Letters From A Change Agent: #Courage

We must find courage and take action on what we believe can be done in the tsunami of sadness, emptiness, and emotion left behind after the massacre in Orlando. Social change happens when we respond with action to a need that inclusively benefits society. After Sandy Hook, when young children were murdered, we said enough was enough. However, no real action was taken.  There was plenty of social media cry outs and processing, vigils all over the country, but no one, except the people directly impacted, altered their reality for change to happen.

This morning on the radio station I was listening to, the shows hosts were discussing the nightclub shooting.  They were upset and hurt, which we all are, but they acknowledged that they “have a show to do” and were obligated to tell a humorous story so the show could go on. WTF?!?!  That was their opportunity to be courageous and say no to taking the easy way out.  We have to be uncomfortable and vulnerable because real change can only happen when we are. 

THE SYSTEM IS NOT WORKING! In order for us to change as a society, our individual daily behavior has to change. We have to sit in the space and discuss it. We have to suffer a little to get to the new day.  We have to set a new priority list of what and who is important. We have to give this change the time it deserves. We have to acknowledge that each one of us has a responsibility to a societal shift that will, not immediately, but long term, change how we operate as a collective.

This societal shift can revolve around whatever issue that shakes you the most because every issue is related and is rooted in the same place. We must take responsibility for each other. This ownership of compassion, integrity, empathy, love, inclusive fulfillment is missing from every issue: LGBTQ rights, education, racial divides, wealth inequality, corporate greed, green power, immigration, international food disparities, and on and on are all missing a universal responsibility.

As we once again acknowledge a change must happen, and fifty more lives have been taken from us, we must be responsible in multiple ways.  First, we must share our thoughts, discuss how we are hurt, and send all of our love, prayers, good energy, and light to those directly affected by this tragedy.  Additionally, we must sit in the uncomfortable space where inspiration and courage lies. The radio personalities this morning could have done so many alternative things than “having a show to do” and following the conversation with a humorous story.  They could have offered numbers to call representatives or donate. They could have called an elected official on air. They could have challenged the listening audience to commit to a change in their lives.  They could have done more.  We can all do more.

I write this and acknowledge I too can be better and do more.  Just like you, I am processing this, while I also process close personal death in my life. That raw emotion reminds me that I am human and that I, along with everyone else, am fragile and easily defeated.  But we are also mighty and unstoppable, especially when we are united. This societal shift will come, it is inevitable.  Now, right now, we have an opportunity to make this societal shift deliberate and proactive. It takes a little universal suffering, some purposeful changes, and simple individual courage.  

2016 Social Change Forum

Project Kinect’s Social Change Forum was created for three specific reasons. The first was to utilize everyone’s definition of Social Change, put them together, and reveal how everyone of us is an agent of change. The second reason was to dedicate time with an eclectic group of change agents and focus on one building block of social change.  We choose a building block that is abstract and subjective, yet when we focus on it together, we find tangible ways to be better agents of change. 

The final reason for creating the Social Change Forum was to utilize one focus to bridge communities.  Something magical happens when we use our skills, talents, and experience to work together on common themes; we become connected and our network expands making real change possible.  The Social Change Forum isn’t promising world peace; it’s just encouraging greater community by strengthening ourselves while we create a better understanding of who we can lean on.

We welcome and invite anyone to the Social Change Forum. Whether you are a government official, work at a nonprofit, lead a corporation, are a teacher, or a freshman in college, we encourage you to join us for this annual impactful and soul filling event. If the pricing is not in your budget, please contact us and WE WILL WORK SOMETHING OUT! Email info@projectkinect.com and ask about scholarship options.


Here is information about the second annual Social Change Forum: Finding Courage

When:           March 3rd, 2016.  

Where:         Threshold in Madison, Wisconsin

Time:            8:30am – 5:00pm

Reception:   5:30- 8:00pm at Next Door Brewing Company

Courage is needed to be an effective and impactful change agent. This year Project Kinect’s Social Change Forum will allow us to explore the relationship between courage and social change, how we access courage, and how we find it when we need it.  Our intention is that we all walk away from this year’s forum more comfortable in uncomfortable space and able to access the courage necessary when we need it to have those scary conversations, problem solve those uneasy circumstances, and lead those who are still seeking courage. Our forum will not find all the answers, but together we can utilize the skills and talents from our brilliant communities to gain tools and best practices that access that courage we often need.

Meet Our Hostess: Jenna Rhodes

12494126_10207473129638938_1113303543_oJenna Rhodes, MA, MPS, MPH, is a high energy, bundle of love, courageous agent of change. Currently Rhodes is the Program Coordinator in the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute Childhood Obesity Prevention Research Program where she supports outreach, programming, and research focused on increasing access and availability of healthy food utilizing farm to school strategies. She is also a Program Coordinator for the City of North Little Rock where she works on economic development projects related to walkability and strengthening local community organizational capacity, including the creation and continued coordination of a diverse community coalition.

Meet Our Keynote Speaker: Neena Viel

Neena-VielNeena hails from Newburgh, New York. As a teenager experiencing homelessness and food insecurity, she developed a social change lens early in life.  She was the first student at her high school to earn the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship. She received a BA in Communication Studies at Arkansas State University, and earned the Martin Mahlon Fellowship and the Student Undergraduate Research Award for her work on supportive communication with at-risk youth.  The Clinton School of Public Service was a natural fit for her and she was able to develop her expertise in youth development through work with the Arkansas Out of School Network, The Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project and the Department of Human Services. Viel has explored research projects in social-emotional health, supportive communication and education. She now works as part of the development team at College AccesDSC00315s Now in Seattle, where she works to empower low-income and first-generation students to access and graduate college. Viel has also spoken at the Arkansas State Teen Leadership Conference, the Arkansas Healthy Child Summit and the Bright Futures Begin Early Conference. She’s thrilled to come hang out with the cool people in Madison, WI!


