Hattiesburg has five B rated schools for first time ever – HubcitySPOKES.com

The Hattiesburg Public School District is excited to have five of the district schools receive a B rating in this years Mississippi Statewide Accountability System. Grace Christian, Hawkins Elementary, Thames Elementary, Woodley Elementary and Burger Middle School were all named High Performing Schools.

We are excited that schools in our district continue to make great strides in student achievement, said Supt. Robert Williams. For the first time in district history, five of our schools are B rated at the same time. While we celebrate the success of our schools, we also realize that we must continue to identify specific areas of weaknesses for all students.

Rowan Elementary received was rated C or successful.

The accountability system, the results of which were released Tuesday by the Mississippi Department of Education, assigns a performance rating of A, B, C, D and F for each district and school based on established criteria. Those measures include student achievement, individual student growth, graduation rate and participation rate.

The assessments are used to measure proficiency and growth for students in grades 3-8 and high school students taking end-of-course subject area assessments in Algebra I, English II, Biology and U.S. History. Schools with grades 3-8 can receive up to 750 points, while end-of-course-assessment schools as well as districts can receive up to 1,000.

But the district knows it has some work to do in other areas of the district.

The district ranked 101st in the state, with a D grade and 534 points. The district also showed big improvement from last year, when it was ranked 120th with 499 points.

Hattiesburg High School received an F with 485 points, following last years F ranking with 501 points. Thames Elementary School earned a B with 415 points, Hawkins Elementary School earned a B with 396 points, Woodley Elementary School earned a B with 394 points, N.R. Burger Middle School earned a B with 382 points, Grace Christian Elementary School earned a B with 379 points, Rowan Elementary School earned a C with 360 points, and Lillie Burney Steam Academy earned an F with 268 points.

Hattiesburg High and Lillie Burney STEAM Academy both received F grades, but a plan is already in place to help bring those grades up.

We have restructured the leadership team at Hattiesburg High School and implemented an action plan to address the needs of teachers and students, Williams said, Moreover, Hattiesburg High is targeting literacy, professional learning communities, and student accountability through data review, goal setting, and strategic academic conversations.

He said they have increased the graduation rate and provided more opportunities through dual enrollment/dual credit, Advanced Placement courses, and Industry Certifications to ensure our students are prepared for success.

We are currently in the second year of the Middle College program where 19 students are working to simultaneously earn a high school diploma and associates degree through a partnership with Pearl River Community College, he said.

We have also streamlined the course curriculum and resources for our ACT Prep class at Hattiesburg High and are working to offer ACT Prep and testing opportunities to our middle school students as well as 9th and 10th graders for early exposure prior to the state administration of the ACT during their junior year.

Williams said in an effort to decrease the districts dropout numbers the high school has created a detailed drop-out prevention plan that addresses contributing factors.

At Lillie Burney, we are committed to continuous improvement and growth; the teachers are actively participating in data rich and instructionally focused professional learning communities with administrative oversight, Williams said. he school has a new administration team that is implementing actions steps to address school culture and climate as well as build a supportive learning environment for students and teachers.

Because the majority of the districts schools received passing grades, Williams believes there are things they can take from the B and C schools to help.

The faculty and staff were very intentional in identifying individual student needs, he said. Students were placed in small groups to address skill deficits using high-quality, researched-based strategies and materials. Schools repeatedly held students accountable by holding data conversations throughout the school year.

According to Williams, some administrators also attributed high expectations, a winning mindset and teamwork to the success of their schools.

We believe these actions positively impacted our achievement scores, he said. Also, there is no substitute for student, parent, and faculty buy-in. We plan to implement many of these success proven strategies at Lillie Burney and Hattiesburg High School.

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Modern Technology Instead of a Wood Stove – VivaCell-MTS – Panorama.am

Borderland Koghb, the largest village in Tavush region, is 4.5 km away from the state border. The elders of the village joke that they live almost an urban life. They have two schools, two kindergartens, a house of culture and an art school. Their main occupation is horticulture and gardening. Without the cautious and frightened response of the children to the camera, the fact of being on the border may not even be felt, at the first glance. The camera carried on the shoulder is perceived by the kindergarten children as a firearm. Its ignored later and the playing continues, quietly.

The first kindergarten in Koghb was built 70 years ago in 1965. The kindergartens non-typical building was first heated with coal and then with wood stoves in the years that followed the collapse of the Soviet system. Modern technological solutions, especially the option of heating the building with alternative energy, have been unavailable to the kindergarten. Old-fashioned heating has been a difficult and dangerous process. Five stoves were installed in different rooms of the kindergarten, which houses 60 children. Although theses stoves have been in constant focus of attention of the staff, the danger and inconvenience have always been considerable.

It is very difficult to heat the building in the winter months. We use wood stoves mostly, and sometimes electric heaters for heating. It is almost impossible to secure a stable heating. Rooms are often filled with smoke. Not to mention the effort of keeping the moving kids away from shimmering stoves. I think the village should not be different from the city in this regard. This is particularly true for borderland villages. Attention should be high, said the principal of the kindergarten Alina Mamyan.

In summer, the problem was presented to the partners, who have experience in solving similar problems. The response was not delayed. VivaCell-MTS and the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) are already undertaking practical measures. The partners strive to provide a warm winter for young children. The project is also environmentally justified. Outdated and inefficient methods will be replaced by modern technology. Centralized heating system supported with solar water heaters will be placed.

Children shall be saved from memories about hardships. This is particularly important for the future. The hot burning metal or the smoke filling the room cant cause positive emotions. Maybe many years ago wooden stoves were normal or were the only solution for heating the room but today it is not normal as there are modern and safer technologies of heating. This is a program that allows, with the help of innovative technologies, changing the everyday life of the children living in borderland communities, as well as the lives of their teachers. I am glad that with a partner organization we can be useful to them, VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian.

The implementation of energy-saving heating systems in the borderland and remote settlements is one of the important steps in establishing a network of eco-villages. In this way, itll be possible to integrate these villages into a process, which is based on sustainable developments four components: environment, economy, culture and society. The program will significantly reduce community spending, and then the savings can be directed to solve other issues.

About Eco villages network project

Eco villages network includes selected intentional or traditional communities throughout Armenia, that are consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes to regenerate their social, cultural, economic and natural environments.The core idea behind the whole concept of the ecovillages is integrating the four dimensions of sustainability ecological, economic, cultural and social through integral, participatory design.The project is a new format of the long-term cooperation between the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), VivaCell-MTS and the Global Ecovillages Network (GEN) in the field of environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources.

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Modern Technology Instead of a Wood Stove - VivaCell-MTS - Panorama.am

Earth is on fire. You are nothing but complicit at best – Miscellany News

Plainly, the earth is burning. Though reified in the burning of the Amazon rainforest, the conflagration is not a crisis that cropped up out of nowhere. There are currently comparable forest fires raging in parts of Southeast Asia, California and southern Africa. And there is no shortage of efforts by national governments and grassroots organizations to combat humanitys negative impact on this burning planet.

The problem, however, is that too many people in positions of power dont care. Even after the Amazonian arson drew international ire, 4,000 more intentional fires sparked up in the next two days (The Independent, 09.02.2019, Amazon fires: Almost 4,000 new blazes started across Brazil in 48 hours after ban on burning forest land). We dont all sympathize with the despotic machinations of Brazilian President Bolsonaro, nor do some of us share the sheer ineptitude and unflinching disregard for human life embodied by President Trump. We as (even temporary) residents of the United States and of Vassar College, however, suffer from a seemingly incurable illness which we have contracted and continually spread amongst ourselves with sadistic penetrative smiles. This, of course, is the malady of being in the worlds top one percent economically, and the chief symptom is dissociation from the needs of the less-fortunate. After all, the scenic Hudson Valleys trees arent on fire. Rest assured, if they were, our Board of Trustees would rush to build an Inn and Institute on top of the ashes.

It is all too easy to fall into a routine of individualized environmental destruction on a day-to-day basis. Vassar is no exception. The green-hearted among us shudder at the Deece managements willingness to supply copious quantities of single-use cups for coffee and cold beverages, even at the height of the lunch rush. This prioritizes ease of running the facilities over environmental impact.

Bon Apptit is not the only offendereach time that I take a cup of coffee off to my morning class, rather than use a mug of my own, I am complicit in humankinds torturing of the earth, even if it is just in small increments. Every time you ask for a beef taco at Global, you are complicit in it too. Our overindulgent meat-eating culture tends to forget that beef singlehandedly contributes 44 percent of all food-related emissions (U.N. Food and Agriculture Administration, Tackling Climate Change through Livestock, 2013 study). This is not to mention the ethical implications of supporting capitalism-fueled global genocide of animals in captivity. Whenever we fail to voice discontent with the environmental policies of campus dining, we as students and faculty signal our tolerance of ecological injustice. That is, we fling ourselves at the mercy of the law of supply and demand. By thoughtlessly engaging in practices like the use of disposable goods and meat consumption, we maintain a demand for the production of single-use items and the wholesale slaughter of animals. Plastics are produced from crude oil, and livestock is brutalized so that you can enjoy a chicken sandwich between your classes. Vegetarians are no better; whereas meat-eaters are complicit in the mass slaughter of animals, you merely subject them to brutal serfdom. Your cup of milk is no more righteous than my hamburger; moreover, both leave a carbon footprint. In active participation in destructive practices, we revel in our negligence. But why? Why are we so willing to continue to contribute to global climate change while pretending that everything is just business as usual?

Its tempting to pat ourselves on the backswe throw quaint Green Fests, plan protests on campus and share pithy posts on Facebook. But these efforts pale in the face of concern that energy improvement goals will not be met on time. According to Vassars Students for Equitable Environmental Decisions (SEED), it is of a frightening uncertainty whether New York state will meet its goal of achieving a 50 percent renewable energy grid by 2030. This would substantially hamper the Colleges efforts to transition from central heating to biofuels, which are not carbon neutral, and would only buy the College a temporary period of cheaper energy. Although the proposed replacement for fossil-fuel-based heating would be cogeneration, the use of steam to produce energy would still commit[t] us to fossil fuel infrastructure for at least the next ten years. Vassar cannot afford to put off sustainability for another ten years. Furthermore, the strides taken by students towards progress have already met resistance from the Administration, as SEED describes the Board of Trustees as firmly against divestment from fossil fuel sources (Boilerplate Magazine, Can Vassar Go Carbon Neutral by 2030?, 04.13.2019).

On campus, the future is unclear. In the world, prospects are even more daunting. Humanity may soon face the reality that it is simply too late. That is, if not too late to prevent ecological destruction altogether, then too late to reverse some permanent damage. Small acts such as die-ins, as well as individual recycling, simply may not be enough. Slavoj Zizek, political philosopher and author of the book Living in the End Times, recently wrote about the Amazon fires for The Independent. As Zizek put it, We are like a soccer fan who supports his team in front of a TV screen at home, shouting and jumping from his seat, in a superstitious belief that this will somehow influence the outcome (The Independent, 09.04.2019, The Amazon is burning, and your tiny human efforts against the climate crisis have never seemed so meagre). Zizek continues to identify the consequential problem as ideological individualization; that is, focusing on ones self rather than raising much more pertinent global questions about our entire industrial civilization. Zizek is an adamant quasi-Marxist, and has been a long-time proponent of communism as a means of confronting existential threats to humankind. He might be onto something here.

While it may not take a neo-Leninist global uprising to combat climate change, I cant help but wonder if a solution is closer to that scenario than the billionaires, baby boomers and the bourgeois students among us would care to admit. After all, the 2017 Carbon Majors Report found that just a small number of corporations are responsible for 71 percent of emissions (The Guardian, 08.10.2017, Just 100 companies responsible for 71 percent of global emissions, study says). As difficult as it is to throw off the yoke of capitalism, especially for people in underprivileged communities, we need to recognize our collective responsibility for lining the pockets of the owners of those companies. The same folks who proudly wave picket signs at die-ins are purchasing computers from environmentally irresponsible tech companies, using diesel-fueled vans to travel to each others protests, and are thereby indulging the corporations pillaging the planet of its natural resources.

Im glad you got your free potted plant at your posh college gatheringI really am. Just be sure to hug it close with your Macbook, Amazon-ordered textbooks, and Starbucks coffee cup. Soon, it will be all you have as you gasp for air. Soon, our die-ins will not be a mere act of playing pretend, as the carbon dioxide strangles us.

