Uncharted Journeys and Happy Accidents

Greetings!

Last week, while looking outside at my garden, I realized that we are halfway through 2011, a year of so many new developments in my professional life and for the Center.

The month of June marks six months since I became a co-director for CSC, and this milestone reminds me that all of us at the Center are embarking on a new journey with infinite potential. The final destination may evolve, but along the way, we discover and re-discover wonderful partnerships and projects.

Our partners at the National Community Resiliency Project (NCRP) have been amazing in their ability and desire to engage people's wellbeing in their communities. Members of this project have successfully raised funding to provide Principles services in their communities and are also creating opportunities to expose "power players" to the Principles.

More on the NCRP Projects here.

At CSC we've begun new partnerships and projects with international organizations. Our collaboration with Center for Employment Training (CET) led us to take more than 50 corporate staff members on a three-day retreat in Pacific Grove, CA.

Our delightful, collaborative project with Driscoll's Berries engages their corporate Sustainability Team in the US and Mexico. If you are interested in listening to some of what we have shared with these organizations, we've uploaded an audio on Organizational Systemic Change to the Media Center.

Our new CSC Live Events were created based on your input about the kinds of services you most wanted to see, and we will list these for you in the newsletter each month. They can also be found online.

Finally, one of the most exciting developments this month has been the acquisition of a weekly radio program. We are thrilled at the potential impact of internet radio in spreading the Principles across the globe. The show will launch within a few months and we will announce more soon!

This journey has been full -- known destinations, surprise destinations, and adjustments to our plotted course. Personally, I look forward to the next port-of-call, whether it is on the itinerary or not, and I certainly hope to hear from you along the way.

Read on to learn how we most serendipitously met Maureen Latta, our new Grants Manager, and find a poem from Ami below.

Love,

Gabriela

CSC Co-Director

Gabriela

CSC News and Events

THE NEW MEDIA CENTER GROWS!

Our CSC Media Center has posted many new audio files this month, including a radio show hosted by Ami on "The Root of All Problems."

SIMPLE WAYS TO HELP

We are looking for volunteers with video and audio editing skills and web development knowledge (especially PHP). Can you help?

Help someone with no or low income get 3 Principles training. We receive scholarship requests every month! Inquiries come from social workers on Native reservations, teachers in at-risk settings, and low-income community residents. Consider making a donation to support our scholarship program. Or consider sponsoring our new radio show -- with 200,000 iTunes listeners and one million local radio station listeners in the Seattle area. Your sponsorship includes a professionally produced sponsorship "spot," featuring your name or company name, and an endorsement. Please contact us for more information.

Events

TELE-CLASS FOR PRACTITIONERS

On Teaching Peace (June)

Thursday June 16, 2011 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM PDT

On Teaching Peace (July)

Thursday July 21, 2011 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM PDT

On Teaching Peace (August)

Thursday August 18, 2011 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM PDT

On Teaching Peace (September)

Thursday September 15, 2011 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM

PALO ALTO DROP-IN: "Peace of Mind is What You Are"

The last open class is June 26th, Sunday 4-6 pm, at 2878 Bryant Street. Would you like to help support keeping this class in Palo Alto as CSC relocates to the South County/Monterey Bay area? Let us know!

For more information, including on our three-day Retreat-by-the-Sea, October 5-7, see all our Events here

Meet Our Team: Maureen Latta, Grants Manager

When I spontaneously decided to fly from Canada to the San Francisco Bay area last Christmas, I never anticipated the turn my life would take, thanks to a timely meeting with a warm, open-hearted woman named Ami Chen Mills-Naim during the snack break at an event in Palo Alto. While munching on cakes, we exchanged a little about our lives, our work and -- quite out of character for me -- I found myself saying, "I'd love to work with you!"

Never mind that I lived in another country, that Ami was a complete stranger, and that the non-profit center she co-directed seemed to be in contraction mode, with plans to close down its Palo Alto office. Regardless, we agreed to spend some more time together exploring common interests, and a brief visit with her lovely family in Santa Cruz quickly followed. I returned to Canada curious about the Center for Sustainable Change, the 3 Principles, and the writings of the enigmatic Sydney Banks.

Five months later, I began my new "virtual" part-time position as Grants Manager for the Center for Sustainable Change. The work -- done on my laptop and phone -- meant I could relocate to a beautiful town on Canada's west coast, a place I had been wanting to live for decades. (Upon arrival, I noticed Sydney Bank's Enlightened Gardener in the window display of the local bookstore and took it as a good sign.)

It was a dream come true.

Not only was I doing interesting, meaningful work that made use of my writing skills (contributing to blogs, newsletters, etc.), I quickly realized that working with the Center involves me in a movement of spiritually-driven personal and social change with a remarkable team of people. Some of you I've already had the privilege of listening to, interviewing, and learning about in my role as Grants Manager for CSC.

I collect stories and outcomes from NCRP project sites, schools and corporate programs and put my writing and interviewing skills to work on grant reports, CSC Blogsite, Media Center, and more.

The questions that had been nagging at me for the past 15 years -- How can I contribute? How can I participate in changing the world for the better? What is my unique role and gift? -- now cease to bother me. It's not like I have the answers, but the game is on. Every day, something new is being co-evolved, on an organizational level, a community level, and, well, all the levels!

The five-month process that took me from that snack-break in Palo Alto to this expanded horizon of possibilities is mysterious. I know I didn't make it happen through planning and the best explanation I have found comes from Sydney Banks himself: "With hope and faith in your heart, you will find the perfect path you seek" (The Missing Link).

Maureen

Contact Maureen at Maureen@principlespsychology.org

In Community: The Quiet Revolution

by Maureen Latta

NCRP Update - Des Moines

Every National Community Resiliency Project site integrates the innate health approach a little differently. Des Moines, Iowa, exemplifies a particular model of organizational openness. As a "mature" project site -- with about seven years of 3P exposure under its belt, at least nine local participating institutions and 750 individuals on the 3P Network email list -- Des Moines has found creative ways to put the formless nature of the 3 Principles into action.

This month's CSC Blog focuses on outcomes in Des Moines over the past year of NCRP work.

To read more about Des Moines and the "quiet, revolutionary shift" taking place there, see Des Moines exemplifies model 3 Principles project site on the CSC Blogsite.

A Poem From Ami (click to see more on Ami's blog)