Partners

Great wisdom from our friend Carolyn North. A short excerpt from her seriously important book, SERIOUS FUN:

http://www.carolynnorthbooks.com/carolyns-books/serious-fun-the-book--2/serious-fun-another-excerpt

In October 2011, youth, educators and NGOs across Europe had the opportunity to contribute to strengthening local environmental movements, through a series of environmental forums organized by Tread Lightly.

By Kiritapu Allan, Co-Founder of Conscious Collaboration, YES! Alumni, and Co-Organizer of N’n’N

Ka rere taku manu ki tai ki uta kei raro te maru o
nga tihi hukapapa o Tararua

My bird flies seaward then inland under the snow peaks of Tararua 

Our wananga (gathering) was held on the traditional grounds of the Ngati Hinemata, Ngati Ngarongo and Ngati Takihiku peoples in early July 2009. After the powhiri (welcome), the Kereru wananga began with the placing of a Rahui* on the English language so that the wananga itself would be conducted only in the indigenous Maori language.

By Maryam Roberts

The Oakland Green Youth Arts & Media Center (OGYAMC) began with pilot programming in Fall 2009, and continues to be a creative empowerment hub in Oakland that supports personal, professional, economic, and community development. We serve youth impacted by violence and poverty through innovative programs in the arts, media production, and environmental sustainability.

On January 14th, the OGYAMC had its official launch party event. Over 300 people attended the event as we unveiled our beautiful mural and permaculture garden with special guests including musicians Casual of Hieroglyphics, Dwayne Wiggins of Tony Toni Toné and legendary hip-hop journalist Davey D.  The OGYAMC was on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, featured on local television news coverage, multiple blog sites online, and local newspapers.

Center for Transformative Change is hosting the pilot session of it's first fearless YOGA Teacher Training (fYTT).

The Santa Cruz Community felt the hurt and divide after the murder of 16 year old Tyler Tenorio this October, and in the face of this tragedy, we remembered our partner Shilpa’s reflection that if divide and conquer is a strategy that has been used to destroy, then connecting and self-organizing may be strategies for healing and regeneration. YES! responded quickly in partnership with several local groups including Barrios Unidos, coAction, and Youth in Focus to host a community forum that served as a healing and coalition building response to the racially-charged murder. The dialogues that were already underway between these local orgs around collaboration for cross-race programming for youth laid the foundation needed for us to be able to mobilize quickly for a community need for unity and dialogue.

“As present and future leaders of our communities, we have to take action,” said Ivan ‘Sukkaydan’ Torafing, Igorot from Cordillera, Philippines, in his keynote address to the thirty-five indigenous youth leaders in the opening ceremonies of the Indigenous Climate Connections (ICC) gathering held last November 14-20, 2009.  The conference, in cooperation with Jaringan Tanah Hak Adat Bangsa Asal Sarawak (TAHABAS) and sponsored by YES!, gathered indigenous youths from 18 indigenous communities from eight countries around Asia to learn from each other and formulate strategic actions to address the issue of climate change as an issue of justice and self-determination of the indigenous peoples.  Moreover, it continues to train and build the capacity of indigenous young people’s in utilizing different UN mechanisms and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ (UNDRIP) in advancing the issues of their communities and nations.

Sponsored by YES!, the Arctic Institute gathered twenty-four young Alaska Native leaders at the Taste of Alaska Lodge, November 11-17, 2009, for a culturally based transformative week of learning, listening, sharing, and reflection. The days were filled with explorations of our personal life journeys, as well as those of our diverse peoples. We dialogued on critical topics, ate traditional foods from the land, shared song and dance, and celebrated with the local community. We came to deeper understandings of the impacts and challenges posed by rapid changes to our peoples ways of life. And we formed lasting relationships that will likely carry far into the future. 

Green For All  is releasing a new song and music video by our Green For All College Ambassador, Markese Bryant to honor Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday.  "The Dream Reborn: My President is Green" is a call to action for the Hip-Hop generation to carry forward Dr. King's vision toward a more just and equitable future. We are using this launch to announce The Dream Reborn Story Competition.

The hook of the song is a chant that says: “It’s time to go green/We got to go green/The food ain’t fresh and the air ain’t clean/From the hood to the burbs, everybody go scream/Dr. King, we’ve living your dream/My president is Black, but he’s going green/I got my president back, I’m going do the same thing!”

As I doggie-paddle through the hundreds of emails that came in over holiday, I'm using our friend Adrienne Maree Brown's blog on "Email Aikido" as a guide. I'm sure we could all use a little help managing! Check it out here.