2012 WTJ by Whole Communities

Contents 6 | From Working ON to Working WITH Communities, Young Kim 9 | Feeding Bellies and Hearts, Mary Lake 10 | Finding Whole Thinking in an Unexpected Place, Rebecca Ruggles 12 | A Land Trust Transforming, Craig Anderson, Lee Hackeling 14 | Thunder and Gratitude, Andrew Dillon Bustin 15 | Widening the Frame, Lauret Savoy, Alison Hawthorne Deming 18 | Selah, Kevin K.J. Chang 19 | Why Do I, Alex Bauermeister 20 | The Heart of the Matter, Virginia Kennedy 22 | As Within, So Without, Daniel Lim 25 | Daphne and Apollo: A Story of Necessary Change, Glen Hutcheson 26 | Even Before I Forgot, JuanCarlos Arauz 28 | Switchgrass Bricks, Harmonicas and Glaciers, Garett Brennan 30 | Pizza,Taylor Burt, Phillip Ulbrich 31 | Brown and Blue, Jenny Helm

JENNY HELM

Contributors Craig Anderson has been the Executive Director of LandPaths since 1997 and lives by the credo “can do.” He is on the Steering Committee of the Bay Area Open Space Council, and teaches workshops nationally focused on public engagement with conserved lands.

Andrew Dillon Bustin is a freelance photographer living and working on the South Shore of Boston, MA. His work is influenced by his education in human-environment interaction, sustainability, and Earth systems. He believes that much like geography, photography is about investigating temporal, spatial, cultural, and environmental relationships.

Lee Hackeling has been the Assistant Director of LandPaths since 1999, focusing her work on project development, grant writing and strategic planning. Her passion is the interface of people with nature, and she has been instrumental in developing LandPaths work in urban areas.

Kevin K.J. Chang is the Executive Director of the Hawai‘i Community Stewardship Network. He received a B.A. in Psychology and a J.D. from the University of Oregon. Chang is also a member of the band Kūpaāina and uses music as a tool to raise awareness on the contemporary economic, social, cultural and environmental justice issues of Hawai‘i.

JuanCarlos Arauz is a consultant, trainer and storyteller specializing in immigration, youth and education. His fresh and compelling vision brings collaboration between the private and public sectors to engage and empower young people to become prepared for a global sustainable society. He is the founding director of E3: Education, Excellence & Equity. He lives in Navato, CA.

Alison Hawthorne Deming is an award-winning poet, essayist and teacher. She is professor of creative writing at the University of Arizona. She is the author of four books of poetry including Rope and The Monarchs and is co-editor with Lauret Savoy of The Color of Nature.

Alex Bauermeister comes to Center for Whole Communities by way of professional experience in the nonprofit, government, and private sectors. Most recently she worked to transform American marine fisheries policy with Environmental Defense Fund’s Boston office. Through this work, she experienced and learned from the friction and inequity that can emerge between conservation advocates, governmental leaders, and fishing communities.

Jenny Helm works at Center for Whole Communities, where she has the unique perspective of having worked both on the land and in the office. Outside of CWC, her current projects include co-managing a garden for the kitchen and classrooms of a local elementary school, discovering how to be most useful in our changing world, and spending as much time as possible adventuring outdoors.

Garett Brennan is the executive director of Focus the Nation, the country’s premier clean energy leadership development organization. He is also a singer, songwriter and musician with The Great Salt Licks, a band based in Portland, OR. Raised at the base of the Wasatch Rockies in Salt Lake City, he’s a long-time avid backcountry tele-skier and a huge fan of snow storms.

Glen Hutcheson is a 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, VT.

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Contributors Virginia Kennedy is the Outreach Coordinator at Delaware Highlands Conservancy in the Upper Delaware River region in Pennsylvania. Before joining the Conservancy, Virginia was a teacher at the high school and college level. She recently obtained a PhD in English and American Indian Studies at Cornell University.

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

Young Kim has been the Executive Director of Milwaukee’s Fondy Food Center since 2003. Young is the founder of the Asian-Pacific Islander Unitarian Universalist Caucus. A second generation Korean American who was born and raised in the American deep south, Young calls himself a “hardcore foodie.” When he’s not thinking of food and food systems, he likes to read poetry, restore vintage fountain pens, and work on his standup comedy routine.

Rebecca Ruggles lives and works in Baltimore, MD, where she joins with others advocating for holistic community health services and equitable protections from environmental health hazards. She holds the position of Director of Special Projects at Baltimore Medical System and is also the coordinator of a newly formed Maryland Environmental Health Network.

Mary Lake spent the last year working for Knoll Farm and Center for Whole Communities as the farm manager. She has been apprenticing with Helen Whybrow in shepherding for the past three years. Mary is a sheep shearer and butcher-in-training and uses her journalism degree to blog all about it. Mary will be starting at the Royal Butcher in Braintree, VT, in May as a butcher and meat cutter apprentice.

Lauret Savoy founding board member of Center for Whole Communities, educator and writer, writes and teaches about the threads of cultural and ecological identity. She is a professor of environmental studies and geology at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Her books include Bedrock: Writers on the Wonders of Geology and Living with the Changing California Coast.

Daniel Lim is completing his Masters of City and Regional Planning at Pratt Institute and will soon be launching Inner Activism Movement, a compassion-based personal and institutional transformation consultancy serving social change leaders and organizations. He is a blogger, baker and has an irrational love of colors. He lives in Brooklyn.

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From the Executive Director Be Transformed See the fear, feel the fear, and head straight for it.

or this issue, we asked our alumni, staff and faculty to reflect on the experience of transformation in their lives and work. Some of the pieces make more obvious connections than others. . . but what kept coming up for me as I read them was how many wildly different approaches we each bring to this work of transforming ourselves and our world. Whether it is by working with immigrant youth and communities, by cultivating or conserving land, by acts of civil disobedience, or by documenting images and speaking out, through our words, images, music, art and poetry our leadership paths are unique. And yet there are threads that weave us into relationship as we work toward our collective vision of whole communities. Since the founding of Center for Whole Communities in 2001, we have held a space for people to be transformed – through our relationships to each other, to the land and place that we inhabit together. Stepping out of our habitual dayto-day work norms, slowing down, unplugging, listening, and cultivating our awareness all help to create the conditions for meaningful change and transformation. For the last few years we have been on a journey to transform our organizational leadership model and deepen our intercultural competency both internally and externally. We continue to be challenged in this process to live what it is we are talking about – to step into unknown territory, to be willing to be changed by the people and places we are in relationship with. As I look back on my own journey it seems that the points along the path that have been most transformative for me have come with a heavy dose of learning. Often it has come in the form of not-so-small mistakes shaking me awake to my own unconscious behavior. It is in hindsight that I can see that what seemed like a setback was often the next right thing. Looking back helps to ground me when what is in front of me requires moving out of my comfort zone, being willing to risk, being willing to be vulnerable. It helps me remember that when I am scared, it is often a sign to keep moving forward. An unlikely mentor for me in my transformation is Diane Wilson. Diane is a gulf-coast shrimper and activist fighting corporate dumping of toxic waste in her home of Lavaca Bay, TX. In the summer of 2002, I spent some days with her in the back of her truck in front of a chemical plant where she was in the midst of a hunger strike to bring attention to the role www.wholecommunities.org

Diane Wilson. KATE MCCONNIRO, THE TEXAS OBSERVER

the company played in the 1984 Bhopal Industrial Disaster, and for which the company was then being tried in court in India. Diane was at day 22 of her hunger strike when I arrived. My job was to make sure that she drank plenty of water (it was August and 90 degrees) and keep her company as she kept her vigil from sunup to sundown in front of the plant. We spent many hours reading, talking and waving at the cars as they passed by. During our time together Diane reinforced in me her own learning around risk – and fear. She encouraged me to pay attention – to notice when I was feeling a bit afraid of what I thought was the next right action, to feel that fear and head straight for it. I have never been an activist for whom direct action and protest has been a regular practice, but being with Diane helped me understand it. It wasn’t difficult to translate her wisdom to the work that I hoped to do in shifting the way that organizations work internally – and externally so that the organization itself reflects the values it stands for. I have come to recognize the fear that Diane was talking about. That fear usually has something to do with standing strong in relationship to a dominant cultural norm. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

The dominant leadership culture in the U.S. is one that preferences top-down, efficient, confident, highly verbal, demanding, driven and fiercely competitive forms of leadership. Peter Forbes and Helen Whybrow, the co-founders of Center for Whole Communities, have initiated and actively worked to undo that dominant pattern of leadership. It is exciting to be a part of transforming that model, and to be actively learning about and cultivating new ways of working. You can feel it in the articles throughout this journal – in unexpected ways, in unexpected places, leadership is undergoing a profound shift. I was “schooled” again this winter by one of our summer interns, Abigail Borah. Our year-round staff had recently said good-bye to the intern crew which included Abigail, a Middlebury student and climate activist. In the six months that Abigail was part of our team supporting summer retreat participants, I had many glimpses of her intelligence, her strong sense of justice and her sense of humor. It took time to get to know her – and I am still pretty sure that I have only an inkling of the depth of who she is as a human being. I like to think that we practice reciprocal mentorship here at the Center, but still positional power and roles are deeply ingrained in all of us. My role in relationship to Abigail was more often taking the “lead.” In the last few weeks of her time with us, Abigail was hard at work on policy papers for the climate talks in Durban, South Africa. I was impressed by her diligence, and interested in what it would be like for her in South Africa. The staff was excited to hear how the experience was for Abigail. In the first days we heard bits and pieces from her mostly through her Facebook posts. Then on December 8th, I was traveling in Michigan and

Abigail being escorted out of climate talks in Durban, South Africa with Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! in the background. PHOTO CREDIT: SHADIA

stopped between meetings to get lunch and while eating my soup in the café I pulled out my iPhone to check email, and yes, Facebook. The first item I saw was a New York Times link to a story about a young student from Middlebury College who had been arrested after interrupting the U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern. It was Abigail, quiet, wicked-intelligent, courageous Abigail. She and other members of the U.S. youth delegation prepared her remarks that challenged the U.S. position at the talks and called for immediate action on the part of the U.S. government. I immediately began searching for other news and found a link to that morning’s edition of Democracy Now! I watched as Amy Goodman interviewed the articulate, calm and direct Abigail as she was being led out of the assembly by the police. Abigail shouted to the assembly, I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my negotiators cannot. The obstructionist Congress has shackled justice and delayed ambition for far too long. I am scared for my future. 2020 is too late to wait. We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty. We need leaders who will commit to real change, not empty rhetoric. Keep your promises. Keep our hope alive. I was stunned, thrilled and moved by her strength. As I made my way through the rest of my meetings that day, I kept thinking of how Abigail served and supported faculty, fellows and staff in a quiet and sometimes invisible way all summer long. I imagined that there were people who had spent a week at the table with Abigail at meals, while behind the scenes she was chopping wood, lighting fires, and emptying yurt johns. They might have overlooked the strength of her leadership which she demonstrated so visibly in Durban, which was less visible, but no less “leaderly” than her role as an intern. I was moved by her courage in Durban – and by the equally powerful way that she contributed to the work of the Center as an intern. Like jumping in the pond on a hot day, I felt shaken awake by Abigail’s courage. Reminded that I need to pay exquisite attention and be present to the people and landscape around me. I hope you enjoy the wealth of stories and images in this journal. May you be inspired by the stories of leadership throughout this book and be encouraged to take every opportunity to be transformed, to learn, to see the fear, feel the fear and head straight for it.

