/WTJ%206%20final by Whole Communities

Whole Thinking Journal CE NTE R FOR WHOLE COM M U N ITI E S No. 6, Winter 2010-2011

Whole Thinking Journal No. 6, Winter 2010-2011 The Whole Thinking Journal is an annual publication of the writing, themes, ideas, and projects of the collective voices of the Center for Whole Communities, our staff, and alumni. Center for Whole Communities supports leaders in building healthy, just communities through stronger relationships between people, and between people and the land. Our objective is to strengthen movements for change by connecting diverse leaders from multiple disciplines, helping them to explore differences, to imagine their community whole again, and to find shared voice and narrative. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES Knoll Farm, 700 Bragg Hill Road, Fayston, VT 05673 Tel: 802.496.5690; Fax: 802.496.5687 www.wholecommunities.org Co-Director: Peter Forbes Co-Director: Ginny McGinn Director of Communications: Helen Whybrow Land Steward: Taz Squire Program Manager: Lauren Oleet Wentz Development Director: Nathaniel Scrimshaw Office Manager: Kevin McMillion Executive Assistant: Molly Bagnato Board of Directors Carolyn Finney David Grant Polly Hoppin Melissa Nelson Kesha Ram Lauret Savoy Tom Wessels, Chair Whole Thinking Journal is published once a year by Center for Whole Communities. Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. To request the right to reprint, copy, or republish anything found in these pages, please contact the publisher, Center for Whole Communities, Knoll Farm, 700 Bragg Hill Road, Fayston, VT 05673. Tel: 802-496-5690. www.wholecommunities.org. Designed by Abrah Griggs, Sterling Hill Productions. Printed in Waitsfield, Vermont on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, with vegetable-based inks. Cover photo by Courtney Bent.

This issue of the Journal is dedicated to the strength of the human spirit; to all those who have lost homes, land, and loved ones in natural disasters around the globe in recent months.

Contents 4 | In the Fields of Salinas: Cultivating Intercultural Leadership, Brett Melone 10 | Twenty-first-Century Competencies, Mistinguette Smith 11 | Facing Change, Peter Forbes 17 | Creating New Pathways, Ginny McGinn 19 | Bringing Practice to Life, Anushka Fernandopulle 21 | Resilient Communities: An Ecological Perspective, Tom Wessels 24 | Everyone Is My Teacher: A Journey toward Spiritual Leadership, Adrienne Maree Brown 27 | The Currency of Whole Communities, Scott Chaskey 28 | The Wild Broccoli Forest, Taylor Burt 30 | Pizza Night, Glen Hutcheson 31 | Full Circle, Dana Hudson

Contributors Taylor Burt is passionate about local, organic, wild, and artisanal foods and food movements. When he is not cooking or experimenting with raw foods, he can often be found out in the mountains foraging wild edibles. He currently lives at Knoll Farm in Fayston, Vermont.

Glen Hutcheson is an accomplished painter and sculptor as well as a chef who specializes in regional and local cuisine. He lives more simply than most, without a car and with very few material needs, in Montpelier, Vermont.

Adrienne Maree Brown is an organizational healer, pleasure activist, facilitator, singer, doulain-training, and artist living in Detroit. She is currently co-coordinator of the Detroit Food Justice Task Force.

Ginny McGinn is a passionate social change leader whose career has spanned the arts, nonprofit management, education, and green business entrepreneurship. She brings her heartfelt caring to building, maintaining, and improving organizations through authentic relationships and a commitment to creating a sustainable future. Ginny is the codirector of Center for Whole Communities.

Anushka Fernandopulle teaches mindfulness meditation, and she also practices as a personal and professional coach and organizational development consultant. She is on the faculty of Center for Whole Communities. She lives in San Francisco.

Brett Melone is executive director of the Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association where, since 2002, he has been supporting the efforts of farm workers in the Central Coast region to pursue their passion to become independent organic farmers. Brett grew up in South Florida where both of his parents worked in production agriculture. He studied international environmental policy and lived in Chile for several years before moving to Salinas, California.

Peter Forbes has been a tireless and compelling voice for the role of land in healing our communities and our connections with others for most of his adult life. His work has been to interweave an understanding of the environment with story, spirit, relationship, justice and livelihood in the interests of healing both land and people. He is the co-director of Center for Whole Communities, as well as a writer, photographer, and wood carver.

Mistinguette Smith helps organizations to make, and measure, social change. She owns M Smith Consulting LLC, where she teaches seasoned and emerging leaders how to ask themselves, and each other, difficult questions about the relationship between difference, innovation and the capacity to be effective. She has been part of the CWC faculty since 2008, and also works as an internal consultant to CWC developing curriculum and faculty capacity.

Dana Hudson works for Shelburne Farms on the Vermont FEED (Food Education Every Day) project, a partnership of three Vermont nonprofits: Shelburne Farms, FoodWorks, and NOFA-VT. Dana also works with the National Farm to School Network, coordinating Farm to School practitioners and projects in the six New England states and New York.

Tom Wessels is a professor of ecology at Antioch University New England where he was the founding director of the masters degree program in Conservation Biology. His books include: Reading the Forested Landscape, The Granite Landscape, Forest Forensics, and The Myth of Progress. He is a member of the faculty and chair of the board of Center for Whole Communities.

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CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES ÂŠ 2011

From the Editor

ne night last week, around 3:30 a.m., a farmer north of us headed back to bed after loading up a truck that would deliver his produce, local meats, and cheeses to the members of his CSA and his wholesale accounts. Though this farm is known in Vermont as one that sets out to “feed Vermonters with Vermont food, year-round,” that was the last truckload of food the farmer would load from his farm for the winter; less than an hour after he headed back to bed his barn burned to the ground. Later that day, the farmer gathered about a dozen of his closest friends and neighbors and headed out to a favorite local place to eat, drink beer, and talk about the tragedy. The barn had been the heart of the farm, and it contained close to half a million dollars worth of equipment and food. The farmer and his friends stayed at the pub for hours, and when it came time to pay the bill, the waiter said that someone had called in anonymously and paid the entire tab. By the next day, donations to a new-barn fund were flooding in from all over the state, and now, a week later, construction on a new barn has already begun. This story in our community makes me think of the saying, “The barn has burned. Now I can see the moon.” Though it is true that whenever someone is killed there is nothing that will make up for the loss, there are times when tragedy and loss can emerge into something with the potential for greater possibility. People’s instinct is to gather in ceremony, in prayer, in an effort to understand and heal something broken, to make the loss less dark and the future less uncertain. At all these times of challenge, it is our connection to one another and our capacity for empathy and generosity that gives us the greatest chance of transcending and transforming loss. “Only connect,” E. M. Forster famously said, and sometimes I’m not sure there are many other quotes that one needs to remember in order to navigate through life. I believe those two words come closest to describing the genesis of our work at Center for Whole Communities, really. Simple, perhaps, but also profound—and profoundly difficult to achieve—that it is our coming into deeper relationship with one

another and with place that will get us through most of the major challenges we face as diverse peoples living on a fragile earth. And so, it is interesting for me to reflect on this phrase only connect, now, as Peter and I contemplate a major transition in our lives, one away from the central leadership of the organization we started and toward something else. Given that reality, this edition of the Journal is dedicated to transitions, to the notion of sharing and transferring power and leadership. Peter writes more fully about this shift in his essay, “Facing Change.” Center for Whole Communities’ codirector Ginny McGinn takes on the question of why change is so hard. Both Peter and Ginny point to contemplative practice and how it is core to our programs for the very reason that it helps us stay on the path of radical change when we feel uncomfortable. One of our meditation faculty members, Anushka Fernandopulle, writes about how to keep such a practice alive. In his essay on self-organization, Tom Wessels reminds us that, in seeking new models of leadership that are likely to be more successful and sustainable, we can look to the natural world for inspiration. We are indebted to Brett Melone, who brings us the story of his journey to help the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA) in Salinas, California, transition to a people-of-color-led organization, where member migrant farmers are the driving force and voice for change. Faculty member Mistinguette Smith shares with us her list of the “learned and earned” competencies that have not traditionally been recognized but that are vital for the new models of leadership today. Adrienne Maree Brown reflects on a very personal path toward leadership, and what it can look like from the inside. We hope these perspectives resonate, or raise questions, and we encourage you to stay in touch. Thank you all for being part of this journey. With deep appreciation,

Helen Whybrow Knoll Farm, February 2011

In the Fields of Salinas: Cultivating Intercultural Leadership Brett Melone

had the good fortune of attending a Whole Thinking Retreat during the summer of 2007. I ventured to Vermont from California, where I had lived for several years, and where I served in the incredibly gratifying and challenging job of executive director at the Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association (ALBA). ALBA, together with its two predecessor organizations, has a nearly forty-year history of supporting the development of small farm businesses by farmworkers, in the heart of our country’s “salad bowl,” the Salinas Valley. The Salinas Valley is famous for several things, depending on whom you ask. But you probably wouldn’t expect to hear that it is a place where Latino leaders cut their teeth while working as innovative organic farmers. The landscape that inspired John Steinbeck is alive and well as we move into the second decade of the twenty-first century. The human eye can enjoy natural and wild beauty, while also appreciating the physical

exertion required to maintain the highly manicured fields of plenty that have built wealth for some, attracted millions of farmworkers from south of the border, and been the venue for much social conflict over the last one-hundred-plus years. Industrial agriculture in the Salinas Valley has been perfected. Part of the formula that allows growers to make a profit decade after decade is a constant flow of cheap, immigrant labor. All of the individuals and families who have crossed and continue to cross either the border to our south, whether they be from Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, or Oaxaca, Mexico, or the border further south into Central America from El Salvador or Guatemala, are coming with a strong desire and explicit need to improve their economic plight. Some are fleeing political persecution or violence. But in general, they are fleeing their hometowns due to a lack of opportunity. The impact of this migration on the home places of farmworkers is

The Mendoza family. PHOTO BY ALBA

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a subject beyond the scope of this article, but it is part of what This focus on the individual and family at ALBA does not motivates me to do the work I do. mean that community is not important. On the contrary, we Many, if not most, farmworkers arrive in the Salinas Valley believe that strengthening individual and family capacity is bringing with them a long lineage of rural living and farming key to community well-being. In fact, the core strategic vision for subsistence as well as vocation. Some have dreams of return- created recently by farmers at ALBA is described this way: The ing home someday in the not-too-distant future, while others ultimate measure of ALBA’s success is a farmer’s ability to make envision themselves in the United States “forever”. Whatever positive impacts in the community. This vision resulted from a the case, they come ready to work and, ultimately, to contrib- three-year-long visioning and strategic planning process. That ute to the new community they are joining. ALBA’s Farmer process began formally just before I departed for Knoll Farm. Education Program provides opportunities to farmworkers I was attracted to the Whole Thinking Retreat experiand other low-income people ence because I identified on a in the region to augment and personal level with its vision apply their farming knowledge I am a white male working with low-income immigrant to convene diverse individuand entrepreneurial spirit to farmers. I see the need on the part of the largely white- als to learn and grow together. the establishment of an organic dominated sustainable agriculture world to demonstrate I wanted to be taken out of my farming business. At the old the relevance of their policies to people of color, and to comfort zone, and I was also Bardin family farm that is now yearning for validation of my be genuinely inclusive. ALBA’s Rural Development pursuit to empower farmers. I Center, we have learned that am a white male working with participants of our Farmer Education Program not only start low-income immigrant farmers. I see the need on the part of farm businesses, but also gain skills they can apply in the agri- the largely white-dominated sustainable agriculture world to cultural job market. demonstrate the relevance of their policies to people of color, Approximately one thousand families have benefitted from and to be genuinely inclusive. I dream of farmers representing vocational training and economic opportunity during ALBA’s their own interests in policy debates and resource allocation. history. Each year a class of approximately twenty-five farmers And I wasn’t at all sure how to shift my role to facilitate this. graduates from the six-month-long Farmer Education Program. The timing of my participation in the retreat at Knoll Farm These graduates are creating a pipeline of beginning farmers was fortuitous. That summer, ALBA was in the process of who establish businesses, invest themselves in their businesses creating space for the farmers in our programs to contribute and their communities, and contribute to the well-being of to and ultimately share the leadership of the organization. A their families and neighbors—doing well by doing good. The large part of my motivation to move the organization from struggle to establish a business that will sustain a family starts being a white organization to becoming an organization led with tremendous sacrifice and requires perseverance. Typically, primarily by people of color was driven by formative experifarmers start out farming for themselves part-time, while ences I had while living and working in Chile several years additionally working in the fields of another grower, doing before. My time in Chile very much shaped my perspective construction, or some other off-farm job. Ultimately, “success” on leadership development and democracy as it applies to for each family is defined by their own aspirations and limita- community development work. At the time I arrived at ALBA tions, their willingness to ask for help and take advantage of it, I was first developing a vision for what was possible, fueled by and their ability to envision success despite adversity. A love of an innate and recently nourished idealism. Little did I know the land, growing food, feeding people, and being their own then that my idealism was not informed enough by the practiboss are some of the motivations that we hear from partici- cal realities and challenges inherent in building leadership in pants. ALBA provides access to economic opportunity so that immigrant communities to implement what I had envisioned. people who want to be successful organic farmers have the My perspective has certainly evolved. option to do so. While I sense that most of the folks we work The common thread running through my formative experiwith have a vision for improving their communities when they ences in Chile was power: who has it, what it is based on, how arrive at ALBA, their primary motivation is to improve their it was obtained, and what it takes to shift the balance. I was individual situations by applying their skills and passion for extremely grateful to have found some very interesting work, get agriculture. exposed to the dynamic of North-South relationships, develop CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2010

an appreciation for the influences behind the decades-long dictatorship in Chile and its resulting legacy, and generally become immersed in its culture. Ultimately, mine was an experience of assimilation. Certainly I had some privileges that had helped me assimilate, but that didn’t change the fact that it was a challenging and transformational process. It wasn’t always a conscious one; much of my subconscious desire to assimilate likely came simply from my drive to survive and succeed. In the end, what left the biggest mark on me as a person as a result of my time in Chile, and what is most relevant to this story, is the influence Brazil’s popular education guru Paulo Freire had on my thinking. He left me with the profound and truly democratic belief that education both should be accessible to all and can be the path to empowerment. To a large degree, the privilege of education is what allowed me to succeed in a foreign culture. Likewise, on returning home, I was attracted to the work of ALBA because of its holistic nature, and what I began to see as its vision for opportunity and power-building through education. What I didn’t have a keen enough appreciation for as a young and idealistic gringo was that the process of empowerment through education and opportunity, and ultimately, a shifting of power, is a long and sometimes painful process. As a white male representing power and privilege in our culture, I came to learn something profound. In my position in society, given the color of my skin, there were real limitations to what I could accomplish in terms of empowering others, at least in any conventional sense. Yet, pursued in a culturally astute way, recognizing my own and inherited limitations and acknowledging my privilege, I learned that I had a role to play as an ally. I also learned that those who were assuming greater power had to be ready to do so and, in my opinion, use it for good. What does good mean? Do we share core values? Who will benefit? Individuals? The community? The answer to that question ultimately lies with the people being empowered, and they will act accordingly. I came to Knoll Farm very much aware that ALBA was increasingly being asked to be a voice on issues and policies relating to sustainable agriculture and social and environmental justice issues, and that I was growing more and more uncomfortable when our organization was asked to “represent” the interests of the farmers with whom we worked. The 2002 Farm Bill was in the midst of being implemented, and groups who advocated for particular programs were seeking input on how they were working, in preparation for the development of the 2007 Farm Bill. It felt inadequate and inappropriate to be surmising their opinions, or just asking a few farmers to offer a statement. www.wholecommunities.org

