Guest book

Name

Comments

Louise Brady
Alaska

I just wanted to thank you for writing this article. I have been working in the field of human services for 25 years here in Sitka, Alaska. I am Alaska Native and have worked as a Substance Abuse counselor, a woman’s advocate in human service agencies throughout the state. I quit working for the nonprofits in the mid-nineties because I got tired of telling “clients” that they were “well” and had everything they needed to change their lives. In reality, I was sending them back to families who had years and generations of trauma . . . to communities where the unemployment rate is 80% . . . where the biggest business was the liquor store. . . .
I came to work for the Sitka Tribe of Alaska as tribal court clerk . . . thinking that systems change was the best way to help my people. I have thought outside the box . . . .in western terms . . . I co-produced a film called Carved from the Heart: A Portrait of Grief Healing and Community. The reason I was so drawn to the project is exactly what you talk about in your article . . . the carving of a traditional totem pole by a man who had lost his son to a drug overdose became the catalyst for the entire community and others from around Southeast Alaska to come together and understand the importance of reaching out.
In my work here, I “secured” funding for 2 similar projects. We had students from an alternative high school carve a totem pole and then a house post. The clinicians asked me . . . what about the therapy? One of our elders talked about what the youth were doing and said, “It is as if they are chipping away at their grief.” Today, one of the students is very engaged in traditional dance and is now apprenticing with a master carver.
If you would like to see more about these projects you can find them @:
http://www.newday.com/films/Carvedfromtheheart.html
http://www.ssd.k12.ak.us/PHS/pages/mainpage.html
The attached photos are from the latest project . . . [T]he house post was carved to bring attention to the importance of children and our communities responsibility to care for them. . . .
Thank you again . . . or in my language . . . Ax towaa sigoo aa tlein gunalcheesh! I want to say a big thank you!
Louise C. Brady, Program Manager
X’a Sheech Tlaa
Louise C Brady, Program Manager - Sitka Tribe of Alaska - Home to School Liaison (907) 747 8778
 

Karen Sophia Wesolowski
California

Dear Tom,
Good to hear from you.
Thank you for sharing what you have been learning on spirituality and social change, including the importance of appreciation and gratitude.
In response to your invitation to "imagine approaching your own community from a place of deep appreciation of its strengths, its assets, and even its shortcomings," I share with you a series of conversations that are happening around the country:
Conversations on "Celebrating Human Greatness"
http://humangreatness.org/
They use Appreciative Inquiry methodology, and are community-based with generosity of spirit.
As a way to introduce you, I am cc’ing the coordinator in New England, Liza Haddad, who is based in Boston, as well as a national coordinator, Mary Friedland, based in San Francisco.
Best wishes for your continuing efforts linking spirituality and social change.

With best regards,
Sophia
Karen Sophia Wesolowski
bksophia@gmail.com
 

Terri Foster
Connecticut

Tom,
A colleague of mine passed on your newsletter because she couldn't stay focused long enough to get the message. Fortunately, she sent it to the right person because I knew where you were going and was motivated to read through what you were saying!

After 25 years of clinical nursing and public health planning work, I've come to exactly the same conclusion! I've also found the method to bring this spiritual perspective to the "helper" community. Just over a year ago, I attended a 2-day training that transformed my thinking and provided me with the essential philosophy and framework from which to operate. I believe that every community initiative, coalition, and health professional should be exposed to this simple 2-day program before undertaking the work of addressing their specific issues and goals.

The program I'm referring to has been developed by a team of scholars and was taught to me by Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr., a former strategist with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and now the Executive Director at the University of Rhode Island's Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies. The content is focused on the philosophies and practices developed by Dr. King. In a short 12-16 hours, students learn and experience common values, seeing things from another's perspective, the philosophies that grounded Dr. King's efforts, the Six Principles of Nonviolence (for me, the spiritual backbone), types of conflict, successes of the civil rights movement, and Six Steps to reconcile conflict (and achieve social change).

