Al Etmanski

Shawn Smith - What Am I Skating Towards? Investing in Human Potential

2012-02-22T18:09:34-08:00

This is Shawn Smith's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Investing in Human Potential

We’ve all seen the statistics about poverty, and probably felt a bit overwhelmed. When we do engage it is often through a 1-800 number imploring us to ‘save’ a helpless child, or starving person. Our conceptions of the poor are stunted, and our understanding of potential solutions well-intentioned but often misguided. We perceive poverty through our own lens - a lack of material goods or wealth, rather than the poverty of opportunity that truly strips people of their dignity and potential.

So we give stuff - we build schools, donate goats, collect used goods, or buy TOMS Shoes. Unfortunately schools don’t teach children, wells don’t sustain themselves, and giving away free stuff often disrupts local markets, hampering home-grown solutions and economic growth.

My relationship to the subject has evolved through our own experiences at Global Agents. We have realized that traditional approaches are unlikely to make a dent, and that it is impossible to account for unintended consequences in such a complex environment. While I am not anti-aid when thoughtfully (and transparently) applied to address urgent needs or under-pining longer-term efforts, what has become clear is that the only interventions I am comfortable with invest in human potential, not stuff.

I’m involved with two initiatives with big goals to do that in 2012:  Education Generation is an online crowd-funding community, bringing people together $20 at a time to provide merit based secondary and post-secondary scholarships to high potential young leaders in the developing world. This is not simply about access, but also about quality of education. Through these scholarships we invest in progressive organizations pushing the boundaries of what education means in the communities they serve, moving beyond out dated curriculum to equip emerging leaders with the skills and perspective to build their own solutions.

The Global Catalyst Initiative (GCI) recognizes that most support for social entrepreneurs and innovative ideas comes to these leaders well after they have battled to overcome countless obstacles. Only the lucky few make it, and if we are to tackle these old problems, we are going to need a heck of a lot more new solutions. There are countless emerging leaders launching market oriented ideas to improve their communities, and countries. GCI is a strategic seed funder, providing one year of “proving capital” (1) and technical assistance to take these ideas from pilot to proof of concept, and on to later stage funders and investors.

The issue I’d like on the agenda in 2012, is how we remain inspired to take these issues head on, while challenging the misconceptions found in development. I want to invest in ideas, and human potential. I want us to ask tough questions about whether the things we support result in meaningful change, or just make us feel better. There are no simple solutions to be provided from afar, but there are talented people fighting like hell to provide a better future for their families and communities, and they could use a bit of support.

1. Credit to Daniela Papi of PEPY for the phrase “proving capital” – check out some of their great work here http:www.pepytours.com

Shawn Smith is co-founder of several successful organizations, including Education Generation, Global Catalyst Initiative, the Equilibrium Partnership and Radiant Carbon Offsets President of and Education Generation. He currently works as a sessional lecturer in social entrepreneurship and innovation at Simon Fraser University.

Note: I release individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012? on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Jacques Dufresne, Lindsay Cant, Richard Bridge, Stefan Lorimer and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Linda Perry - What Am I Skating Towards? Community

2012-02-21T14:07:59-08:00

This is Linda Perry's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Community

When I first started to mull this idea over, I was thinking fairly literally about the experience of skating and considering what I am currently skating towards. I realized that a more accurate image is that I am speed skating to, from, over and around activities and events. It occurred to me that lately, while a fair bit of functional work has been occurring, not much of it is particularly inspiring.

So I decided to suspend the current realities and ponder the experience of skating, asking myself when I last remembered it to be a passionate pursuit. This immediately brought back memories of skating as a child. Wonderful days where neighborhood moms would bundle up their kids and we would head down the hill from our homes on the south slope of Burnaby to an outdoor, impromptu ice rink on ‘the flats’ of South Burnaby. Those days provided hours of skating joy on the rough ice. There were hockey games, races, figure skating (of sorts) and many skating around the edges, all for the pure joy of the skate and being together. When tired or cold we would break for hot chocolate and snacks that parents brought and shared.

