Since assuming the position of CSC Executive Director on May 1st, I've been busy getting oriented to the many facets of the Center's activities.
About the time I began my new job, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded CSC $100,000 for the second year of Kellogg's two-year grant supporting our National Community Resiliency Project (NCRP) and allowing us to continue our current work with communities in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in the Mississippi Delta.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has long recognized the enormous value and impact of investing in the health, education, and safety of young children. Over many years the work in which CSC has been engaged in challenged communities has repeatedly been shown to be particularly impactful in the lives of very young children. A child's natural state is to be learning. Introducing the Three Principles to teachers and staff in educational and child-care settings have helped create and promote loving, nurturing, and supportive environments reinforcing a child's natural learning capacity. Engaging parents of a young child in this understanding results in "peaceful parenting" enhancing the child's confidence, happiness, and well being - all essential for a child to be in that natural learning state.
While continuing the Center's ongoing and important NCRP work of bringing an understanding of the Three Principles to challenged families and communities and the organizations and agencies that serve them, CSC plans to give special focus during this next year to early childhood interventions. An important element of our early childhood education focus is to gather evidence-based research outcomes. This means establishing some "pilot studies." Having for several years embraced the Three Principles, Lakewood Preschool Cooperative in Charlotte is leading this effort and has already enlisted the Institute for Social Capital at UNC Charlotte to conduct a study comparing child development at Lakewood Preschool with two other pre-schools that have not been exposed to the Three Principles.
We know how to create the conditions of success for vulnerable children. Now we want to be in a position to clearly articulate the impacts of focused Three-Principles programming on early childhood development. We anticipate having at the end of this grant year positive outcomes - not only in Charlotte but also in the Mississippi Delta - with which we can leverage support from more school districts and a greater variety of foundations. Our goal is to inspire increased interest in expanding Three-Principles training by showing clear evidence of the remarkable benefits of understanding the Three Principles.
To acknowledge the truly national scope of CSC, we have decided to hold the CSC annual retreat this fall, for the first time, in the eastern United States. We will be in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, Sept. 28-30. The theme is "The Place I Belong: Return to the Self." Our intention is to make our retreats as accessible as possible to folks from all areas of our country. We will likely alternate locations each year, holding retreats in both California, as we have done in the past, and North Carolina. Hope to see you in Blowing Rock this fall!
"The greatest factor in workplace performance is state of mind. A healthy tone inspires employees to go above and beyond. It changes the game." - Gabriela Maldonado-Montano, CSC Senior Trainer
Feeling overwhelmed?
Read about the results of "State of Mind Leadership Training" provided by CSC trainers at the Center for Employment Training in San Jose, CA, where 50 managers and employees were exposed to the Three Principles to increase their understanding of how each person creates his or her moment-to-moment experience.
Along with the changes in CSC leadership that we announced in our last newsletter, we have more exciting news as our team members shift into positions that allow them to contribute their experience and abilities in the greatest possible way.
Elese Coit and Gabriela Maldonado-Montano are launching a new business consulting venture, Sustainable Change Consulting Group, to bring the 3 Principles into the workplace. "We wanted to focus on our passion for helping businesses to become more innovative and leverage the true potential of their staff's talent," said Elese, the Group's CEO and former Media Director for CSC.
Gabriela, former Co-director of CSC and current CSC Senior Trainer and Project Consultant, is the Group's Director of Business Development.
Elese and Gabriela wanted to find a way for their new venture to contribute to the non-profit work of CSC. They recently announced that 20 percent of profits from Sustainable Change Consulting Group will be donated to CSC.
"The model that Elese and Gabriela are proposing -- donating to the Center for Sustainable Change 20 cents on every dollar of their Consulting Group's profit -- is a generous and meaningful way of connecting corporate wellness with at-risk communities striving for greater peace and harmony," said CSC Executive Director Dave Nichols. "The underlying understanding of human principles is the same regardless of the setting, whether that is a corporate office or a subsidized housing project."
CSC and Sustainable Change Consulting Group, while two distinct and separate organizations, will have some crossovers. Gabriela will continue to be involved with CSC as Senior Trainer and Project Consultant. Elese hands over her CSC Media Director duties to CSC Grants Manager Maureen Latta to focus on the Consulting Group, but will continue to facilitate CSC classes, trainings, and individual coaching. The Consulting Group plans to engage both CSC Education Director Ami Chen Mills-Naim and former CSC Finance Manager Liz Alameda as corporate trainers.
The focus of CSC is non-profit work with communities, schools and human service agencies, and CSC continues to offer individual coaching, classes, retreats and training programs.
The new Consulting Group provides a variety of services to business and organizations worldwide. If you know a business that would benefit from the Principles, the Sustainable Change Consulting Group offers any business a complimentary "State of Mind Assessment." To learn more, visit http://sustainchangeconsulting.com/
NCRP News Briefs
"The children are more aware of what it means to function in a community. They see their classmates as friends, not just as other students. They see their classroom as a place to live and enjoy one another. They are able to express their feelings better." - Courtney Alexander, Executive Director, Lakewood Preschool Cooperative, Charlotte, NC
Lakewood Preschool Cooperative is teaming up with the Institute for Social Capital at UNC Charlotte to study the impact of 3 Principles training on pre-schoolers. The study will compare Lakewood Pre-school to two other similar Charlotte pre-schools that have had no exposure to the Principles.
CSC Executive Director Dave Nichols heads to Mississippi on June 10 to spend a week meeting with our partners -- Larry Williams, Tasha Griffin and Gloria Dickerson -- to develop new collaborations with schools and agencies in the Delta.
The Thomasboro Academy Community Resiliency Collaborative wrapped up its Spring 2012 Three Principles programming for parents, students and teachers with about 50 people in attendance on May 19. Sessions will resume in August to help start a new school year.
(Photo by Molly Ellison)
T/A meeting at Thomasboro Academy: parents discuss the Three Principles
"On the Front Porch with Ami Chen"
Tune in at 10 am (PST) this Friday toOn the Front Porch with Ami Chen: Spiritual Dialogues for the 21st Century, the personal radio show of CSC's Education Director Ami Chen Mills-Naim. The show broadcasts live, biweekly on Contact Talk Radio every 2nd and 4th Friday. Upcoming guests on the show include Bill Cumming of the Boothby Institute (June 8) and Joel Slack of Respect International (June 22).
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