Welcome & Welcome Back Friends!! Congratulations to Infinite Solutions for an amazing and RADICALLY SUSTAINABLE Earthship Biotecture Workshop last weekend in LA. -- Stay tuned for more! NOW, we're beyond thrilled to announce what may be the most powerful synergy in sustainability education, social justice and culture yet...Empower Bodh Gaya, India!
"7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS)" is a collaboration road map,Asset Based Community-driven Development (ABCD) framework, philosophyof self determination and a curriculum empowering people, businesses and organizations to turn local assets into holistic solutions from the ground up. Building on the success of 7SS curriculum with 90 young women leaders in China, Empowerment WORKS has joined forces with Living Mandalasustainable education collective to co-create and deliver the first 7 Stages to Sustainability + integrated Permaculture Design Course ever. AND, we've been invited by Indian based NGO, Sacred Earth Trust to co-develop it with them, and deliver the first course along side their hands on, waste plastic to eco-education center in Bodh Gaya, India, a UNESCO world heritage site, where Gautama Buddha attained Enlightenment! This course, starting in India, serves to bridge a gaping divide between two of the most potent social change movements on earth: "international development/ fight against poverty" and "permaculture/ organic, sustaianble agriculture". Through this collaboration, we create the unification of "green" movement and those most impacted by climate change, and GMOs - some of the most economically challenged, yet culturally rich communities on Earth. In addition to local NGO leaders and community organizers, we're honored to that our primary scholarship awarded course participants will be local Dalit villagers living in and around Bodh Gaya. Perhaps even more meaninful, the Dalit people are a traditionally lower caste in India, and, alonglide receiving historic land grants, this will be their first time they are offered concrete tools to create their sustainable future. We're committed to developing this practical and empowering course to serve them, and we need your help to ensure access is granted through full scholarships! We are not only transforming powerful global paradigms but social change at the most fundamental grassroots level. To help make it happen, we have a $5,000 Matching Donation with a 7 Day Matching Challenge to raise 5K more! Would you help us reach it with 10usd or whatever amount empowers you? Support our $5K, Matching Challenge!Donate Here Learn more on Free 7 Stages to Sustainability Intro Webinar Tomorrow: Friday, NOON PSTREGISTRATION / Facebook Page THANK YOU FOR YOUR VITAL AND TIMELY SUPPORT! Pre-Party & Fundraiser for Earth Day San Francisco -- TONIGHT! It's the green soiree we've been waiting for...at the Elbo Room in SF! 21+ | $8 Featuring: AFROLICIOUS, Pleasuremaker, Señor Oz + Guests & Fashion Show 9:30pm until 2:00am / 9:30pm until 2:00am Elbo Room647 Valencia StView Map · Get Directions Make sure to mention "I'm here for Earth Day," @ door, so your cover is donated to Earth Day SF! See Details, RSVP, & Share Event Page on Facebook!And don't miss the 3rd Earth Day S.F. at Civic Center Plaza this SATURDAY! www.earthdaysf.org
Foundations of Governance by Design - May 24 - 26, 2013 Organizing Ourselves To Get Things DonePresented by Living Mandala in San Rafael, California Do you want to learn to become more effective together (and have more fun in the process)? This foundational Sociocracy training gives you essential tools and experience for applying whole systems governance design in your existing or forming organization. What is Sociocracy? A New Power Structure For Ethical Governance. It's the HOW of collaborative leadership, and the tools our movement needs to thrive. Empowerment WORKS is thrilled to co-host this not to be missed 2+ day workshop with Living Mandala and John Schinnerer of The Sociocracy Consulting Group. •Build Capacity •Improve Outcomes •Create Harmony•Reduce Overhead •Distribute Authority •Work On What Matters Enable your teams to lead their own work. Value and use change to innovate rapidly. Generate an organization that can run itself. This workshop is equivalent to "Foundations of Sociocracy” - Dynamic Self‐Governance: Become More Effective Together as offered by The Sociocracy Consulting Group (normally costs over $500). See course details & pricing here. To help ensure the most leading edge of our co-creative family get these vital tools, we're even more thrilled to offer a 20% discount off an already remarkable rate. Plug in20% discount code: "EMPOWER" atRegistration (space limited)! AWAKEN The Event- a leadership convergence! Camp Navarro, May 16-19