Ginny McGinn May 2012

FAYNE WOOD

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From Working ON to Working WITH Communities By Young Kim

’ve stood atop Mount who was trying to present himself as Stupid many times, but my an authority on food deserts, it was most profound encounan uncomfortable place to be. I realter with it was about eight ized that my solution was aimed at a years ago. I was two years into stereotype and that my show-and-tell my time at the helm of a new agenda had no space for a conversanonprofit organization bent tion. I started talking to neighboron improving fresh fruit and hood residents and found some of vegetable access and reducing the most food-opinionated people obesity in Milwaukee’s North I’ve ever encountered. The people Side community – the kind of here take pride in their cooking. Ask place that many from outside someone for a recipe and they’ll give the community call a “food it to you, begrudgingly, but with a desert.” key ingredient or technique left out. We received a grant to run PERMISSION TO USE THIS IMAGE GRANTED BY ZACH WEINER OF SMBC-COMICS.COM I learned that most of the restaurant healthy cooking demonstracooks in Milwaukee from the begintions at a food bank in my ning of the 20th century until the agency’s predominantly African 1970s were African American. This American neighborhood. I was community knows how to cook. dicing some onions to prepare Many of us working for nonprofit for the demonstration. It was agencies that are trying to address spring, so the onions had been community health problems like in storage for months and were obesity live in the suburbs, outside of especially pungent that day. A the communities that we are trying woman who was standing in to help. We also tend to work from line to get her food basket took a problem-oriented mindset. The one look at my tear-streaked emphasis is on identifying problems, face and told me, “You’re doing creating solutions, and then searchit wrong.” ing for funding to “make it happen.” Fondy Food’s Greens Throwdown Cooking Contest. YOUNG KIM I handed her the knife and Relationship building is saved for stepped back. She took a whole onion and deftly halved it later as interested groups work together on these problems. lengthwise. Then she took the tough outer layer and peeled Here is a scenario that I’ve seen unfold again and again: to back towards the root end, taking care not to tear it off. National ABC Foundation releases a call for proposals from “Use the skin as your handle,” she said, “so that you won’t cut community and academic partnerships that address the yourself if your knife is dull, you will use the whole onion, and obesity epidemic. Researchers at the local XYZ University since your hand is out of the way you can chop faster and you decide to apply for funding and begin contacting inner city won’t cry so much.” The rest of the feedback from the food nonprofit agencies to become subcontractors. Lured by the bank clients was positive but still disconcerting, ranging from promise of published academic research and by big funding “I would add more garlic” or “if you put in some other spices dollars, the academic and social service agency leaders meet you would need less salt.” and begin writing the grant application narrative. Grant appliThe next morning an uncomfortable question started bounc- cation deadlines preclude any true relationship building. That ing around in my head: “Just who is helping whom?” I began process is put off until the grant is actually awarded. Power my descent down the other side of Mount Stupid. As someone is concentrated in the academic institution and the nonprofit www.wholecommunities.org

Call for Proposals

Decision made to apply

Write the Grant

Grant is Awarded

Announce grant to the wider community, community members scratch their heads and try to make it work

(Time)

agency leadership. The obesity remedies may sound great on paper, but because of deadline pressures they have not been fully vetted by the community. The progression from the call for proposals to project implementation looks something like the chart at the top of this page. By putting off any real relationship building until after the grant is awarded, project implementation is slow. Project partners are still feeling each other out and learning to work together. Basic nuts-and-bolts activities like report writing, community feedback loops, and invoicing are worked out on the fly. This problem-first approach is reflected in how Americans are taught to write in school. We’re taught to begin each paragraph with a thesis statement followed by supporting arguments. But

years ago I encountered a Japanese graduate student who was studying English Literature in New York. He told me that the most difficult thing for him was learning to think and write like an American. He said that Japanese children are taught to write essays that begin with supporting statements and end with the thesis statement or conclusion. In other words, he was trained to develop a relationship with his reader first, then to share his opinion at the end. Since that time, I’ve learned that a lot of other non-white communities prefer to work this way. They put relationship building first, and then in the getting-to-know-you process, mutual interests are identified and solutions are worked out. Outsiders that want to enter into meaningful partnerships with marginalized, non-white communities need to establish solid relationships before there is an agenda, because entering

Fondy Food’s Greens Throwdown Cooking Contest. YOUNG KIM

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Relationship Building

Approach Funders

Write the Grant

Grant is Awarded

Implement!

(Time)

into a relationship with an agenda is a sign that you’re not interested in talking. Relationships also need to be established before there is any talk of going after grant funding because people behave differently and are not as genuine when money is on the table. Relationship building is a time consuming process, and it can be difficult to go against the grain in this increasingly funding-centric world. How does someone from outside a community start building relationships? You show up, again and again. You go to community meetings. When you stand in the doorway looking into the meeting room and you don’t see any faces that look like yours, you take a deep breath and walk in

YOUNG KIM

anyway. You start volunteering your time. You talk about your parents and where you grew up. You make your grandmother’s special blueberry pie and you bring it to potluck dinners. You attend marriages and funerals. When that impatient voice in your head asks, “When are they going to get down to brass tacks and start talking about problems?” You wait. Slowly you will learn the neighborhood histories and aspirations that your predecessors missed. In my case, I learned that people living in inner city Milwaukee were painfully aware of

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all the doctoral dissertations that had been minted off of the neighborhood’s struggles. The folks were tired of being poked, prodded, studied and being labeled as problems, and they didn’t like it when I called their neighborhood a food desert. One community leader told me that, grammatically speaking, she was tired of being the object: “I want to be the subject and the verb!” Once the relational foundation has been established, then you can talk about aspirations, problems, and funding. And instead of waiting for a charitable foundation to issue a call for proposals, the partnership has the power to approach foundations and ask for funding. The progression of this relational model looks something like the chart at the top of this page. The time invested in relationship building phase will pay off in the latter stages. When the grant is awarded you will already know the personalities and the skills of the individuals on your team. You will know who has the ability to crank out grant reports or who is more of a conceptual thinker. You will also know that an agency’s accountant only works on the second and fourth Monday of the month. Everyone will see the big picture and no one will be saying, “Just tell me what to do.” The project will just flow. Like a lot of American rust belt cities, Milwaukee still has its problems. But I believe that those of us who are working to create systemic change need to train ourselves into seeing the glass as half empty and half full. The embers of healthier behavior and positive change are right under our noses, just waiting to be fanned into flames. A year after my Mount Stupid moment, we organized a Greens Throwdown cooking contest at our farmers market. We invited fifteen neighborhood residents to go head-tohead see who had the best collard greens recipe. Much to my surprise, half of the entrants used recipes that were either vegetarian or salt free. No one was willing to share their recipe with me.

Feeding Bellies and Hearts By Mary Lake

hen I started working at Knoll Farm, I was pretty sure that I could anticipate the type of work and learning that lay ahead. I was the apprentice to Helen Whybrow, an Icelandic sheep and organic blueberry farmer as well as the co-founder of Center for Whole Communities. I knew I would learn how to take care of sheep, how to feed them, help them reproduce and raise lambs, protect them from predators and bacteria and diseases, heal them, slaughter them, shear them, sell them. I anticipated that learning these skills would be difficult, because undoubtedly I would love the sheep. Because of that love, successes and mistakes would be felt deep in my heart. I wanted to feel this joy and pain, and I wanted to experience the education that farming offers. At that point, I didn’t know anything about Center for Whole Communities. I was there to learn how to become a shepherd. I wasn’t involved with the nonprofit work, and I didn’t think it had much to do with me.

However, last summer, I managed the farm while Helen was on sabbatical and fulfilled a connection for retreat participants to the land and farm. When I met participants, the introduction of the farm and my work often led to meaningful conversations about raising animals for meat, farming without owning land or animals, or nearly forgotten skills like shearing and butchering. We also talked about slaughter, which was new for me. I had spent the previous year learning how to kill livestock and process their meat, but I still struggled with how to talk about slaughter to non-butchers, not to mention vegetarians. One of the most memorable conversations for me was about how someone could love sheep and still be able to slaughter them. There came a time where I had to look at each of the rams in this photo, one by one, and decide who would get processed. Instead of looking at those rams lovingly with a slight smile like I did every day, my face was

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concentrated as I tried to decide which one would be slaughtered. I was proud of the young sheep those ram lambs had become, though I was surprised to find myself thinking of them as products. These rams, who I had helped feed and protect all summer, were going to nourish my friends, family and community with their meat. It’s an interesting cycle of love. Telling participants about that cycle helped me feel more dedicated and confident in my work, and I think it was a new and different story for many participants. I – and I hope a lot of participants – look at meat production a little differently now. When I started at Knoll Farm and Center for Whole Communities, I did not anticipate the transformation I would make as person in agriculture. I’ve started to see myself as a leader with a story to tell, and I am ready to dive into my work as a butcher and shearer with a long-lasting vigor. I feel a responsibility not only to myself but to others to learn everything I can about raising animals for meat: from humane animal handling and food safety to

grazing in a way that restores the land to marketing meat and breeding stock to sharing the stories of local farmers. The skills I’ve acquired over the past few years here have shown me the importance of sharing stories and working for a healthy relationship to land and food. As I leave Knoll Farm and Center for Whole Communities this May, I will be taking all that I have learned with me over the mountain to the Royal Butcher, where I will be serving small-scale and commercial farmers through humane and safe processing of their sheep, goats, pigs and cattle. I don’t know whether it is right or wrong to raise animals for meat. But, I do know that it is possible to love and respect livestock up until their death. I know I can slaughter animals in a way that is as stress-free as possible and I think that is right. I slaughter livestock because I love the animals, respect the farmers and want to educate consumers. All deserve a skilled, knowledgeable and focused butcher. I would like to be that butcher.

Finding Whole Thinking in an Unexpected Place By Rebecca Ruggles

n late September of 2011, only two weeks after being at Center for Whole Communities (CWC) on Knoll Farm in Vermont, I found myself at a two-day professional workshop where whole thinking was being practiced. I was startled to find Whole Communities’ transformative practices in use. I went around to the organizers and tried to link them to Whole Communities, but to no avail. I finally had to accept that this was serendipity. The workshop drew together people in my field, community

ADB PHOTOS

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health. It attracted people who feel a sense of urgency about addressing the social and environmental context of patients’ lives. The workshop was titled Leveraging the Social Determinants of Health in Community Health Centers. “Social determinants” is public health jargon for environmental, geographic, cultural and economic factors that affect a person and a community’s health status. In effect, it is a form of whole thinking. In the world of health care today, we know a person’s health is more affected by where they live and work, what they eat and drink, and where they stand on the economic and educational ladder, than it is by access to good health care services. But the health care system is focused on itself – delivering good care and creating adequate access to services for those already sick. It is a system designed to address disease, not health. Thus many of us at the workshop were frustrated visionaries, disappointed by health care reform’s focus on questions of insurance and coverage, struggling to maintain a whole person approach in our work. To my surprise, the workshop unfolded as a safe place to vent these feelings, and then to be visionary and hopeful. Cynicism and frustration were sidelined in CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

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favor of voicing our aspirations for ideas. The facilitators were skilled . . . many of us at the workshop were true health for communities and at acknowledging dissenting frustrated visionaries, disappointed by health care people. ideas without forcing resoluHaving just been exposed to tion. Reflections deepened over reform’s focus on questions of insurance transformative practices, I noticed the course of the two days. We and coverage, struggling to maintain a whole how many were cropping up also practiced awareness. At the person approach in our work. during this workshop. I saw how suggestion of a physician from they helped create that safe and Hawai‘i, we began our first day’s hopeful conversation. The workshop organizers showed deep work with a circle of hands, and a silent remembering of hospitality by hosting a dinner the night before we began our ancestors who came before us, those who paved the way for two days together. The entire workshop was free, including our work. We ended with silently dedicating ourselves and overnight accommodations even for local workshop partici- our further work to the people of the future, again coming pants. We built relationships with each other during evening together in a circle of hands. meals and breakfasts which allowed for unstructured converBecause my retreat had been just a few weeks before, I sations. We were a small group and we had time to reveal recognized these elements and felt them keenly. I continue ourselves. As a group, we worked with difference by accept- to feel nourished by these two experiences and the serendiping attachment to place as a basis for differences and authentic ity of their combined effect. Just as the Center for Whole communication. Communities “time out of time” remains powerful and inspirA form of dialogue emerged as we worked together. At ing, this workshop has strengthened my resolve to be holistic times, we noticed that our own thoughts would be voiced in my approach to community health work and has given me by a previous speaker, allowing us to build on each other’s lasting support. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