Domitila Martinez. PHOTO BY ALBA

Around the same time, ALBA joined the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which had just gone “national.” We began bringing farmers to advocacy meetings, and encouraging them to share their stories and input on policy to improve its relevance to beginning and minority farmers. We delivered a Farm Bill 101 workshop series and held listening sessions to gather input. The wheels were definitely in motion, and yet key parts of the process were not working. One of the main questions we were grappling with was how to help minority farmers engage in an existing system that had been in place before their participation was sought, had been used by people of privilege in relative positions of power, and which therefore didn’t necessarily work for them. For example, in the process of planning for meetings and conferences, the desire on the part of existing policy/advocacy organizations to be inclusive, relevant, and diverse often led to situations in which they “placed an order” for a Hispanic farmer, a Hmong farmer, an African farmer, an African-American farmer, etc. Clearly they wanted to be inclusive and demonstrate their connection to these communities, or at least the relevance of their policy priorities to these farmers. At times these efforts have felt too much like tokenism to me, and they were. I have been told by minority farmers that they perceived these overtures as hollow, and even wondered what ulterior motives might be behind such efforts. It became clear to me that our advocacy to ensure diverse voices and participation in the process had to be at least as much for the farmers’ benefit as it was to support advocacy organizations to “diversify” their policy agendas and demonstrate their relevance to these communities. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

Perhaps ironically, federal policy was the starting point for ALBA’s foray into policy, advocacy, and leadership development. Somehow we knew that it was only a starting point. After all, while federal policy is relevant to the farmers at ALBA, it was the “furthest,” both geographically and structurally, from their reality. It was clear to us that the farmers in our programs could benefit from more deliberate leadership development training so that they could advocate for themselves within the federal system. It was also apparent that there were many issues that farmers were passionate about that were not federal policy issues. Similarly, there were non-federal policy issues (local, state, ALBA-related) that could benefit from farmer input. This led us to look internally, to evaluate our own ability to build a process and system that would mirror the values behind what we wanted to do and how we thought we needed to do it. I held a strong conviction that we should be more formally engaging farmers in the program development and governance of the organization. I knew this was possible, yet it was not clear what the path to get from “here to there” would be. Right about the same time our energy and desires were focusing on ramping up our leadership development and advocacy work, we were successful in joining an incredible cohort of people-of-color-led organizations and organizations “in transition” to being led by people of color. The Jesse Smith Noyes Foundation in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation had a vision and made a financial commitment to support a cohort of ten such organizations to be part of their Diversifying Leadership for Sustainable Food Policy Initiative, and we were chosen as one of those. According to the final report of the initiative prepared by Community Science1, the food policy initiative was significant in several ways:

• It was a way for the Noyes Foundation to support its earlier decision to expand its focus beyond state, regional, and national organizations to include groups working at the local level. • It sought to build the advocacy capacity of ten peopleof-color-led (POC-led2) organizations so they could help shape a more socially just and sustainable food system for the nation. • It used a structural racism lens by focusing on changing the rules that affect relationships and power dynamics between institutions and groups of individuals, between institutions, and between individuals. • It was the first time that the Noyes Foundation regularly convened and evaluated its grantees.

• It intentionally sought consultants of color (e.g., trainers, evaluators, technical assistance providers) whose work supported the application of a structural racism lens. • It provided an opportunity to generate new insights about building the advocacy of POC-led organizations, a topic not adequately covered in contemporary literature about advocacy and systems change and philanthropy.

The steps and deliberations ALBA had been taking prior to joining this initiative around leadership development and governance helped to bring into sharper focus what would end up being our self-identification as an organization making a purposeful transition to a people-of-color-led organization. We hadn’t self-identified in such a way before, but we ultimately decided that was the direction we were headed. And so began a journey that has been the source of great hope, important lessons about structural racism, and the power of idealism when driven by pragmatism. My enthusiasm and the projection of my reality upon those I serve have at times blinded me to the obstacles and pitfalls posed by the collective historical perspective and cultural lens of farmers at ALBA. An important part of the history and culture of Mexico, and of many Latin American countries for that matter, is land reform. In Mexico the process of agrarian reform led to the creation of the ejido system, which in laymen’s terms can be understood as agricultural land designated for collective use. Many of the farmers we work with have participated in and benefited from that system in their home country, and in fact see ALBA as a variation on the concept. Both I, as an individual, and ALBA, as an organization, learned through painful and bittersweet experience that opportunity and empowerment ultimately cannot be directed, but only nurtured and supported. The Noyes Foundation grant provided funding over three years for staff time and consultant support to focus on what we had defined as our social change goals. We defined two social change goals; one focused on internal change and the other focused on external change. In addition to the direct funding provided by the grant, the Foundation provided support to the cohort members by having us convene once a year in a deliberate and focused way to share and learn from one another. ALBA was the primary organization that fell into the category of an organization “in transition.” This meant that we were able to learn a tremendous amount from the history and evolution of the other organizations, how they functioned, and in some cases, how they became people-of-color-led organizations. ALBA’s unique history as an organization focused on economic development has had significant implications www.wholecommunities.org

for being, and becoming, a people-of-color-led organization. Joining the Noyes cohort committed us to developing a plan to pursue this goal. Our external social change goal was to support limited-resource farmers and low-income consumers in their efforts to represent their own interests in policy development and assume leadership positions in their communities. Our policy-change objectives were very specific and related to local, state, and national policies. The sheer volume and diversity of the policy issues we chose indicated that we were being quite ambitious. It included many of the federal policy priorities that emerged as part of the Diversity Initiative during the 2008 Farm Bill process, such as education, grant, credit, and conservation programs to benefit socially disadvantaged and beginning farmers. It also included state policy issues such as agricultural water quality regulations and the allocation of Specialty Crop Block Grant funds. We achieved success in terms of impact on policy and leadership development of farmers at both the state and federal levels. However, the “sweet spot”—in terms of an issue which ALBA could take ownership of and one that also offered opportunities to build bridges with other movements and strengthen coalitions—was the acceptance of food stamps at farmers’ markets and, in broader terms, farmers’ market governance. This emerged as the sweet spot because it connects the issue of access to markets for farmers with that of access to fresh fruits and vegetables for low-income consumers. The opportunity emerged for ALBA to sponsor state legislation to ensure acceptance of food stamps at farmers’ markets. The two-year process allowed farmers at ALBA to advocate for something that is key to their success and that also supports community health and well-being. With Assembly Bill 537, which addressed the introduction of electronic benefit transfers at farmers’ markets (essentially enabling people to use foodstamp-type funds at farmers’ markets) and was signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger in September 2010, we are now in the process of planning implementation of the new law. Farmers’ efforts in markets and talking with policy makers will be crucial to the successful implementation of this ruling and ensuring that its impact is far-reaching. Our internal social change goal was to ensure that ALBA farmer-constituents, consisting largely of Latinas/os with farmworker backgrounds, will be actively engaged in the governance of the organization. We wanted to create a formal role for ALBA farmer constituents and community stakeholders within the organizational structure to allow these groups to inform, influence, and participate in programs and governance; and we wanted ALBA staff and board to reflect the ethnic diversity of www.wholecommunities.org

Brett Melone and Eleazar Juarez in Washington, D.C. PHOTO BY JUAN REGALADO.

the community we serve. ALBA is at once an organization fortunate to have significant land assets which it makes accessible to farmers, while also helping farmers to build their own asset base by leveraging ALBA’s. Carrying out the democratization of this type of organization while at the same time working to develop a pipeline of leadership to lead the democracy proved to pose significant challenges. As we should have expected, all of the organization’s policies and procedures were called into question as the process of implementing this internal goal began. ALBA found itself in an evermore complicated position of wearing many hats—not only serving as educator, landlord, and customer (through ALBA Organics, an aggregator and wholesale distributor) to farmers, but also encouraging and supporting farmers’ shift into a position of power within the organization that exists to provide access to opportunity. Some of the more painful experiences that emerged during this time were related to land lease compliance by farmers and to conflicts of interest that surfaced among ALBA farmers and staff. Ultimately, ALBA’s Board of Directors made the tough decision to put the process of developing an advisory committee on hold for a time, because the committee had become enmeshed in issues that it did not have the authority to resolve. And, most importantly, sufficient trust had not been established to navigate a resolution to the issues that had emerged. After about a year-long hiatus, we were able to reinitiate the process, with the support and guidance of some very wise consultants with years of experience working to build leaders in farmworker communities. The result of this process is that three farmers serve on an Executive Committee representing the interests of the larger assembly of forty ALBA farmer-tenants. In addition, the farmer assembly shapes programs, provides input on policies, and is an “incubator” of sorts for the development of community leaders. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

We have known for years, based on personal testimonials, with ALBA and its farmer network in the future to pursue that the educational and business development experience systems change that recognizes the role of small farmers’ contriwhich farmers gain at ALBA helps them build self-esteem. butions to society,” they told us. Our experience with AB 537 During the organizational transformation process we heard in building a coalition that was successful in establishing legismore of this. Longtime farmers Hector Mora and María Luz lation that serves multiple goals and stakeholders proved to us Reyes, for instance, resisted assuming leadership positions in all what Martha and Jennifer had suspected. the Executive Committee that emerged because they felt they ALBA has made a commitment to pursue the goals mentioned would not be able to benefit personally from their investment above over the long term. These goals we have are truly aspiraof time. At the same time, they recognized that their contri- tional, yet we have made real progress as well. We have yet to butions as knowledgeable and experienced farmers would be recruit a former program participant to join the organization’s invaluable to shaping the policy proposals and modifications board of directors. The ALBA Board of Directors has identified that were under consideration. In the end, they could not the need to recruit board members from the Latino commuresist getting involved. They were compelled to contribute to nity who share our vision for economic opportunity, sustainthe ALBA community, and in turn to the farmers who would able agriculture, and social justice. ALBA Board Member follow in their footsteps. Alfred Navarro recently reflected that “we need to do more to Beginning farmers Carolina Garibay and María Bravo were develop and nurture leaders in the community.” He believes elected to the Executive Committee by their farmer peers. Both that we should be developing leadership roles at all levels within are bilingual, and they were viewed by other farmers as being the community and our organization: board, management, well-positioned to represent their interests in important venues. educator, lecturer, writer, expert, organizer, as well as trainee. Ramon Moreno, the third of three “Community leaders should be Executive Committee members, cultivated from within.” The “Community leaders should be cultivated from a rural leader in Mexico, brings farmer leaders with whom we immense patience and caring to his within.” The farmer leaders with whom we work work are out in the community role as a leader at ALBA. Monthly are out in the community spreading goodwill and spreading goodwill and feeding meetings with farmers have been feeding their neighbors the good food they grow. their neighbors the good food they transformed in large part thanks to grow. This is leading to a growing Ramon’s facilitation. recognition of the importance of Farmer Eleazar Juárez and I traveled to Washington, D.C., their efforts and ALBA’s mission. Our purposeful transition to in March of 2010 to participate in a farmer fly-in and the a people-of-color-led organization continues, and is essential to Drake University Forum on Beginning Farmers. Eleazar left farmer and organizational progress. Washington, D.C., with a profound sense of accomplishment. but also a new appreciation for the work that ALBA does to Author’s Note: I would like to convey my sincere and genuine ensure opportunities for beginning and minority farmers. “I gratitude to the ALBA Board Chair, Ed Moncrief, and to the entire had no idea all that ALBA does to make possible what many of Board of Directors, for their vision and dedication to a more just us take for granted here. For a long time I thought that ALBA and equitable community and food system. I am extremely grateemployees simply sat in their offices pushing pencils and paper ful to farmers, ALBA staff, Cultivo Consulting, Jesse Smith Noyes around. Now I know firsthand more about the work they do, Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Community Science, Leda and it is hard and important work. My job now is to share this Tully Consulting, Community Foundation for Monterey County, experience with my fellow farmers.” Center for Whole Communities, and many, many others, for their At the conclusion of a recently completed strategic vision- support and tenacity to help ALBA advance its lofty goals related ing process, philanthropy at the individual and organizational to leadership development and constituent representation. levels emerged as the most important indicator of success for 1. Lee, K. and Nemes, M., Final Evaluation Report for the Diversifying ALBA and ALBA farmers. We are all in this together. Leadership for Sustainable Food Policy Initiative, July 30, 2010. Martha Guzmán Aceves and Jennifer Hernández of Cultivo 2. For the purpose of this initiative, a POC-led organization has people of Consulting were attracted to working with ALBA farmers color as a majority of their constituency and governing board and senior staff, or has plans to undertake a purposeful transition so that people of precisely because of the potential they see in them as leaders color represent a majority in these positions. and agents of change. “We look forward to the chance to work CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

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Twenty-first-Century Competencies Mistinguette Smith

any Center for Whole Communities retreat participants are familiar with a group exercise called The Privilege Walk. It is designed to help groups identify the kinds of unearned privilege they have among them—class privilege, white skin privilege, gender privilege, and others—and how the oppression that creates such privilege affects each group member’s worldview, as well as their potential for work together. There are also critical competencies and skills we will require if we are to adapt to the rapid changes happening in our habitat, economy, and social structures. These competencies are earned and learned sources of resilience. I have identified five Twentyfirst Century Competencies that are more likely to support individual, group, and planetary survival than continued reliance on the traditional twentieth-century competencies, most of which are derived from a culture that rewards unearned power and privilege. Multilingualism: According to 2003 U.S. Census data, 20 percent of Americans speak a language other than English at home. Most of these people report that they also speak English very well. This trend is accelerating. The most frequently spoken languages in American homes are English, Spanish, and Chinese; by 2099, most Americans will speak Spanish. Little accurate information exists about the number of deaf and hearing Americans who communicate using various sign languages. Manual Production Skills/Reskilling: In a just economy with a dramatically different climate and energy environment, individual households will rely on manual skills as well as income-generating skills to sustain themselves. These skills include growing, cooking, and preserving food; small animal husbandry and meat and dairy processing; clothing construction and repair skills; and basic mechanical and carpentry skills. Manual production also requires social and community-building skills: barter, borrowing, and shared ownership of expensive resources require trustworthiness, communication skills, and reciprocity. Parenting: The role of families as educators as well as transmitters of culturally inclusive values is increasingly important.

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This is reflected in the homeschooling/unschooling movement, parental involvement in anti-violence programs, parent-led youth concern organizations like PFLAG, and intergenerational education programs. A wide variety of adults may be involved in parenting any individual child, including birth parents, stepparents, adoptive parents, foster parents, comadres/compadres and godparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, or grandparents. Legal structures may not recognize some parent/child relationships that are recognized socially, especially for intergenerational families and children parented by same-sex couples. Intercultural Skills: A track record of building successful relationships across the cultures created by socially enforced divides of class, race, gender and sexual orientation, demonstrates concrete skills as well as good intentions. Experience is as critical as intercultural skill when working in groups that embrace ethnic and religious differences, or differences in ability. Working interculturally requires knowing how to use difference to power new perceptions and thinking. Some people develop deep cultural competency through formative experience in multiracial, multiethnic households. Intercultural skills include the ability to acknowledge and accept a variety of sources of knowledge as legitimate. Deeply multicultural institutions have been shown to facilitate innovation. Adaptive Capacity: The early twenty-first century is a time of transition. Strong skills for acclimating to new environments; experiencing repeated relocation physically or culturally; and assisting others in making social and cultural transitions are important adaptive capacities. The ability to move between languages, dialects, or kinds of diction is an expression of adaptive skill and cultural resilience; those who have mastered it can provide unique leadership value to communities seeking to improve their adaptive capacity. Fluency in both relational and transactional interactions is an adaptive capacity. Support for self-organizing, nonhierarchical networks is a critical form of organizational adaptation.