VISION: As we survey the landscape from our vantage point in history, we can look behind us at all that has been and learn from our many pathways. Taking in the potency of the moment, we are compelled to look ahead, to turn to face a new day and bring our potential as a species into each moment. Awaken is the continuation of a story, our story. An evolution of a journey, by the creators of Tribal Convergence, Enchanted Forest, and Evolver, along with many other conscious allies we invite you to co-create a very special event with us. This 4 day event w/ (max) 400 Activated Leaders, will include:**Workshops/Skill Sharing offerings based around Mind/Body/Spirit
**Facilitated Guild Solution Sessions**Key Note Speakers**Film Screenings of “The Bloom:A Journey Through Transformational Festivals” and “Electronic Awakening” **Consciously Catered Community Meals by Chef Gage**Hands-on permaculture project as an offering for the land**Healing Sanctuary**Interactive Networking Center **Tribe Talks~ Video Sharing Platform for individual project sharing**Daily Yoga/Movement Offerings**Evening Intentional Dance sets by our Electronic Audio Shamans**Late night Tea-House/Lounge with Ambient Sound**Children's Zone!! REGISTER before May 7: Awakenthefuture.com / See Who's Coming on Facebook
THANK YOU for your support and for all you do and are!
In Gratitude and Collaboration, Melanie St.James, MPAExecutive Director, Empowerment WORKSExecutive Producer, The Global Summit melanie@empowermentworks.orgCell: +1-310-392-6909 / skype: melaniestjames / www.1PIE.org
Dear Friends and All Agents of Positive Social Change, Happy Easter, Passover, and Spring Equinox!! Spring is here and four seasons of 2013 are full of co-creative inspiration! As a big part of that inspiration, we're pleased to welcome a myriad of visionary social entrepreneurs and their extraordinary projects to our Fiscal Sponsorship program (see - 2013). To help guide our ever-emerging efforts, we're honored to welcome two new advisory board & team members: Jay (Jay Ma) Markert - Permaculturist & Director of Living Mandala, and Liz Giffen as special Adviser, Environmental Affairs & Ethical Trade. And, to empower us with the skills, tools and systems to celebrate, activate and collaborate, we're delighted to co-host & share these remarkable partner events in LA & the Bay: Earthship Biotecture Training in Hollywood w/ Michael Reynols, April 12-14 "Sustainable Autonomy for Everyone - S.A.F.E."April 12, 13, 14, 2013 at Barnsdall Art Park, Hollywood. Join our LA tribe for this incredible two-day multimedia hands-on Earthship Biotecture Workshop in Hollywood, CA led by internationally renown Earthship creator, Michael Reynolds. Covering a wide-range of topics, both pragmatic and philosophical, the popular sessions have been presented throughout the world, most recently in Australia, Toronto and Philadelphia. Saturday and Sunday will be lectures by Michael Reynolds covering all Earthship principles:• Building with Natural and Recycled Materials• Solar/Thermal Heating and Cooling• Solar and Wind Electricity • Water Harvesting• Contained Sewage Treatment• Interior Food Production Info/ Register: www.earthship.com/california +Spread the Word on Facebook!
Earth Day S.F. Festival, Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco, April 20 ~ 10 -6pm Join us for the 3rd and most jam packed fabulous annual Earth Day S.F. festival! Empowerment WORKS is honored to co-facilitate the Eco-Village (led by John Weiss, Director of Bayview BOOM project) where Expert Speakers and classes will be held throughout the day: Co-create our Earth Day Signature Earth Mandala, build a Cob Oven, and join in on other workshops including Aquaponics-in-Action, Creating your "Urban-Garden", Mushroom harvesting, Creating a rooftop garden, Gray Water Demos, Making your own Solar Oven, Eco Architecture and Sustainable Agriculture classes, Seed-Sharing and more! Get down to SF's grooviest bands, get hands on in the Eco-Village, get inspired by eco-leaders, get down-dog with Yoga and health in the Holistic Zone! Don't Miss:
Sustaianble Fashion Show by Truckee High School’s Envirolution Club
12PM Yoga Convergence, Love Bombs, Seed Bombs and Global Meditation with Unify!