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A Land Trust Transforming By Craig Anderson and Lee Hackeling

nce there was a young land trust that saw through repeat experiences that people being connected to land was perhaps the most significant addition to a land trust’s ‘tool box’ for creating real and long-term conservation success. Quite accidentally (and happily), this land trust read of a new organization at the time being formed in the mountains of Vermont that not only believed about this, wrote and lectured publically about it, but actually taught leaders from across the country to practice it more deeply. This made the young land trust happy and created a sense of “we’ve got some back up here.” It seemed that the entire community where this land trust

practiced, Sonoma County in Northern California, was not being included in issues related to enjoying, preserving and stewarding land wild and farmed – and this land trust took heart and decided to take action in approximately 2002. The young land trust thought a good starting place would be reaching out to Latinos in our community, a group comprising the second largest population group in Sonoma County. Current programs were translated for Spanish speakers and outings and events were planned for native Spanish-speaking residents in order to provide access to new lands being preserved in the region. Why not have the 40 to 50 people that came for every event be those less served by traditional conservation work? In

Following the garden-staged play “Todos Comemos / We All Eat”, one of the actresses picks up a guitar and plays French and Mexican folk songs while the attendees eat post-theater tortillas prepared on outdoor ovens at Bayer Farm in Santa Rosa, CA. CRAIG ANDERSON, COURTESY OF LANDPATHS www.wholecommunities.org

order to ensure turnout similar for these events a native Spanish-speaking guide was retained, public service announcements were created on Spanish language radio stations and ads and announcements were made in local Spanish and bilingual papers. The big day arrived. Three people showed up for the event. It would have been easiest to give up any further endeavors in this direction on the spot. The land trust decided that it had to make efforts at systemic change first in how it operated; the hard before the easy. In part, it became clear that language was not the only barrier to reaching beyond our self-proclaimed ‘conservation-minded culture’ in order to include the entire community in our work. It is using energy to see the connections between issues the Santa Rosa Aztec Dancers perform at Bayer Farm’s first ever community event within six weeks of land trust cares about and the issues the LandPaths working with the community to create a park. CRAIG ANDERSON, COURTESY OF LANDPATHS community cares about – always looking for overlap and things that unite us not divide us. from earth-inspired activities (hunters, poets, Aztec and folk There are seemingly countless walls we can imagine that dancers) that had been largely if not totally ignored by the separate us from having common experience – and that experi- conservation movement. From there programs were impleence being conserving and stewarding land wild and agricultural mented to bring the people from this farm to other parts of the – with groups different from ourselves. These include politi- county so that they could experience what their county and cal ideologies, hunters versus non-hunters, where we shop and state tax dollars – however meager or mighty – were doing for even the clothes we wear and music we listen to. In order to the preservation of wild and agricultural lands. Some of these engage a broader audience we simply had to be willing to make people, of different color and interest and education and socioour organization relevant to that broader audience. economic background eventually came to work for the land trust, some of whom will eventually join its board of directors. The organization continues to change from the inside out and There are seemingly countless walls in a fantastic way. we can imagine that separate us from These days every event at the urban farm has a minimum of having common experience. several hundred (and as many as 600) people attending, each and every hike is populated by dozens (sometimes upwards of This organization created a diversity policy on how to reach 70). The land trust is known locally as LandPaths (short for out for new hires and new board members. It worked more “land partners through stewardship) and it continues to work closely with its existing field-based school program by hiring in creating exemplary opportunities for people to connect with Spanish-speaking instructors. It started a new city park in an land where they live for the betterment of the natural world extremely challenged urban area based on the model of a work- and the human community. Ultimately, we are learning that ing farm open to the public and for people in the community it’s not about speaking someone’s different language in order to that wanted to grow their own food. The participants at this fit in or gain trust, but understanding new perspectives on how site, the Bayer Farm and Gardens, included not only people of one experiences land. That understanding and the willingness ethnic diversity but war veterans, single mothers and a plural- to be changed by that understanding can lead to mutual beneity of interest groups and clubs that had their original genesis fits for land and people. CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

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Thunder and Gratitude By Andrew Dillon Bustin

river of mist flows through the Mad River Valley at sunrise. With peaceful turbidity it winds its way through the treetops. Silence. Sitting cross-legged in the meadow of Knoll Farm I admire the stunning view from 1,400 feet above sea level. Deep breaths inject crisp mountain air into my lungs. I close my eyes and open my mind. For six days at the end of July, 2011, I had the privilege of enjoying this meditative morning routine. Center for Whole Communities and Center for Diversity and the Environment made it possible for 18 young conservation leaders from all over the country to come to Knoll Farm in Vermont for 2042 Today: Young Leaders Re-Imagining Conservation. 2042 is the year when demographers are predicting every metropolitan statistical area will be predominantly people of color. The program sought to increase our awareness of historically entrenched challenges related to the white dominance of our country’s conservation movement. Together we discovered new perspectives to help us understand how important a diverse conservation movement will be to the sustainable future of a changing America. The experience has left me humbled by the power of story,

togetherness, and the natural world. On the last day of the retreat we held a gathering of gratitude. The group stood around a small fire – a flickering beacon of love and light. The flames reminded me that the real world we had escaped for a short time was waiting for us tomorrow. Thunder threatened as we offered our gratitude. One by one we stepped forward, shared what we felt thankful for, then tossed a handful of wood shavings onto the fire. The crackling pile consumed the helpless dry wood immediately, sending an ethereal wisp of smoke into the cool evening air. Dark clouds were building but the thunder continued without rain. As soon as we were finished the rain began to fall. First a drop on the shoulder, then buckets. We laughed and ran into the barn for shelter. Within minutes the sun was shining again and I heard someone from outside shout, “Rainbow!” We bolted back outside into the meadow to witness a gigantic beaming arc of color span the entire Mad River Valley. All of the colors were there, unified as one in a beautiful, harmonious display. Apparently our smoke of gratitude had struck a chord with the thundering heavens above Knoll Farm. Nature had acknowledged our thanks, and replied with a rainbow, “You’re welcome.”

ADB PHOTOS

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Widening the Frame

By Lauret E. Savoy and Alison H. Deming

espite countless claims to the contrary in recent newscasts and articles, the United States is not a “post-racial” society. In fact, each day offers new examples of injustice that reveal a society determined to avoid the troubled legacy of our nation’s founding and growth. Consider New Orleans. Years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, the wake of levee failure still points to long-embedded practices of de jure and de facto apartheid. For those who lacked access to shelter or higher ground, and for those who received little forewarning or relief aid, their disproportionate suffering was only another surge in a centuries-old pattern. After the Civil War, African Americans were forced to live in the least-desirable, flood-prone areas of New Orleans. Lawful segregation of the city’s public housing and transportation before the mid-1960s only further entrenched this geography of poverty and race. When Hurricane Katrina arrived, then, it should have hardly been a surprise that the burden fell primarily on low-income people of color. Weeks after the levees broke the majority of homes that remained submerged were owned or rented by African Americans. By some measures New Orleans has recovered significantly. The Brookings Institution reported in late 2010 that the city’s population had exceeded three-quarters the pre-Katrina numbers, that large-scale rebuilding efforts had boosted the economy there, and that the local unemployment was lower than national statistics. But who has moved back and who is being counted? Even though most of those living in the Crescent City in August of 2005 were renters and low-income residents, recovery programs have favored property owners. Thousands of displaced families still, years later, live in “temporary” housing (trailers and tents), or are homeless, many squatting in abandoned buildings. Thousands more, particularly lowincome (former) renters and public housing residents, have not been able to return to the city as rents there climb out of reach and as mixed-income homes replace affordable housing. Those affordable public housing projects that survived Katrina – more than 5,000 units – were demolished by the housing authority (backed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the city council), leaving only a small percentage of homes set aside or subsidized for those with little means. And corporate spending on rebuilding hasn’t helped the situation, giving priority to privatizing or reducing many CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

social services rather than ending the displacement and homelessness of poor people of color. With investment goals focused on a smaller but more affluent city footprint, redevelopment is targeting areas where the economically poor did not, or could not, live. Reconstruction is changing the city’s racial and economic complexion, rather than restoring separated families, communities, or the spiritual rootedness that made the city so culturally rich. Yet, polled by Gallup and other organizations on whether Hurricane Katrina and its impacts pointed to persistent racial inequality, fewer than half of white Americans thought so, while more than three-quarters of African Americans in the country said “yes.” “Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? / and www.wholecommunities.org

miss it each night and day . . .” These lyrics, first sung by Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday in 1947, might very well be the anthem of a whole generation of New Orleanians unlucky enough to be from the wrong ward. This is not only happening in New Orleans. Across the nation polluting industries follow paths of least power or resistance, as the federal government has persistently weakened or simply failed to implement enforcement structures and health-protection measures for communities less capable of defending themselves. The recent study, Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987–2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the United States, reports that more than half of the nine million people living within two miles of hazardous waste sites across the Hurricane Katrina, August 31, 2005. country are people of color. The study goes on to document systemic racial and socioeconomic inequities in the to human existence. That “nature writing” became a strand in siting of commercial waste facilities.1 the weave of American literature was hardly surprising considAnyone who looks closely enough can see that the ways ering the compelling heritage of natural beauty, grand scale, in which the United States organizes its political system and and rich biodiversity of the continent. Many of the early, Euroeconomy – from de facto segregation and toxic waste sites to American luminaries of the genre wrote about solitary explorafood production and trade policies – are far from neutral and tions of wild places from a poetic, philosophical, or scientific even farther from “post-racial.” And yet, despite clearly worded, perspective, seeing nature as a place apart, where wisdom and well-researched studies proving racist policies, like Toxic Wastes inspiration could be harvested for day-to-day life in the “real” and Race at Twenty, and despite one of the most massive and world of cities. ongoing segregated depopulations of a United States city in In the last few decades, “nature writing” has ranged beyond history – New Orleans – citizens with great power in this coun- such narratives of solitary encounters and celebrations of pristry continue not to see the systematic injustices daily visited on tine wildness to consider degraded habitats, cascading species communities of color. Why not? extinctions, and global climate change - all providing inconThe seed of this anthology was a troubling question voiced trovertible evidence that our uniquely “American” relationship in mainstream or white Euro-American literary and environ- with this world has become unsustainable. This more contemmental circles: “Why is there so little ‘nature writing’ by people porary sensibility understands that nature has been wounded of color?” To respond we had to decide what “nature writing” and degraded throughout human history, that such wounding was, and is. diminishes all of us, and that the wound must somehow be Although writings about the natural world have existed from healed. If this is what “nature writing” is, the question then ancient times to the present in countless cultural traditions and remains, “Why is there so little recognized ‘nature writing’ by languages, “nature writing” as a distinct literary tradition in people of color?” Europe and Euro-America originated in the Romantic Age of African American, Asian American, Arab American, Latino/a, the late eighteenth century. Romanticism, as a reaction against Native American, and “multiracial” or “mixed-blood” voices neoclassicism, was an affirmation of imagination over intel- have profoundly enlarged and enriched our national literary lect and emotion over reason, and it celebrated a belief in the identity. While this question suggests, somewhat surprisingly, innate goodness of nature and of human beings in their natu- that little of that writing has had anything to do with the natural state; but romanticism was also defined by a sense of separa- ral world, there is a wealth of literature on nature from culturtion from the natural world, the belief that nature was external ally and ethnically diverse voices. Black Nature: Four Centuries 1 Reputable information sources on current environmental justice issues and activism include the Environmental Justice Resource Network (www.ejrc.cau.edu/) and the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (www.dscej.org/).

