CTA's Board of Directors Accepts
Five New Projects!
The Center for Transformative Action is pleased to announce that its board of directors recently accepted 5 new projects : Climate Changers, the Ethical Shareholder Initiative, Keep On Questioning, Kindness Inside Out, and the Periwinkle Initiative.
 Climate Changers provides an uplifting online platform that showcases individual actions that reduce and reverse the negative effects of climate change. Using inspiring images and profiles, this platform shows how people around the world are making a difference in their daily habits, in their neighborhoods, through their work, and in government. By focusing on the people who have diverse and replicable responses to climate change, while also inviting visitors to the site to interact with each other, Climate Changers fosters human-scale engagement for a global-scale movement. - educates and encourages investors to play a positive role in encouraging corporations to act in an ethical, socially responsible fashion;
- provides information and support to investors so that they can more easily bring their values to their investing;
- and coordinates and supports ethical shareholder action to promote socially responsible corporate behavior.
 Keep on Questioning's mission is to inspire, engage and educate the public by connecting them with professionals and experts who can provide answers and take part in conversations. Keep on Questioning believes greater understanding can be achieved through the freedom to ask questions, consider informed answers, and express viewpoints. It's flagship program is I'm a Scientist USA; an online event where school students meet and interact with scientists. It's an American Idol-style competition between scientists, where the students are the judges. Students engage with scientists over fast-paced online text-based live chats where students choose the questions and direct the conversations. They can submit questions to the scientists on any topic that interests them and then vote for their favorite scientist to win. Scientists from around the world can engage directly with students across North America, answering questions about science, their research, the universe and beyond. Participation improves scientists' communications skills, increases their awareness of the interests of young people and enables them to share information about their work.
Kindness Inside Out works to empower humans to practice Self-Kindness by shifting from a scarcity culture that sets impossible expectations, glorifies martyrdom, and leads to rampant depletion, to a culture of abundance that encourages people to meet their own needs collaboratively, and be gentle with themselves. Its first program, Mama's Comfort Camp (MCC), began in 2011, and now serves thousands of moms of kids of any age, and provides free,  secure online forums that model Self-Kindness and create unprecedented safety for peer support. MCC has been shown to transform the motherhood experience and heal deep wounds. In Ithaca, MCC serves over 1200 local moms and has monthly support meetings and many family gatherings. MCC strengthens individuals, families, and invigorates the real-world communities it affects.
KIO expands on Mama's Comfort Camp's mission to go beyond mothers, using large scale discourse shaping campaigns that challenge the status quo, and suggests alternative and collaborative approaches to connect and uplift people on the local and global scale.
 The Periwinkle Initiative is a public humanities and education initiative dedicated to preserving cultural heritage associated with enslaved Americans. Currently, the core project of the Initiative is the National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans - which will be the first and only national repository to preserve data on burials and burial grounds of enslaved Americans. The Periwinkle Initiative also seeks to engage in works that cultivate historical and racial reconciliation in the United States. The Periwinkle Initiative derives its name from the Periwinkle flower that certain scholars believe was the most common wildflower brought to gravesites of enslaved Americans. This perennial flower has guided researchers to many abandoned burial grounds that would have otherwise gone undetected.
Kakabadze convicted and fined; PEN International joins ICOA's call to action On January 22, 2016, former Ithaca City of Asylum writer, Irakli Kakabadze, was found guilty by a court in the Republic of Georgia on a charge stemming from his arrest during a peaceful protest on December 25, 2015. Kakabadze, who continues to suffer ill effects from a beating he endured during his detention after his arrest, has been fined the equivalent of $40USD. He plans to appeal the conviction. Video from the trial is available online. PEN International has joined ICOA in calling for concerned people to write to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Georgia, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, to protest this situation. Kakabadze was arrested on December 25 during a peaceful demonstration protesting the appointment of Judge Levan Murusidze to the Appeals Court of Georgia's High Council of Justice. Critics claim that in 2007, Murusidze, as a member of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Georgia, reduced the sentences of four people convicted of murdering a human rights activist. During his detention, Kakabadze suffered a minor concussion, lost a tooth, and sustained an injury to his foot. A video of his arrest is available online. Kakabadze, who was the Ithaca City of Asylum writer-in-residence from 2008 to 2011, is an award-winning Georgian writer who also chairs the Georgia Mahatma Gandhi Foundation. He is the author of Candidate Jokola, Maskhara and Baudrillard, Medea Rehabilitation Project, and Mother Courage of the Caucasus. He is a multifaceted artist and has collaborated with a number of other writers and performers to establish ongoing projects such as the Polyphonic Blues Band and the theater group Theater for Change. Recently, Kakabadze has been teaching at Georgian American University in Tbilisi. While a resident writer in Ithaca, New York, he taught at Cornell University and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. To take action, please send appeals: - Calling for fair treatment and due process for Irakli Kakabadze;
- Calling for immediate investigation into his physical mistreatment during his arrest;
- Urging the authorities to ensure that there is no future harassment of writers and activists for their peaceful exercise of their right to protest or freedom of expression.