Special Guests 

Sina Davis

Screen Shot 2016-01-25 at 10.34.34 AMSina Davis is the organizer and director of Mother’s in the Neighborhood; a program formed through the Allied Community Co-op that focuses on parent engagement.  Mother’s in the Neighborhood is a fierce organization that is working hard to shed light on the circumstances of the underserved communities in Madison, WI. In addition to Mother’s, Sina Davis is a community organizer, assists with the community engagement work through Let’s Eat Out, is a mother, friend, and ally.

 

Brandi Grayson

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 12.17.12 PMMadison 365 called her 2015 Disrupter of the Year. Brandi Grayson has a unique and forward way of delivering conversations about race and inequality to everyone, including those who try to avoid the discussion.  She works with the Madison YWCA and is one of the creators of Young, Gifted, and Black. At the 2016 Social Change Forum, Brandi will facilitate a conversation that will challenge us to bring the workshops into our every day lives.

Step Up: Equity Matters

We will also have a special activity facilitated by a founder or two from Step Up: Equity Matters

 


Workshops

The Inner Work of a Change Agent

Facilitator: Sara Alvar12524301_10207013655354850_8321277687501556547_nado from Step Up: Equity Matters and Co-Owner of Alvarado Real Estate Group 

Sara will share parts her journey and get specific about ways we can become more affective and impactful change agents. If it were only about the passion we have, it would be a piece of cake. In this session we will learn the value in self-care, how to tap into our courage, and create a sustainable path as a change agent through the power of our tribe, how to say No and Hell Yes, and other intentional self-love practices.

Facing Fears to Fuel and Cultivate Courage

10931702_10103935804158797_8488044511124061259_oFacilitator: Garrett Lee, founder of WHOA (We Help One Another) and Good Point Game and also involved with Homeless Services Consortium of Dane County and Occupy Madison

Garrett Lee will facilitate an experience that explores our underlying fears and how they impact our ability to co-create social change. Once we identify and face our fears, we can then transcend them and cultivate courage. In doing so, we will build a network of people who relate to our fears and overcome them to co-create the change we wish to see in the world. There will also be opportunities to earn Good Points throughout the day.

Reestablishing Integrity


noble updatedFacilitator: Trish Flanagan, co-founder of Picasolar, Noble Impact, and Future School in Fort Smith

As agents of change, we often find ourselves in circumstances that outside forces challenge our authenticity and we lose our integrity.  This workshop will discuss those moments and identify best practices to be better the next time we encounter those difficult moments. 

Check out the schedule for the day!


Thank you to our Sponsors! 

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A Discussion with the Church Ladies

This week, I was gave a presentation to the United Methodist Women’s group.  I arrived at the beginning of the meeting and had the opportunity to sit in and listen to their agenda and the added conversation that goes along with these meetings.  In the middle of it, as they were mentioning that someone in the church had passed, one of the women in the group asked in a rather forum fashion, “They got cremated.  Do you believe in that?”  There was not judgment, no anger or disgust, just curiosity in hearing someone else’s point of view.

Well this group of women being older, and extremely understanding with the fact the death is apart of our lives, amazed me with the answers to this question.  The answers involved all of the variables that go into what it takes to put together a funeral.  Costs, location, type of service but the bottom line of it wasn’t about if cremation was right or wrong, but how the loved ones left behind need to mourn.  Everyone mourns differently and when planning the final services, it isn’t about the person that has been taken from us, it is about us.  Losing a loved one is difficult because there is no way to fix that loss.  It isn’t like a headache where we can take some ibuprofen; It hurts, and it hurts to a point that sometimes we think it should actually kill us, but it doesn’t.  It’s courage and strength that keep us moving forward, not medication.

One of the days that I was helping pack lunches with the Forest Lake church, me and some other volunteers were having a similar conversation.  I don’t remember exactly how we got onto the subject, but somehow we did.  Marylyn, an Army nurse for thirty years talked about losing her husband and Tricia talked about losing her sister to cancer the year before.  That conversation on that 105 degree Tuscaloosa day had similar undertones of making the loss comfortable for all different mourning types by the loved ones. 

As I sat there though in that meeting of courageous woman, they came to the one conclusion though, and that we all have to make sure we take the time we need to mourn, and not to rush it.  They also discussed how old a child should be when they begin to understand the concept of death and it was thought that when they are old enough to sit in a chair is the age they can begin to digest the concept.  My first funeral was my great grandmothers in Michigan.  It is actually one of my most vivid memories from my childhood.  I remember sitting there not really knowing what to think and knowing that I needed to be sad because everyone else was.

So if I can take anything from this group of women, it is to find the courage and strength to move forward while still remember who you are and why that person was important to you and, you must take the time to mourn, or else you do not properly heal in your movement forward.  As we get older, it becomes more and more apparent of the inevitability of death.  It isn’t a fun subject but none the less something that needs to be discussed from time to time.  This last six months, I personally see and have felt the importance of taking time to discuss it. Even, as in this community of Project Kinect, we have looked at it in different ways such as “A Conversation with our Server” and “Mourning in 2011”. To all those who grieve for someone that they miss, I send my love and thank you for everything that you are sending out into the world.  We Are All Involved!!!

For anyone who is currently grieving and are looking for a little guidance, here are some websites that I happened to come across.