The SLCEC Sustainability Project had it inception when we joined with Ed and Carol Firmage as they enter into a three-year project of changing their home and lifestyle to be more sustainable. Their project called “Be the Difference” begins with retrofitting their home for greater energy efficiency, transforming their yard into a produce garden, and bringing their living practices closer to the ideal of a small carbon footprint. The entire project will be documented on video and made available as a model to other citizens on a website. The website, (bethedifference.org), through this model, and links to other resources, will inform and inspire others how to begin to make incremental shifts toward more sustainable living, economically, and within a reasonable amount of time.
The SLCEC project is expanding to invite other individuals and groups in our community who are engaged in sustainability projects to be part of a collaborative group. Together we will support individual and group sustainability endeavors and learn from each other through information and idea exchange. This collaborative group will periodically invite specialists to join with us to offer new perspectives and developments on sustainable practices.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Monday, December 31, 2007
Art of Hosting
At a recent meeting on community resiliency, after a very open, generative discussion, I asked the group to speak simply to what we were learning. One man spoke it beautifully – “you can’t have resilient community without participation.”
The Art of Hosting is and Convening Conversations is a powerful leadership training, a pattern of working and co-creating wisely with all stakeholders in a community or organization, as well as a collection of simple participation methods (including Appreciative Inquiry, World Café, Open Space Technology, Circle) that leaders are using to achieve common good.
We are exploring cohosting an event in the spring or fall of 2008 to help the many leaders in our community build capacity for engaging their communities in this way. We are also working on creating regular, simple art of hosting training programs that help meet the most pressing needs of the Salt Lake Valley.
The Art of Hosting is and Convening Conversations is a powerful leadership training, a pattern of working and co-creating wisely with all stakeholders in a community or organization, as well as a collection of simple participation methods (including Appreciative Inquiry, World Café, Open Space Technology, Circle) that leaders are using to achieve common good.
We are exploring cohosting an event in the spring or fall of 2008 to help the many leaders in our community build capacity for engaging their communities in this way. We are also working on creating regular, simple art of hosting training programs that help meet the most pressing needs of the Salt Lake Valley.
Juicy Engagement
From a December 2007 board meeting, a few responses to the question, what is engagement at it's juiciest for you?
Engagement is juicy when.
- a team becomes stronger through the fire
- we create a space for radical difference
- we decrease the desire to hurt
- many stakeholders, including children, participate
- the context is civil, safe, and ready for dialogue
- we begin to see alternative perspectives and bring them together
- we see passion areas as possible
- a strong possibility of community, of WE, becomes clear
- we work sustainably, and on behalf of what we care about like the environment
- we connect to natural places and sacred places
- we work on a project without personal agenda
- we feel the new, the dynamic
- I see a need, I do my little part, and I come to expand relationships to know people outside of my tribe
- we expand from what we know to something deeper; we go forward with something bigger
- we come to know more of each others' stories; the shortest distance between two people is a story
Engagement is juicy when.
- a team becomes stronger through the fire
- we create a space for radical difference
- we decrease the desire to hurt
- many stakeholders, including children, participate
- the context is civil, safe, and ready for dialogue
- we begin to see alternative perspectives and bring them together
- we see passion areas as possible
- a strong possibility of community, of WE, becomes clear
- we work sustainably, and on behalf of what we care about like the environment
- we connect to natural places and sacred places
- we work on a project without personal agenda
- we feel the new, the dynamic
- I see a need, I do my little part, and I come to expand relationships to know people outside of my tribe
- we expand from what we know to something deeper; we go forward with something bigger
- we come to know more of each others' stories; the shortest distance between two people is a story
Initiatives
News
Culture of Connection
Enspirited Community Pilot
Coalition for Civic, Character and Service Learning
Legislature Project
Utah Health Care Vision 2010
Active Intentions
Culture of Connection
- Education / Humanities
- Neighborhoods
- Dialogue
- Arts
- Refugees
- Bridging the Religious Divide Documentary
- Diversity Dinners
Enspirited Community Pilot
Coalition for Civic, Character and Service Learning
Legislature Project
Utah Health Care Vision 2010
Active Intentions
- Role in the Leonardo Center
- Active Mentoring
- Berkana Exchange
- Art of Hosting
- Integral Community Global Action Network
Contact Us
John Kesler, Founder & Co-Director
j_kesler@woodburycorp.com
801 556 7673
Tenneson Woolf, Co-Director
tenneson@berkana.org
801 376 2213
j_kesler@woodburycorp.com
801 556 7673
Tenneson Woolf, Co-Director
tenneson@berkana.org
801 376 2213
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Leadership / Board Members
Leadership
Kristin Fink -- Board Chair
John Kesler -- Co-Director
Allie Kelser -- Project Coordinator
Tenneson Woolf -- Co-Director
Board Members
Christine Balderas
Martha Ball -- Director, 3R's Project
Brian Birch -- Director, Religious Studies Program, Utah Valley University
Linda Dunn
Jane Holt
Eric Jergensen -- Salt Lake City Council Member
Les Kelen -- Executive Director, Center for Documentary Arts
Francine Mahak
David Nimkin
James Overall
Randall Paul -- Executive Director, The Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy
Ramona Sierra
Sonia Woodbury -- Executive Director, City Academy Charter School
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