Facing Change Peter Forbes

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. —James Baldwin

PHOTO BY COURTNEY BENT

011 marks ten years since Helen and I moved to a hill farm and began the experiment of bringing people together that is now known as Center for Whole Communities. We were kindling a small flame we hardly had words for; we wanted to create a place to nurture a healthier humanity amidst the failed and broken relationships between people and between people and the land. We started where we were: two white people on a farm in Vermont. Our first programs back then brought together the worlds we knew: wilderness advocates and loggers searching to find common ground, for example, or land conservationists and farmers striving to better understand what they shared. The participants of those early programs were primarily white and uppermiddle class. We could have continued to work that way, in some comfort knowing that we were helping to change the conversation within the traditional environmental movement,

but we didn’t aspire to incremental change and we knew how important it was to move away from what felt comfortable. We knew that authentic, workable, just environmental and social innovations could not be found without a great diversity of voices speaking around the table, in an atmosphere where they all felt they could be heard. One thing we learned early on is that it is not enough simply to put out an invitation and set the table. So began the long journey of looking closely at our practices, our language, our ways of welcoming and accommodating people, our faculty, our curriculum, our staff, and our board in designing and implementing programs that might better make it possible for a much wider diversity of people to face one another with deep respect and with the shared goal of saving ourselves and this earth. It has been an ongoing journey, and a humbling one. In a set of program evaluations in 2004, one participant posed this question to the interviewer: “Why are Peter and Helen doing this?” Why, we were asked and had to ask ourselves, were two white people leading this work on a farm in

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Vermont, of all places? If we were serious about this work, why not do it where people of color, and urban activists, might feel more comfortable and welcomed? In times of personal confusion, I often fall back on the words of Scott Nearing, longdeceased radical politician and farmer, who said it straight up: “Do the best you can in the place where you are, and be kind.” Helen and I came to Knoll Farm with the aspiration to be in service to the land and to a larger community. We did not, back then, fully understand where this aspiration would take us. At times we have been well-intentioned but naïve, visionary but unskilled, and in many ways our vision has always been larger than our capacities to enact it. But, consistently, we’ve done what we could in the place where we found ourselves at the time, and this has been our radical invitation to others. We are deeply grateful that, despite our limitations and the limitations of our place, there have been many who believed enough in our vision to contribute their own skills to it. In these ten years, more than eight hundred individuals, families,

and foundations have made it possible for us to offer one thousand fellowships to people in forty-seven states to participate in some ninety retreats led by a committed faculty of twenty. With the help of many, we have also cocreated a new way of measuring success that brings together social justice and environmentalism. All of this is not insignificant, neither is it unsuccessful nor incremental, but it is insufficient. We aspire not to grow bigger, but to do better work. We aspire to more fully walk our talk, and to model the very things we teach, and we aspire to trust and be trusted. We have always needed skill and grace to act responsibly and to recognize that tension arises when what we attempt to grasp exceeds our reach particularly around issues of race, power, and privilege. Three years ago, I recognized that a fundamental way to begin to address these essential issues of walking the talk on power and privilege was to transition Center for Whole Communities to an organization of shared leadership, and to one where a white male (me) was not leading it. After that transition happens in spring of 2011, I will remain deeply connected to CWC’s work, but serving in a capacity other than its founder and director. I will also remain deeply connected to my lifelong journey of becoming more aware about all the issues we work on at the Center. My relationship to this place and to this work will continue to transform me. It is teaching me how to pay closer attention, to go beyond what I see on the surface, to be more patient. The educator Parker Palmer famously said, “We teach who we are,” and today a crucial question I grapple with is, “Can we teach how to move toward who we hope to become?” If the story of our lives is about evolution, about the distance we can travel from who we are to who we can become, how do we best help ourselves and others stay on that journey? How do we skillfully critique who we are today while offering encouragement to become more aware of who we will be tomorrow? If I ask you to change, then surely I must first ask myself to change. This is true for all of us, so how do we help one another walk the road between who we are and who we might become? In Jungian psychoanalysis, in all modern substance abuse recovery programs, in Native American vision quests, and in Jewish rites of passage, when individuals return from a difficult soul journey to the people whom they had left behind, those left behind must be able to witness a change in the one who traveled the journey, otherwise the traveller will re-embody the story he or she had previously held before the journey. When you embark on your own soul journey, if others close to you are either unwilling or unable to accept the change within you, no matter how big or small, it becomes nearly impossible for CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

you to live that change. No one can succeed in this hard work and discomfort, have occurred at the point of tension between of transformation without the encouragement of others. the sacred and the mundane, the tension between meeting the To those of us, people and orgaradical dream and meeting paynizations, who strive to reach for But when together we can face these shared roll, for example. Though I’ve something, we must offer a transmade a career out of creating space wounds, wounds to our hearts and to the land, parency and humility that others for others, I often leave very little can see. And when others can see honoring the journey that each of us is able to space in my own life or the life this honesty and this intention, make, then the boundaries are more permeable of this organization. I am driven, my greatest hope is that they will between those who care about a river and those and so this organization has been reward us with their encourage- who care about human incarceration. driven. And most challenging of ment. In our own case, CWC has all, it’s a hard balancing act to been an articulation of a vision for consistently live at the very edge change, not always a reality of change. For example, in 2004 of one’s personal and professional competencies, endeavoring we put forward “An Organizational Statement on Land, Race, to be humble and transparent around what’s working and not Power and Privilege,” and our work certainly has not always working, and at the same time needing to make the case that lived up to this statement. We have always been catching up we know enough about what we’re doing to get support. to our own vision; we have always been on a journey between I’m most proud of the risks we’ve taken: running a tenbeing and becoming. Some have judged us, fairly, as not year-long program tuition-free; engaging early in a journey walking our talk as carefully as they would like; others have on understanding the relationships between land, race, power, applauded us for making the steps. and privilege; and, for myself, understanding that the vision I I have discovered, personally, that doing this work also care about the most is bigger than my own capacities. Creating requires a willingness to be critiqued and to change, and, space for Ginny McGinn, our new board, and future codirecat many times, to occupy an uncomfortable place between tors to contribute their own expertise is exactly what’s needed worlds. Being an edge-walker requires the willingness to have to nurture that radical dream of a land-based, intercultural your motives questioned, to be held to a higher standard, to leadership-development organization. In the exciting future be critiqued more than you are encouraged, to become a light- ahead, I want to serve a Center for Whole Communities that ning rod for all that hasn’t worked in the past. In this work of has other home places, in addition to Knoll Farm, in core cities creating what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called “the beloved where we can demonstrate other aspects of the vital human community,” whether you are a member of an oppressed relationship to land. I will also be honored to become part of minority or a privileged dominant oppressor, you must be will- a Whole Communities faculty who know how best to root ing to lose your membership in the world where you were most personal transformation in stronger communities; who underat home. stand the direct causal relationship between health of people The ethical scientist, Aldo Leopold, wrote, “the penalties of and health of the earth; and who together can model how an ecological education are to live alone in a world of wounds.” diversity—of race, class, power, privilege, ideology, and geogThe penalty for an awareness of how race has affected our rela- raphy—is the source for innovation and positive change. tionships with the land and with one another is also to live One question I was recently asked that is important to me in a world of wounds, trying not to repeat them but experi- to share in this essay is: What have I been learning about leadencing the pain nonetheless. But when together we can face ership through the privilege of engaging with and listening these shared wounds, wounds to our hearts and to the land, to so many different people over the last ten years? Some of honoring the journey that each of us is able to make, then the the most important learning for me has come from the core boundaries are more permeable between those who care about practices of our programs; while other learning has come out a river and those who care about human incarceration. Then of observations I have made about qualities of being, such as the big work of transformation has begun. respect, in others, as the source of their grace and their effective Sometime early upon arriving at Knoll Farm, I was told that leadership. the word “radical” meant “enough,” and ever since I’ve asked Respect. The word respect means, quite literally, to look myself, “Have I done enough to fulfill this radical dream?” My again. I acknowledge that my first view of a subject is mostly a own moments of personal growth, and those of greatest stress reflection of my own assumptions, my reactions to what I see CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

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in terms of my own history, and often bears little resemblance young man, “Nothing you could ever say or write, Peter, is to what or whom I’m actually observing. To look again for as important as who you are.” And I have been trying to live what I most certainly missed, with less judgment or projection this philosophy by focusing less on what I know and more on this time, is to show respect. Today, my journey to learn something new. showing genuine respect enables us Knowing the science of our earth and knowing Very rarely am I ever going to be an to meaningfully engage with others expert who can impart information the history of our societies is an enormous that someone else desperately needs; and to transform the biggest challenges, but respect is too often miss- burden—a huge weight to carry on even the more often what I can offer others ing from our largest opportunities to strongest shoulders—that can easily become is the example of my own struggles work together. Here’s an example of anger, despondency, and fear. and successes at becoming somewhat I mean. At a gathering last year thing. I have found that sharing in North Carolina, I heard Yvette, a story and personal narrative helps Cherokee woman, speak of her people’s history, their forced me to become something else by encouraging me to focus on removal from their land and genocide, this way: “It’s in our what I don’t know and what motivates me to evolve. When the blood; it’s in our memory. We relive it everyday.” For her, the stories of our lives are about only what we know, where is the scars of “blood memory” meant that the present wrongs could room for discovery and change and new relationship? not be addressed without addressing those of the past. Only Practice of Awareness. Many times a day I realize suddenly months before, at a very different gathering, I heard a promi- that my mind is on a train, speeding down some tracks, headed nent conservationist say in response to someone else’s blood to somewhere I never intended to go, and I’m lost. I’m lost in memory, “I live in the present, not the past. There’s nothing some cobweb of thought—often emotions from the past—and that I can do about the past. I choose, instead, to focus on the I’ve got to refind my purpose and intention. I find that clear present and the future.” None of us live entirely in the present, and caring mind, which helps me to be inherently powerful, by and all of us today are impacted by the past. The only way, as taking a walk in our fields, by looking at some pictures that are I can see it, to move forward in creating a better future is to important to me, by working wood with my hands, by sitting show respect through our capacity to listen and our willingness and finding my breath. Just as there are invisible structures that to make amends for what happened in the past. keep dominant behavior and oppressive cultures in place, there Vision. Respect and Vision are sisters who fight a lot with are unseen forces that keep our minds unclear, fragmented, one another. The older, Respect, wants to see and honor what and unintentional. Surely some of these forces that keep us is in front of her, while her younger sister, Vision, is only inter- from our power are exterior and cultural: technology, the drive ested in imagining what’s possible. Of course, both of these are to multitask and produce, etc. Others are interior, however, needed in our lives of service leadership. like the simple fact that the mind has trouble being in the presVision enables us to see something that doesn’t yet exist and, ent. Whoever you think The Man is, he wants us distracted, by bringing that possibility to the surface, makes it closer to separated from our power, in our silos, angry with one another, becoming real. When you aspire to help create something new, unable to dream together. For me personally, nothing has been you have to reach for a reality that is more elusive than what more important in my development as a leader than my evolvyou might observe, a notion reached perhaps only through ing capacity to be intentional, to actually do what I want to imagination, one which we can only hope for and pray for do, to be who I want to be, to strengthen my own clear and together. Transformational leadership, the kind that changes caring mind. the game, requires both balancing the tension between vision During the long march to defeat the Taft-Hartley Act, Cesar and respect by enabling us to pursue a dream and regularly Chavez paused daily to do yoga. Many of the most inspiring seeing that dream in a fresh light, anew. young and old people I meet in our programs share one charPersonal Narrative and Story. Nothing is as transformative acteristic: they have found a daily practice that helps to keep to relationships as the willingness to listen for and to share them aware. Knowing the science of our earth and knowing our personal narratives: the stories of what matters most to the history of our societies is an enormous burden—a huge us and makes us who we are. When I hear your story, and weight to carry on even the strongest shoulders—that can easily you listen to mine, whatever tenuous fabric already holds us become anger, despondency, and fear. What we call awareness together grows stronger. I’m fortunate to have been told as a practice are the tools everyone can use to cultivate mindfulness www.wholecommunities.org

At the Heidelberg Project, Detroit. PHOTO BY PETER FORBES.

and to recognize our own default postures: how, for example, we act under pressure or at times of high emotional stress. It’s been helpful to recognize what happens to me at those times, when I default to my head and abandon my heart. At your own times of feeling overwhelmed, do you attack or retreat? Do you go into command and control? Learning how to be graceful and unflappable in these times, or at least aware of how and why one is triggered and how to respond appropriately afterward, has a lot to do with mindfulness, I believe. The practices we observe in order to build awareness and wholeness are meditation, silence, physical experience of shared work, and deep immersion in personal creativity, shared and individual experiences of nature. Larry Yang, a meditation teacher in the East Bay and a member of our faculty, puts it this way: “You cannot change a problem until you can first see the problem.” Awareness practice gives me a more objective perspective, as if looking in a mirror. And, without doubt, emotions inevitably arise when we see ourselves, as well, perhaps, as the problems we are creating or adding to, more objectively. Awareness practice CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

is then the source of gracefulness and equanimity that allows one to hold these self-observations and not push them away. Awareness practice is the primary way that our programs help people to slow down, which is an essential first step in transforming a situation, and to see ourselves and others differently. In the life of change-making, these are the muscles that I have observed being strengthened through an awareness practice: Empathy for self and others. Behavioral change rarely is sustained from guilt or anger but more so from compassion and empathy. Awareness practices help our participants to transform guilt and anger into compassion and empathy. Innovation and collaboration. Awareness practice, especially within facilitated meditation, gives a group a physical experience of breathing together, which may be an essential first step in actually working together. We intentionally have dialogue follow awareness practice in our programs because of the effect each undertaking has on the other. It’s the awareness practice that helps people to find their own greatest wisdom, and it’s having dialogue together that allows different people to seek out shared values. Combined, these steps create the www.wholecommunities.org

PHOTO BY PETER FORBES

atmosphere and conditions needed to support human collaboration. Collaboration is so hard for many to achieve in part because few know what it actually feels like to work in solidarity with others who are very different. Every week, we witness people being more able to share experience and to see one another, which results in their developing new ways of doing their work, which in turn is the source of innovation. Ubuntu: the primacy of relationship and reciprocity. Leymah Roberta Gbowee is an African peace activist who played a large role in organizing the peace movement in Liberia in 2003, which led to the election of Liberia’s first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Gbowee began making these extraordinary peace efforts among child soldiers by working primarily with their mothers, which makes even more relevant her translation of the classical African concept of Ubuntu: “I can be who I am because of who you are.” At the core of our work has been the simple effort of helping very different people to take their best step toward one another. Through the use of story and visioning together, by practicing respect, and by building capacity for awareness, we are cultivating the soil for new alliances and relationships. The challenges to our culture and our planet are too severe to be adequately addressed by great organizations alone; these challenges must be confronted meaningfully by great relationships: alliances and deep collaborations where each party sees how its success is tied up in the success of the other parties. I imagine anyone reading this understands from their own life experience how fragmentation and isolation is institutionalized in our

