggest challenge was ensuring lunch did indeed happen despite everything else that was happening.

All in all, a productive and happy day!