Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy

Keeping the social in social change

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More of… Less of…

August 18th, 2010 View Comments

This is a really simple way to think about focusing on and creating good change for a person whose label of disability has hidden their role as a contributing local citizen. Don’t confuse simple with easy. Be prepared to work hard toward real change.

     

  1. Spend some time thinking about what makes for “a good life” and make as long of a list as you can in 10 minutes. Don’t over think it. Use plain language. The word “friends” says more than “peer relationships.”
  2. Go back over the list and highlight a few points that you feel are the most important.
  3. Describe your life in each of these areas. Using friends as an example, spend some time thinking about your friendship life.
  4. Describe the life of the person you are an advocate on behalf of. What does your protégé’s friendship life look like?
  5. Do this process with each part of your “good life” list.
  6. Begin comparing what you notice about your life with what you notice about your protégé’s life. You might notice,“I have dozens and dozens of people listed. My protégé has 3 people.”
  7. Step back and simply say, “What would I want to see more of/ less of in my protégé’s life?” Make a list of 3 key ideas.
  8. Ask yourself, “What are my first steps to begin to create more ____ and less ____ in my protégé’s life.
  9. Do the same for yourself.
  10. Invite someone you both know and trust to meet with both of you once a month for a year. At this meeting ask, “What have we done to see more of what we want and less of want we don’t? What can we do next month to work in this direction?”
  11. Keep track of what you are doing. Who are you involving? What questions are you asking? What are you learning? Notice good things that you had not expected - surprising positives.
  12. Celebrate good change and honor real effort even if it does not create the change you had hoped for.
  13. Keep focusing on what you want to see more of/less of and try another way to get there.

Learning and Action for Inclusion…

July 21st, 2010 View Comments

I was pleased to attend and be on the faculty of the Toronto Summer Inclusion Institute this month. The Institute is sponsored by Inclusion Press, the publishers of Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community, a Savannah story that Susan Earl and I wrote several years ago. One hundred and fifty people from the USA, Canada, the Netherlands, England, Ireland and New Zealand converged for five days of deep learning.

 

The Institute uses an active learning model. You don’t sit down much, and when you do it’s to have conversations with another person or a small group of people. You spend a lot of time listening and talking with other people. You are guided to co-create ideas with other people. You get your head, heart and hands moving.

 

As always, I brought back more than I can share. Here are just few assorted take aways…

 

I attended a parent group meeting with about 10 families of adults with disabilities who live in Toronto. Families were told to assume that money and assistance from the government would be diminishing in both the short and long terms and to begin to think about forming support circles around themselves and their loved ones. I sat next to a couple who had moved to Toronto from Columbia, South America. He is a cancer surgeon and she is an international inclusion activist. Their son is in his early 20s, has Down Syndrome and has learned his new language - English- well enough to hold a job and to get around Toronto on street cars and subways. He also goes to English as Second Language classes at night at a local community college. Encouraging for sure.

 

A couple of people who have physical disabilities and who are active in self advocacy in Canada and New Zealand attended my session which featured stories of people here in Savannah who are involved in citizen advocacy relationships. Both stayed afterward to say that they appreciated the “balance and respect” they saw and heard between the people who knew each other. Especially encouraging from these particularly thoughtful folks.

 

Anne Mitchell from Indianapolis and I read the Waddie Welcome story twice in Toronto. Anne is organizing a Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community Worldwide Reading Project to coincide with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2011. We now have people in 5 countries and 3 continents working on building a “Worldwide Beloved Learning Community.” The goal is to have 5,000 readings of the Waddie Welcome story by small groups of people over kitchen, coffee, dinner, diner, pub and conference tables between September 1 and January 17, 2011. More details on this exciting project will follow soon.

 

Here are several books and tapes that came back with me. Please give me a call at 236-5798 if you are interested in borrowing any of these items:

 

Gentle Heart Fearless Mind – Discovering Confidence, Compassion and Well Being through the Practice of Mindfulness. DVD by Alan Sloan. Alan is a friend and ally. He has been practicing and teaching mindfulness for more than 40 years He will spend the month of March or April 2011 with us in Savannah. He helps people find ways to be more resilient. This is an important trait for anyone who is an advocate.