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country right now. We are pitted against each other, divided by politics, by privilege, by race; and in our heart of hearts, most of us also recognize that this separation is the opposite of wholeness. As our one thousand alumni have moved to action, we see how these practices, which for a decade we’ve been experimenting with, learning about, and sharing, can help to lead communities out of such destructive divides. Imagine the possibilities for change when the solution to hunger is approached from land conservation, from organic agriculture, and from green business, not just from social services. Deep cultural shifts are not possible without relationship, and the leadership necessary to heal our earth and our human communities is not possible without relationships across sectors, divides, and difference. In 2011, the most effective leaders are not those who “know” the most, but those who demonstrate the capacity to build these relationships especially where there are none. Author, professor, and Whole Communities board member Carolyn Finney succinctly describes the connections necessary for meaningful response around climate change as: “bringing together the most connected and the most affected.” And, of course, relationship is not just the foundation of good leadership but also the foundation for all change-making: that which builds relationships between people, and between people and the land, will restore health to both. That which doesn’t will likely create divides and conflict. Much of my work in the last decade has been to explore with our faculty and others how we apply these ideas to leadership. What does it practically mean, as Dana Meadows, the pioneering systems-thinker asked, “to see a problem whole?” What are the applications of this to leadership? Over the years, we’ve come to call our response “Whole Thinking,” which is the difficult pursuit in leadership of identifying the root causes of problems; making visible the relationships between things, especially the relationship between problems; listening for the language and story that reflects where there is shared vision; tossing out old tools and picking up new ones; sharing budgets; recognizing and speaking about past mistakes and injustices. And when people and organizations practice ubuntu they become less brittle, more flexible, more innovative, and more adaptable. Ubuntu means being inclusive enough to see that our strength comes not merely from our knowledge, our position, our resources, but perhaps, today, even more, from our ability to see across the divide to recognize allies and practice “reciprocal transformation.” Personally, that is the work I feel I have devoted myself to, and which I plan to spend a lifetime getting better at. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

Creating New Pathways Ginny McGinn

ne of the things that drew me to Center for Whole Communities almost two years ago was the organization’s mission to support individuals working for social and environmental change. My work with Bioneers, a nonprofit organization working to share inspiring stories of sustainability and social change, had changed me. I learned firsthand that there were elegant sustainable solutions for many of our social and environmental problems, and that social and environmental issues were interconnected. I also saw that what was often lacking in the effort to create real change on the ground was the ability for inspired leaders to enact change within their organizations—and ultimately to help change the communities they served. I remember vividly a conversation I had with Hunter Lovins after the release of Natural Capitalism, a book she coauthored with Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins in 1999.The book was

a media success—then-President Clinton even held up a copy in a press conference—and yet two years later, Hunter found herself asking why change was so slow. She and I talked about why organizations and businesses don’t change even when all of the data points them to the urgent need to change. This and many other conversations helped me understand that our biggest challenge is not a shortage of revolutionary ideas and technologies. Our biggest challenge is instigating change, personal and organizational. These times are asking each of us to be engaged in more creative and innovative approaches to address the important issues we face. We must be able to move beyond old ways of thinking and doing into new ways. Easy to say, hard to do. Those of us working to create whole, healthy communities often find ourselves having the same conversations—with the same people—in the same ways we’ve become accustomed

U.S. Social Forum. PHOTO BY PETER FORBES.

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to. And while there are new organizations and new forms of create the space for new ideas, space where we are challenged leadership and movements for change springing up all over the to think differently, and to act differently. We need diverse country, many of us who have been working for the environ- voices at the table in order to create lasting systemic change. ment and for justice our entire careers are unaware and uninSounds simple, right? So why is this so difficult in practice? volved. We’re missing it. Why do we tend to stick to people we know? And why, when The fact that Center for Whole Communities sees this chal- we do expand our circle, do we tend not to collaborate well lenge is what drew me to accept the codirector position. CWC with those who are different? It’s not because we don’t want recognizes the need for environmental and social change lead- to, but because we have to overcome the powerful conditioners to work with new people in new ways. We understand that ing existing in our brains of which we are not even conscious. neither technology alone nor any single movement can create Hang with me as we go into a bit of brain science. I promise it the momentum we need for widespread social change. That will shed light on at least one of the important reasons we have CWC is working directly on this issue is why I am so passion- such a hard time creating change together. ate about our organization. There According to the theories is something uniquely powerful Rarely does innovation happen in isolation. Just as of Jeff Hawkins, head of The in the model of bringing diverse plants and animals adapt to be better fitted to their Redwood Center for Theoretical groups of people together, and environment as a result of what they come into Neuroscience at UC Berkeley, our together creating the possibility neocortex (the thinking brain) is contact with so, too, do human beings. for a new way forward. composed of a series of horizontal Recently on the Canadian fibers. The bottom fibers, those Broadcasting Company radio show Spark (an ongoing conver- closest to the brainstem, are constantly taking in data from the sation about technology and culture), researcher and author environment. This is called “bottom-up” processing because it Steven Johnson was talking about his new book Where Good comes from the bottom of the brain. Simultaneously, the top Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. He spoke layers of our neocortex are determining the meaning of the data about the concept, perhaps the myth, of the “eureka moment,” coming in based on our past history and experiences. The top the instant when an individual is struck by an idea, a lightning layers tend to reject or re-interpret the information if it doesn’t bolt of brilliance that will change the world. match what we know from the past. According to Hawkins, What Johnson’s research shows is that such moments are what this means is that we constantly “push the present through rare. More often what happens is that over time an individ- a filter of the past to predict the future.” Think about that for ual develops an idea in collaboration with one or more other a minute: every interaction, experience, and conversation is people whom he or she has regular contact with and input filtered through our past beliefs and assumptions without our from. Rarely does innovation happen in isolation. Just as plants even being conscious of it. And guess what? Belief trumps data and animals adapt to be better fitted to their environment as a where the brain is concerned. We are acting from our assumpresult of what they come into contact with so, too, do human tions based on our past and we often don’t know we are doing it! beings. Our best thinking happens when we bump up against Being able to draw assumptions and create plans based on other people and their ideas. Johnson’s research reveals that past experience is a very helpful function of the human brain. when we humans have relationships with individuals who However, when we are trying to collaborate with others who have different skills and come from different fields, our capac- have unique assumptions, conclusions, and beliefs, we run ity to innovate increases. Specifically he found that inventors into problems. That’s why we can go into a meeting with five typically had social connections to people with very different other people and come out each having a very different idea of backgrounds. What fed their new thinking was listening and what happened and what it meant. learning from people with different ideas. In order to truly collaborate, we need to cultivate bottomAt its core, great leadership is about fostering that type of up processing so that we can stay present to new and differcollaboration. At Center for Whole Communities we under- ent ways of thinking and being, as well as learn to challenge stand that in order for our organization to make the best deci- our own “top-down” assumptions and conclusions. That sions, to allow for creativity and innovation, we must move takes practice and commitment because top-down processing from traditional leadership models to more collaborative happens so fast and is so definitive. You just know for sure that ones. Not for any feel-good reason but because we need to she doesn’t like you because she doesn’t look you in the eye. www.wholecommunities.org

Or that he isn’t worth trying to connect to because he’s an old white man. . . . I could go on. Changing our brains and therefore our minds is possible. Neuroscientists like Daniel Siegel at UCLA have found that contemplative practices like meditation are great ways to strengthen our awareness of bottom-up processing. When we can bring awareness to what is happening in our brains, we create an opening for something new to happen. And the more we practice, the easier it becomes because we create new neural pathways in our brains for the new behavior. That’s why creating true collaborative leadership takes more time, and involves more risk. It asks that organizations and their leaders let go of control. It challenges us to step out of our comfort zones, constantly challenge our own beliefs, and be present to the experiences of people who have different approaches. At Center for Whole Communities we have experienced the potential of collaborative leadership by bringing people together across all forms of difference to explore their deepest longings and to express to each other both their individual needs and the needs of their communities. This is not

always comfortable, but it is often transformative. Providing space to create new pathways is a radical act. And in a time of economic distress and decreased giving in some sectors, taking risks is not at the top of the list. At Center for Whole Communities we are taking that risk. We have made a commitment to what we are calling “breakthrough work” that will move our organization from one based in rural Vermont, having fairly traditional organizational structure and leadership with strong roots in the conservation movement, to an organization with a shared leadership model whose staff, faculty, board, and alumni represent all sectors of the environmental and social change movements. We have made a decision to do this because we believe that the future of our movements for change depends on our ability to work across the divides of race, class, and sector. The future depends on each one of us having the ability to be in relationship with people who come from different backgrounds, people who have strong urban or rural ties, people who have radically different histories in relation to race and class. The future depends upon our ability to take risks and to change.

Bringing Practice to Life Anushka Fernandopulle

PHOTO BY COURTNEY BENT

any people have a positive experience with contemplative practice at Center for Whole Communities and resolve to make it part of their regular life when they return home. At Knoll Farm, the benefits of committing to routine practice seem obvious, and it feels like doing so should be easy . . . right? How hard can it be to take a short time out of the day for quiet reflection or contemplation? Once home, however, you find things often play out differently! E-mails pile up, meetings abound, your family needs attention, and you always feel behind. Your life feels busier and busier and it seems hard to find the time to reflect for even fifteen minutes. And if you ever manage to do so, you spend that time worrying about what you should be doing instead, and getting stressed about the week ahead. It wasn’t like this in the yurt! As someone who has surfed between retreat life and regular life during all of my adulthood, I want to offer some thoughts on how to make the goal of integrating contemplative practice into your life a bit easier. No, it’s not like it was on retreat. Unless you live in a retreat center, the conditions of your life will be different than those you found on your retreat. What’s going on around you

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or distracted and ungrounded? How do you manage incoming communication, and does your current approach support the kind of life you want to lead? Technology is a tool that can serve us. Do you own your cell phone or does it own you? Check it out in your own experience and see! These are just a few ideas about how to bring contemplative practice into your life and keep it fresh. Don’t be afraid to change things up if they are not working for you. And enjoy it!

PHOTO BY PETER FORBES

is likely noisier. What’s going on in your mind is likewise also very different, in content and speed. This doesn’t mean it is a waste of time to do contemplative practice, just that it will feel different. Expect this. And know that it is still valuable. Keep your practice alive. Reflect on what practices were most helpful to you and why. Did you love the silent breakfast? Movement practice in the morning? Seated meditation? Walking practice? Something else? Decide which aspect was most meaningful for you and bring that facet into your life, even if in a small way. Resolve to try doing this much for a period of two weeks or a month as an experiment, and then evaluate if you want to continue. Arrange the time, place, and equipment to support your practice. As with establishing any new habit, you want to build in as much support as you can to help it become a part of your life. Some basic logistics are helpful: Decide when you will do your practice, determine where you will practice, and get any necessary things you need (journal, cushion, yoga mat, bell, etc.). Set your stuff up in a place that will remind you of your practice when you walk by. If it seems helpful, find a buddy to practice with you. Put the time in your calendar. Set your alarm. And avoid the temptation to hit snooze when the alarm goes off! Start small. Start with realistic expectations. Instead of planning to start your practice by meditating twice a day for an hour each time, why not start with once a day for fifteen minutes? The same goes for all the other practices. You can always build up, but if you disappoint yourself by not meeting high expectations early on, you might get frustrated and stop trying. Be creative. You may feel like your life is not set up right now to take any special time out for another activity like movement, meditation, reading, or reflection. You can also bring contemplative practice into your life using something you already do. Choose one simple activity that you do regularly and resolve to make that your practice, doing it wholeheartedly. If you choose washing dishes, try to be present with the physical experience of the water, feeling the dishes, feeling the motion of your hands. Notice when you get distracted and start drifting away, and gently come back. “When sweeping, just sweep,” as the old Zen saying goes. If you walk back and forth to the subway everyday, make one of those routes your walking meditation time. Examine how the rest of your life, especially your relationship to technology, either supports or undermines your practice. This is a juicy area for learning. Does the multitasking you try to do condition your mind to be steady and present

Resilient Communities: An Ecological Perspective Tom Wessels

any times while walking from Knoll Farm’s “upper Since energy is finite, any individual or species that wastes pasture” down to the barn, I have been stopped by energy has a reduced chance of survival, while populations the shear beauty of the view that forces my eyes that are energy efficient can increase their numbers as a finite to rise to the crest of the Green Mountains. Within the many amount of energy can support more individuals. Natural selecsquare miles encompassed by that view are species of organ- tion continually pushes species to become ever more energy isms too numerous to count. Each of those organisms has efficient through a process called coevolution. As we will see, their own specific way of living and yet somehow, through all cooperative interactions between species are far more energy their interactions, resilient ecosystems result. How does this efficient and integrative than are harmful or competitive ones. happen? The very foundation for how those ecosystems thrive Whenever two species first begin to interact, the nature of lies in the principle of self-organization. their relationship is often very negative for both parties. A Having come to light with the development of complex dramatic example of this is seen in the accidental introduction systems science in the 1970s, self-organization is a relatively of the chestnut blight fungus into North America in 1904. young concept to science, but one, as we will see, which was The fungus was present in Chinese chestnut trees planted at clearly understood long before the Bronx Zoo and Botanical western science identified it. Over long periods of time through coevolution, Garden. The Chinese chestnuts Self-organization, the obserlooked fine and healthy because relationships that begin disastrously, like that between vation that as a system grows, they had coevolved with their it gets not only bigger, but also the American chestnut and the chestnut fungus, can fungus for tens of thousands, more complex, is the hallmark eventually develop into a mutualism where both sides possibly millions, of years. of all biological, ecological, and not only benefit but also need one another to survive. However, the American chestnut healthy human systems. The had no such relationship with increasing complexity of a selfthe fungus. organized system results from the parts becoming ever more At the time that the blight fungus appeared on this contispecialized and at the same time more and more tightly inte- nent, the American chestnut was the most common forest tree grated. As each part does what it needs to do to sustain itself, east of the Mississippi River. In the heart of the species’ range, it creates conditions that sustain the whole. As a result, self- in the forests of Tennessee and Kentucky, one out of every two organized systems become increasingly resilient, stable, and forest trees were American chestnut. Within thirty years of the energy efficient. introduction of the fungus, however, the American chestnut All of us are perfect examples of self-organization. We each was almost completely wiped out throughout its range. This started life as a single, microscopic cell. As we developed to was obviously a negative outcome for the chestnut; it was not adulthood each of our single cells multiplied itself into more good for the fungus either. If an organism is a parasite, the than 30 trillion cells. However, not only did the number of worst thing it can do is to kill off its host. That is an incredibly cells geometrically increase in number, they also differentiated energy-wasteful thing to do. into 254 different cell types—including skin, muscle, bone, If two species survive their initial introduction, natural selecand nerve cells. Yet the specialization didn’t stop there. Some tion will force them to interact in less energy-wasteful, harmful nerve cells connect to muscle cells, others to sensory cells, and ways. Over long periods of time through coevolution, relationyet others connect motor neurons to sensory neurons. As each ships that begin disastrously, like that between the American highly specialized cell functions to support itself, it creates chestnut and the chestnut fungus, can eventually develop into conditions that serve the whole body. As a result the internal a mutualism where both sides not only benefit from but also environment of our bodies is stable and resilient. need one another to survive. Self-organization also occurs in ecosystems through evoluMy favorite example of mutualism involves the bull’s horn tionary time. In nature, the fundamental currency is energy. acacia tree and its resident acacia ant. Both species exist in CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