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of African American Nature Poetry (edited by Camille T. Dungy) is one recent example offering a vision of what African American poets have contributed to our understanding of the natural world and to nature writing. And it raises questions in our minds as to why other perspectives are missing from our nature literature as it has been historically defined. What if one’s primary experience of land and place is not a place apart but rather indigenous? What if it is urban or indentured or exiled or (im)migrant or toxic? To define “nature writing” as anything that does not include these experiences reveals not a “lack” of writing, but reflects, instead, a societal structure of inclusion and exclusion based on othered difference – whether by “race,” culture, class, or gender. If what is called “nature writing” aims to understand how we comprehend and then live responsibly in the world, then it must recognize the legacies of America’s past in ways that are mindful of the complex historical and cultural dynamics that

have shaped us all. Perhaps some would say this isn’t a goal of writing about nature or natural history. But if such writing examines human perceptions and experiences of nature, if an intimacy with and response to the larger-than-human world define who or what we are, if we as people are part of nature, then the experiences of all people on this land are necessary stories, even if some voices have been silent, silenced, or simply not recognized as nature writing. What is defined by some as an edge of separation between nature and culture, people and place, is a zone of exchange where finding common ground is more than possible; it is necessary. “Widening the Frame,” by Alison H. Deming and Lauret E. Savoy, from The Colors of Nature (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2011). Copyright © 2011 by Lauret E. Savoy and Alison H. Deming. Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions. (www.milk weed.org).

The meaning of the word “nature” is derived from the Latin nascor, to be born. Perhaps a birth of sorts may yet occur in our ability to re-imagine and refocus how we think and write about nature and environment through different lenses. Then, perhaps all of us might begin, finally, to resist any mono-identity or mono-culture of mind, self, or knowledge – to celebrate the biodiversity of self and of others.

MOLLY BAGNATO

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SELAH

By Kevin K.J. Chang

t was fortuitous. After a week’s retreat with Center for Diversity and the Environment and Center for Whole Communities engaging the productive use of silence and bridge building, a new word came into my life. The word is SELAH, a cool word my friend Laura brought up recently. This is my mana’o (thoughts) on it. SELAH is Hebrew. Its meaning is unknown. But its use, its potential meaning and non-meaning make complete sense to me. It’s been translated to mean “stop and listen” or to pause, to reflect. It is the musical interlude in psalms. SELAH, to reflect on the word. It may also mean forever and be used in the place of amen. SELAH. It is the word acknowledging the pause. Or perhaps it’s the pause itself. SELAH is the canvas upon which sound is made evident. It embodies transition between movements.

Most music is rhythm and/or melody intertwined and transitioning among spaces of silence. Many mini interludes. Without the silence it would not be music. SELAH. Perhaps our lives are giant (or small) interludes in time and space; within each life are further experiences intertwined with interludes of reflection. Music is life, life is music. SELAH. The less you reflect, the less you fully participate; the less music of life you make . . . so on and so forth. SELAH. I imagine within each person is a drum, a heart which pauses, not just beats, but pauses. The pause itself is the part of the beat we neglect. Without the pause there is no such thing as a beat. Or is the pause its own thing? Either way we cannot live without that pause. SELAH. As we know, it always can unexpectedly stop, either ending us or sending us into forever. Would we be able to live with a heart that does not pause for its beat? Is that conceivable? Without the pause is there a beat? Why is it we are alive between the pauses of our heartbeat? SELAH. Perhaps it’s the pause that’s forever. SELAH. SELAH. It’s that place where you hang in the balance, not knowing where you are going, and it goes on forever. It’s funny how at the core of things it is the nothingness that holds everything together, shapes it and gives it meaning. Yet, we don’t value it. Forever is meaningless in our limited-time horizon. It is nothing in the interlude of our short and fleeting lives. We take it for granted. Even those things we mistake

Perhaps it’s the pause that’s forever. SELAH.

Kevin Chang plays the ukele for friends at Center for Whole Communities in August. SHADIA FAYNE WOOD www.wholecommunities.org

for being for forever. Like a loved one. SELAH. Perhaps it is SELAH that keeps our community together, like a communal drum. We are still connected, though loosely, because we pause and reflect just enough. Or at least we used to. SELAH. Perhaps the more we neglect to pause and consider things the more we fall apart. Ironically, less reflection, less meaning, more nothing in a different sense. SELAH. Are we losing time for reflection? In love is it the talking or the listening that matters? SELAH. Is it that we pause for our love that matters, that we give them the time? Or is it the continuous presence of the beloved that makes love what it is. What is that saying? . . . Absence makes the heart grow fonder. SELAH. But when the beloved is gone, CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

like the heartbeat it would seem that it is the emptiness that goes on forever. SELAH. I recently read an article about the speed of our conscience and neurological science. Accordingly, our brain is prodictive (vs. predictive). For example, a sensation passed from our toe to our brain takes time, milliseconds. But milliseconds count. There is a minute delay in our assessment of each moment. A pause. What we think of as present conscience is actually – and always – based on past knowledge, sensation and experience. A reflection. We are never actually using present information, never seeing the full picture. We actually are looking at a piece of the fabric in a larger quilt, a piece of information in an everchanging lineage of events. SELAH. In this context, what does it mean when we fail to pause and consider? SELAH. Is it the heartbeat or the pause between the beats that represents life? Isn’t a silent heart a death knell? To say that a heart’s beat is the measurement and affirmation of life neglects the pause between each beat. Perhaps life is the balance of the two. Can you imagine a life without it? What would a song be like that was all crescendo? SELAH. It is the silence that also keeps us alive. Life seems like a

limbo-like state between absence and presence. Like music, the sounds we hear dance on a canvas of silence which brings forth the spirit that makes us dance. Without the canvas there is no life. To know that what you know is never enough is to know what knowing is all about. Funny how it’s the pause, the emptiness, that makes everything so meaningful, so beautiful and so worthwhile. SELAH is that place where we gather our senses, transcend words and build real bridges to each other. Here in Hawai‘i we have collectively paused and reflected over time. “I ka wā ma mua, ka wā ma hope,” history lies ahead of us, the future is at our back. History is our bridge to cross. In my home, our communities, especially our rural and Native Hawaiian people, are transcending history and building a bridge to the future by looking to the past. I found a sense of kinship with my friends at the Retreat, arising out of pausing and reflecting too. SELAH was the canvas for the bridge we collectively imagined into life. It was a place we shared that was full of potential, and it is from here that I transition . . . take your time. SELAH

Haiku

By Alex Bauermeister

Why Do I I do this work to Encounter the miracle Of one tiny shift.

ALEX BAUERMEISTER

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The Heart of the Matter By Virginia Kennedy

n the summer of 2011, I began a journey down a road I the land trust I would have the opportunity to work with the hadn’t considered before. community through programming, activities, and fundraising For the past five years, I have been a teaching fellow directly related to the work of connecting people to the lands at Cornell University, working toward a PhD in English and and waters that sustain them. I would also be squarely within American Indian Studies. During these years, I also wrote the middle of the tension caused by natural gas and an envigrants for the Delaware Highlands Conservancy, a local land ronmental ethic governed by a focus on wealth and private trust where I live. The trust has been successful in protecting property. farms and forests and educating the communities of the Upper Delaware River region about the importance of caring for healthy lands and clean waters now and for future generations. I traveled back and forth between Ithaca, NY and Milford, PA teaching, working and caring for my family. With the support of some generous fellowships, I traveled to different communities, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to learn about diverse approaches to environmental ethics – the ways in which people relate to the biosphere. One fellowship landed me at Center for Whole Communities to explore how our stories reveal ourselves, and how these revelations can build communities that change our lives. In the same five years, this Upper Delaware River region, where I have been blest to raise my children, has come under siege. Natural gas companies practicing fracking, the process of injecting massive amounts of water and toxic chemicals into shale rock to force trapped natural gas to the surface for capture, invaded Northeastern Pennsylvania, where I live, and the Finger Lakes region of New York, where I have been going to school. The introduction of huge amounts of natural gas Virginia Kennedy being arrested at the Keystone XL Pipeline protest in money in the form of leases for peoples’ lands, often times front of the White House on Aug. 20, 2011. SHADIA FAYNE WOOD acres of farm and forestlands, has divided communities and set neighbor against neighbor. Our lands, waters, biodiversity and I wanted to believe I had the diplomatic skills to work in health are at risk. The battle lines are stark, the energy compa- a community in the presence of this dissension, but I wasn’t nies contribute their misleading sure. Could I remain diplomatinoise, and the armies on either cally engaged among people deterWhere are the connections between justice and side have little opportunity for mined to mine the land and the environmental protection? What is the emergency we understanding or talking with water for an energy resource they face first? Climate change? Fracking and our drinking water? each other. believe they have a right to, and Or people being robbed of their lives and spirits As I came to the close of people determined to prevent a right now, every second, by poverty? my teaching fellowship in the drilling and extraction process spring of 2011, I was offered that’s far too damaging to allow? the opportunity to work fulltime at the Conservancy and work I have always been an activist, passionately and actively for the home lands I love in this community rife with tension supporting my beliefs, so some members of the board and but also filled with potential. I have always been a teacher; high the executive director had their own concerns about how I school first, then college. The thought of leaving the classroom would navigate the tension in the our community. But they was unsettling. But, as outreach and development director at trusted my skills and commitment to the Conservancy and www.wholecommunities.org

Kennedy protests with her daughter Marygrace in August at the White House (left) and in October (right). The picture on the left shows Marygrace leaving the August protests just before arrests were made. Marygrace was a minor and her mother didn’t want her arrested. LEFT PHOTO: SHADIA FAYNE WOOD; RIGHT PHOTO: VIRGINIA KENNEDY

offered me the position. I accepted and planned for a start date in September. As luck and the universe would have it, the day I was scheduled to meet with the entire Conservancy board I was in a federal prison cell in Washington D.C. I had been arrested as part of the civil disobedience action against the Keystone XL Pipeline, a pipeline designed to carry dirty tar sands oil liquefied with heat from fracked natural gas. I was part of the first wave of protestors arrested and the only group for whom a fine was not an option. I was in jail for the weekend with sixtyfour other protestors including climate change activist, Bill McKibben. I spent the time with fourteen fellow female activists; the men were separated from us. Over the course of the weekend, we spent time in the cells of three different D.C. jails. In the beginning, I worried about my new job and what the people who had hired me would think about where I was when I supposed to be attending the board meeting. But, there was something important, maybe even profound, happening for me in jail. We activists were strangers to each other when we were arrested, and we were strangers to the women with whom we shared our cells. We, the activists, were all white women, middle class professionals and students. Our cellmates were low-income women of color. They had never heard of climate change or fracking, nor were they worried about these things. They had other concerns – violent husbands, nowhere to live, no one with enough money to bail them out or resources to support them. Together, we were all cramped, hungry and cold, and with that discomfort in common, we found ways to listen to each other beyond the wide gulf of different experiences. Disagreements arose, but the biggest of these were among the activists. The conditions in the jail were appalling; thousands of women herded through a system that so completely CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

dehumanized them that hope for anything beyond cycles of despair seemed impossible. We passionately debated the question the environmental movement has been consistently and deeply asking itself in recent years. Where are the connections between justice and environmental protection? What is the emergency we face first? Climate change? Fracking and our drinking water? Or people being robbed of their lives and spirits right now, every second, by poverty? How can a women be in jail for being poor and drunk on the street, yet not a single person has been arrested for the eleven dead men blown up on a oil rig that decimated half the Gulf of Mexico and the lives and livelihoods of thousands? How do we connect it all for ourselves and communicate with people who are busy with their own struggles and immersed in surviving day to day? As we were being released and led out of the jail cell, some of the women we left behind were cheering us. “You keep fighting the man,” they said. “Yes,” I thought then, “the man,” the greed at the heart of all this; invasive and corrosive. Their “man” is ours as well, but love and connection are stronger. In the worst of places, or of situations, we can remember, if we try to, to embrace this simple fact. This is what I brought home to my new job and to my community. It’s what I try to keep with me, though some days it is harder than others. I remember something Peter Forbes told me the first time we met. We were talking about a photo he had of a woman about to sacrifice her life for her child. I wasn’t sure about it, about keeping a photo like that. Peter said, “But, just imagine the power of that love; what that speaks to in us.” In people, in humans. In the face of such tremendous loss, how incredibly hopeful. www.wholecommunities.org