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Earth is on fire. You are nothing but complicit at best - Miscellany News

Noname Book Club – REVOLT TV

As KRS-One articulated throughout his catalog and in his many teachings, Rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live. As the culture continues to evolve today, many feel its not only important, but vital to preserve and honor the fundamental elements: Graffiti, emceeing, breakdancing, deejaying and knowledge. This column called Each One, Teach One aims to do exactly that. It will highlight various lessons that can be passed between new and old generations alike.

In a fast-paced world filled with modern marketing, the infiltration of social media, apps like Audible, and absolutely no shortage of excellent literary content to choose from, it can still be an extremely daunting task landing on a book to read let alone make time to actually sit down with it. All too often, among my friend group at the very least, the eager optimism behind the lets start a book club! call-to-action is unfortunately all too fleeting, no matter how genuine it may be in the beginning. However, one vibrant talent decided to follow through on an accountability tip, emerging as a necessary leader of progressive literature.

After putting out feelers to gauge interest amongst her fans and internet lurkers, alike, Chicago rapper and former slam poet Noname announced in late July that she was officially launching her own book club. This seed was planted via Twitter, when she and a fan bonded over both reading Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-determination in Jackson, Mississippi by Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya.

The premise behind Nonames Book Club is simple enough: Feature two books a month, and create a space for community and conversation surrounding them. Each month the club highlights progressive work from writers of color and writers within the LGBTQ community, as well as promotes a network of local and independent bookstores that are carrying the selected works.

To kick off the book club, the selected works for August were Pedagogy of the Oppressed by the late Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, and a collection of essays by Samantha Irby titled We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, presenting one title that was informative nonfiction and another that was more creative in nature. This format was admittedly a bit unintentional, but feedback from fans shows that the balanced approach was appreciated.

This month, which is also National Literacy Month, the selections are The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty and Dont Call Us Dead by Danez Smith. While the book club is still in its early stages, it has since culminated in a kickoff event held at a bookstore in Los Angeles, as well as garnered partnerships with a handful of bookstores across the United States where future meet ups and discussions will be organized. On top of that, Noname is also launching an accompanying podcast to discuss the readings, as well as encourage members to send in voice notes sharing their commentary. Plus theres now also merch.

Noname is really doing the concept of a book club justice, and this is incredible to witness unfold for a plethora of reasons. First and foremost, shes honoring her mother, Desiree Sanders, who was the first black woman to own a bookstore in Chicago. While the store unfortunately closed in 2008, Noname has proudly stated that her book club will be honoring her moms legacy, all while adding a new element to her own.

Growing up in a bookstore and helping her mom upkeep the shop also helped influence her worldview, exposing her to a diverse array of authors and scholars at a young age, many of which would talk to her while they were browsing the shelves.

It really helped my development and helped me to be as prideful and as strong-minded as I am when it comes to the way I view my blackness, she said, reflecting on her book-centric upbringing during an interview with Essence.

She also stated how the endeavor aims to challenge stereotypes, adding, I feel like theres always been a stigma on black people and reading just because historically, we were boxed out of that process. Im trying to break apart the stereotype that n----s dont read because we definitely do.

In addition to placing an emphasis on the importance of expanding ones cultural and historical knowledge, the book club amplifies her own brand and self-expression as an artist by showcasing a different side to her multifaceted individuality, all while creating a space to deepen her bond with her fans. From encouraging literacy skills to urging people to support local businesses to highlighting important voices from marginalized communities, it doesnt come as a surprise that the book club has since taken off in the manner it has.

Nonames decision to launch a book club is also an authentic extension of her passions, as well as gives her an outlet to share that part of herself with others. The freshly minted 28-year-old who celebrates her birthday this month on the 18th fostered an interest in poetry, which eventually went on to lay the groundwork for her career in music. Her background in slam poetry introduced her to the art of performing, as well as paved the way for collaborations with fellow Chicagoans Chance the Rapper, Saba, Mick Jenkins and more.

Musically, Noname has expressed the intentional fluidity behind her artist moniker. In 2016, she explained during an interview with The Fader that her decision to create under such an intentional name is to allow herself the freedom to move between different outlets of expression. Her organizing a book club further strengthens the mercurial nature of her artistry and serves as a source of inspiration in and of itself.

For me, not having a name expands my creativity. Im able to do anything, she explained at the time. Noname could potentially be a nurse, Noname could be a screenwriter. Im not limited to any one category of art or other existence, on a more existential level.

Through her book club, Noname will also undoubtedly win over new fans or capture the attention of listeners who may not have spent much time with her music yet. While this isnt necessarily the goal of the book club, whatsoever, it helps engage a core audience in a way that other artists can learn from.

As she continues to record music as a solo artist, most recently self-releasing her debut studio album, Room 25, in 2018, and cultivate community through her impassioned book club, Noname is building a name for herself in a refreshingly humble way.

Find out more about Nonames Book Club via its website or by following @NonameBooks on Twitter.

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Noname Book Club - REVOLT TV

Womens Week at Kripalu is not your usual yoga retreat. – Thrive Global

When I was in college we met in consciousness raising (CR) groups and talked about the value in meeting as women, in groups of just women, even as we were part of a community that included men. Men as classmates, men as teachers, men as coworkers. I went to school at Vassar College, which of course has a strong history of developing the minds and spirits of women, so the conversation in the CR always circled back to whether in the company of men, women naturally drew back. The idea, we said, was to find spaces in our lives where we could physically retreat from men, because this was where we could nourish ourselves and cultivate our voices.

By now its not just therapeutic and empowering spending time with women whether its with my women friends or at an event for women or an event that attracts large numbers of women the after effect is nearly meditative.

But heres the question.

Is meditative enough?

Sure you cant pour from an empty cup, so yeah, women know that we need to work on finding ways to take care of ourselves, to continue to build our resilience, our strength, our power, in order to care for others.

But its more than that.

I understand theres no separation, that everything is connected, Denise Barack told me in our conversation about Kripalus upcoming Womens Week.

This is a call to both solidarity and action.

On any given weekend at Kripalu, about 650 guests travel to the sprawling campus near the grounds of Tanglewood in Stockbridge, Mass., to participate in multiple workshops, each happening at the same time and all focusing on subjects relating to health and wellness. Yet at the core of Kripalus programming is yoga, perhaps the best yoga youll ever experience in your life. Ive been to Kripalu twice and both times my focus was on running: yoga and running and trail running. And while I noticed most of the participants in all of the programs included many women, there were plenty of men, too.

So Kripalus upcoming Womens Week The Revolution Within: Womens Week at Kripalu, November 10-15, 2019 caught my attention. I reached out to Denise, whos curating and moderating the weekday program, which is for women only and will take over the entire campus. No other programs or workshops will be happening during Womens Week, and this is a first for Kripalu.

Why now?

I asked Denise. Heres an edited excerpt of our conversation.

Carolee Belkin Walker: Im so excited about Kripalus upcoming womens week! But ofcourse I think of every week as womens week!

Denise Barack: Right! And I look forward to meeting you!

CBW: Before we get started, would you tell me about yourself and thebackground on The Revolution Within?

DB: Sure. I have been connected with Kripalu a long time. My son isnow 32, and I moved to the Berkshires to be part of this community when I waspregnant with him. Ive worked here the past 21 years or so, a couple ofdecades, mostly in the role of director of programming. But in recent years my rolehas changed where Im now the director of program innovation, and I just lovebeing able to curate things like Womens Week and other conferences that bringtogether real visionary voices, convening together in conversation. This is thebiggest weve done so far, and were expecting to sell out the Main Hall. Itwill be the only program going on at Kripalu at the time, which is unusual for Kripalu,because we usually offer our R&Rretreats for men and women, so it will be much more intimate with only onegroup of several hundred women.

CBW: The times Ive been to Kripalu youve always had multipleprograms going on at the same time. This is a first for Kripalu, right?

DB: It is. And it should be a pretty potent space, I think, with a lot ofamazing, visionary presenters. But not just the presenters. This is anopportunity for us to bring women together to learn from one another. We havethe wisdom. We have so much to offer one another in terms of life experience anddiversity of perspective. And so were looking forward to a very broad spectrumof participants coming to this. And thats why well be offering sevendifferent tracks or areas of interests. Some women might be drawn for the writing,others may be looking at sensuality and embodiment. Were trying to createsomething thats very intentional as a way to have both supportive small-groupexperiences and then be in the larger field with plenary keynotes in theevenings and then lots and lots of choices throughout the day.

Were at an unprecedented moment in history where women are so actively engaged, and enraged. Record numbers, you know, so weve never really held so much power to shape the future.

CBW: Tell me about the process of thinking about coming up with theidea for the seven tracks and then about planning the week. Im sure youcouldve gone in many different directions.

DB: Definitely. And Ive put out a lot of invitations to people whereit just wasnt the right time or place. Unfortunately, we wont have MichelleObama here! But I am looking at the timing. This is taking place a year afterthe historic midterm elections and therefore its a year before the 2020 presidentialelection. It just feels like it is a potent time to bring women together tohave these kinds of conversations. Were at an unprecedented moment in historywhere women are so actively engaged, and enraged. Record numbers, you know, soweve never really held so much power to shape the future.

And looking at the time of year, its a few weeks beforeThanksgiving. Theres so much to be grateful for today even though theres somuch we want to change. But the fact that we have the freedom to convene andexpress and explore all these different perspectives is pretty remarkableconsidering the history of womens rights in this country.

Hopefully women who attend will return home with somethingcompletely unique. Itll be interesting to follow up later. Im hoping to seehow this week of being together actually inspires change. And that change couldbe just ripples it may not look like outer, big change in the world. Noteverybodys going to run for Congress. Ripples, as you know, from Kripalu, theycontinue. Theres no end to that wave action that goes out from someones lifeperspective being changed from being here. Part of that is not just what weregoing to be awakening women to, but also its about awakening within ourselves.The idea of thriving, the idea of what is it truly to nourish that voicewithin, to hear and respect that voice within, even as we are honoring andrespecting other voices that are quite different from our own.

CBW: When I was first reading about the program, I was struck by theinitial language and the focus on the revolution within. In my own life andmy own practice, I spend a lot of time thinking about and valuing andcultivating resilience, so that as I face challenges as I get older, either inmy health or in my work, that Im in a better place to kind of roll with it. SoIm wondering if you could talk about the value or the role that you intend toplay in fostering resilience and ultimately empowerment through resilience.

This revolutionary work that were calling forth is the yoking of the deep work within and on our mats to wherever were socially engaged, to try to also meet the need for democracy and justice today in the world, beyond our mat and beyond whats within.

DB: I love that thats what lit you. You asked about the curation of this. At first there was so much to look at. I read some great books about womens rage, womens anger. And the more I started looking at that outward focus, the more I realized, particularly since were hosting this at Kripalu, which has always offered this very neutral, nonpartisan ecumenical sanctuary for inquiry and transformation, is that we are a yoga-based container for a call to action, however someone takes that back into the world. And in recognizing that the root of yoga means not just to come together to unite and make whole but to understand theres no separation, that everything is connected, this revolutionary work that were calling forth is the yoking, so to speak, of the deep work within and on our mats which is the resilience work to wherever were socially engaged, you know, to try to also meet the need for democracy and justice today in the world, beyond our mat and beyond whats within.

One has to start there, and we have some gorgeous teachers whoare going to be almost poetically looking at this because its their deep work.

I remember yogateacher and spiritual activist Seane Corn saying thatif you point a finger outward, theres three fingers pointing back at you, andshes just come out with a book on this topic called Revolution of the Soul that is going tobe the basis of what she offers in a very inspiring keynote session. Really lookingat what it means to begin within. The revolution inside. Inside-out work. Itsnot just staying inside, its inside-out.

But theres new voices that were bringing in to Kripalu, too, whoare also speaking to this. ValarieKaur is someone wholl be a household name at some point wherepeople start to hear her expression of what she calls Revolutionary Love. Sheslooking at how these times are so dark, and yet as a mother is trying tochallenge us to think about it, not as the darkness of the tomb, but ratherthe darkness of a womb that we, through labor, can breathe and push through tobirth a new era, a new future. And so to do that, we need strength, we needresources. But ultimately what shes talking about is coming from a place ofwhat she calls revolutionary love. And its love for the world, its love forourselves.