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PHOTO BY COURTNEY BENT

Mexico and Central America. The acacia has evolved three features to service its ants. These include: huge, pliable, swollen thorns that no longer serve to ward off herbivores but instead are first hollowed out by the ants and then used as cavities within which the ants can live; open sap wells on the leaf stems where ants get their water and carbohydrates; and Beltian bodies that are packed with protein and lipids which the ants harvest from the acacia’s leaf margins. If acacia ants are removed from their host tree they will die within twenty-four hours since they can survive on only acacia sap and Beltian bodies. In return the acacia ants give their host tree the most advanced plant defense system in the world. Acacia ants have very venomous bites that will drive off all herbivores. Additionally, if vines attempt to grow up an acacia tree, the ants will chop them down. Or, if a neighboring tree attempts to encroach on the acacia’s space, the ants will climb that tree and defoliate it. Acacia trees lacking ants will perish within a month. The most intriguing thing about this relationship is that acacia ants are derived from leaf-cutter ants. When these tropical ants first came upon the ancestral acacia trees they probably

defoliated and killed them. However, that was a very energywasteful thing to do, so natural selection forced the ants and the acacia to adjust their ecologies and the eventual result is witnessed in the tight mutualism they exhibit today. Competition between species is another interaction that coevolves. Competition is inherently inefficient for the individuals involved, because they have to expend energy to carve out their niche. If species can specialize to reduce the nature of their competition, then all will benefit through energy gains. In the forest adjacent to my home, I frequently encounter Black-capped Chickadees and White-breasted Nuthatches. Each bird species feeds on the same insects that live on the bark of trees, but due to specialization in the way they feed they avoid competition. The chickadees are specialized to forage on branches while the nuthatches have evolved to walk down the steep trunks of trees and only forage there. In this way competition forces innovation, allowing species to coexist without wasteful energy losses. In Vermont, where I live, midsummer meadows host a huge array of pollinators. Multiple species of bees, bumblebees, wasps, hornets, moths, butterflies, flies, beetles, and ants each pollinate flowers in their own specialized way. If any one species of pollinator should go extinct, the meadow will be fine since the other pollinators will fill the gap of service. Coevolution, by forcing species to become ever more specialized, allows all these many pollinators to coexist, creating a high level of redundancy with respect to pollination. It is exactly this redundancy—which occurs in all functional roles within an ecosystem, from numerous species of photosynthetic plants to untold numbers of decomposers—that gives ecosystems their resiliency. Due to this redundancy the extinction of any one species does not threaten the integrity of the whole ecosystem. Coevolution fosters specialization that gives rise to redundancy of function that creates resilient and stable ecosystems. The principle of self-organization is apparent not only in the human body but also in successful nonliving human systems such as our economy. Two centuries before western science would recognize this principle, Adam Smith articulated how self-organization occurs through “the invisible hand” of the marketplace. In his 1776 classic, The Wealth of Nations, the kind of economic system Smith wrote about was a village economy with specialized merchants—butchers, bakers, blacksmiths, brewers. Being specialized, the merchants were not in competition with each other and were tightly integrated together. Each did what they did for reasons of self-interest and at the same time provided services that supported the whole without anyone directing it. That was Smith’s “invisible hand.” CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

For more than a century our economic system has consistently the integration fostered by self-organization. Diversity of any moved away from the type of self-organization Smith described. kind brings forth its benefits to the degree that those diverse Corporations have grown into huge, transnational giants that entities interrelate in ways that are mutually supportive. are no longer specialists integrated with others in their sector, Of course, organizations need to be conscious not only of the but generalists that work to monopolize many sectors through nature of their internal self-organization but also of how well competitive exclusion, mergers, and acquisitions. As a result the they are self-organized both within their sector and with other global economy has lost redundancy and resiliency. sectors. This is probably a more difficult task for any leader of A critical reason for the collapse of the financial sector during an organization and yet it is critical in movements for social the fall of 2008 was not related solely to risky investments, change. It is in fact one of those things that defines grass roots— but was also due to the fact that the financial sector lacked a tightly knit web—in contrast to the isolating approach taken self-organization. At that time 40 by multinational corporations. It is percent of the investment capital in critical for each organization in a the United States was held in just ten It is critical for each organization in a partnership partnership or movement to be clear gargantuan banks. These firms were or movement to be clear about its specific role about its specific role and strengths. not specialists and were all invested and strengths. Leaders of organizations should in the same kinds of instruments. As always be looking for opportunities soon as one of those banks started to to partner with other organizations falter the whole sector, and the global economy as well, would in ways that not only benefit the sector they are working in but have toppled in a chain reaction unless governments stepped also mutually benefit each organization. in to shore up the system. If in 2008 America had thousands of At first, creating these partnerships can take a lot of time since smaller, more specialized banks rather than just ten huge ones, organizational cultures may be different, resulting in differing then, like the meadow, the financial system would have been approaches to how they work. But just as in coevolution, as just fine. As Janine Benyus writes in Biomimicry, “The more organizations learn more about each other’s work and how it our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we is approached, they will find ways to more effectively interreare to endure.” I would add: the more likely we are to thrive. late. Even though there may be a heavy investment of time at Just as in an economy, self-organization should also be the beginning, as the organizations learn to partner beneficial fostered within and between organizations. Within organiza- adjustments will occur in more and more timely fashions. If tions, self-organization is accomplished by having a clear sense we are ever really going to be effective in the organizational of what each individual is good at and enjoys doing and having work we do or in larger social change movements, we all need him or her serve in those capacities. Ideally, this would deter- to make efforts to self-organize within and between the sectors mine each individual’s specialized role. The critical thing is where we work. Just as these interrelationships bring benefits that all of these individuals need to be integrated so that each to organisms in ecosystems, organizations will benefit from one has a sense of their essential purpose in the larger system. their attempts to partner with each other. Specialization on its own is of little value. Life has cloaked this planet for at least 3.5 billion years and For people like me who love trees, going to an arboretum during that time it has not only sustained itself, it has thrived. can be a wonderful experience. There is so much diversity! Yet This enormous amount of time is a little easier to comprehend the forest out my back door, with only a dozen tree species, has using an analogy of a stack of paper. Imagine that the thickness a much higher level of self-organization, because everything in of a standard sheet of paper equals a century. Two sheets would that forest has coevolved together and is all tightly integrated. represent the tenure of industrial culture. Two hundred sheets, This integration is often hidden from view since so much of or a two-inch-thick stack of paper, would represent the time it it occurs below ground. In my forest, the white ash, which is believed that humans have lived in the Americas. How tall is specialized to grow in rich, moist soils, stands next to the would the stack need to be to represent the tenure of life on yellow birch, a tree that has also specialized to grow in moist Earth? It would be a stack of paper over three miles in height, soils, but underground both are connected by the mycelium of each sheet representing one hundred years. Self-organization numerous mycorrhizal fungi that allows nutrients, and possi- is the foundation for that long tenure. It is a model to which bly energy, to flow between these two different species of trees. we need to pay close attention and one which we should By comparison, the arboretum is just a mixture, since it lacks consciously weave into the work of our organizations. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

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Everyone Is My Teacher: A Journey toward Spiritual Leadership Adrienne Maree Brown

t the end of 2010, I hit a cat while driving down a stretch of lonely Michigan highway. Because I could not reconcile myself to the uselessness of taking a life in this way, I decided that this event must be something I was meant to pay attention to. I haven’t paid a lot of attention to cats, because I am allergic, so liking them is pointless torture. But I did some research, for the sake of this little creature that appeared and died under the wheels of my car. I learned: Death means change, transformation. Cars represent the vehicle that you are moving forward in. Cats, I learned, are creatures that symbolize the living integration of the physical and spiritual worlds. After the incident, people kept randomly telling me stories of their cats dying . . . people who had not yet heard about my cat incident. Through the filter of my research, what I heard the universe telling me again and again was, “You are a vehicle that can bring transformation to the relationship between the physical and spiritual world.” Once again, I was reminded how the universe will keep repeating a lesson until you really get it. But am I ready to be such a vehicle? Am I ready to be a spiritual leader, if that is what’s needed? I facilitate groups to reach their highest potential, I write and make art when I am spiritually moved, I am learning to become a doula (a midwife’s assistant) because it feels like a spiritual calling. I even moved to Detroit, a city full of people I’d have to consider spiritual teachers. I am, openly, on my spiritual journey. But what would it take for me to step into a spiritual leadership role myself, bringing my community with me? It’s intimidating. Spiritual leaders must work in a context of history, which is not an area in which I excel. But I do recognize that ideas time-travel through languages and contexts, unchanging. Hierarchy for instance, looks about the same now as it has since Roman times–some people exist to serve others, without real choice. Then those people rise up and recreate a new society with the same disease of heart—acting out their own sense of superiority, born out of the violent experience of having been made to feel inferior. Who knows when such a pattern truly began, and often our lens is not long enough to see back to what we are repeating, what doesn’t serve us, what could be changed. Spiritual leadership seems to require www.wholecommunities.org

us to see with that longer lens, instead of continuing to pour our energy into short-term organizing for isolated goals which result in very little growth of ideas over time. There is a spiritual power to short-term political or social campaigns—I’ve felt it. Short-term campaigns engage people at their point of anger, which is one way of tapping into that larger mystical feeling of being connected to the world. But I suspect that the harder work is reaching people at the point of joy, of transformation, because that means we have to really believe in our power more than our collective powerlessness.

What would it look like to walk the more personal path necessary to grow into spiritual leaders, to organize our own lives in ways that inspire and uplift greatness? I don’t think you can be both victim and spiritual leader. In fact the hardest work required of a spiritual leader may just be that personal work, to relinquish the identity of victim, to release the rallying cry of commonality in our victim experiences. These are so familiar, and legitimate. Centering on critique and anger has a way of fueling us at first, because it means that there is always something new to react to; the list of things to be furious about is endless. And yet it is also exhausting, and our coping mechanisms are not sufficient. I hear activists telling the story of their personal instability all the time. If organizing gave out badges like the Girl Scouts, the awards would include: “pulled an all-nighter,” “worked for less than living wage,” “lived on coffee for three months,” and “compromised my dignity for the sake of the movement.” Turning our attention inward is terrifying. Even a quick look exposes all of the ways in which we are collaborators in maintaining the same systems we rail against. We work in organizations that value numbers more than relationships, trying to create one overarching brand or agenda for the multitudes, competing with each other for resources instead of collaborating in a commons-based approach to movement-building. What would it look like to walk the more personal path necessary to grow into spiritual leaders, to organize our own lives in ways that inspire and uplift greatness? How might we CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

begin to see our life’s political work as transforming opposition for the sake of evolution of the whole, rather than smashing an enemy? To make “ideas” the thing we oppose, instead of building endless lists of individual enemies or targets whom we consider to be our opposition, would require changing our whole approach to organizing. Oppositional organizing actually requires us to hold tight to the practice of superiority thinking, because there is always a “them” that must be wrong in order for “us” to have something to organize against. Shifting out of that approach would require us to open ourselves to ideas that are different from our own, and to the new ideas that emerge out of unlikely alliances. This is not new thinking . . . I am influenced by a recent rereading of Sun Tzu’s Art of War (the Denma translation), which reminded me that the most effective strategy is to win without fighting—victory over war, not through war. I love this idea, the idea that you don’t want to destroy, you want to win over. What could that look like in today’s political condition? What does it look like in relationships—personal and professional—or in movements? From a movement-building perspective, I have observed that if the root of our work is opposition and reaction, trying to winwinwin with 50 percent + 1 percent of the population from one election or issue to another, then as organizers we lack the authenticity and breadth to engage folks at the level of faith in that which we cannot see. My grandfather has been teaching me about faith—he’s a lifelong Christian, and every time we sit down to talk he makes it plain that he cares about me on an eternal level. Although I may not engage in the same practices as he does, I hear the message: I hear him telling me he loves me, and that he is drawing on a lifetime commitment to spiritual life in order to express that love in his words and actions. Faith is the root of lifetime commitment. And lifetime commitment is the kind of movement we need to build right now—one that transforms people for life, not just getting their signatures in a burst of professional activism. That deeper engagement and authenticity could propel us past the incremental change work that leaves a majority struggling their entire existence, helping us make the quantum leaps that have always accompanied significant social change. And all of that sounds great to me, but I am still stuck on the old Jonah-and-the-whale question: Why me? The idea of taking on the role of spiritual leader brings up a lot of resistance in me. The term leader has always felt isolating, a way to separate one worker, one member of a community, CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

PHOTO BY PETER FORBES

from the others. I’ve often been thrust into leadership positions, and always tried to use the platform to practice facilitative leadership, but it usually ends up feeling like a tremendous and lonely burden. I see certain tendencies in all of the “leaders” I know, and I know a lot: power hoarding, founder’s syndrome, martyrdom, resentment . . . and among those who aren’t leaders I have seen equally debilitating attitudes—hero worship, giving up personal responsibility, viciously tearing down the leaders, abandoning them with the work. Why do we keep setting up the dynamic of leader/non-leader? Isn’t this journey of transformation and evolution for everyone? My favorite life forms right now are dandelions and mushrooms—the resilience in these structures, the speed and scale at which they can spread, excites me. I love to see the way mushrooms can take substances which we think of as toxic and process them as food, or see how dandelions can keep their essential qualities while still adapting to proliferate and thrive in a new environment. The resilience of these life forms is that they evolve while maintaining core practices that ensure their survival. A mushroom is a toxin-transformer, a dandelion is a community waiting to spread. . . . What are we as humans, what is our function in the universe? One thing I have observed: When we are engaged in acts of love, we humans are at our best and most resilient; the love in www.wholecommunities.org

PHOTO BY RILEY NEUGEBAUER

romance that makes us want to be better people, the love of children that makes us change our whole lives to meet their needs, the love of family that makes us drop everything to take care of them, the love of community that makes us work tirelessly with broken hearts. Perhaps humans’ core function is love. Love can lead you to observe in a much deeper way than can any other emotion. I think of how I am always seeing something new in my lover’s face, and never tire of looking. If love were the central practice of a new generation of spiritual leaders, it would have a massive impact on what organizing is considered to be. We would suddenly be seeing everything we do, everyone we meet, through these eyes of love. We would see that there’s no such thing as a blank canvas or a new idea—but everywhere there lies complex, ancient, fertile ground full of potential. We would organize with the perspective that there is wisdom and experience and deep significance in the communities we love. Therefore, instead of starting up new ideas or organizations all the time, we would want to strengthen those already in place—to listen, support, collaborate, merge, and grow through fusion, not competition. We would understand that the strength of our movement

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is in the strength of our relationships, which could only be measured by their depth. Scaling up would mean going deeper, being more vulnerable and more empathetic. My life has a tendency to get out ahead of me sometimes, my actions aligning with a deeper calling before my brain catches up to analyze it. Even as my mind examines this spiritual leadership path, I am walking it. I know this because I have been internalizing that question: What does depth require from me? In response I have been re-rooting in the earth, in myself and my creativity, in my community, in my spiritual practices, honing in on work that is not only meaningful but feels joyful, listening with less and less judgment to the ideas and efforts of others, having visions that are long-term. Another part of walking this path has been the practice of humility—having enough humility to learn, to be taught, to have teachers. I’ve always rebelled against anyone whom I perceived as an authority, and it’s been incredible to relinquish some of that resistance in order to let wisdom in. The Sufi poet Hafiz said, “How do I listen to others? As if everyone were my Teacher, speaking to me his cherished last words.” I am listening now with all of my senses, as if the whole universe might exist just to teach me more about love. I listen to strangers, I listen to random invitations, I listen to

criticisms, I listen to my body, I listen to my creativity, I listen to elders, I listen to my dreams and the books I am reading. I notice that the more I pay attention, the more I see order, clear messages, patterns, and invitations in the small or seemingly random things that happen in my life. My main form of listening is meditation—while showering, swimming at the Y, receiving acupuncture, cooking, or sitting in front of a candle, in the first moments of morning, while walking through the snow. I meditate on love. This practice lets me connect to the part of myself that is divine, aligned with the universe, and the place within myself where I can be a conduit for spiritual truth—I don’t know what else to call it. What comes forth, as lessons and realizations and beliefs, doesn’t feel political, or even about organizing. It feels like spirit leading me to the truth. Things like: The less I engage in gossip, the less I harbor suspicion, the more space I find within myself for miraculous experiences. When I fear the universe I fear myself. When I love and am in awe of the universe, I love and am in awe of myself. Imagine then, the power when I align with the universe. Nothing is required of me more than being, and creating. Simultaneously being present with who I am, who we are as a species . . . and creating who we must become, and within that who I must become. When these truths come to me, it reminds me of how so many past leaders have humbled themselves, or have been forced through prison sentences, exile, or other punitive measures, to live simple lives, spending time in prayer and meditation and reflection. It reminds me how they all seem to have this solid core of truth within themselves that cannot be shaken by external pressures. Those truths resonate with me when I read or hear about them, even without the context of their whole spiritual journey. But I know that to truly understand, to truly be able to transform myself and develop my own unflappable core, I cannot vicariously live their spiritual lessons: I must walk my own path. Our generation must walk the spiritual path that is available to us only in this time, with its own unique combination of wisdom and creation. I think there are many ways to find that simple path within ourselves, and I think that those of us who wish to see a truly, radically different world must demand of ourselves the possibility that we are called to lead not from right to left, or from minority to majority, but from spirit towards liberation. So I suppose it is time to come out as a spiritual leader, in my own way. Which means—everyone is my teacher. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

The Currency of Whole Communities

In the center of the round room within deep woods a single candle mirrors the transport of mist up from the Mad River.