Those days involved kids of all ages and stages; it was noisy and chaotic. But it worked. There was room for everyone. The ice was not refined. It was bumpy outdoor ice in a farmer’s field. Everyone fell down. And somehow, always got up. There was lots of laughter. And sometimes tears. But someone was always there to offer comfort and support. There was no minimum or maximum age requirement. No entry fee. No skill level review. In fact, you didn’t even need skates! There were kids in running shoes or others that weren’t able to skate being pulled on sleds, all sliding along on the ice. EVERYONE was welcome.

This inspires me. This sense of community isn’t a theory. I’ve lived it. I would rather recreate that experience with the people whose worlds in some way touch mine. The speed skating has certainly gotten me ‘doing’ lots of things. But I would like to experience more of life with the people I spend time with. In fact, I think more experiencing instead of ‘doing’ is going to be critical for all of us to move forward. There are challenges ahead. We hear about them on the news, read about it in the paper and talk about them all the time.

It’s obvious the ice is going be bumpy, and it certainly isn’t going to have a symmetrical shape. But all comers willing to step on the ice and take a spin should be welcomed. With support, laughter and enough hot chocolate for everyone, I know we can create solid community experience. I hope others will join me, and remember: we don’t even need skates to join in!

Linda Perry is Executive Director of the award winning Vela Micro Board Association. She recently received the B.C. Big Picture Award for 2011 an award from her peers for nearly forty years of inspiration and advocacy for and with people with disabilities and their families.

David Roche - What Am I Skating Towards? Skating Like a Movement

2012-02-20T16:25:58-08:00

This is David Roche's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Skating Like a Movement

For the last year or so I nursed the puck, staying in my own zone, circling behind the goal, then off to the side, watching the action down the ice, waiting for line changes, avoiding hits, guarding the puck carefully, two hands on the stick, stick on the ice, doing it right. I wanted a clear plan before I headed down the ice. I wanted focus. I wanted life to be comprehensible through the use of sports metaphors. No such luck.

Yet, as I shepherded my energy it built up. Now, all of a sudden it felt like five on three and there was a clear path ahead. Hey, I thought I was festering, maybe in a dark night of the soul. Instead I caught the crest of the chi wave. OK, back to the hockey metaphor. I skate toward the net now, I pass the puck to the wing, I am no longer on defense, I am a forward and I feel the rush and I rap my stick on the ice because I want the puck back, not to protect it, but to shoot. I have focus, all right.

I am focusing on a dozen different creative projects simultaneously. Among them: the first David Roche School of Beauty shoot is done and in post production. I thought it was going to be a series of videoblogs but it turned out to be a movie! I received a grant from Kickstart to make a short film. Paperback and Kindle editions of my book will soon be out. I am developing two new shows, including “Catholic Erotica” for a summer tour of the UK. Marlena and I are setting up a shoot of “Love at Second Sight,” our program for middle school students, creating a streamable product to generate passive income.

How did this happen? It turns out that every project I am working on is collaborative in some way. Kim Komenich is a Pulitzer prize winning photographer and a professor of video journalism at San Jose State; he brought a film crew of six grad school volunteers to do the School of Beauty shoot. Jan Derbyshire of Colossal Squid productions is mentoring my short film project. Jo Anne Smith is leading me through the new world of self publishing. Ruth Gould of DaDaFest is setting up the UK tour.

I belong! I am part and parcel of a community of creative people, many with disabilities. It is all about relationship. It’s not just me with the puck. I am on a team. I have learned to think like a movement. (Thank you, Al and Vickie!)

