Category Archives: Personal Empowerment

Lucy rocks her extra chromosome

World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD) is an annual March 21 celebration and global awareness day officially observed by the United Nations since 2012. March 21 (21/3) was selected to signify the uniqueness of the triplication (trisomy) of the 21st chromosome which causes Down Syndrome.

NHS worker and East Kent Mencap director and chairperson Amy Rutland, 32, from Westbrook, has written about her younger sister Lucy who has Downs Syndrome, the importance of inclusivity and the amazing person her sibling is.

Lucy, 29, who lives with parents Sheila and Jez a few doors down from Amy, is involved in numerous groups and activities and in 2020 became the first girl guide in Kent to receive an I stand out award from the Girl Guiding County Commissioner.

Amy writes:

Today is World Down Syndrome Day. The 21 March is chosen to be the international date because it represents the extra chromosome found in the DNA of people who have Down Syndrome (an extra, third version of chromosome 21 to be precise).

This year, the theme for the day is all about inclusion and what it means to me, you and everyone else https://lnkd.in/eHN_adYh.

For me, inclusion means not treating my sister any different in to someone else, especially in social situations. She comes to the pub with me and my friends and up the shops. Growing up as a teenager, if I was heading to the park shed be with us, joining in the jokes and games.

Being so inclusive and treating her as ordinary as possible, she is now a very funny young lady who can give banter and take it, and will happily take the mick out of you in a fun and loving way it can be a real shock to people sometimes that she has a wicked sense of humour.

As with most things, raising awareness and having a personal connection to something is the first step to changing a stigma and making something less different and more ordinary. Thats I will never stop shouting about my amazing sister and everything she does and can do. Embracing inclusion is at the heart of making a difference.

There is a Bill about to reach second reading in the House of Lords very soon, one step closer to getting royal assent and becoming law; which will be putting inclusion and awareness of Down Syndrome at the heart of what it aims to achieve better opportunities for people with Down Syndrome, better inclusion and empowerment for people with Down Syndrome at a younger age and better outcomes from our systems for people with Down Syndrome. You can read about the Bill here https://lnkd.in/ehdd9AdD.

Embracing a person who has Down Syndrome as a person and not a condition is key to this. Every single one of us, disability or not, can do different things and just because someone might have Down Syndrome, doesnt mean they cant achieve what they want to, be who they want to be or crack a hilarious joke and sit you in your place, like Lucy often does.

Lucy is hilarious, caring, kind hearted, passionate about what she loves, sarcastic as hell and rocks her extra chromosome.

Now, Ive said what inclusion means to me what does it mean to you?

Read more:

Amy Rutland: World Down Syndrome Day inclusion, empowerment and my amazing sister Lucy - The Isle of Thanet News

Social media has become a weapon of war for Ukrainians, and through it, President Volodymyr Zelensky has emerged as a global star. His virtual appeals for international support, such as his recent message to Congress, and videos that show him and top Ukrainian officials bravely standing their ground in Kyiv are helping him win the fight for public opinion. Ordinary Ukrainians have followed his example, answering his administrations call for an IT army by creating viral posts on Twitter and TikTok. They are effectively combatting a Russian disinformation strategy that has, in the recent past, wreaked havoc on democracies including the United States.

This wartime communications effort may use novel digital tools, but the strategy has roots in World War II, when the United States used multiple forms of communicationnotably newer ones such as radio and motion picturesto inspire, inform, and instruct soldiers and civilians alike. Newsreels, patriotic shorts, silver-screen features, and a flood of nontheatrical films kept millions of Americans connected to the warand one another.

Read: The grim stagecraft of Zelenskys selfie videos

The effort worked because it functioned differently from the black propaganda campaign waged by Nazi Germany, one intended to spread lies and obscure the source of the false information. But we are still grappling with the consequences of that successful American media campaign today: It tethered democracy to both advertising and entertainment and gave political leaders new tools with which to manipulate their message. Zelenskys innovations will no doubt have similar repercussions.

Prior to World War II, the political establishmentoverwhelmingly dominated by Protestant white menlooked suspiciously on mass media and particularly Hollywood, an industry run by Jewish immigrants and initially popular with lower- and working-class audiences. Even as movies gained a large audience that politicians wanted to tap into, many worried that celebrity culture would undermine the democratic process by encouraging emotional reactions rather than rational thinking.