Shes quite inspiring as is another new voice for Kripalu, ZainabSalbi, who founded Women for Women, an international philanthropyorganization, and has been an MSNBC commentator. Zainab has written a booklooking at the idea that we have to change ourselves first before we can changethe world. But shes speaking in particular about forgiveness and really owningour part in what the outer manifestation of our reality is.

CBW: Sounds intense.

DB: Theres going to be some real personal work involved with justeven receiving the keynote messages of some of these luminaries.

Because we cannot explore womens work without addressing racework, another night we have the highly respected PeggyMcIntosh talking about white privilege, and shell be followed by theRev.angel Kyodo williams whos also addressing how racismhas harmed us all in various ways, the idea that we are part of a larger systemin society and how important it is for our collective liberation to see with clearereyes.

So theres a lot of eye opening thats going to happen during the week. And Im excited about that because were doing it in a container where were providing the kind of opportunity for this not to be jarring or divisive. Our core competency at Kripalu is wellness and self inquiry. And so theres a nourishing environment that really does, like you said earlier, support transformation. One of our presenters, Kate Johnson, has worked for a decade with frontline activists, and as we were back and forth working on the copy for her program, she was talking about how its really overwhelming sometimes to show up for anothers liberation. Its sacred work and very overwhelming. And so that kind of deep solidarity absolutely requires that we each cultivate our inner resources, our inner resilience as you call it.

CBW: How is the week going to be structured? I saw on the website thatparticipants will need to choose a particular path or focus.

DB: We have seven portals into the week, and when you register forthe week, youll need to register for one of the seven main programs that willtake place each morning. The fullschedule is available on the Kripalu website.

CBW: Can you say more about the seven tracks? It looks like youve gotpresenters coming in from all over the world.

DB: We are so honored to have AngelaFarmer here from Lesvos, Greece, leading the track on Inner BodyActivism, where shell be focusing on this idea of thriving. Shes looking athow, as women, we naturally care about others, and, sometimes we can getunbalanced. She calls her style of yoga, which is a lot about unlearning andundoing, inner body activism. This is essentially what happens when yourereally attuned to yourself you begin to act from a really deep inner place ofstability and compassion, rather than outer ideals.

As women, we naturally care about others, and, sometimes we can get unbalanced.

The program led by AlexandraRoxo will explore the modern day intersection of spiritualityand sensuality, and longtime Kripaluteachers CobyKozlowski and ToniBergins will co-lead a playful program embracing the power ofdance, ritual, and devotional movement.

Im very excited that two other longtime and beloved Kripaluteachers and co-founders of the Black Yoga Teachers Alliance, JanaLong and MayaBreuer, who also created the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color atKripalu, will co-lead a program on inclusivity that is for women of all backgrounds,all hues, and all persuasions to come together, mostly through yoga, to honordifferent perspectives and how to hold space for others with respect. They willdig more deeply into social constructs of inclusivity, looking at developing culturalcompetencies that support change.

And Kate Johnson, who I had mentioned earlier, has been doing someamazing work helping change makers in society. Shell be offering themeditation program option for the week, to help us learn how in these dark anddifferent times to meet it with fierce compassion. How to turn our beautifulintentions into compassionate actions through mindfulness experience.

Another popular Kripalu presenter, NancyAronie, will be leading the writing program, looking at all theshadows that we carry around inside us and how we can free them and illuminatethem in written form onto a page. And finally, because Ayurveda offers suchwisdom for stressful times, Dr.Claudia Welch, an international Ayurvedicpractitioner, will lead a program she calls Being Medicine.

CBW: So how will the days be structured around the tracks, orprograms?

DB: The separate programs I just mentioned will run for three hourseach day on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then there will be agathering for all of the participants on Friday morning with a closing panel ofteachers.

CBW: Will each day have plenty of time for yoga?

DB: Yes. Therell be Kripalu yoga in the mornings before breakfastand in the afternoon, as well as daily opportunities for deep rest with YogaNidra. And so many other optional choices each afternoon! The best way to understand the breadth of offeringsthis week is by downloading the pdfschedule on the website.

Not everyone will come for the traditional asana-based yoga. I want to mention that were embracing something that is inclusive, diverse, multiracial, multicultural, and even nonpartisan. We dont expect everyone to be like-minded. Its going to be welcoming of every point of view, and every financial class as were offering scholarships. Were welcoming women of every political philosophy and every level of engagement of activism.

Were welcoming women of every political philosophy and every level of engagement of activism.

CBW: Thinking about inclusivity, Kripalu welcomes men and women in allof its programs throughout the year. But at some point you must have talkedabout the value in excluding men, inmaking the entire week at Kripalu for women only, which is a first for Kripalu.

DB: Yes we did. But although this is the first time a women-onlyprogram will take over the entire campus, throughout the decades Kripalu hasoffered programs just for women.

CBW: Whats the thinking behind that?

DB: Theres something powerful that happens when men can witnesswomen and women can be witnessed by men. But thats not whats happening here. Thisis an opportunity for women to feel they have their full voice. I thinksometimes women do not express themselves in the same way in front of men. Andso were trying to remove any obstacles to that within the actual retreatexperience because we want all womens voices heard.

Actually during one of the afternoon plenary sessions, were doing something that is going to be so great.

On Monday afternoon, well be bringing together Carol Gilligan, the author of In a Different Voice, and Tina Packer, the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., to lead an experiential session about what it means to claim your voice. In Carols latest book, The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchy, Resistance, and Democracys Future she talks about how political change really depends on psychological transformation. And thats the approach well be taking in this amazing session. For there to be change outside, it has to happen within first.

Therell be a voice coach embedded in the audience and well be able to interact with Tina on a large screen, since shes going to be livestreamed from Portland, Oregon, having just completed her profound performance/masterclass, Women of Will. Weve done this before with other presenters where they can actually be set up on a live-screen where they can see and interact with the audience.

CBW: I wanted to ask you about that, Denise. What is the philosophybehind or the value in this kind of intense retreat. Many women will be takingoff time from work to attend, and some may even travel great distances and atgreat expense. Many of us practice yoga in our communities and meditate athome. What is the idea behind coming together at a place like Kripalu?

DB: Well its definitely not a retreat from the world. Were allgoing back to the world after our time together. But it is a retreat intosomething very deep, profound, nourishing. There are retreats that aregorgeous, you know, in their solitude or silence. This is not that kind ofretreat. This is a retreat into the heart of something that lives within womencollectively and needs to be expressed.

CBW: Thank you so much for chatting with me, Denise, and offering sucha helpful preview of what sounds like an amazing week. I cant wait!

DB: My pleasure, Carolee. Thanks so much.

Carolee Belkin Walker, author of Getting My Bounce Back, is a wellness blogger and freelance journalist whose work also appears in the Washington Post, Womens Running, the Chicago Tribune, the Toronto Sun, the Huffington Post, and others. She is the host of My Brain on Endorphins podcast, which is available on Stitcher and iTunes. Walker lives in Washington, D.C.http://caroleewalker.com/

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Womens Week at Kripalu is not your usual yoga retreat. - Thrive Global

Native American group supports helping change any offensive mascot, official says – MLive.com

FULTON, MI The board of the Native American Heritage Fund supports the removal of any harmful mascot images, not only those disparaging to Native Americans, according to chairperson Jamie Stuck.

The group recently announced that it awarded a $98,000 grant to Godfrey-Lee Public Schools to help it rebrand after replacing its longtime "Lee Rebels" name and mascot with Legends, shedding images reflecting ties to the Confederacy to be culturally responsive.

At its July meeting, the board granted a total of $479.781.80 to seven applicants. The other six awards were for educational initiatives.

I think when it comes to imagery and a mascot that could provide a negative environment, whether it is in a learning environment or whether it is in a competitive environment for students within the State of Michigan, it affects all races, Stuck told MLive Wednesday, Sept. 18.

This does affect our culture because any type of disenfranchisement, marginalization or oppression of any race, ethnicity or culture affects us all. If this (grant) encourages people to think about revising or revisiting mascots than this did its job.

Stuck said since inception, the board has been willing to considering any offensive mascot support. He said there was one passage in the Godfrey-Lee application that especially resonated with him.

The first sentence of the graph he read says, The problem that needs to be addressed is the normalization and institutionalization of racism. The last sentence says, Racism anywhere is a threat to the school and the board no longer wanted to passively or actively be perceived as contributing to the marginalization of persons of color.

Ninety percent of the students in the district of around 1,800 kids are students of color including 78 percent Hispanics and 9.6 percent African Americans.

The school board vote in February to change the mascot was unanimous because members said it did not fit the goal of creating a welcoming, inclusive environment for all students.

It is critical that each individual student be able to see themselves represented in our uniforms, identity, murals, signage and namesake, according to the districts application.

Stuck said the Native American Heritage Fund has built relationships between the sovereign nations of the State of Michigan, with public and private K-12 and higher education institutions, and municipalities.

He said the work of the group is getting national attention for both its educational efforts and encouraging and mascot changes.

The Native American Heritage Fund, created in 2016, allocates a portion of Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi state gaming revenue to projects that promote positive relationships and accurate information about the history and role of Michigans Indian tribes and Native Americans in the state.

Michigans K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and local units of government are eligible to receive the fund.

Godfrey-Lee Superintendent Kevin Polston encourages other communities with mascot concerns to not be afraid to have the difficult conversations and make tough decisions in the best interest of their students. He said there will be a healing process and Godfrey-Lee is still going through it.

We made a values decision and it wasnt a majority decision, he said, about making an unpopular change. It takes time to heal but we are being very intentional.

Polston said it is possible for people to disagree on critical issues but still agree on many other things such as wanting the very best for all children and the community and valuing equity and excellence as a district.

The district estimates it will cost $262,000 to rebrand and has raised a total of $120,000. School leaders continue to solicit donations via the Districts PayPal account online or checks mailed to the district.

Belding Public Schools, which replaced its Redskins name and mascot with the Black Knights in 2017, is the only other school to apply and receive mascot funding from the Native American group.

In 2018, Belding received nearly $335,000. The board awarded $469,834 in grants that year.

Stuck said education is a major focus.

It is very important to make sure our history and culture is taught in the right way, in a respectful manner, in a way that educates, he said.

This year alone we were able to help provide funding for a lot of different events that are more focused on our history, curriculum and language preservation.

For example, GRCC received a $5,285 grant to fund a trip to the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinaabe Culture and Lifeways in Mount Pleasant and a speaker on Native American history, heritage and culture.

The two initiatives that received the largest grants were tied to curriculum and language preservation:

Stuck is scheduled to speak in October at the National Congress of American Indians conference about the Native American Heritage Fund.

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Native American group supports helping change any offensive mascot, official says - MLive.com

Experts detail global pandemic readiness gaps, offer steps – CIDRAP

In its first annual report, an independent board established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank to keep its finger on the pulse of the world's outbreak and emergency readiness said the world isn't prepared to respond to a pandemic and that proactive efforts are needed to detect and control potential outbreaks.

Housed at WHO headquarters in Geneva and comprising 15 members, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) was launched in May 2018 to assess emergency preparedness across national governments, United Nations agencies, civil society, and the private sector. As part of its mission, each year it will issue a report on financing, research and development, and health crisis preparedness at global, regional, and national levels.

For its first report, the group looked at preparedness for epidemics and pandemics by reviewing recommendations from previous high-level panels following the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic and the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak and commissioning seven review papers, including one on managing pandemics caused by high-impact respiratory pathogens.

In a forward by cochairs Gro Harlem Brundtland, MD, MPH, Norway's former prime minister and former WHO director-general, and Elhadj As Sy, secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said in the forward to the 48-page report that the result of the group's analysis provides a snapshot of the world's ability to prevent and contain a global health threat.

The expert panel found that many recommendations of earlier groups were poorly implemented or not implemented at all and that serious gaps persist. "For too long, we have allowed a cycle of panic and neglect when it comes to pandemics: we ramp up efforts when there is a serious threat, then quickly forget about them when the threat subsides," they wrote. "It is well past time to act."

In the report, the group spells out seven urgent actions for world leaders to take to boost global preparedness, all of which include progress indicators designed to be completed by September 2020.