David Roche is an inspirational humourist, story maven, author, keynote speaker, and fountain of creativity, joy and laughter. www.DavidRoche.com

Note: I release individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012? on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, Richard Bridge, Stefan Lorimer and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Ted Kuntz - What Am I Skating Towards? The Edge

2012-02-19T19:50:22-08:00

This is Ted Kuntz's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

The Edge

I’m skating toward the edge. I believe we all are. I believe we are living in a time of profound change. Life as we have known it for the last number of centuries is undergoing a transformation. The structures, paradigms and values that have organized, inspired and contained us are rapidly shifting. For years Al has referenced the panarchy model of change. Panarchy conceptualizes change as like a horizontal figure eight or infinity symbol. After a period of growth there is an inevitable decline or what the panarchy theorists call “release”. Others have described this phase as “constructive destruction”.

I believe we are entering a period of constructive destruction. The failure of our democratic systems, the destabilizing of the global economies, the effects of climate change including the rapid loss of species, the unwillingness to tolerate the huge disparity between rich and poor, and many other indicators are all signs of constructive destruction. I believe the occupy movement, while unfocused in its direction, is clear in its intention. ‘Occupy’ represents a collective pause in the evolution of human civilization and a declaration that the values and priorities that ought to occupy the center of a healthy civilization have been pushed out of the way. From my perspective the narrow pursuit of the almighty dollar has skewed our lives to such a degree that we are heading for the edge. Life as we have constructed it is not sustainable. We can’t keep going this way. Not only, will the planet not support our rapid decline of the eco system but also, humanity will no longer go along with the rise of corporatocracy at the expense of community.

The global village is fraying at the edges and is in need of a major repair lest we allow the tears in our social fabric to destabilize the world. This might sound like doom and gloom. I prefer to see it otherwise. I believe humanity has come to recognize that its current direction is missing the mark; that a mid-course correction is needed if we are to get where we want to go. I’m excited by this period of change and transformation. I like to use the metaphor of the caterpillar and the butterfly. As part of its transformation the caterpillar spins a fabric around itself forming a cocoon. While in the cocoon its prior form and shape deteriorates until it becomes an unformed mass of potentiality. Out of the chaos of this unformed mass arises the butterfly – a species with form and power far beyond the imagination of the caterpillar.

We too can transform into the butterfly. What is required is a form of leadership where everyone shares the responsibility for creating the kind of community we wish to live in, where we work collaboratively and invite ideas and input from everyone, and where we live with courage as whole beings, utilizing both our heads and our hearts. May we create the kind of community we wish to live in.

Ted is a community leader, disability advocate, psychotherapist and gifted story teller. He is the author of the best selling Peace Begins with Me.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012? on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, Richard Bridge, Stefan Lorimer and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Vickie Cammack - What Am I Skating Towards? Balance

2012-02-16T16:02:39-08:00

This is Vickie Cammack's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Balance

I am six years old. Beaver Lake in Stanley Park is frozen solid and my thin legs stand rigid for the first time in unforgiving, gleaming white skates. The ice is uneven. The small cracks and twigs poking out of the ice terrify me. I become frozen in place as the cocky boys with hockey sticks shoot past me, spraying me with ice. My knees are trembling. I look up. There, in centre of the pond, is a little girl in a red velvet dress doing pirouettes. I want to be her. I begin to lurch forward. My father’s warm hand steadies me and then with a gentle push, he lets me go.

I glide ….for a moment and whoosh, my feet shoot up in the air. A stranger swoops down and picks me up. I start again, thrilled by each tiny, perilous moment of gliding. A stride or two later I am down again. And so it goes. Painful falls spurred by the possibility of me in a red velvet skating dress. It was all just a matter of balance.

And it still is. It strikes me that balancing the fine edge of pain and possibility is what is being demanded of me today. I must hold the pain of a planet in peril alongside the promise of technology; a health care system that has forgotten healing alongside the global increase in longevity; a photo shopped self image alongside my deepened appreciation for the beauty of aging; a society consumed by consumption alongside the inspiration of the love based occupy movement fuelled by young people who can see beyond the destructive divisions of us and them;.

Seeking balance is a surprisingly disruptive act. Finding balance creates something different from the forces being balanced. As we skate, we simultaneously slip between gravity and motion to find ourselves in flow. As I teeter into 2012, I seek the equanimity to hold the pain of an unjust world without being consumed by it, alongside the promise of a better world without being blinded by it. I seek the strength to live with the paradox of our wounded and beautiful world, knowing balance is never a steady state but the space in between.