As Within, So Without By Daniel Lim

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely re-arranging their prejudices.” – Edward R. Murrow

012 is the year of the Water Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac and this essay reflects one of the main themes of the Water Dragon, which is taking action with wisdom. As I think about what it means to take action with wisdom, I recollect the many observations I have had over the years that led me to write this essay about the role of spiritual transformation in social change movements. The most recent observation is of Occupy Wall Street and the question arising from it, which is, “Will the 99% create the new 1% or will the protesters create a world that works for all?” This question lingers unanswered in my mind because I have witnessed situations in the movement that lead me to suspect that what the protesters really want is not sustainability and democracy but simply their own access to the wealth and power that the 1% currently hoards. At the mass student protest on N17 (the highly successful two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street) at Union Square, NYC, I saw a young, white male protester aggressively pushing his way towards the speaker stage, ultimately engaging in a fist fight with another male protester just because he did not want to wait in line to speak like everyone else. The first thought that came to my mind when I saw this unfold in front of me was that if what that man wanted ultimately was to exert his own privilege and power over others then the Occupy movement was not for him. I was further disheartened a few weeks later when I read a story from a woman protester about how an idea she introduced at an Occupy meeting was completely ignored but was embraced minutes later when it was identically introduced by a male speaker. Is this what we have to look forward to in the movement – a new group of people to perpetuate the same systemic silencing and exploitation of other living beings? Another observation that prompted this essay was the TV show, Heroes, that ran on NBC for four seasons. On Heroes – and almost all other similar dramas about people with superpowers – the viewer is presented with the premise that people with superpowers can create better societies because they are somehow more evolved, by virtue of having powers that other www.wholecommunities.org

human beings don’t have. But as their stories unfold, the viewer witnesses the same philosophical wars, political mind games and power struggles that plague regular human beings. The viewer quickly realizes that these characters have not evolved. They are still the same emotionally damaged and power hungry people that you see on the screen all the time and in real life. They want to exact mass social change through the use of their powers but they fail in the end because their hearts lack wisdom. I analyze the trajectories of the characters on Heroes to try to understand why they ultimately meet their demise. But in doing so, I actually miss the larger truth about the show. The truth is that the premise of the show is a trick premise to begin with. The idea that one person or a small group of people can determine for the world how it can be better and then try to bring about that vision through the use of force – superpowers, in this case – is inherently unevolved. It is not that the characters are unevolved. It is that their philosophy of social change is unevolved. The show borrows its premise, of course, from real life, where real leaders base their work on the same flawed idea. This method of social change is a self-contradiction. One cannot hope to bring about social change without first changing oneself or allowing oneself to be changed in the process. And yet, that is what our mainstream leaders believe. They embrace the notion that a sustainable and just world is an objective reality that exists somewhere in the future, independent of the political process and power structures we use to get there. They don’t see that how they engage in social change carries rippling implications on the final outcome. This philosophy is the reason why we are seeing many institutions today such as banks and governments constructing “eco-friendly” buildings and engaging in other “green” initiatives even though they may be some of the exploitative and oppressive organizations in the world. This schism between how one does things and what one is trying to achieve runs contrary to the new knowledge we have gleaned about the universe from the study of quantum mechanics. Groundbreaking insights from modern physics increasingly show us a universe where there is no objective reality. The future remains an unrealized potential that is unfolding as one reality or another inextricably dependent on what we choose to pay attention to and act on. In the world described by quantum mechanics, the process by which we try CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

Protestors march in the streets of Oakland, CA on Nov. 2, 2011 during occupy Oakland’s general strike and mass day of action. SHADIA FAYNE WOOD

to create social change has tremendous impact on the quality wisdom when he said, “Be the change you wish to see in the of the change outcome. In fact, the process is the product, as world.” This is not simply a feel-good axiom about not waiting the cliché saying goes. Sustainability for someone else to create a world you and democracy are not objective states want to live in. It is a beautiful recogModern physics and ancient spiritual of existence in the future that we can nition of the need for all living beings wisdom give us clues to what an reach using the same corrupt technoloto create social change by first cultienlightened process looks like for creating gies and political systems. Attempting vating that change within ourselves, in to do so will only perpetuate the social change. First, we shift from the love our psyches and our behaviors. It is no same conditions of environmental wonder then that one of the most epitof power to the power of love. and social degradation. Sustainability omic messages of the Occupy moveand democracy are rather processes of ment is “Occupy the Mind”, since forming nourishing, reciprocal relationships with other human liberation from environmental and social exploitation must beings, other living beings, the land, air and oceans now – here begin in our values. in the present. Modern physics and ancient spiritual wisdom give us clues As Fritjof Capra points out in his book, The Tao of Physics, to what an enlightened process looks like for creating social modern physics often show us what ancient spiritual teaching change. First, we shift from the love of power to the power of has been telling us for millennia. Gandhi probably did not love. We abandon hidden motives of amassing personal power, study quantum mechanics, but he deftly expressed the same defending one’s privilege and glorifying one’s ego since doing CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

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so almost always handicaps us from doing what is better for the common good. We instead exercise collective power, which counter-intuitively grows stronger the more it is shared among a larger and more diverse group of people. Second, we move away from producing outcomes via competition and towards producing outcomes through collaboration. We stop using

hard force to impose change on society and instead rely on soft relationships to co-create meaning since a shared vision is often more powerful and ultimately sustainable. Third, we turn inward and pay attention to the trauma stored in our bodies to better understand how they might be undermining our work. As we recognize that we continually experience the world by re-creating the traumatic events we experienced in the past, we begin to heal ourselves so that our leadership can be healed as well. Many activists have particularly acknowledged this third point, leveraging the term “emotional justice” to describe the connection between personal healing and social change. The fight that broke out at the Occupy student protest quickly ended when the hundreds of other protesters surround-

Events like this reaffirm the fact that the Occupy movement and all social change endeavors are not end states of a better world in and of themselves but a continuous process of learning and striving to be better.

Protestors march the streets of Oakland, CA on Nov. 2, 2011 during occupy Oakland’s general strike and mass day of action. SHADIA FAYNE WOOD

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ing the two fighting individuals began chanting, “This is a peaceful protest. This is a peaceful protest.” It was such a relief to witness such collective maturity from the rest of the group. What a breath of fresh air to see the protesters immediately disarm the two aggressors with wise words rather than egg them on as you would usually see in a street fight. Events like this reaffirm the fact that the Occupy movement and all social change endeavors are not end states of a better world in and of themselves but a continuous process of learning and striving to be better. Each of us will experience moments when we want to promote personal agendas. Our egos will be activated. We will see others as enemies and want them to fail. We will rely on our past pains to inform how we react to the current situation. But the more often we can recognize when we lose our way, the more capable we become of getting back on the wise road.

Daphne and Apollo Illustration by Glen Hutcheson

aphne and Apollo is a story from ancient Greek mythology. Apollo, the god of sun and music, was bragging about how he’d killed a monster snake with his big bow and arrow. He insulted Cupid, the little god of love, saying his little bow was no good. Cupid got mad and shot Apollo with one of his love-arrows and shot Daphne, a nymph standing near, with an arrow meant to repel love. Apollo fell instantly in love with Daphne but she wanted nothing to do with him and ran away. Apollo pursued her continuously and she continued to flee, Cupid’s arrows instilling an impractical sense of love and abhorrence. After some time Daphne’s father, the river god Peneus, intervened and helped Apollo gain ground. Just as Apollo was about to catch her, Daphne called

for help from her father, pleading with him to change her out of the form which had led to pursuit and danger. Peneus fulfilled her wish and changed her into a laurel tree. Suddenly, her skin turned into bark, her hair became leaves, and her arms were transformed into branches. She stopped running as her feet became rooted to the ground. Apollo embraced the branches, but even the branches shrank away from him. Since Apollo could no longer take her as his wife, he vowed to tend her as his tree, and promised that her leaves would decorate the heads of leaders as crowns, and that her leaves were also to be depicted on weapons. Apollo also used his powers of eternal youth and immortality to render her ever green. Since then, the leaves of the Bay laurel tree have never known decay.

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Even Before I Forgot By JuanCarlos Arauz

At Education, Excellence & Equity (E3 )teachers are trained to translate students’ skills into academic achievement so that every student, regardless of starting point, is engaged and thriving in schools that practice a culture of academic success for all. The goal is to narrow the academic achievement gap by identifying students least likely to succeed and training teachers to work with them. JuanCarlos Arauz is the founding director of E3 .

ne of the services at E3 brings teachers and students together for summer trainings. These trainings have proved to be transformational experiences for both teachers and their students. This is exemplified in the story of Chris, a seventh-grader with a failing GPA who had participated in an E3 summer program. He hesitantly

attended our weekly follow-up sessions until one day he exclaimed in frustration, “Why do y’all keep coming?” We responded that we show up and do what we do because we believe in him and his desire to learn, whether his behavior reflected this or not. Astonished, he replied, “Well, I thought if I continued to behave poorly you would give up on me like others have in my life.” Today, I am proud to share that Chris is a rising high school sophomore with a 2.4 GPA and is more focused on his future than ever before. Chris’s story is not uncommon and speaks to the challenges and successes of the work we do at E3. I wanted to share this spoken word piece that gets at both the pain and joy of doing transformational work – as educators and students – learners all.

E3 students prepare to make juice as part of a grant they received to teach others about making healthy snacks. DILSY MENDEZ www.wholecommunities.org

JuanCarlos and E3 students. DILSY MENDEZ

EVEN to the chaos The lifting of my veil Drifting by winds of time I’m naked knowing that I’ll fail EVEN to the luxury of serenity Placing these chains upon me Slashing, cutting, knifing all that I see I find a way to break me EVEN finding that eternal place in time that I know Feeling the spirits from 7 generations ago I’m still asking what’s this all for EVEN when you sell your soul And you move through this world Trickle by trickle watching the pain unfold There was a time called before BEFORE I was being held even though I did not realize Others would see me as they gazed into my eyes That I didn’t ever have to wonder or ask why I was connected to all and the world was mine

E3 students on a snowshoe outing near Lake Tahoe. JuanCarlos credits his time at Whole Communities for inspiring the addition of more outdoor activities and healthy cooking in E3 programs. DILSY MENDEZ

BEFORE I don’t remember what it’s like to be free I don’t remember what is really important to me I don’t remember who I am so I can’t be I don’t remember and might die without ever realizing me BEFORE There was you grown and you thought you were all alone There was you through the eyes of a child and those who never learned how to smile Is it the mirror of me? Please tell me what you see Each day, every day, all day I FORGOT What it is to see what’s coming and how to walk away What it is true inside of me is there every day and everyday It is in complete darkness that you are your brightest It is in complete despair that you are your wisest When no one seems to listen When no one seems to care When no one seems to notice is when you know I’m there When it all seems hopeless When it all seems breaking apart When it all seems quiet you can hear inside your heart Rocks get tired too When you cry, I feel you When you yell, I endure you When you speak, I hear you When you move, I see you I see you I see you I see you, I SEE YOU! Rocks get tired too www.wholecommunities.org

Switchgrass Bricks, Harmonicas and Glaciers By Garett R. Brennan

t was late in the summer of 2009. I was fried. I’d been on the job for six months. I started the same morning Obama did. Hell, if he can do it, I can do it. My staff was fried too. Thousands and thousands of hours beating the drum to raise awareness about our climate. About why people should care. About what’s at stake. Young people making the case for clean energy. Fancy old rich people inside the ever-expanding beltway of Washington pretending to care. Every partner and every campaign marching and barking on about capping carbon, polluters must pay, down with the hydro-carbon industry, or else. Something isn’t right here my gut kept pounding. People are burning out and we haven’t even been to Copenhagen yet. This could get worse. Young spirits could get crushed. We aren’t helping them build relationships that will last. We aren’t helping college students understand how complex this energy transition is, let alone how to commit the next 40 years of their lives to it, if indeed they are serious about what they are demanding of their leaders. This can’t just be some trendy thing to do while in college. You can’t just flip a switch or change your status update. We keep mobilizing people to point the finger at a bad guy. But is there really a bad guy? And what good does getting all these young people to point fingers really do? What if we helped them point fingers at themselves? At