I would love to discuss these thoughts further—as far as I know, I'm one of two health professionals (and the only public health professional) to be certified at URI to date.

Just Peace / Just Health,

Terri

Peace  Health

Terri Foster, MS, RN (NY), MPH
Independent Public Health Consultant
Certified Trainer, Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation
PO Box 303
Goshen, CT 06756

 

Cat Janson

I was glad to see your article on spirituality and social change. We have so often left this vital part out of the equation and wondered why we did not have real change or things get worse. Mankind are spiritual beings and we are fooling ourselves to say otherwise. Without faith of some sort we have no direction. Thank you for bring this subject to the front for discussion.
You may want to ask for responses from those who work in non-faith-based agencies, about how they balance faith and not being able to share or ask about faith.
I work with teens through the Department of Corrections as well as a faith-based neighborhood center. In my role with the DOC, I am not allowed to share or talk about faith unless the family or teen bring it up. Even then I must stay neutral.
When interviewing families to explore assets that will assist in getting them out of crisis, I ask a simple question that is non-judgmental yet opens the door if they wish it.
"Are you connected with a faith-based community that could help?"
The answers range from "no" to "we used to be, maybe we should go back." I then leave the subject alone and find some will bring it up another time.
I seldom get a response that they are currently involved with faith-based communities. Perhaps that says something.
I look forward to reading the next newsletter.
Blessings,
Cat Janson, Director, Joyful Harvest Neighborhood Center
www.joyfulharvestcenter.org

 

Dick Sclove
Massachusetts

Dear Tom,

Thanks so much for this edition of your newsletter. Since I left the Loka Institute 7 years ago, I've spent quite a bit of time on my own spiritual practice. Figuring out how to integrate spirituality into worldly endeavors in a healthy, effective way is a significant interest of mine . . . an interest but not yet a domain in which I've got results to report. I think I'm still incubating.

In any case, I very much enjoyed reading your insights and suggestions. Everything you say makes sense to me. I think your principles would also extend beyond the sphere of social services. E.g., I've felt for decades that the environmental movement has also gone astray by adopting the language and insights of economics and business more than spirituality. And of course "peace" and other political movements have often foundered on the angry energy (i.e., lack of spiritual grounding) of their participants (including me).

While everything you say makes sense, I also have a sense that actually integrating spirituality into worldly affairs somehow requires something deeper of us. I can't articulate this well, because I don't yet really know what I mean. I guess it's something to do with the fact that merely advocating for incorporation of principles like appreciation and interconnectedness isn't going far enough. As articulated, these are ideas, and to function in tune with spirit is not primarily a matter of ideas. It's somehow a matter of learning to integrate a less egoic mode of being into our daily activities.

Maybe in many real-world situations, working with spiritual ideas is as far as we can go in practical terms, because we all have to take action starting from where we and others are in our respective spiritual development. And of course there are major challenges in the fact that our respective routes into spiritual experience and development are so widely varied and often divergent. There's no culturally neutral language for talking about these things.

But I'm guessing that at some point effective social action that incorporates spirituality must somehow call upon or encourage all participants to stretch themselves spiritually, to strive to act from our higher selves, impulses and intuitions, and to engage in social action in a way that cultivates deeper spiritual growth for ourselves and for those with whom we interact. Spiritual growth often demands that we each reach beyond our comfort zones (of course, effective social action demands the same thing); it also doesn't always come easy. Discipline and effort—as opposed to easy New Age-y self-indulgence—are often part of the mix.

Great moral-spiritual leaders—the M. L. Kings, Gandhis, and Mandelas—often are great precisely because they speak and act with a passion, moral and spiritual force, and clarity that summons others to rise to a higher level of spiritual efficacy.

Oh well, I'm mumbling out of my depth here. Thanks again for sending the newsletter and sharing your good thoughts.