 

Power and Love- A theory and practice of Social Change. Book by Adam Kahane. This book helps us see the interplay between power and love in our own lives and in the lives of organizations and communities. “This breakthrough book addresses the central challenge of our time: finding a way to work together to solve the problems we have created.” — Nelson Mandela

 

The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods. Book by John McKnight and Peter Block. John McKnight first came to Savannah 25 years ago. He met a man named Sam Benjamin who was at the center of an effort involving citizen advocate Clete Bergan who rallied 300 Savannahians in the building of a house for Sam and his family. McKnight never forget being out at Coffee Bluff hearing the story and seeing the effort. David Young, then Executive Director of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, heard John speak at a Leadership Savannah meeting that was organized by Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy. He was spellbound and later held a living room meeting for McKnight to meet Savannah’s business and civic leaders. Peter Block heard me tell the Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community story in Cincinnati a few years ago. He just dropped by as a favor to the organizers of the event, but halfway into the story, he called his office, canceled his appointments for the rest of the day and stayed with us.

 

Person Centered Ways to Build Community: The PATH and MAPS Handbook. Workbook by John O’Brien, Jack Pearpoint and Lynda Kahn. This remarkable workbook offers ways to help people ask and answer this simple question “How can this person show up in community life as a valued friend and a contributing citizen?”  This question challenges the rational, form and nature of almost all human service efforts.

 

Let me know if you would like to borrow one or more of these resources. Or you can order your own copies from Inclusion Press at http://www.inclusion.com.

What We Do…

June 25th, 2010 View Comments
  • What we do is not flashy.
  • What we do is not “solving a community problem” unless you consider indifference to injustice in another person’s life a community problem.
  • What we do is based on possibility, not prescription.
  • What we do is as strong as people, and as weak as people.
  • What we do demands and deepens character.
  • What we do is both humble and audacious.
  • What we do can speak to people of good heart who have little else in common.
  • What we do is to do this as best we can, which is different than the best it can be done. We aspire, given our limitations as individual people, as a group of people and as an organization to do this the best it can be done.
  • What we do fans the flame of personalism rather than professionalism.
  • What we do is part of the very current and hip DIY movement.
  • What we do has roots in each of the major faith stories of the world.
  • What we do ties back to the underground railroad, the sheltering of Jews, to other movements and individual acts of courage that focus on saving individual people from harm at the hands of a power structure.

Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships: A Look at Post World War II America

June 16th, 2010 View Comments

The 1950s through 1980s was an era of gaining rights in America. The civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights and disability rights movements took center stage during this 30 year period. I am proposing that we consider the 1990s to present day as the era of responsibilities and relationships and consider the implications of this shift away from structural change and more toward individual actions.

 

The African-American Civil Rights Movement has its roots in organizations like the NAACP, founded in 1909, and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, founded by A. Philip Randolph in the 1930s. These groups built constituencies and filed lawsuits to address inequities based on race.

 

The Great Depression and WWII took center stage and shifted public attention away from civil rights during the late 1920s through the late 1940s. However, momentum was regained with the Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education in 1955, a case backed by the NAACP. Other events that captured the nation’s attention included the Montgomery bus boycott and the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-ins that spread across the American South.

 

In 1960, in support of these sit-ins, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, known as SNCC, was organized. This youthful organization consisted of both black and white college students from 56 colleges who convened on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh, NC. Last year, Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy was proud to host Mr. Chuck McDew, a founding member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, for a series of gatherings around Savannah. This was part of our effort to remind people of the sacrifice that was made in this country to insure that every person has the right to vote.

 

The women’s movement followed the civil rights movement in the minds of Americans, with women and their allies pushing for equal rights in the work place. Access to jobs and careers, and equal pay for equal work was the rallying cry. Gloria Steinem, who was a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, gained notoriety as a women’s rights activist, feminist, writer and lecturer during this time.

 

The Gay Rights Movement has followed these two movements, with people calling for the right to be given fair and equal treatment. These rights continue to be debated and contested on a state-by-state basis at present. Last year, Sean Penn won the Best Actor Oscar for his remarkable portrayal of groundbreaking Gay Rights activist, Harvey Milk.

 

The African-American Civil Rights Movement offered a model for the Disability Rights Movement, founded by Ed Roberts, the first student with a disability to attend Berkley in the late 1960s. Ed was the leader of the Independent Living/Civil Rights for People with Disabilities movement that flowered in the 1970s. Berkeley was the first university to have a federally funded Disabled Students Program that created supports for young men and women with physical disabilities to attend college. The L.I.F.E. (Living Independently for Everyone) organization here in Savannah has its roots in Ed Roberts Center for Independent Living at Berkley.

 

Social change movements do not have exacting beginnings and ends. There is never complete and total victory. The fight for rights is hard won and, as time goes by, challenges and tactics changed. By the 1990s it appeared that the era of “movements” was receding. Most people in America had won a reasonable measure of legal and structural equality. There were and are obvious exceptions to this, but in general the laws of our land have been changed in a way that creates more equality for people in the eyes of the law. Implementation is far from complete and certainly, the reality of what we see happening and not happening for people with disabilities in our communities does not always live up to the letter or spirit of the law.

