I think it's important to move beyond recycling for one week but thinking intentionally upstream about what we buy and need and where that comes from and who it is affecting. I am lucky when living in Halifax, Canada and Karlskrona, Sweden the past couple years there are advanced recycling and composting systems. In years when I've been away in Honduras and Ottawa, Canada I've started composting systems. In Honduras, as part of my work I volunteered with various communities and helped them dream up waste systems and recycling. We would do drawing exercises with a cross-section of the community to think about pride in their community and how they could take ownership and create an appropriate culture and system to deal with their waste.
Things I see in my Community I have dedicated time to this year:
While I find it hard to suggest projects in places where I am not from as I don't want to create dependencies and expectations while living in Sweden this year I have been part of realizing a number of powerful initiatives. I have participated in multicultural festival, a public action where we got locals to create a human graph to demonstrate lowering CO2 emissions, an Art of Hosting Training between innovative programs in Europe, helped organzie a Flow Game Training/ Exercise for our MSLS class, our course has been organizing a Sustainability Film Festival and Karlskrona dialogues, and as a project four of us have been supporting the Municipality for a comprehensive Employee Engagement plan for Sustainable Behaviour.
ACTION 1: Karlsrkona Dialogues: Co-Designing Healthy Food Systems:
As an interactive component of the 3 day Sustainability Film Music Festival in Karlskrona I worked with a core team to create a workshop on redesigning the local food system. Like in the Oasis stage of Dreaming we prototyped 2 systems. First using a wide range of ingredients (from my recycling from the week and natural and found object) we built 2 complex food systems: an oreo cookie and a hamburger). We traced the system from the farmers of the various initial ingredients to the consumers mouth.
In asking questions and getting creative with representing the system using objects (like sticks for sugar cane, stones for the heavy burden in their lives) of chemical additives to the transporation costs involved along the way, to the unfair wages doles out to the southern cash crops. Using probing questions to generate ideas and to ensure we covered the stages and life-cycle of the product I acted as a facilitator to guide the tables discussion.
ACTION 2 - Mobilizing Human Graph for Climate Action - Karlskrona, Sweden
For International Climate Action on October 24th, 2009 our Masters in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability (MSLS) class coordinated a powerful action in Karlskrona, Sweden. From speaking in highschools, to talking with strangers on surrounding streets we mobilized a group of 200 people to gather and participate in a human graph to illuminate the level that carbon dioxide must be brought down to in our global atmosphere to have a safe climate – 350 parts per million.
From grass roots organizing with dozens of active catalyzers and supporting volunteers offerring tea, biscuits, and coffee to keep warm and engaging citizens on climate change issues on the street we entered the public square to manifest the human graph. Within hours, images were captured as the graph was formed along with street interviews from those of us were gathering people from the pedestrian street to participate. The video was quickly transmitted and projected around the world with the thousands of other communties actions on 350.org.
This video shows the 350 Human Graph our Masters in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability coordinated in Karlskrona’s Stortorget. The event ran simultaneously to 5200 other events in 181 countries around the globe to unite our voice in demanding a global climate agreement that is ambitious, binding, fair and science-based.
Where I see I can make a difference:
Mental Models are holding people back :
Some people are apathetic
People feel separated, lonely, and blocked by the perception of barriers. Projects, communities, departments, sectors, and disciplines are often siloed preventing sharing of knowledge, ideas, and possibilities from being actualized.
My Light - invigorating a can-do attitude:
Therefore I want invigorate a sense of resourcefulness and social innovation in individuals and communities. A playful, creative, appreciative, collaborative and compassionate outlook!!!
My plan for making a difference:
Step 1- Identifying my Passion and Gifts
My passion lies in connecting people with people, people with projects, and people with their own talents and skills.
Step 2- Projects Ideas developing
Recently I spent time creating a story and Business Plan for a grant for 'Playing for Change' in Sweden. I co-created and co-wrote with a friend Maria Richter (fellow Community Builder) about the potential play has to inspire and bring communities to action.
I have initiated and facilitated workshops on Oasis Mundi and spreading this into the world
I have given presentations on creative interactive city mobilization for Kaos Pilots and schools in Canada
I am interviewing individuals and doing surveys about community capital and the collaborative services and will be creating a guidebook. I will be attending (Re)Designing the Regions in Copenhagen.
Step 3- Identifying Collaborators
New and Old Friends discovering, sharing, learning, co-creating future ideas and projects. I have connected with people around the world to collaborate on spreading Oasis and similar forms of community mobilization and interactive processes, some of the special gems I've had ongoing conversation with:
Benjamin Aaron Deganheart, Jay Standish, Sherri Herndron, Nathan Daniel, Lana Sole, Spud Marshal, Sonja Niedhumer, Giuliana Jorge Netto, Rachel Derrah, Sarah Craig, Edmund Colville, Clara Stewart Robertson, Jennifer Prithchard, Sonja Neidheimer, John Thackara, Nicholas Croyer Blok, Josha Lautner, Joanne Macrae, Mark Anielski, Adrian Mohareb, Lora Metanchuk, Laura Keresztesi, Kati Thompson, Maria Richter, Saskia Tait, Shahar Rabi, Matt Neville, Laura MacPherson, Ronny Daniel, Maurita Prato, Maya Givon,
Step 4 - Bringing Projects into Being and Action
What is emerging from these conversations:
From this a number of projects have emerged which are underway and others are in planning phases many for this summer and fall:
- Innovation Camp on renewable energy and community development in Copenhagen
- ReWork the World Workshop Host
- 4 Days Festival in Halifax, Canada
- Shanghai Oasis actions from Kaos Pilots team and 'Better City Better Life' world expo
- John Thackara will now be collaborating with Oasis team to realize a dozen or so Oasis projects in India
- I will be attending Global Youth Congress in Turkey (where I'm hoping to help with an Oasis action)
- I hope to attend an Oasis training in the Netherlands in June
- I will be working with Sense Festival: Celebrating Community in Jarna Sweden in collaboration with Youth Initiatives Program to help with processes, harvesting, community building and an Oasis Action
- I will working at the main camp of 'Secret Garden Party' to put on interactive workshops about Aesthetic Resilience/ Mapping/ Garden Building project in the UK
Step 5- Creating a Vision in line with my purpose, intention, and gifts:
My Vision for Summer 2010:
My plan for this summer is to put into practice the skills I have to offer and the tools and processes I have learned and created. I hope to connect communities and organizations to their potential inspiring the power to innovate and grow their capacity fostering well being. I will be looking for common ground introducing people, projects, ideas, workshops, and events which I will buzz around harvesting and pollinating as I go.