Warm good wishes,
Dick Sclove


 

Mary Jacksteit
Wsahington DC

Dear Tom—
You graciously invited comments to your last newsletter. I'll start with "thank you." First, for your writing on collaboration as an element of social change (an earlier newsletter) and your latest piece. They give me hope for connecting with community organizing-based social change folks though this has been very difficult. I'm a conflict resolution/mediation/civic engagement type process person (but not a "neutral" about social change)—who found myself helping a Washington DC neighborhood and its warring or disconnected groups come together to work for economic justice. I get hopeful when I realize there are people in different fields/disciplines, etc., seeing the same thing and working towards the same thing. We need the connections!

Since I began the DC community work, I have struggled to find the language to convey why the skills and values of collaboration serve community change work—why it is important to give people the vision, space and know-how to overcome barriers, history, silos, differences, etc. —so they can work together to solve problems, yes, and more, envision what they want for themselves and their neighbors and decide how to get there. It's been a challenge. Competition, adversarial-ness, professionalism (community-based org types and organizers)—are formidable. Community-building, community capacity-building, collaboration—it's too hazy for people to get. (Even when they're talking about creating sustainable mixed-income communities.) But not the way you write about it. Hurray!

The spiritual values you express are the ones undergirding my work and many in my field—interconnection, interdependence, compassion, appreciation. Some of my work is with the Public Conversations Project and the parallel nature of PCP’s values and yours is striking. (www.publicconversations.org)

I'm anticipating your next newsletter, and thinking more about how to connect people who share a passion for community work.

Best regards,

Mary Jacksteit

mary.jacksteit@gmail.com
(301) 270 5561 (office)
(240) 271 6004 (cell)
 

Marvin B Austin
Battle Creek, MI
USA
I am a 52 year old African American male.

I am very excited about reading this newsletter and the Spring 2008 volume. I am interested in knowing your perspective on the place of race equity in the discussion about social justice. In reading the "New directions based on the spiritual principle of acceptance" the Boston Foundation goal of "valuing racial and cultural diversity as the foundation for wholeness," I am challenged to understand if valuing diversity is enough. Does valuing diversity address the inequitable impacts of racism?

Response From Tom Wolff
Dear Marvin
Thanks for you message.
I was very concerned that people would read this as taking a passive stance
to racism. Judging from your response I guess I did not totally
succeed.Sorry.
My position maybe is clearer with the use of bold:



The answer to the problem of racism in society is to acknowledge and
address racism in our systems and ourselves and then TO DEVELOP A
COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL-CHANGE APPROACH TO THE ISSUE. The spiritual principle
of acceptance is central here. The new directions we need to take involves
deep acceptance of the value of all people and acceptance of their
differences. Acceptance involves seeing the fundamental humanity that all
humans share and clearly recognizing the spiritual essence inherent in all
of us. Acceptance is the unconditional acknowledgement of what is. We are
most empowered when we are coming from a place of acceptance. When we fully
accept everyone, we find ourselves in deep peace.
ACCEPTANCE IS NOT A PASSIVE STANCE;IT INVOLVES ACTION. When we
accept what is, then we ask, "Given what is, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT
IT?" (Tadd, 1995ff). An approach to racism that is based on the spiritual
principle of acceptance allows for a deeper and broader set of systems
changes than may be available from simple exposure to anti-racism training
(although training may be a valuable component of a broader approach). In
its principles for a new social contract, The Boston Foundation
(http://www.tbf.org ) states the goals as "valuing racial and cultural
diversity as the foundation for wholeness"-a wonderful description of
acceptance.
WE NEED TO CREATE AND SUPPORT BROAD APPROACHES TO ELIMINATING
RACISM, as described in the Boston Blueprint, and we need to do this from a
place of deep acceptance.
To have deep acceptance for all humans is a tall order. Applying the
spiritual principle of deep acceptance allows us to step back and examine
our own roles, the roles of our agencies, and the roles of the overall
helping systems in our community with regard not only to racism but to all
the issues at hand.
When we approach our communities with the idea of acceptance in
mind, do we see things differently? Do new approaches suggest themselves? Do
new ways of looking at the community's residents emerge?"



Hope this makes it clearer.

Thanks