Among three recommendations aimed at countries, the group said government heads must commit to preparedness by implementing their binding obligations under the International Health Regulations. Also, they said countries and regional organizations such as the G7 and G20 must follow through on their funding commitments for preparedness and agree to monitor progress. All countries much build strong health systems and routinely conduct simulation exercises to establish and maintain preparedness, with an eye toward prioritizing community involvement.

One of the recommendations urges countries, donors, and multilateral groups to prepare for a rapidly spreading pandemic from a lethal respiratory pathogennaturally occurring or from an accidental or intentional releaseby investing in new vaccines, drugs, surge manufacturing capacity, broad-spectrum antivirals, and appropriate nonpharmacologic interventions. That point also addressed sharing genome sequences of new pathogens and sharing limited medical countermeasures.

For financing groups, the experts urged institutions to link preparedness with financial risk planning and to create incentives and increase funding for preparedness. And for United Nations (UN) agencies, the authors urge stronger coordination and well-defined UN roles and responsibilities, along with ways to rapidly reset preparedness and response strategies during health emergencies.

Regarding the WHO, the GPMB recommends introducing an approach to mobilize wider national, regional, and international communities at earlier outbreak stages before a Public Health Emergency of International Concern is declared.

Ali Khan, MD, MPH, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, wrote on Twitter today that the report's main message that the pandemic risk is growing and that the world is not preparedhighlighted in media stories on the GPMB reportis not a new revelation.

He said novel solutions are needed and noted that the group doesn't call for a deputy UN secretary for health or a new preparedness fund. And Khan said the report doesn't spell out any clear new actions for the WHO, beyond reorganization, which has been done before to improve response in outbreak settings.

Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which publishes CIDRAP News, praised the report and its attention to a critical issue, and he said it reflects the work of some of the best minds in public health. However, he said the report doesn't spell out key targets for government investments, other than public health infrastructure.

More specifics are needed, he said, on how governments should address other problems that could occur as a pandemic unfolds, such as disruptions in the manufacturing and distribution of 151 lifesaving drugs, which could lead to shortages that kill more people than the pandemic virus itself. He added that countries should be urged to invest heavily in critical pharmaceutical products.

More focus should be placed on the sources of drug ingredients and manufacturing. "China is ground zero for preparedness," Osterholm said.

Also, he said the world still lacks game-changing flu vaccines. Currently, pandemic plans project that a vaccine will be available 6 months after a pandemic begins. During the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, however, there was still too little vaccine, even for the second illness wave.

"We need much larger planning and thinking," Osterholm said.

See also:

Sep 17 GPMB landing page

Sep 17 GPMB executive summary

Sep 17 GPMB full report

Sep 18 Ali Khan Twitter feed

May 24, 2018, CIDRAP News scan "WHO, World Bank unveil new global health security monitoring board

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Experts detail global pandemic readiness gaps, offer steps - CIDRAP

Facing pollution, fire and exploitation, Amazonians wonder ‘if the world hates us’ – Crux: Covering all things Catholic

LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador Though its possible to talk about the Amazon in terms of statistics, such as how many hectares of rain forest are lost every year to slash-and-burn development, or policy choices, such as how the nine governments that share the Amazon should have responded to a recent spate of devastating fires, none of that captures the emotional register of the place.

For that, you have to talk to the people who actually live here, such as local resident Daniela Andrade.

Its as if the world hates us, Andrade said Monday, trying to explain the bewilderment and anger people often feel over blatant pollution and related health issues generated by the oil and mining industries, coupled with grinding poverty and chronic governmental neglect.

They want to make us disappear, they see us as a stone on the road blocking their progress, she said.

Andrade helps in the communication department of REPAM, an ecclesial network for the Amazon that has played a key role in preparation of an upcoming Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops for the Amazon convened by Pope Francis in Rome.

Damage from this summers fires, which are believed to have claimed some 906,000 hectares of the Amazon, is visible if one drives just a few miles in any direction from the city of Lago Agrio in Ecuador where Andrade spoke to reporters.

The residue of the fires, she said, is a reflection of that hatred the world feels for us. She said its also a reflection of the world itself, that is suffering because weve abandoned it.

Yet, she said, the Amazon is also a place of hope, of resilience, where we can find the face of a God who speaks of getting up every day, believing that one can move forward and even grow with his help, she said.

In terms of the Catholic role here, one might suspect that Latin Americas liberation theology would form the beating heart of the Church. Yet, locals say, it was actually St. John Paul IIs ecumenical push which played a key role in the regions evangelization.

The values John Paul II presented have been very important for us, said Macario Castillo, who works in Caritass social pastoral house in the Ecuadorian state of Sucumbios.

Ecumenism in particular allowed us to understand that we are all equal: if theres poverty, a lack of health services or education, if our water is polluted, were all affected, he said.

Castillo, whose hands are marked by years of working his land, mentioned liberation theology and its Brazilian avatar, theologian Leonardo Boff, almost in passing, preferring to focus on the Polish pontiff and his Argentine successor, Francis.

Laudato Si suits us like a ring on our finger, Castillo told a group of journalists, including Crux, last Saturday. With it, Pope Francis seeks to raise awareness of the impact that everyone has on the planet. When the pope supports what were fighting for so clearly, he gives us a lot of energy.

Laudato Si is Franciss 2015 document on the environment, which, as hes put it, is the mother of an upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazon region to be held in Rome Oct. 6-27.

Franciss encyclical, Castillo said, commits us to the demanding and tenacious struggle to recover our sovereignty and our environmental rights.

Lago Agrio is the largest city in the state of Sucumbios, Ecuadors main oil producing region, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

According to Castillo, the government of Ecuadors President Lenin Moreno is evaluating opening seven new oil fields in the area, regardless of the opinion of the local population, who after 40 years of extractive industry are fed up.

They say the oil industry has brought few advances and plenty of problems to a state that should be the wealthiest in Ecuador, but which instead has few and poorly paved roads. Most homes have no electricity or running water, and the population faces unusually high rates of cancer, with 10 in 100 inhabitants suffering at least one type of the disease considered a death sentence in the jungle.

Oil companies claim that the new platforms will be sources of work, but in no way are they worth the risk they produce, Castillo said.

Lago Agrio is some 20 minutes away from Ecuadors border with Colombia, suffering fallout from its neighbor being one of the worlds main drug producers. It has also felt the impact of Colombias five-decade civil war, including guerrillas hiding in the hilly region.

Richard Ullauri coordinates the social ministry of the local branch of Caritas, the Churchs official charitable agency. He told reporters that the Church in Sucumbios has been at the forefront of the ferment, accompanying those affected by the pollution that results from oil extraction.

Weve transmitted the Gospel through our accompaniment of those in need, those marred by an economic system that leaves those on the outskirts even further on the margins of society, Ullauri said.

His office helps coordinate a social market that offers 26 families from neighboring communities the possibility of selling their products directly to buyers at a fair price, in an area where those who work tirelessly for three years to harvest cocoa beans can receive as little as $2 for a cup of chocolate.

Ins Quesada leaves her family home at 3:00 a.m. to be at the market to sell her farms produce by 6:00 a.m.

Were families in need who come together, with the help of the Churchs social ministry office, to bring food to our tables, Quesada said.

She said her family farm, which produces coffee, cocoa beans and plantains, is becoming less productive each year, something she believes is directly tied to pollution produced by a nearby oil well, the gas flaming furnaces that surround her land, and a toxic herbicide called glyphosate the Colombian government tosses from planes to kill cocaine plantations.

Its very hard for us We cannot say that we live a dignified life, its more about survival, Quesada said, with tears in her eyes.

Scientists have long warned against the rapid destruction of the rain forest in all nine nations where its present, including Brazil and Bolivia, where the Amazon saw even greater devastation this year due to intentional fires that spiraled out of control.

Santos Napo is the Chairman of the Committee Against Environmental Pollution of Sucumbios, and also a local farmer. He too has been affected by the pollution produced by the oil companies and the use of glyphosate.

Always, the most affected people are the poor, he said.

He arrived in the Amazon 40 years ago, when this was a jungle, from a different state within Ecuador. With the help of the Catholic Church, he learned different techniques to increase his production and also what to do when the rights of farm workers are being threatened.

We have many rights, but it seems that in Ecuador, the law only benefits the rich, Napo said.

It fills me with excitement and joy that the pope has asked the whole world, those who are Catholics and those who are not, those who know how to read and those who dont, to join him to protect the Amazon and those of us who live here, he said.

If the Amazon suffers, everyone suffers, Napo said. And you cannot evangelize if theres no one left to minister to.

Follow Ins San Martn on Twitter:@inesanma

Crux is dedicated to smart, wired and independent reporting on the Vatican and worldwide Catholic Church. That kind of reporting doesnt come cheap, and we need your support. You can help Crux bygiving a small amount monthly, or witha onetime gift. Please remember, Crux is a for-profit organization, so contributions are not tax-deductible.

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Facing pollution, fire and exploitation, Amazonians wonder 'if the world hates us' - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Report shows Sault Ste. Marie is effective at retaining immigrants – SaultOnline.com

A new report shows that Sault Ste. Marie has been one of the most effective small centres in Ontario at retaining immigrants.

The report, Beyond the Big City: How Small Communities Across Canada Can Attract and Retain Newcomers, published by Public Policy Forum and Pathways to Prosperity, found that 69% of the immigrants that arrived to Sault Ste. Marie between 2002 and 2006 were still living in the community five years later.

From 2007 to 2011, Sault Ste. Marie improved on that number, with 73.4% of the immigrants who arrived during that time still residing in the community five years later.

Both were the highest scores recorded in the immigrant retention category among the communities consulted for the study. Community consultations were held earlier in 2019 in five communities in Ontario: Brockville, Chatham-Kent, Grey and Bruce Counties, Sault Ste. Marie, and Greater Sudbury.

The authors of the report defined a small centre as an area with a population of 50,000 people or fewer that is at least 75 km from a Census Metropolitan Area, or an area with a population of up to 200,000 people that is remote from other larger cities.

The report finds an overall relation between attraction and retention: as a communitys ability to attract newcomers increases, so does its ability to retain newcomers. Sault Ste. Marie, however, occupies a unique spot: among communities with low immigration rates, Sault Ste. Marie had the highest retention rate.

As a community, weve made significant strides over the past 15 years in improving services and supports for newcomers, in becoming more culturally vibrant, and in creating economic and education opportunities, said Adrian DeVuono, Coordinator of the Local Immigration Partnership. While there are ways we can improve, this is a great place for newcomers to settle, work and raise a family.

The challenge, he said, is that immigrants and other types of newcomers from across Canada and beyond simply dont know much about us so they go to the cities theyre most familiar with. Many immigrants to Canada simply dont know about the high quality of life we have to offer.

The authors of the report suggest that small centres like Sault Ste. Marie can now compete with metropolitan areas like Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto because of the skyrocketing cost of living in those cities. Small centres, they recommend, could promote their affordability, unique attributes and compelling lifestyle as an alternative to the costly hustle and bustle of booming metropolitan areas.

Dr. Teniayo Araba, the Human Resources Director at Algoma University, immigrated to Canada from Nigeria and then moved to Sault Ste. Marie from Saskatoon with her husband and three children. For her, the quality of life and the supportive people shes discovered in Sault Ste. Marie has convinced her that shes found a home in Canada.

Ive been blessed to have good people around me, said Mrs. Araba. The President [of the university] was very involved in helping me get settled. She was very intentional in providing support. We also received a lot of support from our new neighbours, friends, and colleagues at the university. I found a church community, joined the African-Canadian Caribbean Association of Northern Ontario, and became part of a ladies group. My familys making connections too and thats been wonderful to see. Its the connections which have been most helpful.

Mrs. Araba said the genuine warmth of local residents also helped her feel welcomed. I find people in Sault Ste. Marie are very friendly. Ive lived in a few cities in Canada and this city stands out, I have to say. This is one of the first places where I can start talking to a stranger and at the end of the conversation Im thinking, Have I known that person for a long time?

A community welcoming to immigrants may have other benefits, too. Since the reasons newcomers and Canadian-born individuals settle and remain in a community are very similar, the authors of the report indicate that improving a locations welcoming features can attract more than just immigrants, such as young professionals and their families.

The results of the report are encouraging for the community as it prepares to embark on the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program, which will address urgent workforce needs by recruiting international talent for specialized jobs that employers have not been able to fill locally.