Developments abroad seemed to confirm such fears. Both Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler worked to control communications and limit freedom of speechindeed, their political power depended on creating an alternative reality through mass media based in a cult of personality and a distortion of facts. When Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to sell his New Deal agenda to the American people with radio and film, journalists warned against using the black magic of mass suggestions that fascist leaders deployed.

In response, Roosevelt emphasized the authenticity of his mass-mediated message. He highlighted how new technology allowed him to connect directly and honestly to the American people. Of course, it also helped him control a particular narrative of his programs and bypass his critics in the press. But the Roosevelt administration kept the focus on empowerment: More people could be in conversation with their president. This was, the administration insisted, democracy in action.

As the war intensified in Europe, Roosevelt began using New Deal messaging strategies to sell an interventionist position to the reluctant American public. He found eager partners in Hollywoods intellectual and creative left.

Such actions were controversial. Gerald Nye, the isolationist Republican senator from North Dakota, held congressional hearings on what he called movies designed to rouse us to a state of war hysteria that had insidiously manipulated audiences to support intervention. But, passionate about anti-fascism, many studio executives and celebrities persisted in their efforts and worked to change propaganda from a negative to a positive term.

For example, the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. traveled throughout the United States not only to generate sympathy and support for Great Britains defense efforts, but also to deflate the nations fear of propaganda. Declaring that the cry Propaganda rings out in the same strident voice as Witchcraft did in Salem in the seventeenth century, Fairbanks told his audiences to distinguish between informative propagandathe education of the public about the warand the subversive propaganda used by fascists to foment unrest and subvert our system.

After traveling to South America as a cultural ambassador for the Roosevelt administration, Fairbanks pushed the president to develop a more coordinated propaganda effort to counter German messaging in the region that depicted the United States as greedy and untrustworthy. Once the U.S. formally entered the war, the administration did just that through the creation of the Office of War Information on June 13, 1942. Headed by a popular radio commentator, Elmer Davis, the agency forged voluntary partnerships with media companies and emphasized the importance of education and information in its communication efforts.

But the OWI wanted to make sure that media messages also advanced Roosevelts ideology. Accordingly, it distributed an advisory manual to Hollywood studios that directed film productions to help make Americans live and breathe Roosevelts four freedoms. Each individual must know how these Four Freedoms affect his individual life, his everyday affairs, stated the manual. The realization must be driven home that we cannot enjoy the Four Freedoms exclusively. They must be established on a world-wide basisyes, even in Germany, Italy, and Japanor they will always be in jeopardy in America.

Following these guidelines, entertainment productions offered positive views of American life while also encouraging sympathy for international allies, including Russia. Patriotic shorts sold specific messages about proper wartime behavior. And films not intended for theatrical distribution, such as Frank Capras Why We Fight series, taught both soldiers and civilians about the meaning of military engagements abroad.

Quick histories of World War II frequently overlook these nontheatrical films, but, like social media today, they helped turn new areas of civic lifeschools, community centers, and parksinto places where citizens could consume messages about the war. The OWI had an entire division dedicated to nontheatrical films that combined documentary footageshot with 16-mm cameras and interviews with ordinary citizens, soldiers, and government officials.

An amateur technology, 16-mm film was cheaper and easier to use than 35-mm film, the Hollywood standard. During the final two years of the war, the Treasury Department urged exhibitors of 16-mm films to bring the wartime messageincluding the pitch to buy bondsinto every nook and corner of the land. The OWI also distributed manuals about how to integrate 16-mm films into civic events. In the process, civilians across the country learned how to operate cameras and develop publicity for events with premieres, advertising, and other Hollywood promotional strategies.

When the war came to an end, President Harry Truman celebrated Hollywoods outstanding wartime record and praised motion pictures for becoming one of the more effective and forceful media for spreading knowledge and truth. With this newly recognized power came controversy, once again. Over the next decade, intense debates about the messages of Hollywood films and the political activities of those crafting silver-screen productions resulted in the infamous HUAC hearings.