The web of the golden garden spider spans stems of borage, and blue star petals scatter on straw

an herbal constellation. Maples bend a sequence of arms to nestle the black bear.

Solitary bees nest in pillows and cradles. As night forms around the land and speaks in concert with a circle of fire

we step together, in silence, over mountain water. Cottonwood leaves slap the iridescent wind timing to the steps of cone, seed, insect, animal, human.

In the center of the round room, like the golden spider homing for her center in the web,

the single flame is a lighthouse of carbon, air, the maple canopy, distant stars, and what we possess when we trust

to the refuge of stone, leaf, root. When sap surges in late winter, I choose to sugar with my neighbor. —Scott Chaskey

PHOTO BY HELEN WHYBROW

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The Wild Broccoli Forest Taylor Burt

rom beneath a bed of crosshatched and rusty grass, the green shoots of the milkweed are likely first to burst through the cover and begin taking in the delicious spring sun. With leaves set, they start forming tender little buds reminiscent of broccoli, but with a flavor that is totally unique: sweet, delicate, and just plain delicious. The window for foraging wild field broccoli (a euphemism I am hoping will take the place of the unfortunate-sounding milkweed ) is short at best. Just as the plant’s green florets reach the perfect size, they quickly darken and transform into gorgeous pink flowers that scent fields across New England. And this is where the story begins. It seemed like overnight that all the milkweed at Knoll Farm had bolted through this transformation into flowers and then seeds (both of which have their place in the kitchen, but simply do not compare to the young buds in their broccoli phase). Only then did I realize how wonderfully wild this vegetable was: you had no choice, given the absence of either late plantings or controlled cultivations, but to appreciate flowering milkweed’s short time on the land. Still, I wanted more! I wanted to share the flavors with our retreat participants, and a few days later a chance encounter with a moose reminded me where to find the young buds.

Look to the south from Knoll Farm and you can see a rugged ridgeline rising steeply out of the valley dominated by hardy conifers and a few gnarled birches. In a mid-June adventure up those cool northern slopes, just at dusk, I noticed that the prolific greens of early summer, already so lush across the valley, were only just beginning to show their leaves. This observation was almost forgotten behind the image of a giant bull moose and his glaring eyes walking quickly toward my friend and me as we madly turned off our headlamps and jumped into the woods behind an admittedly insignificant pile of rocks. Luckily, the moose either lost us or didn’t care and slowly wandered away. Fast forward now to late-June, with dinner just around the corner and no wild field broccoli in sight. Even as I returned across the valley to the mountain slopes where time seemed to slow, the sight of bright pink bouquets near the parking lot was beautiful, but disappointing. I began climbing the hill and noticed that the flowers became smaller and greener as I went up. Up and up, smaller and greener. Then, just as I rose over a small knoll, there was the field of green tufts I had been looking for: dinner nodding in the wind. I ran about, quickly plucking the florets as the plant’s thick white milky sap stuck to everything and scented the morning air. I filled my bag in no time and galloped back down the trail, like a kid who had just found a field of cotton candy.

PHOTO BY MELISSA NELSON

Back in the kitchen, after a quick blanching, the newfound bounty fit easily into a brown-rice-encrusted quiche whose light custard helped highlight the wonderfully unique taste and delicate texture of the wild edible. Wild field broccoli for dinner . . . it was definitely new for most, but it came with a story and a smile, and the dishes were soon empty. Now, amidst the cold and snow, there’s no going to the store to find this wild delicacy. Instead, we will just have to wait until spring for the next crop to rise from the fields.

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Disclaimer: Wild foods are wonderful, but consuming misidentified or unknown plants can lead to serious illness and sometimes death! With milkweed, there is a similar-looking plant known as “dogbane” that is poisonous. They are easy to tell apart once you know what to look for, but PLEASE consult a reputable field guide before attempting to forage for milkweed or any wild foods. Thank you.

Wild Field Broccoli Quiche I made the original version of this with a brown rice crust so those with a gluten intolerance could enjoy it, though a regular pie crust would also be great. —Taylor

Brown Rice Crust About 1½–2 cups of overcooked short-grain brown rice (about ½ cup dry rice simmered gently with 1½ cups water until all the water is gone) 1 tablespoon butter ¼ teaspoon salt Mix crust ingredients together, cool (if necessary), and press into a well-buttered pie dish (a 9” or 10” pie dish is best) to desired thickness, saving any extra for a snack. Wetting your hands will help to press the sticky rice into the dish.

Custard & Filling 1–2 cups green milkweed flower buds 1 tablespoon butter or oil 1 small onion, finely chopped ¾ teaspoon potato starch (or corn starch) ¾ cup milk ¾ cup heavy cream 4 eggs plus 1 egg yolk ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon black pepper Pinch of nutmeg Pinch of cayenne 3 ounces or so of grated mild cheddar cheese, or other mild cheese (Monterey Jack, chèvre, etc.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the milkweed flower buds, and cook them until tender (about 1 to 2 minutes). Drain the blanched buds and press out any extra water (this is important or the quiche will be too runny). Meanwhile, heat the butter or oil in a pan, add the chopped onion, and sauté until tender and translucent. Place the rest of the ingredients (except for the cheese) in a bowl and whisk together. Assembly: Sprinkle the cheese over the bottom of the quiche, then distribute the milkweed buds and onions in an even layer, and then pour in enough of the egg mixture to almost fill the pie dish (leave a little room at the top so you don’t spill it). Bake for about 30 to 45 minutes, checking often, until the center is just set (it will be a little soft, but not runny). Remove from oven and let cool slightly before cutting. Serve warm.

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Pizza Night Glen Hutcheson

he work of pizza night starts slowly. Taylor mixes up the dough. I chop onions to caramelize and to add to the tomato sauce. We take turns going out into the garden and up to the brick oven to feed in more wood (we both want to play with the fire). Whichever of us was on the morning shift might take a nap, or a walk, while the other makes toppings: Mushrooms, cheeses, sausage, zucchini, greens, apples, herbs. Peppers and eggplant. Bacon. Chickpeas.

Pizza night almost always falls on a beautiful sunny day. We take time to enjoy it. Toward five everything begins to wake up. The oven’s hot. The toppings list is getting unwieldy—nori strips? navy beans? I taste sauces. Taylor flips buckwheat crepes (gluten-free crust!). We bully Jenny into making salad. We try to clean the kitchen some, but little bowls of toppings are everywhere, and our attention is already up at the oven. I run the hill more times than necessary, finding the water bucket, wiping the prep tables, knocking the earwigs out of the mitts we left out by the oven last week. At five thirty we collect the toppings in the big insulated cooler. I lug the cooler up the hill while Taylor serves out the appetizer of steamed (local!) artichokes (from Small Step Farm). Riley takes it upon herself to set the table in the barn. Quarter to six, we’re at the oven, coals pushed back, floor swabbed. Taylor stretches out the first round of dough. We sing, “Margherita, margherita!”—always our first pizza: tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil. In my state of nerves, I knock over the cornmeal. www.wholecommunities.org

No problem, at least it wasn’t the sauce. I slide in the Margherita and slam the heavy cover over the mud oven door. In about thirty seconds the pizza’s halfway done. Michael rings the bell, and we send the first three pizzas with Matt at six—dinnertime. Taylor stretches dough on the far side of the table. I layer toppings on the near side and flickshake the pies off the long-handled wooden pizza peel into the oven. Jenny dances back and forth with the oven door and another peel, turning each pizza around halfway through. We gauge the heat by how much Taylor’s forelock frizzles when he opens the door. We call out topping combinations as we go: “Bacon-apple-onion! With goat cheese!” “Hot pepper-chickpea-kale!” The barn might as well be another planet; while the pizzas are cooking we don’t go there. Matt and Michael and Wren run hot pizzas over to the barn and serve them, then bring back pans. We ask stupid questions—“Are they eating?” “Do they like it?” Helen gives us a break by making a gorgeous pie, pesto-zucchini-tomato. Our acceleration peaks about the time Peter herds a clapping, singing horde of retreat participants down the barn ramp to thank us. We get uncomfortable. We show off. After the parade things slow down. Dessert comes from somewhere (Taylor must have made ice cream while I was napping). We empty bowls of toppings. We let the last few pies get nice and black on the edges. Taylor swings himself into the beams of the oven shed. I stretch out on the grass and start eating. In a while we get back on our feet, head back down the hill, and join in the long, noisy, steamy dish-room dance party. Then a twilight jump in the pond.

Full Circle Dana Hudson

PHOTO BY HELEN WHYBROW

uring middle school, I watched my sixth-generation family farm—the place of all my childhood memories—be torn up by bulldozers and developed with large homes for commuters to Washington, D.C. When it happened, it changed more than my family’s livelihood. I watched it eat away at my family’s morale and happiness, and I watched the culture of the people and place change. I watched the food money in our community move toward the large supermarket chains from out of state. I witnessed birds, insects, wildlife, healthy soil, corn, and pasture give way to ornamental yard plants, drainage culverts, driveways, and pools. After my family spent six generations on the homestead, every one of my siblings and cousins moved away and spread out—from California to Vermont. Eight years ago, having first become a defender of the environment, I decided to channel my still-angry emotions toward something productive and closer to my heart: I started working with schools regarding food education and their connections

to local farms. At the time, I hoped I would be successful at the job. Little did I realize the profound impact it would have on me and my perspective of life and our society. It wasn’t a new idea, linking kids to food through farm and nutrition education. But I was working on an intentional project to help students know what food is and where it comes from, while at the same time working with school cafeterias to get more local food into their meal programs. As part of Vermont FEED (Food Education Every Day), a partnership project between three Vermont nonprofits, I set up meetings between farmers and food service, helped teachers use food as a teaching tool in their classrooms, and worked with community members to plan harvest dinners and build gardens. This all laid the foundation of what later was coined “Farm to School,” and we were seeing profound successes far beyond our expectations. Through Farm to School and the growing movement of rebuilding our local food systems, I have seen children, parents,

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teachers and even school administrators change their personal eating behaviors, choosing local, fresh and healthy food over highly processed, salt-laden foods with which they had been familiar. I have seen school attendance and student behaviors improve on days when food and farming were in the curriculum—and on the menu. I have seen communities pass their school budgets after years of dissent, claiming their food efforts brought something so positive to their community that they resolved local concerns. I have seen farmers agree to sell to schools, thinking it was just a good community gesture, only later realizing that working with school cafeterias opened up a whole new economic market, including hospitals, colleges, prisons, and even the students’ parents, who become loyal customers at their children’s insistence. I have seen small food entrepreneurs working with farmers and schools to develop value-added products that combine commodity ingredients with local products to create food items that a school cafeteria can afford while still expanding their business. I have seen large food-management companies and distributors change their corporate practices: decreasing miles and fuel consumption in trucking, changing how they prepare food, even adopting “sustainability” principles throughout their businesses as a result of the demand for local and sustainable practices. I have seen our federal government—which once said “Farm to School . . . What?”—dedicate a cross-departmental team within the U.S. Department of Agriculture to focus on how to support this movement.

I have seen school food-service directors and farmers testify before Congress about the impact of Farm to School programs, and, as of 2009, twenty-five states now have state-level Farm to School legislation. Clearly, Farm to School matters. Our food choices matter. Individually and collectively we have the power to change, improve and reclaim our food systems. Farm to School shows us that this strengthens not only our health but also our local economy, our environment, and our communities. That is a lot of responsibility when you are standing at the store trying to decide between whole local blueberries or artificially flavored blueberry Popsicles. Now, to show the impact Farm to School work is having beyond schools and farms, I work with regional planners and land trusts, farm service providers, health-care insurance foundations, state and federal legislators, independent food-service providers and large food-service management companies, food distributors of all sizes, Vermont government, the USDA, the Defense Department, teachers and professors, and still with the kids who are making all this work worth it. When I was a child on my family farm, my grandmother told me repeatedly, “You are what you eat,” which I always considered in respect to my own health and well-being. But my food is linked not only to my daily energy to function, but to my family, my traditions and culture, our shared landscape and all aspects of our functioning society, including our democracy, our economy, our health care, and our societal welfare. Personally, this work has brought me full circle, where I am fighting professionally as much for the redemption of my grandfather’s culture as I am for my grandchildren’s future.

PHOTO BY HELEN WHYBROW

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News from Whole Communities

Ten Years, One Thousand Fellowships, and Counting. . . . Okay, we’ll admit that, although our work is partially about helping people to understand how to measure qualitative impacts and not quantitative ones, we think numbers can be

to design a retreat to strengthen a growing recovery movement in New Hampshire, a state with one of the highest per-capita rates of substance abuse disorders in the nation. It’s an honor for us to collaborate to help people in recovery and their allies to reconnect, and to be agents for change within their communities. This will be the first program of its kind at Knoll Farm and it expresses our future directions in helping to truly create healthy, whole communities. In 2011, we are also collaborating with New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to conduct the first full independent evaluation of our Whole Thinking Program, a process of discovery that will certainly help us to understand the outcomes of our work across the country. We are grateful for the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s steadfast support, creative thinking, and belief in the power of this work to leverage change.

2042 Today: Young Leaders Reimagining Conservation fun sometimes. 2011 is our “unofficial” tenth anniversary: 2001 was not when Center for Whole Communities was given its nonprofit status (that was 2003), but it is the date we started running retreats at Knoll Farm and our work began. We thought it would be fun to see how many people have come to our retreats through fellowships that we have awarded in the last ten years, and we found that it is almost exactly 1,000 people. We started with 26 fellowships the first year, hit a peak in 2008 when funding sources allowed us to offer 146 fellowships, and other years have averaged around 110. These 1,000 alumni come from 48 states, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. (We’ll give a prize to the person who nominates the first fellow from South Dakota!)