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Report shows Sault Ste. Marie is effective at retaining immigrants - SaultOnline.com

MUGENYI: It costs nothing because every drop of blood counts – The East African

By PHILANA MUGYENYIMore by this Author

Every day, nearly 830 women die globally from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Almost all maternal deaths (99 per cent) occur in developing countries, with more than 50 per cent of these deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. This is a particular problem for pregnant women in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the World Health Organisation, post-partum haemorrhage (severe bleeding) is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide. Having an on-hand, sustainable blood supply available for a severely bleeding new mother would significantly improve her chances of survival.

In every country and culture, the death of a mother not only affects the health of her surviving family members, it also undermines the well-being and economic health of her community.

African governments and our health sectors must prioritise gathering an adequate safe supply of blood for women and children to achieve the sustainable development goal 32, of good health and well-being.

Why is this not already a priority in sub-Saharan Africa? Is there is a lack of awareness on the importance of having an adequate supply of blood, particularly in rural areas? Are there enough resources to support these communities to make this a priority?

Statistics from WHO underline the problems. Almost half (42 per cent) of the blood collected globally comes from high-income countries.

Not enough people in low-income countries are donating blood, where it is needed the most. Only 4.4 per 1,000 people in low-income countries donate blood, compared with 32.6 per 1,000 in upper-income countries.

This sadly does not even meet the minimum requirement of 10 people per 1,000. And unfortunately, the limited blood that is donated by people living in low-income countries has a higher prevalence of carrying transfusion transmissible diseases such as HIV, malaria and hepatitis.

Why arent more people donating blood?

Socio-cultural barriers play a significant role when it comes to voluntary blood donation in low-income countries. There are common misconceptions that one must be extremely strong or have extra blood to donate, or that one must be related to the person to whom one is donating blood. Some cultures believe that donating blood exposes them to witchcraft.

Given these conditions, it is crucial for health administrations in African countries to invest in sensitisation and education campaigns around the importance of blood donation, advocating for better health systems.

For example, Zambia has successfully managed to reduce maternal deaths by 55 per cent from 2012 to 2016 through a public-private-partnership initiative called Saving Mothers, Giving Life.

Zambia was able to improve access to a safe blood supply because of strengthening the health systems across the countrys districts. They ensured mothers had birth plans, improved communication and transport to a hospital, as well as access to training and mentoring medical staff.

A key to achieving a sustainable blood supply in Africa is to form partnerships which can generate innovative solutions. The Organisation of African First Ladies for Development has taken a deliberate step to steer the process by convening public and private stakeholders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Working closely with Terumo BCT, this gathering will provide a platform to discuss the challenges and devise solutions to address blood shortages and maternal health in Africa.

Some partnership solutions are already in effect in Africa, for example in Nigeria. Google has partnered with a blood-and-oxygen-delivery tech company, LifeBank, to help transport blood safely and efficiently by integrating Google maps into its mobile application

Rwanda has adopted the use of aerial drones to transport blood into rural areas, delivering blood quickly to those in need. They use an advanced temperature-tracking technology that allows the temperature of the blood to be monitored while it is being transported.

These examples reveal that partnerships with non-health-sector-specific companies can dramatically contribute to the overall success of important health-sector goals.

Blood is a critical part of healthcare and essential to saving lives. It is fundamental to treating pregnancy-related complications and severe childhood anaemia (common in people born with sickle cell disease).

African governments need to acknowledge the importance of blood and become more intentional in their policy-making to ensure that the healthcare and well-being of their citizens are prioritised and integrated into the countrys national health strategy.

We must acknowledge that we cannot achieve this sustainable development goal in isolation. We must mobilise resources wherever possible and develop innovative partnerships to help get us there. Research plays a critical role as well in addressing these challenges. If we can support our policy-makers with evidence-based information, we can also help them develop policies which are geared towards achieving an adequate, safe and sustainable blood supply for all our citizens.

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MUGENYI: It costs nothing because every drop of blood counts - The East African

Commune – Wikipedia

Community of people living together, sharing common interests

A commune (the French word appearing in the 12th century from Medieval Latin communia, meaning a large gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis, things held in common)[1] is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, often having common values and beliefs, as well as shared property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work, income or assets.

In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become important core principles for many communes. There are many contemporary intentional communities all over the world, a list of which can be found at the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC).[2]

Benjamin Zablocki categorized communities this way:[3]

Many communal ventures encompass more than one of these categorizations. Some communes, such as the ashrams of the Vedanta Society or the Theosophical commune Lomaland, formed around spiritual leaders, while others formed around political ideologies. For others, the "glue" is simply the desire for a more shared, sociable lifestyle.

The central characteristics of communes, or core principles that define communes, have been expressed in various forms over the years. Before 1840 such communities were known as "communist and socialist settlements"; by 1860, they were also called "communitarian" and by around 1920 the term "intentional community"[citation needed] had been added to the vernacular of some theorists. The term "communitarian" was invented by the Suffolk-born radical John Goodwyn Barmby, subsequently a Unitarian minister.[4]

At the start of the 1970s, The New Communes author Ron E. Roberts classified communes as a subclass of a larger category of Utopias. He listed three main characteristics. Communes of this period tended to develop their own characteristics of theory though, so while many strived for variously expressed forms of egalitarianism, Roberts' list should never be read as typical. Roberts' three listed items were: first, egalitarianism that communes specifically rejected hierarchy or graduations of social status as being necessary to social order. Second, human scale that members of some communes saw the scale of society as it was then organized as being too industrialized (or factory sized) and therefore unsympathetic to human dimensions. And third, that communes were consciously anti-bureaucratic.

Twenty five years later, Dr. Bill Metcalf, in his edited book Shared Visions, Shared Lives defined communes as having the following core principles: the importance of the group as opposed to the nuclear family unit, a "common purse", a collective household, group decision making in general and intimate affairs. Sharing everyday life and facilities, a commune is an idealized form of family, being a new sort of "primary group" (generally with fewer than 20 people although again there are outstanding examples of much larger communes or communes that experienced episodes with much larger populations). Commune members have emotional bonds to the whole group rather than to any sub-group, and the commune is experienced with emotions which go beyond just social collectivity.

With the simple definition of a commune as an intentional community with 100% income sharing, the online directory of the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC)[2] lists 222 communes worldwide (28 January 2019).[7] Some of these are religious institutions such as abbeys and monasteries. Others are based in anthroposophic philosophy, including Camphill villages that provide support for the education, employment, and daily lives of adults and children with developmental disabilities, mental health problems or other special needs.[8] Many communes are part of the New Age movement.

Many cultures naturally practice communal or tribal living, and would not designate their way of life as a planned 'commune' per se, though their living situation may have many characteristics of a commune.

In Germany, a large number of the intentional communities define themselves as communes and there is a network of political communes called "Kommuja"[9] with about 30 member groups (May 2009). Germany has a long tradition of intentional communities going back to the groups inspired by the principles of Lebensreform in the 19th century. Later, about 100 intentional communities were started in the Weimar Republic after World War I; many had a communal economy. In the 1960s, there was a resurgence of communities calling themselves communes, starting with the Kommune 1 in Berlin, followed by Kommune 2 (also Berlin) and Kommune 3 in Wolfsburg.

In the German commune book, Das KommuneBuch, communes are defined by Elisabeth Vo as communities which:

Kibbutzim in Israel, (sing., kibbutz) are examples of officially organized communes, the first of which were based on agriculture. Today, there are dozens of urban communes growing in the cities of Israel, often called urban kibbutzim. The urban kibbutzim are smaller and more anarchist.[11] Most of the urban communes in Israel emphasize social change, education, and local involvement in the cities where they live. Some of the urban communes have members who are graduates of zionist-socialist youth movements, like HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed, HaMahanot HaOlim and Hashomer Hatsair.[12]

In 1831 John Vandeleur (a landlord) established a commune on his Ralahine Estate at Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare. Vandeleur asked Edward Thomas Craig, an English socialist, to formulate rules and regulations for the commune. It was set up with a population of 22 adult single men, 7 married men and their 7 wives, 5 single women, 4 orphan boys and 5 children under the age of 9 years. No money was employed, only credit notes which could be used in the commune shop. All occupants were committed to a life with no alcohol, tobacco, snuff or gambling. All were required to work for 12 hours a day during the summer and from dawn to dusk in winter. The social experiment prospered for a time and 29 new members joined. However, in 1833 the experiment collapsed due to the gambling debts of John Vandeleur. The members of the commune met for the last time on 23 November 1833 and placed on record a declaration of "the contentment, peace and happiness they had experienced for two years under the arrangements introduced by Mr. Vandeleur and Mr. Craig and which through no fault of the Association was now at an end".[13]

In imperial Russia, the vast majority of Russian peasants held their land in communal ownership within a mir community, which acted as a village government and a cooperative.[14][15] The very widespread and influential pre-Soviet Russian tradition of Monastic communities of both sexes could also be considered a form of communal living. After the end of communism in Russia, monastic communities have again become more common, populous and, to a lesser degree, more influential in Russian society. Various patterns of Russian behavior toloka (), pomochi (), artel' () are also based on communal ("") traditions.

A 19th century advocate and practitioner of communal living was the utopian socialist John Goodwyn Barmby, who founded a Communist Church before becoming a Unitarian minister.[16] The UK today has several communes or intentional communities, increasing since the New Towns Act 1946 to recuperate a lost sense of community at the centralization of population in Post-War New Towns such as Crawley or Corby.

The Simon Community in London is an example of social cooperation, made to ease homelessness within London. It provides food and religion and is staffed by homeless people and volunteers. Mildly nomadic, they run street "cafs" which distribute food to their known members and to the general public.

The Bruderhof has three locations in the UK[18] and follows the example of the earliest Christians in the Book of Acts by living in community and sharing all things in common.[19] In Glandwr, near Crymych, Pembrokeshire, a co-op called Lammas Ecovillage focuses on planning and sustainable development. Granted planning permission by the Welsh Government in 2009, it has since created 9 holdings and is a central communal hub for its community.[20] In Scotland, the Findhorn Foundation founded by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean in 1962[21] is prominent for its educational centre and experimental architectural community project based at The Park, in Moray, Scotland, near the village of Findhorn.[22]

The Findhorn Ecovillage community at The Park, Findhorn, a village in Moray, Scotland, and at Cluny Hill in Forres, now houses more than 400 people.[23]

There is a long history of communes in America (see this short discussion of Utopian communities) which led to the rise in the communes of the hippie movementthe "back-to-the-land" ventures of the 1960s and 1970s.[24] One commune that played a large role in the hippie movement was Kaliflower, a utopian living cooperative that existed in San Francisco between 1967 and 1973 built on values of free love and anti-capitalism.

Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times wrote that "after decades of contraction, the American commune movement has been expanding since the mid-1990s, spurred by the growth of settlements that seek to marry the utopian-minded commune of the 1960s with the American predilection for privacy and capital appreciation."[25] (See Intentional community). The Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) is the best source for listings of and more information about communes in the United States.

While many American communes are short lived, some have been in operation for over 50 years. The Bruderhof was established in the US in 1954,[26] Twin Oaks in 1967[27] and Koinonia Farm in 1942.[28] Twin Oaks is a rare example of a non-religious commune surviving for longer than 30 years.

As of 2010[update], the Venezuelan state has initiated the construction of almost 200 "socialist communes" which are billed as autonomous and independent from the government. The communes purportedly have their own "productive gardens" that grow their own vegetables as a method of self-supply. The communes also make independent decisions in regards to administration and the use of funding.[29] The idea has been denounced[by whom?] as an attempt to undermine elected local governments, since the central government could shift its funding away from these in favor of communes, which are overseen by the federal Ministry of Communes and Social Protection.[30]

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Commune - Wikipedia

About | Intentional Peer Support

StevenMorgan has worked in peer support services for the past decade. He was originally trained as a Georgia Certified Peer Specialist and worked in traditional service agencies, where he became intimately familiar with the difficulties of practicing peer support within a medical model. This led to an interest in developing alternative supports, so in Vermont he helped create a peer-run respite, was Executive Director for four years of a peer-run agency called Another Way, and finally became project developer for Soteria-Vermont. Steven has provided many trainings in systems change at both a local and national level, and has served on several Boards of Directors for peer support organizations.