Afterparty, at Mighty SF featuring: Black Mahal, Dub Gabriel+
For Line Up and Co-Creation Opportunities, visit: www.earthdaysf.org Support the Earth Day S.F. Indigogo Campaign & get incredible offerings (like free after party tix!) Spread the word! RSVP & Invite ALL your friends to Event Page on Facebook! Foundations of Governance by Design - with Sociocracy Consulting Group Organizing Ourselves To Get Things Done May 24 - 26, 2013 Presented by Living Mandala in San Rafael, California Do you want to learn to become more effective together? Get things done and have more fun? Good governance is no accident. We create it, by design. This foundational Sociocracy training gives you essential tools and experience for applying whole systems governance design in your existing or forming organization. What is Sociocracy? A New Power Structure For Ethical Governance. Sociocracy is a method of governance that ensures inclusiveness, accountability, transparency, and productivity. It creates a structure that both involves all members of the organization in policy decision making. It's the HOW of collaborative leadership, and the tools our movement needs to thrive. •Build Capacity •Improve Outcomes •Create Harmony•Reduce Overhead •Distribute Authority •Work On What Matters Enable your teams to lead their own work. Value and use change to innovate rapidly. Generate an organization that can run itself. This workshop is equivalent to "Foundations of Sociocracy” - Dynamic Self‐Governance: Become More Effective Together as offered by The Sociocracy Consulting Group. Empowerment WORKS is thrilled to co-host this not to be missed 2+ day workshop with Living Mandala and John Schinnerer of The Sociocracy Consulting Group. See course details & pricing here. To help ensure the most leading edge of our co-creative family get these vital tools, we're even more thrilled to offer a 20% discount off an already remarkable rate. Plug in 20% discount code: "empower" upon Registration today! Looking forward... Stay tuned for a new hands-on iteration of our 7 Stages to Sustainability curriculum integrating Permaculture Certification Course in India this Fall, two Summits in the USA - including the 2nd African Local Summit engaging the African Diaspora August 5-8, and a special co-creation with The Global Summit, presenting "Reclaim the Movement" December 15 in New York where the deep roots of Occupy Wall Street get ready for a Renaissance. Contact us get involved, we're seeking extraordinary leaders and global stewards. Sustain y/our mission from the Inside Out! Rather than ask for a donation, we're excited to offer a fantastic way you can support a sustainable future every time you pay bills! That's right, EW has an online store with the services you use most - from greener energy to digital phone systems. This is a one time action to switch, allowing you to pay the same, or less, and know that 10% of every dollar spent will be re-directed to support Empowerment WORKS world-changing programs and capacity building services. For questions/ assistance, call: 310-392-6909 THANK YOU for your support and for all you do and are that make the world a better place. In Gratitude and Collaboration, Melanie St.James, MPAExecutive Director, Empowerment WORKS Executive Producer, The Global Summit melanie@empowermentworks.org / Cell: +1-310-392-6909 skype: melaniestjames
Key Events in this Issue:
Earthship Biotecture Hollywood, April 12-14!
Earth Day S.F. in Civic Center Plaza, April 20!
Sociocracy Workshop: Governance by Design in San Rafael, May 24 - 26!
Empowerment WORKS - 1793 Northwood Ct. Oakland, CA 94611 - T. +1-415-967-1711
Dear Friends and All Agents of Positive Social Change,
Thank you for receiving this! After a long, deep exhale with the completion of The Global Summit in London, we're re-inspired for the new era of 2013.
We've been saving up some juicy invites and updates, but first, wouldn't you like to know just little bit about what happened in London?