Our program for young conservationists was launched last year, and continues in 2011 in collaboration with Center for Diversity and the Environment, to help support the emerging leaders of the conservation movement in this country.

Our Partnership with the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Many of the fellowships we award each year are for our Whole Thinking Program. However, there is another group of fellows, all constituents of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, who have come through special retreats codesigned with us by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Through this partnership, over a period of seven years, we have now held four retreats through the Wellborn Ecology Fund for environmental educators from Vermont and New Hampshire, and two retreats for leaders working to create a clean energy future in New Hampshire. In 2011, the Foundation is working with us CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

These are the young leaders who understand that changing demographics in this country (2042 is the date when all major metropolitan areas in the United States are predicted to be majority non-white) demand that the conservation movement shift its priorities and methods around how the environment is protected, why, and for whom. For much more on this topic, visit our program pages for 2042 Today on our Web site. www.wholecommunities.org

Whole Measures: Transforming Communities by Measuring What Matters Most Our workshops to introduce the Whole Measures values-based planning and evaluation tool are now fully under way. This multidisciplinary workshop has been developed in collaboration with Interaction Institute for Social Change, and is led by Mistinguette Smith, Curtis Ogden, and Ginny McGinn. The workshop brings together the content of Whole Measures with practical tools for facilitating change efforts in communities and organizations. We have a number of trainings coming up, in Cambridge and at Knoll Farm. Find out more about this opportunity on our Web site calendar, or at www.interaction institute.org/workshops

Regenerative Design at Knoll Farm: Partnering with Yestermorrow Design/Build School From the top of our hill at Knoll Farm we can almost see Yestermorrow School where it sits two miles or so to the south in the Mad River Valley. Yestermorrow has been around more than twenty-five years, and it is both the result of and reason for the fact that our valley has more “green architects” per capita than anywhere else in the United States (or so it is said). We are lucky to have Yestermorrow in our neighborhood, and over the years we have worked more and more closely with the school. This year, Samir Doshi (CWC alumnus) and Diane Gayer (a Yestermorrow faculty member) will offer a two-day course on Regenerative Design, a process of thinking about community design that brings together many of the ideas about interrelationships that we talk about with many of the building philosophies of Yestermorrow. Throw in the case study of Appalachia, including how music, culture, and geography all play a role in design, and this promises to be a fascinating course. Read more at www.wholecommunities.org/calendar.

Understanding Our Work in an Urban Context As an organization, we are committed to offering more of our programs in urban environments and to exploring our work in an urban context. In 2010 a number of our shorter workshops and programs flourished in cities such as Boston; Flint, Michigan; and Burlington, New Jersey. We held our faculty retreat in Denver, at a beautiful bed-and-breakfast in the heart of the city owned by alumnus Milan Doshi. Since experimenting by hosting our faculty retreat, Milan has welcomed seven other social and environmental organizations to do their change work at the Queen Ann. We convened our spring board meeting in Detroit, to coincide with the U.S. Social Forum held there. This spring we will hold our faculty retreat in New Orleans. In the year to come we hope to continue to practice whole communities www.wholecommunities.org

work in urban environments, and we hope to continue to build on our relationships with urban-based sister organizations with whom we can share ideas, resources, and future initiatives.

Staff News We are delighted that Molly Bagnato has joined us as our new Executive Assistant. Molly most recently worked as the farm manager for a locally run grocery store in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and before that was a staff member of the Murie Center, a wilderness conservation and education center in Jackson. Molly is returning to Vermont where she grew up, and she brings with her a love for these mountains. Sadly, in spring we will say goodbye to our program associate, Meghan Moroni, who recently married and has moved across the state. Meg has been with us since she arrived as an intern in 2009. We have been lucky to have Meg’s spirit of enthusiasm and willingness, her quick wit, and generous smile. Good luck Meg!

Thank you, Brenda Palms-Barber Looking back to 2010, a highlight for many was meeting Brenda Palms-Barber and hearing her inspiring story about Sweet Beginnings, a honey farm and natural health-care products business in Chicago that doubles as a work-training facility for people with a history of incarceration. PalmsBarber founded Sweet Beginnings when she discovered that 70 percent of the adults in her North Lawndale neighborhood had been in the criminal justice system, which gave them a huge barrier to finding jobs. “I needed to come up with a way to be their first employer,” she says. Under Brenda’s visionary leadership, her North Lawndale Employment Network, of which Sweet Beginnings is a part, received one of the first MacArthur Foundation Awards for Creative and Effective Institutions. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2011

2010 Whole Communities Alumni Note: This list includes all of CWC’s 2010 retreat fellows, as well as alumni of our 2010 workshops held at Knoll Farm and elsewhere. Jeanette Abi-Nader, Community Food Security Coalition, VA Eva Agudelo, Tufts University, MA Heather Alexander, CA Food and Justice Coalition, CA Lusanne Allen, Starksboro’s Art and Soul Project, VT Peter Allison, Upper Valley Farm to School Network, VT Avery Anderson, The Quivira Coalition, NM Diego Angarita, Nuestras Raices, MA Cimbria Badenhause, Blue Sky Environmental Strategies, NH Sarah Bankert, Western Mass Center for Healthy Communities, MA Brooke Barrett, The United Way of Essex and West Hudson, NJ DeWayne Barton, Green Opportunities, NC Bess Bendet, Blue Shield Foundation, CA Janet Bergman, Transitions Unlimited, NH Bilen Berhanu, GreenThumb: NYC Parks & Recreation, NY Jeffrey Betcher, Quesada Gardens Initiative, CA Marcelo Bonta, Center for Diversity & the Environment, OR Lindsay Bourgoine, Appalachian Mountain Club, ME Jon Bouton, Windsor County Forester; VT Dept Forests, Parks and Recreation, VT Nancy Brodsky, Interaction Institute for Social Chance, MA Michele Brooks, Boston Public Schools, MA Larraine Brown, ME Rebecca Brown, Ammonoosuc Conservation Trust, NH

Ruth Bryan, Ruth Mott Foundation, MI Allyson Bull, Union Street School, NH John Bunker, New Futures, NH Esther Campos, Common Fire Foundation & Be Present, CA Kelly Ann Care, Ruth Mott Foundation / Applewood, MI Simeon Caskey, CA Vivika Chen, San Francisco Buddhist Center, CA Janny Choy, CA Maria Collazo, NJ USDA: NRCS, NJ Patricia Collins, VT Wendy Cooper, Georgian Bay Land Trust, ON Julie Crockford, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, MA Matthew Dahlhausen, Dartmouth College, NH Laurie Danforth, The Nature Museum, VT Kimberle Davis, Navajo Nation Water Management, NM Kristi Davis, California Wilderness Coalition, CA Rachael DeCruz, Maine Association of Nonprofits, MA Joni Doherty, New England Center for Civic Life at Franklin Pierce, NH John Dolan, Vermont Institute of Natural Science, VT Stacey Doll, New Hampshire Energy & Climate Collaborative, NH Mary Downes, NH Office of Energy and Planning, NH Michael Easterling, Open Roads Institute, NJ Beverly Edwards, Temple Energy Committee, NH Ryan Ewing, National Wildlife Federation, MD Hilary Harp Falk, National Wildlife Federation, MD

Virginia Farley, National Park Service, VT Ruth Fleishman, Hartford Memorial Middle School, VT Jared Flesher, Filmmaker/Journalist, NJ James Ford, Southeast Watershed Forum, TN Justin Freiberg, Urban Foodshed Collaborative, CT Nancy Gamble, NH Office of Energy and Planning, NH Jovanna Garcia Soto, Chelsea Collaborative, MA Tim Gaudreau, Tim Gaudreau Studios, NH Kristy Gerlich, Comeback Farm, NJ Tim Glidden, Land for Maine’s Future, ME Brigitte Griswold, The Nature Conservancy, NY Lee Christina Hackeling, LandPaths, CA Nurullah Hajra, Irvington High School, NJ Joan Frances Haley, Shelburne Farms/MarshBillings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, VT Joel Harrington, The Nature Conservancy, NH Karen Hatcher, Celebrate NJ!, Inc., NJ Cindy Heath, GP Red, NH Lisa Hein, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, IA Jenny Helm, Center for Whole Communities, NH Tammy Herrera, The Ojo Encino Chapter Ranchers Committee, NM Melissa Hoffer, Conservation Law Foundation, NH Denise Holaly, Ruth Mott Foundation, MI Meg Hopkins, Sharon Elementary School, VT Polly Hoppin, Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, MA Jen House, North Jersey Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) Council, NJ Samantha Ivery, Office of Black Student Advising, Dartmouth College, NH Stefan Jackson, The Nature Conservancy, ME Aresh Javadi, More Gardens!, NY

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Sarah Jawaid, DC Green Muslims, DC Julianne Johnson, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, NC Sandra Jones, Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative, NH Sylvester Jones, Ruth Mott Foundation, MI Tandy Jones, Triangle Land Conservancy, NC John Kassel, Conservation Law Foundation, MA Matt Kazinka, Grand Aspirations, MN Virginia Kennedy, Cornell University, PA Robert Kershaw, Center for Digital Storytelling, CA Christina Khatri, The Trust for Public Land, WA Rick Lamb, Rick Lamb Associates, MA Russ Lanoie, RuralHomeTech.com, NH Ken Leinbach, Urban Ecology Center, WI Amy Liebman, Migrant Clinicians Network, MD Ruth Lindberg, National Center for Healthy Housing, MD Suzanne Long, Luna Bleu Farm, VT Don Loock, Piedmont Environmental Council, VA Andrea Mackenzie, Bay Area Open Space Council, CA Dina Magaril, Green Market, NY Sara Martinez de Osaba, Vermont Multicultural Alliance for Democracy, VT Leah Mayor, Cloud Institute, NY Libby McCann, Antioch New England Graduate School, NH Michael McDermott, Black Earth Institute, WI Mary McFadden, Stifler Family Foundation, MA Marisol Jimenez McGee, Open Source Leadership Strategies, Inc., NC Hannah McHardy, AR Linda Miller, VT Kaitlyn Millsaps, The New Jersey Highlands Coalition, NJ Michelle Mockbee, Clearfork Community Institute, TN Claudia Montesinos, Arco Iris Enterprises, FL Julie Moran, North Country Farms Fresh Coop, the Green Group, NH Sheila Moran, NH

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Matt Mullin, Environmental Defense Fund, MD Donna Munoz, Environmental Support Center, Inc., DC Shelley Murdock, University of California Cooperative Extension, CA Riley Neugebauer, Center for Whole Communities, PA Emily Neuman, Hanover Consumer Coop, NH Greg Norman, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, VT Nancy North, New Ground, Inc., Fishers & Farmers Partnership, WI Dana Nute, Belknap-Merrimack CAP, NH Karen Outlaw, Norcross Wildlife Foundation, NY Ryan Owens, Monadnock Conservancy, NH Dana Patterson, Wild New Jersey, NJ Sara Zoe Patterson, Seacoast Eat Local, NH Ernesto Pepito, Crissy Field Center, CA Kevin Peterson, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, NH Irwin Post, Springfield Food Coop, VT Melissa Post, The Nature Museum, VT Lisa Miller Purcell, Four Winds Nature Institute, VT Kamoa Quitevis, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, HI Curtiss Reed, Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, VT Johann Rinkins, Farmer, NJ Catherine Sands, Fertile Ground, MA Barbara Sargent, Kalliopeia Foundation, CA Rachel Saunders, Big Sur Land Trust, CA

Ryder Scott, Bryant Pond 4-H Camp & Learning Center, ME Peter Simon, State of Rhode Island Department of Health, RI Monica Smiley, Tualatin Riverkeepers, OR Elizabeth Soderstrom, American Rivers, CA Jennifer Steverson, The Weeksville Heritage Center, NY Rachel Strader, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, CA Yoda the Turtle, Wellborn Ecology Fund, NH Camila Thorndike, Whitman College, OR Leah Hall Toffolon, Hartford Memorial Middle School, VT Beth Truzansky, CEDO AmeriCorps VISTA Center for Community and Neighborhoods, VT Jazmin Varela, The Conservation Fund, NC Marie Vea-Fagnant, University of Vermont, VT Michaela Vine, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, MA Nicola Wagenberg, The Cultural Conservancy, CA Cameron Wake, Carbon Solutions New England, UNH, ME Omari Washington, New York Restoration Project, NY Abbey Willard, White River Conservation District, VT Audri Scott Williams, Spirit of Truth Foundation, AL Barry Williams, Conservation Trust for North Carolina, NC Donya Williams, NY Department of Health, Healthy Bodegas Initiative, NY Margaret Williams, The Food Project, MA Catherine Wint, Bronx & Manhattan Land Trusts, NY Steve Workman, Workman Management Consulting, ME Julie Wormser, Environmental Defense Fund, MA Jill Wrigley, Good to Grow, MD Jude Wu, Conservation International, NJ Gregory Wyka, New York City Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation, NJ Christina Yagjian, Sierra Club, DC

FY2009–2010 Financial Report April 1, 2009–March 31, 2010

For our 2009–2010 fiscal year we sustained our program work and succeeded in surpassing our initial projections for the year. Following the financial crisis late in 2008, we pared back expenses and began the year ready to work hard, be flexible, and adapt to the economic climate. The year was affirming from a funding standpoint. From April 2009 through March 2010, Center for Whole Communities utilized $572,500 in grants from eighteen different foundations. In addition, we received contributions from 267 generous individual donors totaling $88,508. Our earned income for the year totaled $100,227. We are encouraged by the continued growth of our earned income and the strength of our individual donor program. Our ability to weather the financial challenges of 2009–2010 has been dependent upon strong individual and organizational support of our work on the ground in communities across the country. We are deeply grateful for the support and confidence that these foundations have placed in us: Anonymous Foundation, Argosy Foundation, Compton Foundation, Foundation for Global Community, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Harris & Frances Block Foundation, Jesse Smith Noyes Foundation, The Johnson Family Foundation, Kalliopeia Foundation, The Kendeda Fund, Merck Family Fund, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Park Foundation, Stifler Family Foundation, Surdna Foundation, The Wendling Charitable Fund, and the Winifred Johnson Clive Foundation.