In 2013,he joined Intentional Peer Support as Operations Manager with a passion for creating instruments of social change, a love of organizational development, and a belief in the transformative power of community. On full moons, he enjoys writing, playing music, woodworking, and taking long longwalks. You can read more of Stevens story in his writings at http://www.stevenmorganjr.com/read

Eva Dech, Training Manager

Eva has been involved in human rights activism and advocacy for over two decades. As a survivor of childhood trauma and re-traumatization within the mental health and other systems, she is passionate about creating positive systems change to end abuse and neglect in institutions. In particular, she has focused on infusing trauma-informed practices that are recovery-based and person-centered.

After years of developing and working within peer support, she came to believe the path to healing and recovery was through relationships, creating opportunities for empowerment, and building connected, inclusive, and supportive communities.

Eva is an animal lover with three cats. Family is very important to her and she is blessed with a large extended family. Eva attributes her ability to stay healthy and grounded to meditation and personal wellness practices including yoga, gardening, painting, dancing and music.

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About | Intentional Peer Support

Cohousing Australia

NEW WEBSITE COMING SOON | 2018 | Until then, follow us on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/cohousingaustralia/https://www.facebook.com/groups/CohousingAustraliaGroup/https://www.facebook.com/groups/CohousingAustralia.VIC.Chapter/

If you have questions about Cohousing or if you are interested in other kinds of Intentional Communities in Australia please contact:

If you want to contribute to Cohousing Australia please contact us via email or Facebook and we can connect you to a working group.

If you want to find a forming group or ask a question please join the Facebook Group.

EVENT | 21st July 2018 | Creating Self-managing Communities

Find out more via Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1741605932589013/Self-managing Communities Forum

21st July 2018

Location: Dream Factory90 Maribyrnong St Footscray

Time: 10am - 4pmAs this forum falls over lunch, in the spirit of cohousing, please bring potluck goods to share!

Come and find out more about self-managing communities and what's happening in Melbourne.

There are several exciting projects and groups getting established and they will be available on the day to share their concepts and answer any questions you have.

There will be a few short presentations facilitated by Cohousing Australia to demystify the concepts and workshop time for you to explore the ideas with other people to start to get an insight into the process of creating a deliberative / citizen-led, cohousing, self-managing community.

This is an opportunity to meet groups and other passionate or curios individuals.The first of many upcoming events, so like the Cohousing Australia Facebook Page and Join the Group Forums to stay connected.

This is an open invitation to attend, please RSVP via the Facebook Event Saturday 21st July 2018, Presentations from forming groups and practitioners.

NEWS | New Projects Starting all the time | Sydney Coastal Ecovillage ready to Build land

Great news from Sydney Coastal Ecovillage!

The Narara Ecovillage Co-op Ltd has been successful in securingthe beautiful, wonderful, important, historical, property at Narara,near Gosford and just north of Sydney. At 3.55pm today our Mattilalawyers exchanged contracts with the solicitor representing the StateProperty Authority.

For more, including info about open days, see this news post.

See the article here:

Cohousing Australia

Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow …

An intentional community is a group of people who have chosen to live or work together in pursuit of a common ideal or vision. An ecovillage is a village-scale intentional community that intends to create, ecological, social, economic, and spiritual sustainability over several generations.

The 90s saw a revitalized surge of interest in intentional communities and ecovillages in North America: the number of intentional communities listed in the Communities Directory increased 60 percent between 1990 and 1995. But only 10 percent of the actual number of forming-community groups actually succeeded. Ninety percent failed, often in conflict and heartbreak. After visiting and interviewing founders of dozens of successful and failed communities, along with her own forming-community experiences, the author concluded that "the successful 10 percent" had all done the same five or six things right, and "the unsuccessful 90 percent" had made the same handful of mistakes. Recognizing that a wealth of wisdom were contained in these experiences, she set out to distill and capture them in one place.

Creating a Life Together is the only resource available that provides step-by-step, practical "how-to" information on how to launch and sustain a successful ecovillage or intentional community. Through anecdotes, stories, and cautionary tales about real communities, and by profiling seven successful communities in depth, the book examines "the successful 10 percent" and why 90 percent fail; the role of community founders; getting a group off to a good start; vision and vision documents; decision-making and governance; agreements; legal options; finding, financing, and developing land; structuring a community economy; selecting new members; and communication, process, and dealing well with conflict. Sample vision documents, community agreements, and visioning exercises are included, along with abundant resources for learning more.

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Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow ...

Living Sustainably: What Intentional Communities Can Teach …

"This kind of honest, personal investigative work is crucial and refreshing as people meet both familiar and unprecedented challenges in living together."Julianne Warren, author of Aldo Leopold's Odyssey: Rediscovering the Author of A Sand County Almanac

"Reading this book feels like listening to a good friend who has gone on a long and sometimes strange trip and is now sharing the excitement and revelations of her journey with us. Inviting, informative, and down to earth, Living Sustainably will interest anyone who wants to know how we can live out our values in an increasingly unsustainable American culture."Dave Aftandilian, coeditor of City Creatures: Animal Encounters in the Chicago Wilderness

"Sanford's study of the ways in which democracy, simplicity, and nonviolence are practiced in these communities offers many thought-provoking models for a different kind of life in contemporary America. Her book is an engaging overview of the quirks and challenges that these communities face, as well as their many achievements.

[This book] will leave its readers with a richer understanding of both the tribulations and joys of living in intentional communities."Communities

"The book, which chronicles the 15 intentional communities Sanford visited over a four-year period, offers some suggestionsif not answersabout what many of us can learn from those who live in intentional communities."Christian Century

"I recommend this honest personal odyssey to anyone on the brink of transition to a more sustainable lifestyle. Sanford shares insights from people who are in the process of inventing and testing creative small-scale solutions within their intentional communities. Those communities are presented as demonstration sites willing to share their experimental responses to the violence of environmental and social crises.

At first glance, the reader finds little or no explicit religion in this book. But the literally down-to-earth engagement of the interviewees tells of intimate connections between humans and their habitat and thus actually offers a re-reading of religion."Reading Religion

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Living Sustainably: What Intentional Communities Can Teach ...

ICCCR | Intentional Conscious Communities of Costa Rica

Sept 20-23 Come and join in the Spirit of Peace, Prayer, Brotherhood, Yoga, Song and Dance.

Follow us as a Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/105552379596227/

It will take place at Iztaru, the Guias and Scouts Camp near Cartago.

Sept. 21 at 7:30 am well dance the PanEuRhythmy and at 9 am we will have a ceremony of gratitude led by the elders of the Huetares Indigenous Indians. There can be no peace between Nations until there is peace with Mother Earth. In Costa Rica we will be celebrating by signing a Peace Treaty. There will also be a ceremony is to ask permission of the mountain and their ancestors for the realization of the Hopi prophecy for The Fire Unity, One Day December 21, 2012. http://www.celebremoseldiauno.com/

Hopi Prophecy: http://www.tribalmessenger.org/prophecies/hopi-hopi.htm

Rainbow Prophecy: http://tribuarcoiris.blogspot.com/2011/02/los-guerreros-del-arcoiris-profecia.html

We celebrate with a bonfire until 10 pm.

On Sept 21 and 22, Elena Ross will share the PanEuRhythmy Universal Harmonious Movement to help humanity resonate at the same frequency as the Universe.

On Sept 22 and 23 there will be a Yoga Workshop (suggested donation $50.00)

There will be representatives: from the South, Taita Juan, Shaman de Colombia; Don John of Canada as a representative of the northern indigenous; Representing the Hopi a group of Rainbow Warriors, who are traveling here by land from Canada and Brazil.

FREE Camping for the Rainbow Family Sept 20-23.

If anyone needs to rent a bed or cabina please make your reservations and view the park entrance fees and other details http://siemprelistos.com/propio/html/iztaru/tarifas.htm

Contact Francisco: yogaparaelalma@gmail.com to learn more about upcoming events:

http://www.facebook.com/diaunocr?ref=ts

___________________________________________________________________________________

DE 20 a 23 de Septiembre.

A partir del dia 21 de Septiembre las 9 am tendremos una ceremonia gratuita dirigida por los huetares para bendecir y pedir permiso a la montaa y a los ancestros para realizar all el Fuego de la Unidad el Da Uno, el 21 de diciembre.

Tendremos fogata de celebracin hasta las 10 pm.

Tendremos como representante de los indgenas del sur al Taita Juan de Colombia. Como representante de los indgenas del norte a Don Jhon de Canad.

En representacin de los Hopis tendremos a un grupo de amigos de Rainvow, los guerreras del arcoiris, quienes ya salieron para ac por tierra desde Canad y Brasil.

El 21 de septiembre y el 22, a las 7:30 am Elena Ross compartir el Paneuritmia Movimiento armnico universal para ayudar a la humanidad resuenan en la misma frecuencia que el Universo.

El 22 de septiembre y el 23 habr un Taller de Yoga (donacin sugerida $ 50.00)

Acampar gratis, Se podr dormir en tiendas de campaa o en las cabaas del campo Escuela. Ver tarifas de entrada al parque y otros detalles en http://siemprelistos.com/propio/html/iztaru/tarifas.htm

Peace Treaty with Mother Earth

I choose here and now, freely and consciously make peace with Earth and do what you have to do to live sustainably, to know, minimize and offset my carbon footprint and help make Costa Rica a carbon neutral nation . DAY ONE NETWORK http://www.celebremoseldiauno.com

________________________________ ____________________________________Legal signature Place of Birth

Optional________________________________ ____________________________________Place of Birth Where are you now?

Please print, sign and return to: pazconlatierra@gmail.com

The list of names of those who endorse this agreement and make One Day Network (Day One Network) will be delivered to the President of Costa Rica One Day (December 21, 2012), as a civil society contribution to the goal of mitigating global warming, along with the request to sign the Agreement Peace with the Earth.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Tratado de paz con la Madre Tierra

Elijo aqu y ahora, libre y conscientemente, firmar la paz con la Tierra y hacer lo que tenga que hacer para vivir de forma sostenible, conocer, minimizar y compensar mi huella de carbono y hacer que Costa Rica alcance el estado de Nacin Carbono Neutral. Conoce, minimiza y compensa tu huella de carbono en DAY ONE NETWORK

QUE ES EL DIA UNO? http://www.celebremoseldiauno.com/

______________________________ ___________________________________

Firma Nombre legal identificacin legal

Opcional

_______________________________ ____________________________________Nacin de nacimiento Dnde ests ahora?

Por favor de imprimir, firmar y enviar a: pazconlatierra@gmail.com

El listado con los nombres de quienes avalan este acuerdo y conforman la Red del Da Uno (Day One Network) se entregar a la Presidenta de Costa Rica el Da Uno (21 de diciembre de 2012), como un aporte de la sociedad civil a la meta de mitigar el calentamiento global, junto a la solicitud de que firme el Acuerdo de Paz con la Tierra. QUE ES EL DIA UNO? http://www.celebremoseldiauno.com/

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ICCCR | Intentional Conscious Communities of Costa Rica

How intentional communities try to combat … – TIME.com

Everyone Needs Someone Else

WHY Americans OF ALL AGES are coming together in intentional communities

By Jeffrey Kluger

Theres not a lot to do in Syracuse, N.Y. when youre living alone and a winter storm system dumps 3 feet of snow on the city. Theres no going outside, but theres no staying inside at least not for too long if you want to remain sane. A dinner with friends would be nice; so would a yoga class or a shared movie and a good long talk. And when thats all done, it would also be nice to have just a little bit of that wintertime solitude, watching the snow fall, all alone, from the privacy of your own home.

At one place in Syracuse, all of that happens on those long snow-filled nights. That place is Commonspace, a co-housing community on the fourth and fifth floors of a restored 19th-century office building. The community is made up of 25 mini-apartments, fully equipped with their own kitchenettes and baths, with access to a larger, shared chefs kitchen, library nook, game room, coffee lounge and media room. The 27 residents (couples are welcome) live together but only sort of in private apartments that are, once you step outside your door, un-private too. And theyre part of a growing trend in an increasingly lonely country: intentional communities.

In cities and towns across the U.S., individuals and families are coming to the conclusion that while the commune experiment of the 1960s was overwhelmed by problems, the idea of living in close but not too close cooperation with other people has a lot of appeal. An intentional community is a very different beast from the more familiar planned communities, which can be big, unwieldy things hundreds or thousands of families living on small parcels across hundreds of acres of land. While there may be some common facilities a swimming pool or golf course or community lake the communities are really just villages writ large or cities writ small, easy places to be anonymous.