Focus the Nation organizes participants of the Recharge! Retreat into the four distinct fields of work critical to building a renewable energy future. COURTESY OF FOCUS THE NATION

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what skills and passions they have and want to build a career out of? To sculpt their life’s work from? Talk about terrible resource stewardship. What are we doing? Young people are the largest, most diverse untapped natural resource we have to solve our most pressing challenges, not a constituency to throw at deep systemic problems they played no role in creating. It’s almost like we’re burning through young people like we do our coal and oil. Drill it, burn it, make it do what we want it to do and then go find the next stash, if god forbid, they burn out and move on to something else. Perhaps that sounds a little harsh. But that is what I saw happening in our work at Focus the Nation and in the work around us. It felt disrespectful to young people. It did not

For too long, the prosperity that has come from our relationship with energy has been built on the backs of social and environmental injustice. embody the values of justice and prosperity that changing our country’s energy story has the potential to do. For too long, the prosperity that has come from our relationship with energy has been built on the backs of social and environmental injustice. Breaking that cycle will be the truest test of whether or not we succeed in building a clean energy future. All this was swirling and stewing that August in 2009. I was struggling to tackle it and fish it and ski it and sing it and hold it and cook it and eat it. I was swamped with things like payroll and raising money, calculating sick leaves and negotiating rent contracts and dealing with staff members bickering over versions of success that had nothing to do with “empowering a generation to power a nation” because they too – bless their hearts – were fried and grasping at tactical straws to prove a point. That was all the courage they could muster. Then, a guy named Terry said a gal named Ginny wanted me to spend a week at a place called Knoll Farm with a group called Center for Whole Communities. Honestly, I couldn’t find much on Google about it (which I liked). But the idea of unplugging on a farm in the Mad River Valley sounded selfishly glorious. I needed a break. And I couldn’t even articulate what from. So I went. I brought my guitar, but no harmonicas because they’d been stolen two days before I hopped a flight to Vermont. (The harmonicas I play now were actually CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

ReCharge! Retreat participants gather for a group photo at the Biglow Canyon Windfarm near Rufus, OR. The place-based retreat brings 20 rising clean energy leaders together each year to experience an area of the country where energy is accelerating toward renewables. GARETT BRENNAN

all purchased in Vermont. Upon arriving, the staff told us “if you need anything at all while you’re here don’t hesitate to ask, we have a white board in the barn so just write your item down and we’ll pick it up for you when we head into town.” So I wrote on the board: Harmonica Rack and Harmonicas in the keys of A, B, C, G, E, Bb, D-garett. Sure enough, Ginny’s husband Tim came back from town a few days later with all of them but the Bb. That was awesome. And it helped me write two great songs at Knoll Farm.) If you’re reading this, you know exactly what happens at Knoll Farm so I won’t recap the experience. And if you’re

Participants of the ReCharge! Retreat visit Oregon’s only coal plant in Boardman, OR. The participants are given the opportunity to talk to workers about what it feels like to work in a plant that is slated to be shut down in 2020. GARETT BRENNAN CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

reading this and you don’t know what I’m talking about, you will soon. It’s a special place. What I will recap though is the clarity it struck in me: a version of this is what’s missing in the youth climate movement. And we need to do it on Mt. Hood. And there are four kinds of young people that need to know each other: techni-

Young people are the largest, most diverse untapped natural resource we have to solve our most pressing challenges cians, innovators, politicos and storytellers. They need to know how important they are to changing our country’s energy story. And we need to support them right now while they are young, to build that deeper set of skills that will carry them when it gets hard – because it will – and ground them in the relationships they cultivate, in the work they will so passionately invest themselves in until they are old and their knees are sore and the lines in their hands dark and the wrinkles around their eyes are tributaries feeding into their soul. And that’s what happened. In my head and in my heart at Knoll Farm. So a year later, Center for Whole Communities and Focus the Nation proceeded to co-design the country’s first place-based retreat for rising clean energy leaders. We call it the ReCharge! Retreat. In August of 2011, on the south face of Mt. Hood we gathered 20 students divided equally among technicians, innovators, politicos and storytellers. Expert guests in www.wholecommunities.org

each of those groups led evening sessions and shared their own curious personal pathfinding and professional meandering to change our country’s energy story. And the students hiked a glacier that has lost 60% of its snow pack since 1982. And they visited a coal plant slated to shut down in 2020, where they talked with real people who work there about how it feels to know you might not have a job in nine years if someone doesn’t figure out how to make enough switchgrass bricks to swap out for the coal they are burning now. Students also stood inside 200-foot wind turbines in the middle of hayfields still harvested every other year for a decent profit. And, they stood on top of a hydro-dam that is actually restoring salmon populations and talked with the people who designed it and the people operate it. The people who are proud of it. That’s what happened. And we’ll do it every year because the Whole Communities faculty who guided these young people said, “I’ve never seen a group bond so quickly and so deeply like this before.” And we’ll do it every year because the students who went said things like, “it changed my life.” And, “I’ve been working on this issue for five years and I’ve never been to coal plant or a dam or a wind farm.” And, “now I know I’m not alone. I know there are other people out there with totally different skills but just as passionate as I am about renewable energy.” And we’ll do it every year because the veterans in the renewable energy industry who spent time with the students said things like this to my face: “I’ve been working on this issue for 30 years and I won’t lie but these last five years or so have been brutal, but this retreat, these students – it’s the first thing that’s given me hope. I wish I had had something like this when I was their age. My path wouldn’t have felt so lonely.”

Along with being the executive director of Focus the Nation, Garett is a full-time musician, playing all over the West coast with his band The Great Salt Licks. During his time at Knoll Farm, Center for Whole Communities staff and participants had the opportunity to enjoy his music and ability to spread environmental activism through song. www.wholecommunities.org

Pizza

By Taylor Burt and Phillip Ulbrich

izza is one of the best things to use up the dregs of the pantry on – you really can’t go wrong. A good flatbread will stretch that last link of sausage in the freezer, that single jar of tomato sauce on the shelf, a potato at the bottom of the bin and that last chunk of cheese in the fridge.

Pizza Dough Pizza dough can be as simple as mixing up the ingredients in the morning, or night before, and letting them sit until you’re ready to bake. No kneading necessary. For every small to medium size pizza (depending on how thick you like the crust), combine: ½ cup lukewarm water ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon dried yeast a dollop of sourdough starter if you have it (optional, but flavorful) enough flour to make a sticky, dough-like mass (a 50/50 mix of white and whole wheat flour will give a good balance of flavor and workability) – you should barely be able to stir the dough Let the dough rest for 10 minutes while you go do something else, then wet your hands and fold the dough over on itself a couple times (in the bowl) – wetting your hands should allow you to fold it without getting too much stuck to your fingers. Add a little more flour only if the dough seems impossibly sticky. Cover and let sit in a cool place for several hours, or in the refrigerator overnight. Every hour or so, if you can or remember, wet your hands and fold the dough over itself again – this will help develop the gluten. When ready to make pizza, roll or stretch out the dough, top and bake in a hot (400–500 degree) oven. Enjoy!

Brown and Blue By Jenny Helm

We rise early, crackling in dissonance with the river as it slinks into its tough winter shell. We rise before the room grays, before our bellies cry out for toast and potatoes and milk and the hard truth that life on the edge of now can shred our will as ruthlessly as the wind tears at the cracks around the door. The painted floor peels beneath our bare feet as we skitter toward socks and shirts, shoes and tea. It’ll be hours before the sun soars into this steel-creeked valley, and we can sense the coming months of knotted flesh here in the craggy shadows of these watchful mountains more than ever before. This cabin has roots. This land is solid. You are solid, too, with your leather boots and your wool, your music, your splitting maul’s steady arc and your growing piles of wood and lentils and stones and battered, brown instruments: one banjo, two mandolins, three guitars. If we were men, would we keep large, dark dogs to warn the neighbors not to mess around? Would we order our wives to shoot any fool who steps within a hundred yards? Some of the folks around here are half-mad. If we were men, hair would grow, clotting, from our chapped cheeks and swirl upward in spirals, tangy with woodsmoke and sweat and the warmth that grows out of nesting by the woodstove, stretching, and making our hardened bodies quiet enough to hear the dull thud of the clockwork deep inside.

ADB PHOTOS

News from Whole Communities

Whole Thinking Retreats: Strength in Numbers

Growing our Curriculum

One of the ways in which we feel the strength of the Whole Communities network is through the Whole Thinking Retreat (WTR) fellowship nomination process. In 2012 we received 350 nominations that competed for 100 fellowships – up from 275 in 2011! This summer will hold three Whole Thinking Retreats, a fourth that is focused on young leaders 35 and under (WTR: NextGen), as well as our first ever WTR in an urban setting: Detroit.

Our curriculum has shifted in small and big ways since our first Whole Communities Retreat in 2001, and the journey continues. This year, Whole Thinking Retreat 1 serves as a learning and growing platform. While the structure and core practices of WTRs (awareness, building relationship, creativity, dialogue, hospitality, story, and working with difference) will remain in place, special emphasis will be placed on individual and collective awareness practices as foundational for conversations about diversity, power and privilege. The intention is to actively use awareness practice throughout the retreat to keep centered in wellbeing – of ourselves, our relationships and the environment. In August we will hold a pilot Urban Whole Thinking Retreat in Detroit, Michigan. While we have held many events and workshops around the country, this marks the first time

Other CWC Programming In addition we are offering a 2042 Today: Young Leaders Re-Imagining Conservation Retreat and two Mission Retreats as well as Advanced Leadership Workshops, both at Knoll Farm and in communities across the country. The Food and Farm Workshop Series: Tools for a Changing World will convene at Knoll Farm throughout the spring-fall.

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EMILY HAGUE

that we take the full 7-day Whole Thinking Retreat curriculum beyond Knoll Farm. Working in relationship with East Michigan Environmental Action Council, People’s Kitchen and Wayne State University and many other local organizations and change agents, we look forward to this unique and exciting exploration.

Partnerships New Hampshire Charitable Foundation remains an inspiring and critical partner in bringing Mission Retreats to the Center. Through our fifth Wellborn Leadership Retreat, we will continue to grow and deepen the network of environmental and place-based educators in Vermont and New Hampshire. This year marks the second Strengthening New Hampshire’s Recovery Movement retreat. Each of these programs allow Whole Communities work to reach a critical mass of change makers within a specific work sector and region, while breaking down the divides between diverse constituencies and approaches. Our partnership with Interaction Institute for Social Change continues through the Whole Measures Workshop.

EMILY HAGUE

This program continues to grow, especially as increasingly more alumni have been looking for opportunities to build upon their whole communities’ tools and practices. The third cohort of 2042 Today: Young Leaders Re-Imagining Conservation will arrive in July. This retreat is held in collaboration with Center for Diversity and the Environment, an invaluable collaborator. Nominations have increased by an incredible 50% this year. We are thrilled to convene another group of young conservationists to meet the needs and opportunities of 2042, the year when demographers predict all major metropolitan areas will be predominantly populated by people of color.