Vickie Cammack is President and CEO of Tyze Personal Networks - a social purpose business which wants to spark a revolution of belonging. Tyze creates private on-line networks that connect families, friends, neighbours and care providers. She co-founded Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN) and was founding Executive Director of the PLAN Institute for Caring Citizenship and Canada's first Family Support Institute.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012? on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, Richard Bridge, Ted Kuntz and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Alex Fox - What Am I Skating Towards? Belonging in the UK

2012-02-15T17:57:04-08:00

This is Alex Fox's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Belonging

For some time now, social care in the UK has been all about independent living: helping younger disabled people to move into their own homes; helping older people to stay in their own homes. That’s going brilliantly (people who would have been written off and locked away are now living in their own places, employing their own staff and even setting up enterprises) and badly (new bureaucracies dressed up as transformation, ever-increasing expectations upon families, support reserved for the most needy).

It’s a very mixed and complex picture, but if I were to nominate just one test for success, it would be whether people find not only independence but also, a sense of belonging. A system which once warehoused people now recognizes individuals’ rights, dreams and destinies. The systems designed to drive ‘personalisation’ don’t always work, but the goal remains right.

However, to be treated and to live as an individual is necessary, rather than sufficient, for a good life. We are a consumerist society, so it’s not surprising that we’ve seen individual purchasing rights as the key to self-determination. But is it coincidence that, alongside consumerism, we also have an epidemic of loneliness?

Too often we describe independent living as living alone: not something most of us aspire to. My day job is developing and supporting Shared Lives, a form of care and support in which people are matched with registered Shared Lives carers, to share family and community life, living as part of an ordinary household, rather than within a service. Shared Lives can be a stepping stone to your own place or an alternative to traditional short breaks, but it can also be a way of finding a place to settle: a home – and a community - where you feel like you belong. One of the keys to that sense of belonging is that people who live in Shared Lives are seen as contributing to their relationships just as much as their Shared Lives carer. In other words, everyone has responsibilities for other people. That is also true of the older and disabled people who set up their own micro-scale enterprises, another strand of our work.

Having responsibilities as well as rights is essential to be a full citizen, who belongs in her/his community. ‘Taking responsibility’ is often very narrowly understood as meaning earning money and not using state benefits. Some people will always require state support to live a good life, but that good life may remain elusive without that feeling of belonging, which only comes when you feel responsible for others’ well-being as well as for your own. So, promoting a sense of belonging is about building upon the rights agenda towards a responsibilities agenda, where ‘having responsibilities’ is about more than just money and is not out of reach for anyone. When we decide that a group of adults have no responsibilities, we may protect them from some of life’s risks, but we take huge risks with their citizenship and, subtly perhaps, we tell them they don’t fully belong.

Alex Fox is CEO of Shared Lives Plus the UK network for small community services. He blogs at alexfoxblog.wordpress.com, tweets at @AlexatNAAPS

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012? on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, Richard Bridge, Ted Kuntz and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

2012-02-14T15:11:35-08:00

This is Gordon Atherley's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Shifting the Mindset of Canada’s Healthcare System

The shift is needed, urgently, because of increasing dominance in Canada by diseases that are incurable. Healthcare needs to acknowledge that, for incurable diseases, the healthcare provided by the healthcare system may be necessary but is invariably insufficient. It needs to recognize that family caregivers, a key sufficiency factor, are currently subsidizing the healthcare system by some $25 Billion. It needs to respect the point that, while the healthcare system is pampering itself with costly bureaucracy-serving programs like Pan-Canadian electronic health records, it is devouring more and more of provincial budgets, which can only mean that, in the name of efficiency or some such rationale, the exploitation of family caregivers will grow apace through aging-at-home and other burden-displacing programs.