I landed at Heathrow Airport late July 3rd. After hitting the ground running, we (The Global Summit UK based Co-Founder, Lorenzo Falzarano and I) slowly discovered that our long celebrated (and vitally donated) venue (next to the Olympics stadium) was going bankrupt and not going to be open August 15-17. In the midst of finding a solution, with UK partners, GlobalNet21, we created and co-hosted The Global Summit 2012 Webinar Series, starting with Zeitgeist movie and movementmaker,Peter Joseph who presented "The Big Picture: Sourcing Human Sustainability". We continued to the Summit finding common ground on "Assets" in local and global context with Sudanese environmental health expert Dr. Suad Sulaiman and visionary change agent, aka the Earth's Lawyer, Polly Higgins who gets closer everyday to making Ecocide (the destruction of our planet) the 5th crime against peace (see latest news).
Indeed, good things come to those who wait (or at least those who don't jump off the London Bridge). With just days to go till the Summit, and stating (out loud on a planning call), "we have everything in place (almost), we just need a venue, we'll take the first one that's GOOD ENOUGH", exactly three days before the opening reception, GOODENOUGH College called me. Yes, someone with the last name "Goodenough" had the good humor to establish a college. More than good enough, it was a perfect venue for our Summit, complete with a grand piano for our featured Artist in Action, Richard Shulman who opened our minds and hearts with his music throughout the 2 day program.
The most amazing people, expected and unexpected, showed up - our locally sourced, global community champions at the focus of five solution councils; health, technology and sustainability leaders from across Africa, Latin America, India, Pakistan, and Europe, remarkable, professional facilitators, galvanized by our partner, Global Women's Leadership Network Partner & personal coach, Tanya Monsef Bunger (in SF this Saturday), who flew to London from Turkey to volunteer. In addition to donating generously to our youth scholarship initiative, Global Change Agent, and best selling author ofTrue Purpose, Tim Kelly flew in from Oakland and served as Co-MC and facilitator of the event.
One of my life long heroes,Professor Jan Knippers Black, PhD, human rights author and board member of Amnesty International was a sponsored keynote from the Monterey Insitute of International Studies. She set a mile high context for our collective visioning of solutions. The movement for social justice has lost ground, and calls for pivotal mass action. The Summit movement is far from over; we're just beginning to make it real. (a few 2012 Videos, more to come)
When I look back at The Global Summit 2008, 2010 and 2012, critical collaboration is what I see. I am blown away by the generosity, vision and commitment not just of those who rolled up their sleeves to get us across the finish line, but for the daily action of its evermore localized, growing global community.
Looking forward...
As for what is next for The Global Summit series and the vision to follow the Olympics, we learned a lot and the event's track record gained by actually doing it in London (and against all odds). With the goal of bringing breakthrough solutions and new paradigm sustainable systems to the forefront, we have begun to seize a tremendous outreach opportunity. To leverage that opportunity in the midst of the Olympics, the PR needs, andstrategic media planning - let alone the production capacity needs - of future Olympic Summits in Russia 2014 and / or Rio 2016 will be a MASSIVE undertaking.
That 2012 happened at all was a miracle. To set future Summits up for potentially world changing impact, the strategic assessment, visioning & planning by committed and qualified leadership circle who are accountable for enrollment of essential resources is needed - and soon. If The Global Summit mission to have "all voices heard in co-creating our sustainable future" calls to you, we're seeking extraordinary leaders and global stewards to ignite its 2020 vision.
Congratulations Project Leaders!! Thanks Craigslist and State Farm!
We're beyond thrilled to see well deserved vital support empowering the world-changing innovations of EW Fiscally Sponsored Projects, with special congrats to Women's Peer 2 Peer Network and Peace On Earthbench Movement (POEM). After receiving a first 3K contribution, Women's P2P received a surprise year end check for 20K signed by Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist.org) to support its movement to connect every woman on earth - starting in Haiti.