 

I am suggesting that we are at the beginning of a new era today, and that is the era of responsibilities and relationships. Here are several questions meant to enliven discussion around the notion that we have entered a “post rights era” and are at the beginning of a long and hopeful era of responsibilities and relationships:

 

  • In what ways are we as citizens of America, of Savannah, of our neighborhood, responsible for our own actions?
  • In what ways do our actions either encourage or diminish the right that all people have to be welcomed and encouraged - to be a part of community life?
  • Is being welcomed and encouraged to be a part of community life a right or a responsibility that falls to all of us as citizens in order to enliven one another?
  • Do the personal relationships I have with other people reflect a welcoming community or a rejecting community?

 

Here are a few very direct suggestions for honoring the idea of bringing Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships to life in your citizen advocacy relationship and in your neighborhood. All three of these are brought forth in the following suggestions for civic action. There is potential for dozens more direct examples of course.

 

  • Are you registered to vote? Is your protégé (for citizen advocates) registered to vote? If the answer to either question is, “No”, then please consider registering. Your protégé may need some help with this.

     

  • Are you connected to a local political party? Party politics are a great way to meet people and have a common goal. Many times the local offices of the Democratic and Republican parties are looking for folks to help with all sorts of volunteer jobs. See if there’s some way you and your protégé can become part of your party’s electoral efforts.

     

  • Is there a particular candidate you or your protégé would like to support? Maybe someone is especially open and willing to work on issues that are important to you. Get behind that person and help them get elected. There are lots of jobs for volunteers in a political campaign.

     

  • Can you and your protégé work together to see the position various candidates hold on issues that are important to you? See the reference to America According to Conner Gifford at the end of this article.

 

The bottom line here is that taking the time to help someone participate in the democratic processes of our country is time well spent. If you are a citizen advocate, consider making sure your that protégé has the opportunity and help they need to vote and become active in the process, and to understand the issues that are important to them.

 

Here is some information that can get you started:

 

Voter registration in Savannah:

1117 Eisenhower Dr # E

Savannah, GA 31406-3929
(912) 790-1520

 

Contact information for local political parties:

Chatham County Democratic Party Headquarters
109 W. Victory Dr.
Savannah, GA 31405
912-790-8683
http://chathamdems.com/
Meetings 2nd Monday of the month at 6 pm.

 

Chatham County Republican Party Headquarters
11 E. 73 Street
Savannah, GA 31405
(912) 927-8440
www.savannahGOP.org
M - F, 10:30 am to 1:30 pm

 

These websites explain how our democratic/election process works in America:

http://www.comportone.com/cpo/govment/articles/dmprocss.htm

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_American_election_system_work

 

The book America According to Connor Gifford, by Connor Gifford, tells the history of America written by a man with Down syndrome. The key themes include: civil rights, women’s rights, why wars begin, religious freedom and individual responsibility. The book changes stereotypes and perception about those with Down Syndrome, Autism, and other special needs.

 

ADAPT is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in non-violent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom. http://www.adapt.org

A powerful way to be together in Savannah…

May 18th, 2010 View Comments

“This is the best looking group of people I have ever seen.”

 

These were the words of Master of Ceremonies Wade Herring at the Annual Meeting and Covered Dish Supper as he looked out over the more than 300 people gathered to celebrate at the Savannah Station last Thursday night.

 

Wade is an attorney, partner and part of the management team with the largest law firm in Savannah. He chairs the Board of Directors at Savannah County Day School. He is used to being around “powerful people,” the “right people” as you hear said over and over and over in Savannah.

 

More than 20 years ago, Wade met a powerful person. His name was Earl Brooker and when the two men met, Mr. Brooker was tied down in a chair at Georgia Regional Hospital. Being a citizen advocate for Mr. Brooker turned out to be a powerful and sobering experience. Eventually the State of Georgia had its way, and sent Mr. Brooker deeper into its institutional system, and disconnected Mr. Brooker from his family forever, rather arranging for he and his family get useful help. This is something Wade reflects on to this day.

 

The power that Wade saw in the room on Thursday night is the power of people from many walks of life walking together. It’s the power of seeing people who wheel instead of walk being part of the common journey. It’s the power that comes when the word TOGETHER becomes skin and bones real in front of your very eyes.

 

It’s the power of realizing that as long as we have this notion about only having the “right people” in the room - that we will never get it right.

 

Let’s keep working to get the TOGETHER part right.

 

This the new way to be TOGETHER in Savannah.