Intentional communities, by contrast, are intimate: a couple dozen apartments or single-family homes, built around central squares or common spaces. And theyre operated in ways intended to keep the community connected with weekly dinners at a community center or other common area, shared babysitting services, shared gardens or games or even vacations. If you dont want to participate, fine; no one will come pester you to play a pick-up game you dont want to play or join a committee you dont want to join. But when you need the community because a spouse is away or a baby is sick or youre just plain lonely and would like some companionship its there for you.

Its that business of relieving loneliness thats key to the popularity of intentional communities. Human beings may not always get along, but the fact is, we cant get enough of one another. There are currently 7.6 billion of us in the world but we inhabit only about 10% of the planets land, and roughly 50% of us live on just 1% of that land.

We evolved to depend on our social connections, says Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General. Over thousands of years, this got baked into our nervous systems so much so that if we are feeling socially disconnected, that places us in a physiologic stress state.

According to a study by AARP, over 40% of American adults suffer from loneliness, a condition that, Murthy warns, is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and more. Worse, loneliness is a condition that makes no demographic distinctions; it affects millennials just starting their careers, widowed boomers just ending theirs, empty-nesters, new divorcees, first year college students a thousand miles away from family and high school friends. Social media, which ostensibly draws people closer, in fact may be atomizing us further, creating virtual connections that have little of the benefits of actual connections.

A gusher of studies since the early 1990s have established the health dividends of social ties. Among people with cardiovascular disease, those with more social connections have a 2.4 times lower risk of mortality within an established period than those with poor social ties. Social connections lower the risk of cancer, speed recovery among people who do contract the disease, and reduce the risk of hypertension and other cardiovascular illnesses. Even wound-healing improves with social connections. Multiple studies suggest that part of this may come from the psychological boostincluding the sense of responsibilitythat meaningful relationships provide. When friends and family members are counting on you to be around, you make better health choices, even if theyre unconscious. Other studies have shown that similar brain structures control both physical pain and social painand that pain relief, through analgesics in the first case and relationships in the second, operate similarly as well. Being socially connected doesnt simply make you healthier, it just plain feels good.

Intentional communities are about creating attachment, the feeling that someone has your back, says Harvard University psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a decades-old survey of the health of a population of Harvard graduates and their descendants. We often ask people in studies, Who would you call in the middle of the night if you were really sick or scared? Intentional communities can help you have an answer to that question.

Its not easy to come by a firm count of how many intentional communities are out there. Only about 160 of them have been built from the ground up with co-housing in mind, but the regularly updated Fellowship for Intentional Community lists 1,539 communities in all 50 states that have also used existing housing stock to establish co-housing arrangements.

There are urban communities like Commonspace in most major cities. There is Milagro in Tucson, Ariz., 28 single-family homes on 43 desert acres built around a central green space with a shared community center and other facilities. There is Village Hearth Co-Housing, a similar set-up in Durham, N.C., but one intended for singles, couples and families in the LGBTQ community. There are other communities for seniors or artists or veterans; there are even rural communities for people who want the independence of owning their own homes but the collective experience of farming the same land.

For each of the communities, the relative compactness of the population is what creates the feeling of togetherness. You cant possibly know three hundred people, says Troy Evans, real estate developer and the co-founder of Syracuses Commonspace. But you can know fifty. What we try to do in Commonspace is create a neighborhood in a building.

To all appearance, theyve succeeded at that. The communitys 25 apartments rent for an average of $850 per month, which is admittedly pricey for a tiny, 200 sq. ft. space, though services like thrice-weekly cleaning of all of the common spaces and the costs of activities like the weekly farm-to-table dinners are included. And the social benefits which are impossible to measure in dollars and cents are included too.

We set everything up with a town square feel so when you come out of your door theres not a long, dark hallway like in most apartment buildings, says Evans. Town squares, of course, can be noisy not to the liking of even some people who choose to live semi-communally. Thats why one of the floors has fewer apartments built a quiet lounge where locally roasted coffee is always on offer.

The mini-apartments are cleverly laid out, with a platform bed built atop storage cabinets and floor-to-ceiling windows that create an open feel. The bathroom is complete though it has a shower without a tub and the kitchenette is limited only by the fact that is has two electric burners instead of a full stove, because local regulations forbid open flame in such small quarters. The apartments are all equipped with TVs and high-speed Internet, and a Slack channel allows residents to stay in touch without having to remember 26 other email addresses.

Still, its the 6,000 shared square feet, not the 200 private ones that really defines the Commonspace experience, providing what Evans describes as a lot of collision space, which is something people who would otherwise be living alone often crave. What weve found is demand from people who were landing in Syracuse for the first time and not knowing anyone, he says. Weve got people from eight different countries and seven different states. Its a really cool, diverse group.

That diversity is not only cultural but temperamental. Rose Bear Dont Walk, a 23-year old Native American studying environment and forestry at the State University of New York, Syracuse, moved in to Commonspace over the summer and soon grew friendly with another resident who works in computer coding. His mind operates arithmetically, hers works more emotively, and they took to talking about their different ways of approaching the world.

Hes always building something or talking about building something or listening to podcasts, she says. One day, when she was weaving decorative strands out of plant fibers, she decided to make him a bracelet. It was just this way that our worlds connected, she says. He is very logical and mathematical and was very excited about this little tiny rope bracelet that I was bringing home.

Meaningful as those kinds of connections can be, Commonspace residents dont always have a lot of time to make them. Millennials can be transitory characteristic of most people early in their careers and the average length of tenancy is just eight months.

Things are very different at other intentional communities, like Milagro in Tucson. There, the buy-in is typically for life. The 28 homes in the landscaped desert space are sometimes available for rent, but are typically owned by their residents and have sold for anywhere from $175,000 to $430,000, depending on the market. The investment in house and land means an equal investment in the life of the community.

Brian Stark, a married father of two, has lived in Milagro since 2003, two years after the community opened, and considers himself a lifer. For him the appeal is not so much the community-wide dinner in the dining room every Saturday, or the happy hours or the stargazing sessions or the shared holiday parties. Its the easy, collegial pace of the place, unavoidable when neighbors all know one another.

You almost have to assume that someone may stop to chat with you when youre coming or going, he says. It took some getting used to but when were in a hurry for school or a meeting, weve learned to explain our rush and connect another time.

Even more important are the benefits that accrue to any communitys most vulnerable members: babies and seniors. For families with very young children, we do baby care trades, Stark says. And having a supportive community to help as you grow older is also a wonderful alternative to assisted care living.

Intentional communities are not without stressors. Stark recalls the decade of committee meetings that went into the simple business of deciding whether there should be path lights in the community important for safety, but murder on the deserts spectacular nighttime sky. Even when the community agreed that lights were a good idea, there was continued wrangling over cost, wattage and more. A similar struggle ensued when it came time to have all 28 homes painted, as residents debated color schemes for the homes stucco, trim and side boards.

Still, the long meetings and compromises are a small price for those suited to intentional communities. Thats true of diverse, cross-generational communities like Milagro, and it can be even more so when residents come together with a particular shared need for a particular kind of solidarity as in the LGBTQ or aging Boomer communities.

Shortly after the opening of Village Hearth, the North Carolina LGBTQ community, one of the founders explained to a local reporter that she was tired of hearing about this or that intentional community that has a nice lesbian couple or a nice gay couple. She and her wife didnt want to be a curiosity in even the friendliest surroundings, so they founded a community in which nothing would be remarkable about them at all.

There is little science so far that explicitly addresses the medical benefits of co-housing arrangements, but the benefits of the human connections the communities provide are being powerfully established. In one recent meta-analysis of 148 studies gathered from around the world, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, compared subjects reported state of loneliness with their overall life expectancy. The total sample size was more than 300,000 people and produced sobering results: Adults who are socially isolated, she found, have a 50% greater risk of dying from any cause within a given time frame than people who are more connected.

In a follow-up study in which she used census data to assemble an even larger sample group of 3.4 million, the results were a bit less stark, but no less conclusive, with social isolation and loneliness leading to a 30% increase in risk of mortality on average. Of course, being alone is not the same as being lonely, Holt-Lunstad stresses. Many people enjoy their solitude, and other people can feel lonely even in a group. The key is the subjective experience. If that experience is bad, thats when health can be affected.

More often than not, social media falls into the category of bad rather than good experiences. Even without being trolled or cyberbullied, people can suffer merely as a result of having replaced real relationships with virtual ones. Murthy does not believe social media is all bad, provided its often used as what he calls a way station rather than a destination, helping to establish real-life connections.

Using social media as a way station might mean that if Im traveling to a different city, in advance of the trip I look on Facebook or LinkedIn to see if I have any friends there, he says. Then I reach out to them and we get together.

The exact mechanisms that make loneliness so physically damaging are not easy to tease out, but chemical markers in the bloodstream, like cortisol, a stress hormone, or c-reactive proteins, indicators of inflammation, are considered worrisome signs. They indicate a weakened immune system and metabolic disruption, says Waldinger. This is when you start to see signs of illness like rising lipid levels and blood pressure.

Residents of intentional communities also see another kind of benefit to health and happiness in co-housing: as a way of alleviating transitions that can be both stressful isolating. Stark, the Milagro resident, recalls that when his older daughter, Maia, was born 12 years ago, the Milagro community was still new. Unbidden, the neighbors pitched in to help the family, cleaning their house, making them meals, even doing their laundry so that he and his wife could have the luxury of doing what few parents can do: focus their attention exclusively on their new baby. Since then, the Stark family has returned the favor, making food for people recovering from surgery and offering to make a pickup at an airport.

Everyone at some point needs someone else, Stark says. Intentional communities, in their quiet way, are helping to make sure that powerful human need gets met.

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How intentional communities try to combat ... - TIME.com

Seattle: the city of never-ending change – Crosscut

Sound Transit's Pioneer Square Station (2015) Credit: Brook Ward

Four decades living in Seattle have made this city home that, even though I was born elsewhere, I can surely claim it as my own. I can even lay claim to a family history in the Northwest that extends back to the 1890s when my great-grandparents helped establish a commune in the Skagit Valley that went by the name of Equality Colony. They and their friends and families created what we might call today a self-sufficient, intentional community; perhaps my life-long interest in communities actually had genetic roots.

My wife is one of those increasingly rare people who was actually born here. As I write this, however, it is less than 72 hours until our flight takes off for Rome and retirement in a small Italian town, a plan that has been four years in the making.

Yet, over almost exactly 40 years, I adopted Seattle as my community and stayed with it through lots of ups and downs. During that time, Ive written for a number of local publications, including The Seattle Times and, for somefive years, Crosscut. David Brewster, Crosscuts founder, gave me a boost into part-time writing years ago with the Seattle Weekly back when it was the citys bold experiment in journalism. So, I have some parting thoughts about the city.

Seattle is a great city in spite of itself. We often get in our own way, taking steps forward then retrenching. The Seattle Commons and the Monorail debacles are prime examples.

On the other hand, the region has been transformed by big bond issues that were approved by voters, some of which have been largely forgotten as the changes they brought are almost taken for granted. From Forward Thrust in the 1960s to the Pike Place Market, Farmlands Preservation, Sound Transit and repeated Seattle parks and housing levies, we have collectively constructed the framework that many other cities failed to develop.

The private sector played its own striking role. Boeing changed how we travel. Microsoft changed how we work. And Amazon changed how we shop. All were homegrown businesses that started small, literally in garages, and expanded into companies with global impact.

When I first arrived here, Seattle was still pretty much a lackluster, bush-league provincial city, seemingly at the edge of the continental frontier. So little was known about the place that, as I recall, Time Magazine once datelined an article with Seattle, Oregon.

I think we are on the map now.

What I personally found here was a place that honored individual initiative. One could champion a project and have a lot of help from others. Architect Victor Steinbrueck, who I once had the pleasure of working with, organized a grassroots citizens initiative to save Pike Place Market from a planned demolition. Jim Ellis led the cleaning up of the bay, the formation of Metro and the preservation of vast forest lands. Currently, Gene Duvernoy is one of the successors to this great legacy of activism, with the irrepressible and effective organization Forterra. All are examples of the Power of One.