Send appeals to: Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili 7 Ingorokva St Tbilisi 0114, Georgia You can also send an online appeal to the prime minister. Please send a copy of your letter to the Embassy of Georgia to the USA: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Archil Gegeshidze 1824 R Street, NW Washington DC, 20009
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News and Events
Elizabeth Gabriel has been named new director of the Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming in Ithaca, NY, as founding director, Joanna Green, prepares to retire in mid-February. Green has led the organization since it's inception in 2008. Gabriel will continue to guide Groundswell Center's growth and development as a regional hub for farmer training and business incubation, while building on the organization's commitment to social and racial justice in the food system. Gabriel brings years of experience in organizational leadership, garden-based education and community organizing for food security and sovereignty. For five years she served as founding director of the Washington, DC-based non-profit Common Good City Farm, where she grew the organization from the ground up; securing grants, turning a baseball field into a productive urban farm, and establishing strong community-wide relationships with youth and adults. Her passion for equitable food access and her collaborative leadership style were critical influences for the urban agriculture movement of the nation's capital. More recently, Elizabeth Gabriel served as professional development educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension's Garden-Based Learning Program. In this role, she trained and supported extension educators across New York State, creating and delivering curriculum to help them with program development, establishing systems for evaluation, volunteer management, fundraising, and program sustainability. She holds a master's degree in International Development from the American University in Washington, DC, and a dual master's degree in Natural Resources and Sustainable Community Development from United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. Gabriel's dedication to food production and food access is not only professional, but also personal. She and her husband own and manage Wellspring Forest Farm, a small agroforestry farm and homestead in Mecklenburg, NY. They produce and market shiitake mushrooms, duck eggs, maple syrup and lamb. As a beginning farmer herself, Elizabeth is already well connected to the local small farm community, and familiar with the many challenges faced by new farmers. "We are all thrilled to have found such a capable and passionate new Director for Groundswell," says Joanna Green, the organization's Founding Director. "I'm confident that Elizabeth is going make some significant contributions to the local farming community and the regional food system. Groundswell's future is in good hands."
Tristan MacLean, director of I'm a Scientist USA, a program of Keep On Questioning, will provide an in-person workshop combined with a live chat and science communication Question & Answer at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting , February 13, 2016 in Washington, DC. The theme for this year's AAAS meeting is "Global Science Engagement." More information is available here.
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 The Center for Transformative Action (CTA) helps to create communities that work for everyone. We do this by providing fiscal sponsorship to innovative social change agents in New York State, as well as financial, human resources, and grants management services. CTA is an educational non-profit organization affiliated with Cornell University.
Our Vision
We envision change makers everywhere engaging and strengthening the power of the heart to remake the world.
Our Mission
We are an alliance of individuals and organizations inspired by principles of nonviolence and committed to bold action for justice, sustainability, and peace. CTA supports change makers with the tools to build thriving, inclusive communities that work for everyone. We serve our projects, the public, and Cornell University by offering educational programs and strategic organizational resources.
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New Projects!
| We are very pleased to welcome Climate Changers, the Ethical Shareholder Initiative, Keep on Questioning, Kindness Inside Out and the Periwinkle Initiative to CTA!
Next deadline to apply to become a Project Partner with CTA is April 15. Please see our Fiscal Sponsorship Guidelines if you have or are starting a social change project in New York State that needs a nonprofit umbrella. |
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