"Here I was, traveling the country over the past year helping struggling youth and other marginalized people actually see paths to self-acceptance and a deeper health through service and good hard work," says Jarid Manos, GPRC founder & CEO, "and (laughs) I began to realize I was learning from them as much as they learned from me. Flipped the script!" 

  

Newark, New Jersey

  

Courtesy of the Arcus Foundation in New York, GPRC Founder and CEO Jarid Manos recently completed the yearlong national "Sharing the Journey" tour. 

 

Atlanta, GA

 The Tour was designed to support the dissemination of ideas and philosophy in his book Ghetto Plainsman and the work of Great Plains Restoration Council. In particular, the tour brought people together to build intersections between protecting the Earth and the other issues of our lives. (All author profits were donated to GPRC.) Teachers, service providers, ministers, inmates, libraries, adults, youth, and more were worked with.

Ecological Health is for everybody. The recovery and vitality work we do on the shattered Great Plains can serve as model and metaphor for people everywhere.

Jarid continues, "Never assume that people don't care about protecting the Earth and our children's health and future."

"I have worked in jails, churches, youth groups, schools, community organizations, even in a small peer-run warehouse center under the bridge in New Orleans that fights criminalization of young black transgendered women on the streets, and time after time I ran into exuberance that would make anybody smile -- a growing resilience and a desire to have their work be part of building this country's new millennial future."

"From inner city Newark to gritty downtown Hollywood and many points in between, people learned about the Great Plains and saw how by taking care of others (providing refuge) we take care of ourselves.  Many have asked, "How can we bring Ecological Heath here, to our own community?" 

"And sometimes, during a youth event, when offered the opportunity, kids would spontaneously get up and dance and sing and perform, as if all the struggle and worry of life had them almost bursting with need to express themselves. You know, sometimes people subconsciously think of "minority" kids or LGBT youth or kids who are struggling with life issues that are seen as outside the "mainstream" as different - we mentally put them into groups marked "other" - but when it comes down to it, they are still just kids. As a nation, we are definitely all in this together." 

Rainy hike up to old Grandfather Beech Tree, Outdoor Activity Center, west Atlanta

do today.

"Prairie dogs may be America's ultimate underdog, but they have friends."

"We can learn from prairie dogs. With their million year old, one-of-a-kind civilization, they still celebrate each day under the Sun even in the face of hatred and the greatest dangers like poisoning, killing contests, bulldozing, etc." 

Great Plains Restoration Council thanks everybody involved in the Sharing the Tour, and everybody we met on this tour. 

In particular we must thank the Arcus Foundation, and Mr. Fred Davie, who serves on the President's Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and is currently the Executive Vice President of Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Mr. Davie, while working at Arcus, is who initially approached us with the tour idea. 

Mr. Davie says, "Glad to hear the mission continues apace. ...  We all are impacted, and that's what makes this so rich and so much fun.  God does have a sense of humor!"

UP NEXT: A new "2.0" Tour in 2013:
"Ecological Health: Where Body and Earth Meet."

Protecting the Earth as the central matter of our health and future needs to become as equal and important a mainstream concern as other top social issues. In 2013, GPRC is offering a 2.0 tour where we will travel to colleges and universities and other places to teach hands-on, interactive and in-depth seminar workshops on how the three tiers of Ecological Health are learned and can be applied locally, with GPRC's work on the Great Plains as the model. Class credit may be offered by department professors. First on the new Ecological Health tour's agenda: University of Colorado, Boulder, February 12th, 2013.

First on the new Ecological Health tour's agenda: University of Colorado, Boulder, February 12th, 2013.

Recap of Sharing the Journey Tour (main stops): 

• Alameda County Jail, "Write to Read Program" (3 pods of youth 16-18 years old), Oakland, CA

• San Francisco County Jail COVER Project ("Community of Veterans Engaged in Restoration," U.S. Armed Forces veterans, ages 22-67). 

• Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers, San Francisco, CA  

• Unity Fellowship Church National Convocation (Keynote Speaker)

• Keeping It Wild, Outdoor Activity Center, Atlanta, GA 

• Booker T Washington High School senior graduating class, Atlanta, GA

• B.E.S.T. Academy at Benjamin S. Carson Middle School, Atlanta, GA

• Auburn Avenue Research Library, Atlanta, GA

• Texas A&M University -- Public Partnership & Outreach at Texas A&M University on the Zooming Out Conference. Anti-Bullying Seminar, College Station, Central Texas

• Union Theological Seminary - New York City

• Social Justice Center, Newark, NJ

• Metropolitan Community Church, Albuquerque, NM

• Power of a Million Minds/Juvenile Justice Project, New Orleans, LA

• Youth BreakOUT, New Orleans, LA

• LifeWorks "Greenroom", Children, Youth & Family Services, Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, Hollywood, CA

Solstice d'été en Novelle-Orléans   *

Hollywood, CA   *

Auburn Avenue Research Library, Atlanta, GA *