Just as effective are the many non-profit housing developers who have built many thousands of places to live for low and moderate income people including El Centro de la Raza to CHHP to Bellwether. And, of course, a multitude of arts organizations large and small have added the passion, creativity, and advocacy to make this urban region what it is. Finally, Seattle and its surrounding cities are becoming a rich stew pot of races, ethnicities, cultures, and languages that did not exist only a few decades ago.

So with these great legacies and social and cultural bones, what might be in store for Seattle over the next, say 10 to 15 years?

We already know that we will see a central waterfront transformed into an elegant and accessible esplanade connecting the beloved Market to the shoreline. In this massive change, I hope there will still be a place for the scores of squid giggers who now line the edge of Piers 62/63 with their eerie lights and flashing poles. We also have to ensure locations for small, homegrown enterprises whether shops, cafes, services or sources of food.

We will see a sea change in how people travel once the Sound Transit 3 work is completed. Already, we have seen shifts to commuter rail and light rail and, in recent weeks, the very promising free-ranging bike share system. The geography of this region constrains an expansion of the highway system thankfully. The area, in all likelihood, will see the repurposing of some roads and streets into shared public spaces, with a severe limitation on the use of private vehicles.

The Seattle region will, without doubt, see another huge disruption of the economy, likely within three years. The nation and the region are already overdue for a recession. But I believe there will also be a life-altering discovery or development here that will affect millions of people very likely in the intersection of life sciences with computer technology. This will add to Seattles cachet as a progressive, global urban center.

The Citys housing stock will change, as politically painful as that will be. Large sections of the city that are now exclusively detached houses will be replaced with attached homes, alley houses and cottages. More towers will be built in and around the city center, which will extend from the Ship Canal to Safeco Field.

Lots of folks will find these changes uncomfortable or less affordable and they will likely leave, as it has been the case throughout the history of cities. They will be rapidly replaced by new people eager to find opportunity here.

And, somewhat fatalistically, I do have to think there will be one great, tragic disaster perhaps human-caused but more likely a natural one. The area is, after all, due for an earthquake. The city will recover. But it will be significantly altered, just as the great fire of 1889 resulted in a massive reinvention of Seattle.

But hey, you dont have to take my word for any of it. Im outta here.

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Seattle: the city of never-ending change - Crosscut

Pulaski County’s most fascinating people: Family of six renovates school bus into tiny home – Waynesville Daily Guide

The Daily Guide has been looking for fascinating people in our community to talk to, learn about, and tell their stories. The McGinnity family is about as fascinating as people get, especially with their latest project of creating a tiny home.

Raven McGinnity, a traveling herbalist and mother of four, contacted the Daily Guide with news about her and her familys recent renovation plans. Married duo Oaken and Raven McGinnity are turning a school bus into a tiny home according to Raven.

The soon-to-be tiny home is a work-in-progress. According to Raven, we started the project in March and it is almost complete (the wood stove won't be added until September). We travel to speak on local plant medicine, plant medicine making, minimalism with children, and renovating a skoolie. The McGinnitys nicknamed the school bus Viggo.

We plan on traveling a lot for our business, Raven & Oak, because we teach workshops and speak at festivals, Raven said.

It started as the place we were going to live when we visited Dancing Rabbit, an ecovillage in northern Missouri, according to R. McGinnity. We are interested in Intentional Communities and this program gives us a chance to see and learn about one that has been around for 20 years. Then as we thought about it, what better way to teach our children than on the road where they can see the places we talk about, meet such a diverse population, and enjoy the years they are little while we can.

Raven said, on the couples website, I am an herbalist, medicine woman, and doula. I make and sell remedies and blog about herbal medicine, natural living, minimalism, and life as a hippie.

I am a tree hugger, Oaken said on their website. I believe people can take back their overall health through the healing properties of plants and fungi; and their vitality by learning and utilizing sustainable traditional skills inside and out. I teach classes on traditional folk skills.

It definitely would be considered a tiny home, Raven said, with the caveat of no shower (camp shower only but plan on using campgrounds). The skoolie is mobile already. We have a sink, kitchen cabinets, composting toilet, beds for 6 (4 twins and a queen) plus ample storage. We are upgrading a few things this month to have a fridge as well.

Raven said she feels the best way to teach her kids is driving a school bus across the country. She said, In November, we drive up to Florida for a tiny house festival to give tours on all the same things [workshops on plant medicine, tours through Viggo] all over again. We get to do this work promoting our business a little bit, but, also, because I only drive 3 hours at a time in a school bus, we now get to see all the little parts of the country that we never would have seen if we were in a car. When youre in a car, youre like, Lets just get there! I dont want to stay in this car any longer than I have to. But in a skoolie you get to go slower anyway, youre just like, Well take our time to get down there. What better way to learn U.S. history and geography than driving?

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Pulaski County's most fascinating people: Family of six renovates school bus into tiny home - Waynesville Daily Guide

Coping With Depression as Love Wins the Day – New York Times

The two men wasted no time inviting her to one of the frequent gatherings they held at their house, an intentional community made up of eight members of the Episcopal Service Corps, a national network of young adults committed to living simply and serving their communities.

If the participants at these parties were churchy, the goings-on were not. Beer drinking and dancing were the norm. But the night Ms. Risch arrived, with a date, Mr. Sutter turned his back on the norm in favor of a semiprivate conversation with her. Anna and I found ourselves standing in the corner talking about books, for many hours, he said.

We enjoyed talking about books with her so much, Alex and I invited her to come to a sleepover, Mr. Sutter added. Sleepovers at their house were also a regular event for those in the church community, but they were less about having a good time than about meaningful discussion.

They were a time to talk about finding yourself, about our commitment to friendship as a community and where you were professionally, Mr. Sutter said.

When Ms. Risch arrived, it was with a caveat.

She said she was really stressed out with school stuff, and she didnt know if she could stay the night, Mr. Sutter said. Alex and I pestered her to stay. We told her everything would be fine.

Insomnia was one of the side effects of Ms. Rischs stress. By the time the rest of the party conked out on couches and the floor in the wee hours, Mr. Sutter found Ms. Risch wide-awake and alone. A knight-in-shining-armor instinct kicked in: He ran upstairs to the attic bedroom he shared with a roommate and returned with a book, Martin Luther 1521-1532: Shaping and Defining the Reformation, the second of a three-part biography, by Martin Brecht.

Ms. Risch listened to Mr. Sutter read aloud. It was so boring, she was asleep within two seconds, Mr. Sutter said.

Ms. Risch thought it was a sweet gesture.

I noted how comfortable I felt, something I hadnt felt in a long time while trying to sleep, she said. Brecht really cemented it for us.

After that first sleepover, Mr. Sutter and Ms. Risch became confidants about each others yo-yo dating lives. Though they had been immediately attracted to each other There was definitely a flame right away, Mr. Sutter said their timing was off. When one was going through a breakup, the other was with someone new. And when both were finally free in February 2014, a cloud was drifting overhead.

Ms. Risch had just joined the Episcopal Service Corps and moved into the intentional community Mr. Sutter had recently moved out of each class of eight corps members live together in the house for one year when she began to feel depressed.

I had had depression before, and really when I look back there were so many signs it was coming, she said. I was living in Cleveland in a tiny, run-down house with eight other people and no privacy. And it was the winter when we had those polar vortexes.

She had also taken a vow, as all Service Corps members do, to live in poverty for the year.

Its both an illness in my brain and also really situational, Ms. Risch said. That situation is what put me over the brink. After a lot of self-harm, including using needles and glass to cut herself, she was hospitalized and was told she suffered from cyclothymia, a cousin to bipolar disorder.

In the months that followed, Mr. Sutter, who was still in Cleveland continuing his studies and his work on social issues including poverty, watched as she tried several different medications and suffered more than a few relapses. His bedside manner may not have suited everyone in the fog of depression, but for Ms. Risch it was transformative. And healing.

He didnt coddle me, she said. He wouldnt acquiesce to what I wanted. If I wanted to stay home all day, he said, No, get out of bed and go work out. He says no to me a lot.

He did not say no, though, in June, when she felt healthy enough to ask him on a friendly outing to a jazz festival.

We rode our bikes, Ms. Risch said. After it was over I said, Do you want to ride home with me and have a sleepover? It was a reference to Mr. Sutters community sleepovers, but she was thinking of a sleepover with more than strictly spiritual conversation. The next morning we came down for breakfast, and someone said we had hearts in our eyes.

Those hearts had been trying to surface since the February hospitalization, if not before.

I was already madly in love with Noah, Ms. Risch said.

They said they tried to take things slow, because their friendship was far too valuable to risk losing. But a few weeks after the bike ride, Mr. Sutter asked her to accompany him on a backpacking trip to Yosemite. They returned from the wilderness decidedly as a couple, and have been so ever since. Around the same time, they also each began the process of discerning ordination to priesthood in the Episcopal Church.

But the mounting days and weeks of Ms. Rischs depressive darkness were still very much with them.

I was giving her a lot of care, and I didnt know if she would ever get better, Mr. Sutter said. I had no way of knowing who she really was, what her normal was. He carried on because of something Ms. Risch was in the habit of repeating. She would say, Youre so generous to me. That was my love language, those words of affirmation. They gave me the energy to keep going.

Her depression was a strain on Mr. Sutter as well.

I had to go to friends and get nourished, he said. I had to talk to my spiritual director. I had to go to Jane to talk about the tools I would use to keep Anna feeling grounded and loved. Jane is Jane McKelvey, a therapist Mr. Sutter and Ms. Risch saw separately. They now see her together.

Ms. McKelvey is impressed by the devotion Mr. Sutter and Ms. Risch have to each other. Their willingness to communicate openly has been a huge benefit to them, she said.

Mr. Sutter proposed during a party in St. Louis in May 2016 to celebrate the graduation of Elisabeth Risch, who is Annas sister, from college.

The new graduate didnt mind sharing the spotlight that day; she was just glad her sister was headed toward a happy ending. Shes improved so much, and a lot of that is thanks to Noah and his attention to figuring out her needs, Elisabeth said.

The couple were married before about 230 guests on July 22, 2017, at the Church of the Ascension in Lakewood, Ohio. The Rev. Canon Vincent Black, the couples priest for the past three years, officiated with the Rev. David Bargetzi giving the sermon.

In keeping with the couples passion for social justice, the wedding liturgy the form and readings used in the ceremony was developed by the Episcopal General Convention to include same-sex couples. Ms. Risch and Mr. Sutter chose the liturgy because they wanted to affirm the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples in the marriage sacrament.

Just before her wedding, Ms. Risch said she hasnt had a relapse in a year and a half. She credits therapy, medication and Mr. Sutter.

We take care of one another, she said.

Mr. Sutter said: I fell in love with Anna because shes brilliant and strong. The way she fought depression showed her resiliency and how independent she could be.

Annas mental health, he added, has been a gift that has helped her empathize with so many people. Its helped us understand that mental illness is not an abnormality. We see it as something that needs to be accepted as part of being human.

Bob Sandrick contributed reporting from Lakewood, Ohio.

ON THIS DAY

When July 22, 2017

Where The Church of the Ascension in Lakewood, Ohio, followed by a reception at St. Johns Episcopal Church in Cleveland.

Fashion Sense Mr. Sutter, who wore a Calvin Klein suit, actually picked out Ms. Rischs dress, a floor-length ivory gown with a plunging neckline and slit skirt. Ms. Risch said she wears leggings, Birkenstocks and an L.L. Bean sweater most days, so she welcomed the fashion advice of Mr. Sutter, who is inclined toward crisp chinos and button-up shirts. The dress came from an online retailer called Reformation.

Rich in Love The couple enlisted friends and family to help make wedding decorations, including paper garlands and bunting, ceramic pots and signs. The names of guests were written on rocks pulled from Lake Michigan and used as place settings. Mr. Sutter and Ms. Risch also got into the D.I.Y. spirit themselves. Ms. Risch made mead, a honey wine, for after the ceremony; a group of Episcopal nuns had taught her how. She also sewed her four bridesmaids gray linen skirts. Mr. Sutter made 30 gallons of beer.

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A version of this article appears in print on August 20, 2017, on Page ST12 of the New York edition with the headline: Coping With Depression as Love Wins the Day.

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Coping With Depression as Love Wins the Day - New York Times