INCOME Donations from Individuals Grants for FY10 Programs Program Fees, Workshops, and Events Speaking Fees Merchandise Sales Miscellaneous Income Expended from Cash Reserve Transfer from Barn & Capital Campaign Total Income

2009–10 Sources of Funds

2009–10 Uses of Funds

Publication Sales 2% Cash Reserve 3%

Donations 11%

Misc. 2%

Grants for FY10 Programs 72%

$88,508 $572,500 $79,716 $11,147 $6,099 $3,265 $20,200 $8,820 $790,255

EXPENSES Whole Thinking Program $294,336 Advanced Leadership $139,702 Other Programs $61,578 Whole Measures $30,919 Publications $3,608 Fundraising $73,454 Program Support and Administration $190,564 Total Expenses $794,161 Barn Renovation & Renewable Energy Capital Campaign INCOME Carry Forward from FY09 $118,234 Barn Office Renovation Campaign $76,327 Total Income $194,561 EXPENSE Contracted Services and Payroll Design and Consulting Fees Materials and Supplies Other Expense Total Expense

Program Support and Administration 24%

$123,059 $575 $41,642 $20,465 $185,741

Whole Thinking Program 37%

Workshops and Events 10%

Other Programs 8%

Publications .5%

Fundraising 9%

Advanced Leadership 17.5%

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Honoring Our 2008–2009 Supporters Note: boldface indicates program alumni $10,000 + Anonymous (1) Adelard A. Roy & Valeda Lea Roy Foundation Ann Day Foundation for Global Community The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Henry P. Kendall Foundation Ittleson Foundation Johnson Family Foundation Tom Johnson Kalliopeia Foundation The Kendeda Fund Merck Family Fund New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Park Foundation The San Francisco Foundation Nancy Schaub Surdna Foundation Vermont Community Foundation $5,000 to $9,999 Anonymous (2) Argosy Foundation The Boston Foundation Jeff Cook Olivia Hoblitzelle Jesse Smith Noyes Foundation Kendall Whaling Museum and Trust Stifler Family Foundation Margot & Roger Milliken The Wendling Charitable Fund $2,500 to $4,999 Fairfield County Community Foundation Judy & Carl Ferenbach Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund Betsy & Jesse Fink Meg & Gary Hirshberg $1,000 to $2,499 Anonymous (1) Mark Ackelson Janet Prince & Peter Bergh Ned Kelley & Ferris Buck John Cook Hamill Family Foundation Anya J. Maier & Hank Lentfer Lisa Cashdan & Peter Stein George & Holly Stone Peter Forbes & Helen Whybrow Peter Whybrow Megan Gadd & Nathan Wilson Anne & Ethan Winter

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April 1, 2008–March 31, 2009

$500 to $999 Anonymous (1) Chip & Susan Atwood-Stone Sonnhild Chamberland Liz Barratt-Brown & Bos Dewey David Dion Rita & John Elder Maxine Grad Helen & Terry Kellogg Matthew Kolan Amy Wright & Gil Livingston Lucy McCarthy Paul Sipple & Joan Rae Lauret Savoy Susanna & Mark Scallion Schwab Charitable Fund Marcia & Tom Wessels Ruth Whybrow $250 to $499 Aloha Foundation Kathy Blaha Jane Brown Sandy Buck Ashley & Louise Cadwell Gigi Coyle Susan Cross Neal Desai Joan Fitzgerald Jill & Tom French Ephraim & Dagmar Friedman David Hartwell Roy Hoagland Sandy Fink & Michael Horner Mike LaMair Lucy & David Marvin Jim O’Malley Win Phelps Carla Pryne Lynette & Will Raap Ina Smith Lucia & Arthur Trezise John Grim & Mary Evelyn Tucker David Van Houton $100 to $249 Kathy Abbott Cameron Wake & Celina Adams Julian Agyeman Scott Kessel & Rani Arbo John Auleta & Jan Auleta Nancy & Bob Baron Marty & Tom Bisbee J. Blaine Bonham Nancy & David Borden Kathy Boyden Darby Bradley Duncan & Laura Brines

Katherine Brown Anne Burling Kathy Cadwell & Jared Cadwell Majora Carter Jasmine & Mohamad Chakaki Megan & Scott Chaskey Ken Colburn Susanna Colloredo Page Knudsen-Cowles & Jay Cowles Sherry Dudas Joan Ehrenfeld & David Ehrenfeld Jay Espy Torri Estrada Robert Etgen Gene Fialkoff Rupert Friday Natalie Garfield Richard & Joy Garland Juan Wade & Claudette Grant Gita Gulati-Partee Florence & Martin Rudy Haase Peter Helm Junji Itagaki Peter Rudnick & Wendy Johnson Davis TeSelle & Stephanie Kaza Brett KenCairn Francis & Roger Kennedy Jen Kiernan & Gerard Kiernan Renee Kivikko Peter Lamb Bill Badger & Jenepher Lingelbach Jim McCracken Ray Mikulak & Robin McDermott Tim Woodford & Ginny McGinn Patty McIntosh Curt Meine Charlotte Metcalf Ann Mills Alaya Morning Cynthia Whiteford & David Nelson Jo Ann Thomas & Doug Nopar Katharine D. Old Prasannan Parthasarathi & Juliet Schor James & Kathryn Porter Keith Reed Deborah & Mark Robertson Jeff Schoellkopf & Beth Binns Carolyn Servid Alcott Smith Carl Taylor Mitchell Thomashow Nancy Turkle Peter & Lee Vandermark Constance Washburn Sue & Rand Wentworth Beau Wright & Deborah Segal Peter & Jeanne Yozell Sally Collins

Laura Van Riper Chris Smith Emily Maxwell Joel Russell Laura Richardson Barbara Sullivan Mike Cadwell Deborah Sherrer & Jason Cadwell Alden Cadwell Steve Cadwell Nancy Banks Gerald Katz & Nichole Cirillo Howard Corwin $35 to $99 Melissa Madura Altmann & Ron Altmann Larry Anderson Susan Arnold Bonnie Atwater & Jito Coleman Deb Barnes Peter Barnes Jill Bobrow Katie Breckheimer Mark Brooks & Mary Powell Margaret Campbell & Donald Campbell David & Robin Cohen Richard Czaplinski Sharon Daloz Parks & Larry Daloz Lexi Leacock & Jim Edgcomb Susan Edwards Jack Byrne & Virginia Farley William & Catherine Freese Noel Fritzinger Richard Baruc & Deb Habib John Halsey Mark & Karen Hatcher Graham Hawks Toby Herzlich Minner Hobbse Steve Horn Claudia Horwitz Charles & Carol Hosford Ned and Susan Houston Norma I. Dinnall & James S. Hoyte Wes Jackson Jonathan C. Kaledin & Christine Horigan Dale & Melissa Kent Claudia Kern Margaret Kessel Henry Drewal & Sarah Khan Erwin Klaas Joyce El Kouarti Clare Walker & David R. Leslie Ben Machin Laura Mann

39 Neil Markowitz Darlene McCormick Libby McDonald Ezra Milchman Bill Finnegan & Florence Miller Sally Berdan-Molnar & A. J. Molnar Frank & Kathleen Dean Moore Sheila Moran & David Millstone Richard Nelson Marc David & Danyelle O’Hara Kesha Ram Chuck Roe B’fer Roth & Dana Jinkins Alice Schleiderer Mark & Deb Schoenbaum Julia Somers Linda J. Spackman & Ted Harrison Marianne Spitzform Jillian & Andrew Stone Carol Thompson Sarah Thorne & Tom Howe

Dorothy Tod Dove White Michael Wojtech Michael & Janet Gilbert Steve Farr & Kate Patton EB James & Lisetta Silvestri Amalia Veralli Vikram Krishnamurthy Gervaise Valpey Jeff Hilliard Peter Marshall George Hall Shawn McEntee Cami Kloster & Jonathan Scheuer Elizabeth Salter Stacey Kennealy Jill Arace Gaye Symington Kenneth Ausubel Scott Waters

Up to $35 Tara Tracy & Tom Brightman Jan Cannon Margaret Eadington Michele Eid Erica Fielder Patricia A. Folsom Ehrhard Frost Vanessa Crossgrove Fry Lisa Haderlein Julie Hinman Wendy Knapp Laurence Koff Paul LeVasseur Andrea Morgante Meg Moroni Carol M. Nimick Sara O’Neal Linda Poole David & Sarah Drew Reeves Vanessa Riva & Laura Smith

Rex Whitfield & Christina Soto Kitty & Tom Stoner Pat Tompkins Alex Wylie Carrie Speckart Jidan Koon Pamela Chiang Joanna Rago Carol Jowdy & Chuck Henderson Kate Sudhoff Jennifer Barton & Willard Morgan While we do our best to honor all of our donors accurately, we occasionally miss a name. Please let us know if we missed you. For any giving-related questions, please contact Ginny McGinn at (802)496-5690 or ginny@wholecommunities.org.

In the bounty of summer 2010 we offered a beautiful meal of local produce at Knoll Farm to a gathering of many of our closest supporters, in a new tradition that we call “Gratitude and Grub.” To every one of our supporters, we offer our deepest expression of gratitude for all that you have done to help us build this work from the ground up, and to help it flourish and grow over the years.

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Center for Whole Communities 2011 calendar Residential Fellowship Retreats Held at Knoll Farm

Whole Thinking Retreat 1, June 25–July 1 The Whole Thinking Retreat convenes leaders from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. Our curriculum—now in its sixth year—is designed to rejuvenate and re-envision leadership, to build meaningful relationships, to help people to engage more meaningfully in the communities they serve, and to develop the competence to heal the divides that keep lasting social and environmental change from happening. New York City Community Gardening Coalition Retreat, July 12–18 This retreat will convene members of the New York City Community Gardening Coalition to assist them in developing and inspiring the next generation (young and old) of the gardening community’s leadership, from those working in their own neighborhoods to those ready to step up to city-wide challenges. NYCCGC is “the voice” of urban gardeners throughout the five boroughs. Whole Thinking Retreat 2, Aug 6–12 See full description under Whole Thinking Retreat 1, above. Whole Thinking Retreat 3, August 16–22 See full description under Whole Thinking Retreat 1, above. Strengthening the Recovery Movement in New Hampshire: A Mission Retreat, August 25–31 This is a collaborative leadership retreat for New Hampshire professionals who work in the field of substance-use disorders. By bringing leaders together from within the same profession, this retreat will strengthen their capacity to help one another, and to share and build upon best practices. Building such a cohort of professionals in an arena as challenging as this one can help prevent burn-out, leverage change, and build stronger long-term partnerships.

Open Workshops and Events

(register at www.wholecommunities.org) Conservation in a New Nation Workshop, March 16–17 Essex Conference Center, Essex, MA This intensive workshop is designed to help conservationists strengthen the practice of conservation by ensuring future innovation and responsiveness to present-day challenges. It is a chance to talk openly and safely about how to diversify in order to maintain strong leadership and how to collaborate with facets of the larger community, thereby broadening bases of support, developing meaningful new relationships, and engaging more public citizens on the issues. Whole Measures Workshop: Transforming Communities by Measuring What Matters Most, May 24–26 Interaction Institute for Social Change, Cambridge, MA This workshop explores the ten values-based practices detailed in Whole Measures, a framework that helps us to understand how to evaluate our work in a holistic way that aligns with our values and communicates that we are making real and lasting change. Regeneration of Place: From Stories of Degraded Landscapes to Tools for Healthier Communities, June 16–17 Knoll Farm, Fayston, Vermont, with Yestermorrow Design / Build School This regenerative design workshop will explore our connection to land through energy and the impacts that it has on our communities. Through ecology, culture, music, and economic development, the story of Appalachia will be told, as one of our country’s sharpest examples of the consequences that industrial resource extraction perpetuates on natural and social communities. Practical regenerative design applications will be practiced.

Whole Thinking Retreat 4, September 7–13 See full description under Whole Thinking Retreat 1, above.

Whole Measures Workshop: Transforming Communities by Measuring What Matters Most, July 5–8 Knoll Farm, Fayston, Vermont See description above.

2042 Today: Young Leaders Re-imagine Conservation, July 21–27 A retreat in collaboration with Center for Diversity in the Environment This retreat is focused on the changing demographics in this country and the specific tools that the emerging conservation leaders of today will need to keep the movement relevant, adaptive and innovative as populations and land-use patterns shift. This retreat will be the first part of a larger fellowship program that will include follow-up training workshops and one-on-one mentoring.

Transformational Leadership: An Introduction to Whole Communities Work, July 31–August 3 Knoll Farm, Fayston, Vermont Shorter in length than our flagship Whole Thinking Program, this 4-day workshop offers a strong introduction to our theories of change. The curriculum centers around such core leadership practices as the power of story, the skills of movement-building, and dialogue, and it explores the changing demands of leadership today.

University of Vermont Student Leadership Retreats, September 30–October 2, October 6–8

For more information on our programs, faculty, accommodations, fees and registration, go to www.wholecommunities.org or call 802.496.5690.

Please Note: Many of our workshops are open enrollment, and we are able to keep tuition reasonable through the generous support of our funders. Our calendar is growing constantly. For a complete list, or for more information on curriculum, faculty, accommodations, fees, and registration, go to www.wholecommunities.org, or call 802.496.5690.

Whole Communities Bookstore Entering this Land: A History of Knoll Farm By Jill Hindle Kiedaisch Taking us from ancient geologic time through the history of settlement of this mountain valley first by plants, then animals, and then humans; and finally along its 200-year journey as farmstead and refuge, Jill Hindle tells the story of Knoll Farm. It is a story whose threads are both common and unusual, familiar and singular; it is the story of one place as a record and hope for our time. Illustrated with beautiful historical and contemporary photographs. $20 cloth Refuge: Images of Knoll Farm This notecard set collects some of Peter Forbes’ most beautiful full-color images of Knoll Farm and the people who gather here. The boxed sets include 12 5x7 cards and envelopes, and the cards are blank on the inside. Makes a wonderful gift! $16 per boxed set. What is a Whole Community: A Letter to Those Who Care for and Restore the Land by Peter Forbes In this essay, author Peter Forbes asks the conservation movement to rise to today’s challenges with new approaches, new tools, and a new vision for success, and to look at these challenges as opportunities to see beyond the way things are; as a chance for re-invention. $12.95 paperback Coming to Land in a Troubled World Essays by Peter Forbes, Kathleen Dean Moore and Scott Russell Sanders © 2003 Through its deep examination of the value of land to our culture and our souls, Coming to Land gives us new approaches and new hope to work to heal the great divisions and losses we see around us each day. $16.95 paperback The Story Handbook: Language and Storytelling for Conservationists Edited by Helen Whybrow © 2002 In The Story Handbook, contributors Tim Ahern, William Cronon, John Elder, Peter Forbes, Barry Lopez, and Scott Russell Sanders help us think about the power of stories of people and place, and how those stories can advance the work of land conservation toward creating meaningful change in our culture. $14.95 paperback

The Great Remembering: Further Thoughts on Land, Soul, and Society By Peter Forbes © 2001 The Great Remembering is an activist’s exploration of what land means to our culture. In three chapters, “The Extinction of Experience,” “Dissent and Defiance,” and “Building a New Commons,” the author traces the roots of our disconnection from place and from meaningful stories about our lives. $14.95 paperback Our Land, Ourselves: Readings on People and Place By Peter Forbes © 1999 Our Land, Ourselves is a collection of diverse readings on the many themes of people and place—themes such as the protection of wilderness and the idea of the wild, the nature of home, the purpose of work, and the meaning of community. These voices suggest a new way of viewing land conservation as the process of building values and positively shaping human lives. $16.95 paperback Whole Measures: Program Guide and DVD A values-based, community-oriented tool, Whole Measures helps organizations rethink the role that they play in fostering healthy, whole communities. This evolving document and interactive website, which we have been evolving over several years and is in use by many organizations and communities across the country, is now available in its newest form, with an introductory DVD on how to use it and why it is important. Building a New Land Movement: Land Conservation and Community A study that looks at the role of people and communities in conserving and in keeping land conserved. Includes an essay by Peter Forbes on the way the conservation movement is evolving and the new challenges it will face, and a survey of several hundred conservation organizations illuminating trends in their impact and service to communities.

To order any of the items above, please go to our website: http://www.wholecommunities.org/pubs.html, where you can order by credit card. You can also order by email: info@wholecommunities.org. Or reach us by mail by sending in your order and a check to 700 Bragg Hill Road, Fayston, VT 05673. Thank you!

Center for Whole Communities Knoll Farm 700 Bragg Hill Road Fayston, Vermont 05673 Tel: 802-496-5690 Fax: 802-496-5687 www.wholecommunities.org

At Knoll Farm’s Harvest and Courage Celebration, these 1,000 plastic “prayer flags,” collected by children at Fayston Elementary School, represent the number of new plastic grocery bags Americans consume every second.