Peace On Earthbench Movement (POEM) received a $40K grant from State Farm Youth Advisory Board to develop and expand its national K-12 service-learning curriculum. The most current project is a huge earthbench that is shaped and decorated like a dragon and will serve as an outdoor classroom for Lowell Highschool's educational garden. (see pic)
POEM founder and ecological educator Brennan Blazer Bird traveled to Kenya this past September to help lead the building of two Peace on Earthbenches in the Kibera and Rhonda slum communities. A Kenyan social worker and environmental activist Samuel Mururi (featured in below news video) was engaged to become the East African Director of POEM and other Peace on Earthbench projects are already in the works.
YOU ARE INVITED to the first Empowerment WORKS Social Impact Salon!
Founder of EW fiscally sponsored project, Rise Up Development Collective, Jeremy Kirshbaum said it best: There are so many diverse projects in the EW family, we really should meet one another!
With thanks for Jeremy bringing it to life (and leading it), you are invited to Empowerment WORKS' first Social Impact Salon -a forum to exchange and stage for EW's many fiscally sponsored projects to collaborate, share, and co- create! And with so many inspirational, talented people in our local community, what an opportunity to connect and make a greater impact together. The day will begin with a potluck lunch at 1pm, followed by breif presentations by inspirational local and global project leaders, meaningful dialogues and interactive solution building, impact catalyzing sessions. More info, RSVP & spread the word on our Facebook Event Page. Change agents from all walks of life are welcome!
Earth Honey Haven 2.0: EW Global HQ and Community Space in Oakland Hills
Established in January 2011 by women leaders of sustainability organizations, Evolver.net and Empowerment WORKS, Earth Honey Haven (EHH) is a residential think-tank and community space: a nexus for consciousness evolution, global healing and beauty.
Rooted in joyful, mutually-supportive collaboration, Earth Honey Haven has been adopted as an official program of Empowerment WORKS, with the mission to hold space for personal healing and social innovation advancing grassroots-led cultural evolution towards a healthy, sustainable & culturally rich future. Through conscious living, cultural events and educational workshops, we co-create, support, and connect projects that weave these values into the surrounding Bay Area community. Learn more, see our event calendar & like us on EW's EHH program page. If you're in the Bay Area this Sunday (and able to break from that Super Bowl party), join us for an Evening of World Music w/ Eliyahu Sills & Jason Ranjit Parmar! DeliciousVegan Cuisine by Earth Honey Chef, Cressie Mae! First 5 to mention EW enter for $5/ each. Details /RSVP
Sustain y/our mission from the Inside Out!
While leading a "sustainability" organization, I, like many other dedicated change-makers, have found myself swimming in the paradox of leaving personal sustainability at the door. I have actually been operating with the palpable feeling that if XYZ did not occur, the fringe of our global fabric would unravel. Of course, we all know (or have heard) that we only attract more of what we are. So I am finally taking a big step forward to create needed abundance, both for myself and for Empowerment WORKS. To see how you can save money (or spend same) while supporting sustainable, residual income, visit and get the best deals on everything from greener energy to global phone systems at EW's online store EW's online store. And, if you are a social impact leader (or just want more time for what you love most) and ready to create economic self-determination out of the biggest redistribution of wealth in history this year (says Warren Buffet), get in touch: 310-392-6909.
While we get ready to share learnings from The Global Summit in London and future co-creations for a thriving sustainable world, right now, its my pleasure to invite you to Global Oneness Day - a virtual telesummit gathering Oct 24th with many of our planet's most inspirational speakers & evolutionary leaders!
Global change agents like Desmond Tutu, Yoko Ono, Ravi Shankar, Neale Donald Walsch, Jack Canfield, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, don Miguel Ruiz, Jean Houston, Michael & Rickie Beckwith, Ken Wilber, and many more -- all coming together to celebrate the oneness of life.
It's happening TOMORROW, Wednesday, October 24th and will feature profound insights, prayers, music and meditation for you to feel deeply connected and a sense of belonging within a global community.
I hope you can join me for this transformational event to celebrate the oneness of all life!