But Hollywoodas an industry and as a style of communicationhardly retreated from politics. For those willing to support the Cold War, opportunities abounded and new avenues for political participation opened up. George Murphy, Frank Sinatra, and Ronald Reagan performed for the armed forces and extolled anticommunism at Rotary and Kiwanis Club meetings. Murphy went on to climb the ranks of the Republican Party, and he eventually won a California Senate seat. Sinatra became a prominent campaigner and fundraiser for John F. Kennedy. Reagans successful gubernatorial run alerted seasoned politicians to the importance of emotion, personality, and performance. We may think this is demagoguery, but it is very effective, Richard Nixon observed in 1968.

The same could be said of Zelenskys tactics. Like Reagan and, later, Donald Trump, the Ukrainian president rose to fame through the entertainment industry, winning the Ukrainian version of Dancing With the Stars and even starring in a television series, Servant of the People, that had a story line about a teacher who wins a presidential election after a video goes viral. Also like Trump, a master of Twitter and Facebook, Zelensky has a gift for direct, unfiltered communication. He became an instant celebrity with his selfie-video response to the Russian invasion on the streets of Kyiv, pledging to fight to defend his country. In his trademark green T-shirt, he has made emotional appeals to European and American leaders via videoconference, pleading for recognition and resources. With his encouragement, Ukrainians are thoroughly documenting their wartime experience, seeding social media with images of sympathetic Ukrainian victims. Ukraine is winning the battle not just for information, but for attention.

Franklin Foer: Volodymyr Zelenskys dream life

Of course, Zelenskys aims are different from Trumps. Trump obsessed over his personal ratings and used his gift for mass communication to advance conspiracy theories and undermine democratic institutions. Zelensky is using his performative skills to defend democracy from the Russian military and disinformation campaigns. But if the content of propaganda does matter, as it did during World War II, it looks more and more like entertainmentand thats part of its effectiveness.

See original here:

Ukraine's Infowar Strategies Have Roots in World War II - The Atlantic

Outside calculus class, Kohn-Murphy is the founder and executive director of Gen-Z for Change, a coalition of about 500 progressive social media influencers spanning all of the internets most-trafficked social media platforms. The coalitions primary digital stomping ground is TikTok, where Gen-Z for Changes influencer network collectively boasts upward of 500 million followers a figure that far exceeds the average monthly viewerships of Fox News, CNN and MSNBC combined, which tops out at about 5 million viewers.

Gen-Z for Change has already mobilized its followers to carry out a handful of unorthodox online actions including crashing an anti-abortion whistleblower line in Texas with raunchy memes. But Kohn-Murphy has higher ambitions: As more politicians in Washington begin using TikTok to reach young voters, his organization is building closer ties with Democrats in Washington in the hopes of not only commenting on policy, but actually influencing it. Yet in making inroads into the political mainstream, do Gen Zs digital warriors risk sacrificing the transgressiveness that makes them a distinctive voice of their generation?

We want to be able to advocate and to push for the policies that Gen Z believes in, Kohn-Murphy says. Not to be revolutionary, but theres a lot wrong with the world, and if we can use our platform to make positive change and leave the world better than we found it, then well have done our job.

Gen-Z for Changes influencers hail from various subregions of the TikTok universe including fashion TikTok, cooking TikTok, comedy TikTok, self-help TikTok and, of course, dancing TikTok but they all share an interest in using their platforms to support progressive causes. The organization itself, staffed by Kohn-Murphy and 20 volunteer organizers, serves as the nerve center of this effort, coordinating between influencers, distributing video scripts and talking points, and providing research and editorial support for the coalitions campaigns.

The scope of Gen-Z for Changes coalition has won Kohn-Murphy and his organization the most valuable and elusive commodity in Washington: the ear of the White House. In early March, the Biden administration enlisted Gen-Z for Change to help organize a briefing between senior administration officials and prominent social media influencers about the war in Ukraine. The briefing, first reported by the Washington Posts Taylor Lorenz, became something of a viral sensation, inspiring a Saturday Night Live sketch in which President Biden (James Austin Johnson) and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki (Kate McKinnon) solicited advice on the war in Ukraine from a cadre of ditzy TikTok stars.

Kohn-Murphy who, in typical influencer style, captured his real-time reaction to the sketch in a TikTok on his personal account was flattered by the parody. Its really cool to do something [so] quote-unquote notable that [it] got parodied, says Kohn-Murphy, who will attend Harvard University next fall. But for the most part, Kohn-Murphy says, the sketch confirmed his suspicion that even as the White House and members of Congress ramp up their outreach efforts to progressive content creators, the country still hasnt grasped TikToks power as a political tool.