Staff News As our work continues to grow and evolve, so does our team. Tatek Assefa made the move from Madison, Wisconsin to take up the position as Program Coordinator. Molly Bagnato’s role has evolved from Executive Assistant to Development and Outreach Associate. Alex Bauermeister moved from Boston, Massachusetts to step in to the role of Senior Program Manager. Jenny Helm is now our Administrative Fellow, after having worked two retreat seasons as an intern. On May 1st we welcomed back our co-founders from sabbatical! Helen Whybrow returned as Food and Farm Program Manager and Peter Forbes as Senior Advisor. It is wonderful to have them back on the land and engaged in the work. Finally, we want to extend our hearts and gratitude to Mary Lake, CWC’s and Knoll Farm’s departing Farm Manager. Mary’s entrepreneurial spirit, incredible networking abilities, and deep relationship to land and livestock has been a tremendous gift over the last four years. Mary will be developing her own farm and flock of sheep along with her active work with the Royal Butcher in Braintree, VT. Congratulations Mary, we will miss you! www.wholecommunities.org

2011 Whole Communities Alumni Note: This list includes all of CWC’s 2011 retreat fellows as well as alumni from our 2011 workshops held at Knoll Farm and elsewhere. Celina Adams, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, ME Ola Akinmowo, Weeksville Heritage Center, NY Rob Aldrich, Land Trust Alliance, DC Karen Alexander, VT Steve Alexander, Antioch University New England, NY Melanie Allen, Conservation Trust for North Carolina, NC Jane Arbuckle, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, ME Terrie Bad Hand, Taos County Economic Development Corporation, NM Cimbria Badenhause, Blue Sky Environmental Strategies, NH Kevin Barrow, Global Education Fund, MD Lizzy Baskerville, WA Alex Bauermeister, Center for Whole Communities, VT Jamie Baxter, Chesapeake Bay Trust, MD Lucile Beatty, Contra Costa College/First Unitarian Church, CA Ronald Bell, MI Janet Bergman, Transitions Unlimited, NH Kent Bicknell, Sant Bani School, NH James Blaine, ME Tem Blessed Ferreira, BlesTenergy, MA Raquel Bournhonesque, Upstream Public Health, OR

Micah Bouton, Second Growth, NH Michele Brooks, Boston Public Schools, MA Priscilla Brooks, Conservation Law Foundation, MA Leahnesha Brown, MI Michelle Brown, NYCCGC, NY Dominique Burgunder-Johnson, National Wildlife Federation, DC Sarah Bursky, The Trustees of Reservations, MA Chloe Byruck, Ecotone Creative, CA Joel Cabrera, NY Susan Caldwell, The Nature Conservancy, ME Pete Caligiuri, The Nature Conservancy, OR Stephanie Calloway, CORE - El Centro, WI Enmanuel Candelario, The Brotherhood Sister Sol, NY JK Canepa, More Gardens!, NY Brenda Cardwell, MI Erin Caudell, MI Kevin Chang, Hawaii Community Stewardship Network, HI Kizzy Charles-Guzman, NYC Department of Health, NY Linus Chen, Solicitor’s Office, DOI, MD Mae Clifton, MI Ken Colburn, Symbiotic Strategies, LLC, NH Danielle Connor, Rough Mountain Film & Media, MA Melissa Contreras, Urban Oasis Project, FL Dorn Cox, Green Start Biofuels, NH Billie Dantzler, MI Remona Davis Jobin- Leeds, Partnership for Democracy & Education, MA Candace De Wolf, Friends of Recovery NH, NH Carol Decker, Mass Audubon, MA Patricia DeMarco, Rachel Carson Institute for Sustainability, PA Pete Didisheim, Natural Resources Council of Maine, ME Andrew Dillon Bustin, The Trust for Public Land, MA Joni Doherty, New England Center for Civic Life at Franklin Pierce, NH

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Stacey Doll, New Hampshire Energy & Climate Collaborative, NH Bridget Edmonds, The Nature Conservancy, ME Betty Farrell, Engender Health, MA Shadia Fayne Wood, Project Survival Media, CA Debora Ferreira, UMass Office of Equal Opportunity & Diversity, MA David Fine, NH Sean-Michael Fleming, NYCCGC, NY Alison Fornes, Bent on Change, NY Art Friedrich, Urban Oasis Project, FL Ben Frost, NH Housing Finance Authority, NH David Fukuzawa, The Kresge Foundation, MI Nancy Gamble, NH Office of Energy and Planning, NH Danielle Gartner, University of Michigan-Flint, MI Tim Gaudreau, Tim Gaudreau Studios, NH Mike Gildesgame, Appalachian Mountain Club, MA Mara Gittleman, New York City Community Gardens Coalition, NY Joel Glanzberg, Regenesis Group, Inc., NM Boe Glasschild, MI Cyntoria Grant, Boston Public Schools, MA Deborah Gray, Boston Public Schools, MA Emily Hague, Monadnock Conservancy, NH Jeff Harness, Western Mass Center for Healthy Communities, MA Joel Harrington, The Nature Conservancy, NH Cindy Heath, GP Red, NH Paul Helms, Elijah’s Promise, NJ Tara Henrichon, Mass Audubon, MA

SHADIA FAYNE WOOD

Tyffany Rae Herrera, Hasbidito, NM Nick Heyl, NH Charity Hicks, Detroit Food Justice Task Force, MI Roy Hoagland, Hope Impacts, VA Zoe Hollomon, Massachusetts Avenue Project, NY Michael Horner, Rutland Area Farm and Food Link, VT Carolle Huber, Grow It Green Morristown, NJ Virginia Hutchins, MI Lon Jackman, Keystone Hall, NH Stefan Jackson, The Nature Conservancy, ME Aresh Javadi, More Gardens!, NY Geoffrey Jones, Stoddard Conservation Commission, NH Leslie Jones, Southern Tier Advocacy & Mitigation Project, NY Sandra Jones, Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative, NH Gina Joseph, NY Heeten Kalan, The New World Foundation, MA Jan Kearce, Institute for Civic Leadership, ME Jan Kelley Holder, Gila Watershed Partnership, AZ Young Chul Kim, Fondy Food Center, WI Michelle Knapik, Surdna Foundation, NY Charles Krezell, New York City Community Gardens Coalition, NY Gopi Krishna, Harriet Tubman Healthy Living Community, MA Russ Lanoie, Self-Employed Contractor, NH Daniella Levine, Catalyst Miami, FL Ruby Levine, Grand Aspirations, MN Bill Lippert, Hinesburg State Representative, VT Glynn Lloyd, City Fresh Foods, MA Andrea Lukens, Mass Audubon, MA David MacDonald, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, ME Daniel Macphee, Yale Sustainable Food Project, CT Ted Madden, Park County Community Foundation, MT CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES © 2012

Pam Malow-Isham, MI Rue Mapp, Stewardship Council, CA Aleya Martin, Health Resources in Action, MA Jen Martinez, Bexar County, TX Pati Martinson, Taos County Economic Development Corporation, NM Alex Mas, The Nature Conservancy, ME Julia Steed Mawson, UNH Cooperative Extension NH 4-H Common Ground Garden Project, NH Madeline McElaney, New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority, NH Beth McGuinn, Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust, NH Maggie McKenna, Permaculture Research Institute Cold Climate, MN Patrick McKeown, FASTER, NH Susan McKeown, FASTER, NH Ayana Meade, SEJ/Society of Environmental Journalists, NY Kate Mendenhall, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, NY Jameelah Muhammad, Jobs with Justice: Green Collar Jobs Campaign, NY Quincy Murphy, MI Gail Myers, Farms to Grow, Inc., CA Patrick Natale, North Jersey RC&D, NJ Danyelle O’Hara, OK Joe Orso, Franciscan Spirituality Center, WI Erika Osbourne Symmonds, Green City Force, NY Sara Padilla, Community Food Security Coalition, OR Elizabeth Parsons, Boston University School of Theology, MA Dana Patterson, Edison Wetlands Association, NJ Sara Zoe Patterson, Seacoast Eat Local, NH Lisa Peakes, Friends of Recovery NH, NH Sara Peel, Wabash River Enhancement Corporation, IN Allen Penrod, Wisdomguild, NH Franklin Pleasant, MI Katherine Preissler, Trustees of Reservations, MA Stephanie Lynn Puhl, Tualatin Riverkeepers, OR Damien Raffa, Presidio Trust, CA Suzanne Rataj, Holyoke Open Square Farmers Market

Doug Reed, Hudson River Basin Watch, NY Susan Reid, Conservation Law Foundation, MA Robin Vann Ricca, The Home for Little Wanderers, MA Jane Richmond, The Nature Conservancy, ME Johann Rinkins, Fields Without Fences, NJ Garry Rissman, The Times Square Hotel, NY Quinton Robinson, MI Belvie Rooks, Growing a Global Heart, CA Blake Ross, Long Caye at Lighthouse Reef and Long Caye Preserve, VT Dorsey Ross, Jr., MI Rebecca Ruggles, Baltimore Medical System, Inc., MD Tom Rumpf, The Nature Conservancy, ME Donna Ryan, Friends of Recovery NH, NH Catherine Sands, Fertile Ground, MA Elvera Sargent, Friends of the Akwesasne Freedom School, NY Sharon Sawyer, MI Nat Scrimshaw, NH Kathy Sferra, Mass Audubon, MA Kristen Sharpless, National Audubon Society, VT Kumara Sidhartha, Institute for Inter-Connected Communities of India Mollie Smith, Palomar College Joshua Sparrow, Brazelton Touchpoints Center, CHB, MA Quinterra Spence, MI Kate Stephenson, Yestermorrow Design/Build School, VT Laura Stillson, VT Ryan Strom, U.S. Environmental Protection, DC Judy Sulsona, Big Sur Land Trust, CA Carol Swenson, MI Kate Temple-West, Children’s Magical Garden/ More Gardens!, NY www.wholecommunities.org

Victoria Thatcher, First Church Unitarian, Belmont, MA Susan Thomas, MI Delma Thomas-Jackson, The Sankofa Project, MI Mark Thompson, NH Christine Turnbull, Mass Audubon, MA David Van Houton, Bethlehem Energy Committee, NH Judith Vance, Boston Public Schools, MA Fernando Villalba, Rosie the Riveter NHP, National Park Service, CA Debbie Vongviwat, East Yard Communities for Environmnental Justice, CA

Iesha Wadala, Columbia University / Columbia Community Parnterships for Health, CA Carl Wallman, Northwood Area Land Management Collaborative, NH Jason Walser, Land Trust for Central North Carolina, NC Chris Ward, The Trustees of Reservations, MA Karen Washington, La Familia Verde, NY Lindsay Webb, New Hampshire Fish and Game, NH Bart Westdijk, New England Grassroots Environment Fund, VT Claire Wheeler, New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, VT

Diane White, DC Holly Wolfe, The Russell Family Foundation, WA Marilyn Wyzga, NH Fish & Game Department, NH Gail Yeo, Mass Audubon, MA Trudie Young, NH

Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Rumi We extend our gratitude to the faculty of Center for Whole Communities. You are a constant source of inspiration and without you this work would not be possible.

Adrienne Marie Brown Anushka Fernandopulle Carolyn Finney Deborah Schoenbaum Enrique Salmon Ginny McGinn

Helen Whybrow Jesse MaceoVega-Frey Kavitha Rao Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees Larry Yang Matt Kolan

Melissa Nelson Mistinguette Smith Mohamad Chakaki Peter Forbes Samara Gaev Santikaro

Stephanie Kaza Steve Glazer Toby Herzlich Tom Wessels Wendy Johnson

MOLLY BAGNATO

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CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES ÂŠ 2012

FY2010–2011 Financial Report April 1, 2010–March 31, 2011

For our 2010-2011 fiscal year we launched our Breakthrough Campaign to support the transition work internally and the development of our programs externally. That coupled with generous giving from 259 individual donors increased Individual Giving by 85% over FY2010, a terrific wave of support for the work. From April 2010 through March 2011, Center for Whole Communities utilized $585,500 in grants from 16 different foundations and one corporate giving program. Our earned income for the year totaled $131,887, up 30% from FY2010. We are encouraged by the solid growth of our earned income and the strength of our individual donor program. Our future depends on developing earned income and individual donor support in the coming years. We are deeply grateful for the support and confidence that these foundations have placed in us: Anonymous Foundation (2), Alces Foundation, Argosy Foundation, The Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Ittleson Foundation, The Johnson Family Foundation, Kalliopeia Foundation, The Kendeda Fund, Merck Family Fund, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, The Roy

Foundation, The Ruth Mott Foundation, Stifler Family Foundation, and The Wellborn Ecology Fund. In addition we are grateful for the generous support of 1% for the Planet and their corporate giving program which added nearly 10% to our revenue in FY2011.