The healthcare system needs to respond ethically and not resist the transfer of funds out of the healthcare system and into direct-pay for family caregivers who, increasingly, are exhausting themselves physically, psychologically and financially. It needs to see the transfer of funding out of healthcare as a matter of social justice and responsible, sound fiscal management that is essential even at the best of economic times.

Dr Gordon Atherley, is a retired physician with a history of social-justice-oriented activism. He is host of FamilyCaregivers Unite! VoiceAmerica’s internet radio talk show.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012? on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, Richard Bridge, Kirsteen Main, Ted Kuntz and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

Kirsteen Main - What Am I Skating Towards? - Getting My Poems Published

2012-02-13T15:54:00-08:00

Here is poetry by Kirsteen Main for your Valentine's Day reading pleasure as well as her response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Getting My Poems Published

What I would be skating towards – if I could skate – would be finally getting my poems published. In a book. For the whole world to read. I see this phenomenon as a way to put some pizzazz in my life!

I have been writing poetry since I was ten years old, sometimes as a life saver ( especially when I was a teenager.) Sometimes to share my opinions and views of life from my perspective. Sometimes just for fun.

I have thought about publication so many times – and let it go so many times too. I turn 33 in 2012. Maybe this will be the year!

And then maybe, with the help of my friends, I’ll be able to skate.

Kind Words

Kind Words
Release the weighted feelings
You leave
Like a word leaves my soul
To become a poem. (April 2011)

Beneath there is a Room

Beneath there is a room that I live in
It keeps me warm and safe
Are you going to come and visit?
There is enough space for two
I will give you tea and cookies
And listen to your stories
You can leave when you are ready
And I will dance until you return. (November 2011)

Trees In Winter

In winter,

Trees are stark apertures

To the slate sky.

Their silhouettes

Are like black lace.

The wind moans

Through their branches

Tall, timeless trees. (December 1991 – Kirsteen’s first poem)

Kirsteen Main is a Vancouver based poet. More of her poems are available on her website.

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Steve Sunderland - What Am I Skating Towards? Compassion

2012-02-12T16:33:43-08:00

This is Steve Sunderland's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

COMPASSION

Teaching the concept of “compassion” has been a joy since September 11, 2001. This is my personal program to foster understanding and insight into what would prevent the return of a terroristic form of communication.

Now, ten years later, I look ahead and see if it makes sense to continue on this path. Looking up as I walk into the future causes me to “see” in different ways, especially the obstacles, the pitfalls, and the horror that may await me. I find compassion a good friend for the stroll ahead, especially compassion for the “untouchable” part of my self.

Anyone reading the new biography of Gandhi (Joseph Lelyveld, “Great Soul.” Knopf) will be brought up short by Gandhi’s lifelong attempt to be and become compassionate to those who were considered, “Untouchable.” He realized that this label is also applied to parts of ourselves that are hidden from view, the parts we might call, “evil,” “cold,” “violent,” or, “unforgivable.” Skating with these qualities may stop the journey, prompt digging a grave, and jumping in. Yet, I find something noble in Gandhi’s struggle to look up at himself, to look at the possibility of facing and transforming the limitations into gifts.

When I look ahead with joy, I think that I will be meeting friends who are compassionate, many who have stumbled, fell, and arisen to keep going toward health. Today, I met a teacher who wants to strengthen a school in Uganda by having Cincinnati kids come together to lead programs in fund raising, visiting the school, and in reflecting on why the school is in the future, our future. Her eyes dazzled with beauty as she described how the five young high school students she was with, persuaded her that this could be viable. Now, she is succeeding, and she feels “Ugandan.” Another person is recovering from the rape of his mother using reflection, humor, and deep spiritual belief.

We look at each other, across the table of compassion, smile and tell our stories, perhaps laying a foundation for next steps forward. A young teacher writes me that she is dedicated to working with people with challenges because she has something to offer and something to accept and learn. She is part of a small and powerful teacher-corp that are keeping the flame of inclusion alive even when separation and discrimination are so dominant.

Who can leave these friends, abandon them to the “market forces” that will try and sweep them away? I go forward holding hands with so many who reach out, laugh, and constructively dance ahead. Being 71 has taught me that what is touchable is those values of the heart, those feelings of hope, those smiles of an organizer of love. This is my “ground” to skate upon. In peace and gratitude.

Steve Sunderland is a professor of Peace and Educational Studies at the University of Cincinnati and founder of an inclusive Peace Village which emerged out of the inner city riots in Cincinnati ten years ago. His experience at peace making extends back to the civil rights movement in the American South and includes an active involvement with the Anne Frank Centre. Dr. Sunderland is the recipient of the King, Gandhi and Ikeda Peace Award from the Freedom Center and the Human Relations Award from the Council of American Islamic Relations.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012? on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, Richard Bridge, Kirsteen Main, Ted Kuntz and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Sean Moore: Where Am I Skating Towards? Effective Public Engagement

2012-02-09T14:36:01-08:00

This is Sean Moore's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Effective Public Engagement in Civic Affairs

My current preoccupation, my passion, my thing these days, is to very personally and directly do something tangible about what most everyone seems to agree these days is the abysmal state of public engagement in civic affairs. I know, I know - that sounds to be a rather grand aspiration, especially coming from a semi-retiree - and a semi-retired lobbyist, at that!! But challenges can be invigorating and provide new motivation to be active.

For years, I’ve have been part of the chorus that wails about the seemingly ever-expanding universe of people who don’t vote, who disengage from public affairs and whose skepticism and cynicism leaves them frustrated and disillusioned. Samara’s recent report, The Real Outsiders: Politically Disengaged Views on Politics and Democracy undoubtedly confirmed the instincts of many who see a growing sentiment of detachment, a by product of a witch’s brew of economic distress, fear, cynicism and popular incomprehension of the complex and often bizarre ways of politics and modern government. These days, even the most well-resourced and experienced interest group leaders express their frustrations in dealing with both political and bureaucratic decision-makers from city hall to Parliament Hill.

Vexatious as that might be, it doesn’t hold a candle to the pain and frustration I witnessed first hand last December in Vancouver. Al Etmanski and I were hosting a day-long workshop on “advocacy skills for families.” In the room were 3 men and about 30 women - almost all individuals who were the primary caregivers of a loved one, a child, a grandchild, a sibling or a parent. All of them were there because they were pretty well near the end of their rope in dealing with government agencies and other public authorities who they thought were there to help. They wanted to know more about how they might better cope with what seemed to be impenetrable bureaucracy and unresponsive political institutions - a sentiment to be found in neighborhood groups, advocacy organizations and professional associations coast to coast to coast.

How can we have one of the most successful societies this planet has ever known and yet have what so many feel is such a dissatisfying relationships with our government and political institutions? Though the reasons and causes are many and varied, there is one which I aim to do what I can to address: citizens’ ability to engage their government’s effectively and to maximize their impact on public decision-making.

I certainly don’t have all the answers myself but I am accelerating my search for examples of individuals and organizations that have developed effective means of policy engagement and lobbying. My goal is not only to include these learnings in the work of my newly launched Advocacy School but to find other means to disseminate these stories and their lessons to educational institutions and other forums for training. Well, let’s give it the old college try! Anyone interested in joining the cause is welcome to come along for the ride. Contact me at sean@seanmoore.ca

Sean Moore is the founder and Principal of Advocacy School; a SiG Fellow and Public Policy and Advocacy Advisor to the SiG Social Innovation Generation initiative (a collaboration of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation of Montreal, the MaRS Discovery District of Toronto, the University of Waterloo and the PLAN Institute of Vancouver); and an advisor to a number of other Canadian foundations, NGOs, professional associations, law firms and corporations. He formerly served as a Partner and Public Policy Advisor at the national law firm, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP. Sean’s website: http://www.seanmoore.ca/

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012? on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, Rchard Bridge, Steve Sunderland, Kirsteen Main and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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