2010–11 Sources of Funds

2010–11 Uses of Funds

Expended from Cash Reserves 3.9%

Program fees, Workshops and Events 13%

Investment Income .7%

Misc. .4%

Donations 18%

Grants for Programs 64%

INCOME Donations from Individuals Grants for FY2011 Programs Program Fees, Workshops & Events Investment Income Miscellaneous Income Expended from Cash Reserve Total Income

EXPENSES Retreats and Workshops Whole Thinking Program $432,779 Advanced Leadership $178,412 Other Programs $42,341 Fundraising $114,214 Administration $137,392 Total Expenses $905,138

Program Support and Administration 15% Fundraising 13%

Other Programs 4.5%

Advanced Leadership 19.5%

$163,963 $585,500 $121,618 $6,505 $3,754 $30,000 $911,340

Whole Thinking Program 48%

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Honoring Our 2010–2011 Supporters April 1, 2010–March 31, 2011

Note: boldface indicates program alumni $10,000 + 1% for the Planet Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation Compton Foundation Jeff Cook Ann Day Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Ittleson Foundation Johnson Family Foundation Kalliopeia Foundation Kendeda Fund Margot & Roger Milliken Merck Family Fund New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Ruth Mott Foundation Barbara Sargent Mary McFadden & Larry Stifler Stifler Family Foundation Sweet People Apparel, Inc./Miss Me The Roy Foundation Tides Foundation Wendling Charitable Fund $5,000 to $9,999 Alces Foundation Anonymous (2) Argosy Foundation Ned Kelley and Ferris Buck Scott Droggs David Grant Peter Bergh & Janet Prince Prince Communications Nancy Schaub Norcross Wildlife Foundation Schwab Charitable Fund The Schaub Foundation Tom and Kitty Stoner Vermont Community Foundation $2,500 to $4,999 George & Holly Stone $1,000 to $2,499 Anonymous (1) Michael & Margherita Baldwin Charitable Flex Fund Patricia Cheeks Kinny Perot & Richard Czaplinski Will & Laurie Danforth Carl & Judy Ferenbach Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund Nathan Wilson & Megan Gadd Hank Lentfer & Anya Maier Scott Russell Sanders Lisa Cashdan & Peter Stein Chip & Susan Atwood Stone Marcia & Tom Wessels www.wholecommunities.org

Peter Forbes & Helen Whybrow Peter Whybrow Anne & Ethan Winter $500 to $999 Bos Dewey & Liz Barratt-Brown Sonni Chamberland Phoebe Buffum Cook & John Cook Thomas French Dagmar Friedman Nancy Gilbert Nicholas Hodges Tandy Jones Gil Livingston Michael McDermott Karen Outlaw Gigi Coyle & Win Phelps Ruth Whybrow & Kate Siepmann Stephanie Kaza & Davis TeSelle The Guide Foundation $250 to $499 Mark Ackelson Sandy Buck Jared Cadwell Kenneth Colburn Rita & John Elder Jewell & Willie Harper Elise & Ethan Hoblitzelle Kurt & Sally Hoelting Michael Horner David Van Houten Wendy Johnson Sue Ellen Kingsley & Terry Kinzel Mike LaMair Andrea MacKenzie Main Street Landing Ann Livingston David & Lucy Marvin Lucy McCarthy Jim McCracken Elizabeth Mease Charlotte Metcalf Stephen Milliken Melinda Moulton Jeff & Beth Binns Schoellkopf Yeumei Shon Ellen Strauss Mary Evelyn Tucker Tom Williams $100-$249 John & Jan Auleta Kathleen Blaha Emily Boedecker David Borden Kathy Taft Boyden Darby Bradley

Laura & Duncan Brines Katherine Brown Anne Burling Majora Carter Marguerite Chandler Viveka Chen Starling Childs Jay Cowles & Page Knudsen Cowles Jane & Andrew Cunningham David M. Dion Real Estate Ruth Dinerman Jay Espy Glenn and Jamie Forbes Joy Garland Eugenie & Brad Gentry William Glidden Jr Larry Grinnell Trudy Guinee Gita Gulati-Partee Hanaa Hamdi Karen Hatcher Peter Helm Toby Herzlich Charles and Carol Hosford James Hoyte Dana Hudson Junji Itagaki Jon & Amy Jamieson Geoffrey Jones John Kassel Helen & Terry Kellogg Roger Kennedy Renee Kivikko Matt Kolan Daniel Lim Jen Marlow Robin McDermott Libby McDonald Ginny McGinn Curt Meine Sandy Mervak Ann C Mills Ann Mills Pierre & Mary Moffroid Andrea Morgante Juliet Schor & Prasannan Parthasarathi Kevin Peterson Josie Plaut Kathryn Porter Laura Richardson Adonia Ripple Mark Robertson Andrew A Robinson Will Rogers Carol Romero-Wirth Marty & Joan Rosen Sanford - Strauss Architects Lauret Savoy

Pauline E Schneider Beau Wright & Debbie Sega Carol Servid Monica Smiley Alcott Smith Richard Smith Mark Stevens Barbara Sullivan Gaye Symington Dijit Taylor Doug Nopar & Joann Thomas Charlie & Mima Tipper Dorothy Tod Arthur & Lucia Trezise Beth Tuttle Susanna Weller Sue & Rand Wentworth Bill Wilcox Jill Wrigley Judith Wu $35-$99 Susan Arnold Baked Beads Ian Baldwin Peter Barnes Deborah Day Barnes Nancy and Bob Baron Andrew Kang Bartlett Joanne Chu Kimberly Coble George Cofer Robin & David Cohen Edward Connelly Wendy Cooper Matthew Dahlhausen Jon Dolan Gene Fialkoff Stephan Frenzl Vanessa Fry Betty A. Gaechter Jovanna Garcia-Soto Natalie Garfield Maryellen & Peter Griffin George Hall Carol F. Harley Craig Hervey Bronwyn Hobbs Harvey & Ethel Horner Claudia Horwitz Phil & Audrey Huffman Dale Kent Christina Khatri Erwin Klaas Kim Larson Paul Levasseur Dina Magaril Peter Marshall

39 Darlene McCormick Kevin McMillion Donna Meyers Ezra Milchman Flo Miller David Millstone Mary & Pierre Moffroid A.J. and Sally Molnar Willard Morgan Helen Myers Dana Nute Abraham H. Oort Terry Osborne Sherry Pachman Kesha Ram Julie Iffland & Chris Recchia Sarah Reeves Charles Roe Mary Roscoe Rebecca Ruggles

Decora Sandiford Rachel Saunders Susan Sims Cassie Smith Meghan Moroni Teachout Camila Thorndike Tom Howe & Sarah Thorne Forrest & Cynthia Tinsley Frances & Bethany Viens Carol Warren Elizabeth Weller Lynton Dove White Up to $35 Herb Kline & Marcia Eagleson Rani Arbo Linda Black Tom Brightman Burton Cohen Jared Duval

Fayston Historical Society Jacqueline Fischer Patricia Folsom Steve Glazer Kavitha Rao & Jeff Golden Nancy Goodman Lisa Haderlein Cindy Heath Charles Henderson Sarah Jawaid Sandra Jones Virginia Kennedy Margaret Kessel Jonathon Kohl Suzanne Long Ben Machin Mrs. Thomas Miles Michelle Mockbee Linda Mulley Annette Naegel

Christopher Nytch Kristen Olbrys Ruth Pestle Joanna Rago Tom Roberts Timothy Scott Taz & Maria Squire Kate Stephenson Amalia Veralli Loretta Wray While we do our best to honor all of our donors accurately, we occasionÂ ally miss a name. Please let us know if we missed you. For any giving related questions, please contact Molly Bagnato at (802) 496-5690 or molly@wholecommunities.org

To all of our supporters we offer a deep bow of gratitude for the gift of support and your confidence in the work of Whole Communities. We are inspired by the generosity and care we receive from so many friends, alumni, allies and family. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

SHADIA FAYNE WOOD

CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES ÂŠ 2012

www.wholecommunities.org

2012 Program Calendar Residential Fellowship Retreats – held at Knoll Farm and in Detroit, MI Whole Thinking Retreat 1, June 27- July 3 The Whole Thinking Retreat convenes leaders from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. Our curriculum 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. Wellborn Environmental Education Leadership Retreat, July 15-21 This retreat is specifically designed for leaders working in the fields of place-based and environmental education in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire. This retreat is building a strong and integrated network of leaders who are working to protect the environment, empower and educate youth, address social concerns and build alliances across divides. 2042 Today: Young Leaders Re-imagining Conservation, July 28- August 3 Increasingly, environmental change leaders are thinking about the exciting significance of 2042, the year when demographers predict that every metropolitan statistical area will be predominantly populated by people of color. In partnership with Center for Diversity and the Environment, we have developed an innovative leadership development program aimed at preparing young conservation leaders (20 to 35) from all backgrounds and sectors to strengthen their collective work. Whole Thinking Retreat 2, August 7-13 See full description under Whole Thinking 1, above. Urban Whole Thinking Retreat: Detroit, MI, August 14-20 Following the curriculum and practices of a Knoll Farm-based Whole Thinking Retreat, this urban-based retreat will explore the work in the context of an urban environment. 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. Mission Retreat with New Hampshire Charitable Foundation: “Strengthening New Hampshire’s Recovery Movement”, August 25-31 This leadership retreat is for NH professionals who work in the field of substance-use disorders and their allies. By bringing leaders together, 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. Whole Thinking Retreat: NextGen, September 10-16 The NextGen Retreat convenes leaders (ages 22 to 35) from across the social and environmental change sectors, including the environmental movement, food production, the arts, social justice and education, to

cross-pollinate and to find a collective voice that will help them to step into leadership.

Other Events New Hampshire Recovery Outreach Workshop, April 28 University of Vermont Student Leadership Retreats, throughout fall 2012

Open Workshops Whole Measures: Transforming Communities by Measuring What Matters Most, July 10-13 Knoll Farm, Fayston, Vermont Whole Measures is a values-based, community-oriented approach to planning, implementing and evaluating initiatives that foster healthy land and whole communities. From the whole measures framework, and in collaboration with the Interaction Institute for Social Change, the Whole Measures Workshop was created. This workshop introduces the process design and practices to lead your organization, community, partners or stakeholders through values-based planning and evaluation. Transformational Leadership: An Introduction to Whole Communities Work, July 23-26 Knoll Farm, Fayston, Vermont Shorter in length than our flagship Whole Thinking Program, this workshop offers a strong introduction to our theories of change. The curriculum centers around core leadership practices such as working with difference, the power of story, the skills of movement-building, dialogue, and navigating the changing demands of leadership today. Whole Funding, September 4-7 This workshop is designed for, and brings together, philanthropic leaders to explore approaches to achieve deeper collaboration and innovation. How do we foster relationships, not just projects? How do we support the evolution of organizations while being realistic about our funding capacity? This workshop creates the opportunity for a cohort of funders to freely discuss the challenges of this time. Conservation in a New Nation, September 11-13 Essex Conference Center, Essex, MA This intensive workshop is for conservationists looking to strengthen and diversify the conservation movement. Looking to future and present-day challenges, this workshop presents the opportunity to talk openly and safely about how to leverage diversity, to step into leadership and to work across historical boundaries and divides in order to build a more resilient conservation movement. Whole Measures: Transforming Communities by Measuring What Matters Most, December 4-6 Interaction Institute for Social Change, Boston, MA See description above.

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.