Using social media to advocate and pressure the U.S. government like, thats not dancing, Kohn-Murphy says. This is not a dancing app.

It remains to be seen, however, exactly what sort of tool TikTok will become in the hands of this generation of young progressive activists. In some respects, Kohn-Murphy and his merry band of influencers have turned TikTok into a highly unorthodox and cheekily transgressive vehicle of digital protest. In September of 2021, for instance, Olivia Julianna, a Texas-based TikToker and Gen-Z for Changes political strategy coordinator, posted a video encouraging her followers to send fake tips to an anti-abortion whistleblower line that allowed Texans to report suspected violations of the states new six-week abortion ban. The ensuing deluge of tips which included a significant volume of pornographic memes depicting the Disney-Pixar character Shrek forced the line to shut down.

Im not really sure how that came up, Julianna says of the X-rated memes. But you know what? If it saves a woman in Texas from having to pay a fine, then Im all for it.

This sort of crowd-sourced digital protest has become a favorite weapon among Gen-Z for Changes online army. In January, the organization launched a similar campaign to spam an email tip line, set up by Virginias Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, that enabled Virginians to report teachers who were discussing topics that they considered to be instances of critical race theory. And in February, the group flooded Starbucks with 88,000 fake job applications after the company fired several employees who were involved in a unionization effort.

At the same time, Gen-Z for Changes collaboration with the White House is raising questions among both its critics and its supporters about the coalitions true objectives. To the organizations skeptics, its ties with the White House are proof that it has become an out-and-out propaganda organ for the Biden administration. To some of its would-be allies on the left, the organizations liaisons with the White House are evidence that the coalition is more interested in cozying up to Washingtons power centers than in pushing for transformational political change. One way or another, Gen-Z for Change and its coalition of progressive influencers will eventually have to ask: Can they more effectively achieve their goals as the White Houses ally or as its antagonist?

For now, Gen-Z for Change is keeping its options open for the most part.

Whether its shaping policy, whether its educating our collective platform [and] followers, whether its taking down tip lines, whether its supporting unions just any progressive change, by any means, is our goal, says Elise Joshi, Gen-Z for Changes operations director and an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley.

By any means? Kohn-Murphy asks, catching Joshis slip. By most means. By means within reason.

Gen-Z for Change has its origins in the 2020 election, when Kohn-Murphy, then just a solo TikToker with a modest following, began posting clever and irreverent content about the election under his personal TikTok handle, @aidanpleasestoptalking. As election day loomed, Kohn-Murphy posted about a phone-banking session that he had organized with a handful of friends, hoping to encourage his followers to sign up. The effort quickly caught fire, as scores of influencers emerged from the digital woodwork to lend their platforms to the effort to defeat then-President Donald Trump. Realizing that the initiative had outgrown the scope of a single phone bank, Kohn-Murphy began organizing the influencers under the moniker TikTok for Biden. By election day, over 400 influencers had joined up.

As the coalitions number grew, its videos caught the eye of the Biden campaigns digital director Rob Flaherty, now the White Houses director of digital strategy. Flaherty contacted Kohn-Murphy ahead of the election to discuss TikTok for Bidens work, and according to Kohn-Murphy, the organization maintained an informal line of communication with Flaherty through the transition period. Following Bidens inauguration in January 2021, the coalition changed its name to Gen-Z for Change to recognize its broader policy goals.

The collaboration has continued since Biden took office. In July 2021, for instance, Gen-Z for Change co-hosted a YouTube town hall discussion about the Covid-19 vaccine with Anthony Fauci, the White Houses chief medical adviser. In November, the organization helped facilitate a briefing between influencers and White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield about the administrations Build Back Better plan.

These initiatives have raised suspicions that the organization and its coalition of influencers are, in effect, unpaid propagandists for the Biden White House, using their platforms to uncritically parrot the administrations messaging. Following the White Houses briefing with influencers on the war in Ukraine, for instance, Fox Business accused the White House of drafting TikTok influencers to blame Putin for rising gas prices. Other skeptics were quick to draw parallels between Bidens outreach to social media influencers and Russian President Vladimir Putins campaign to pay Russian TikTok influencers to spread pro-Kremlin narratives online.

Kohn-Murphy doesnt put much stock in these accusations, and he is adamant that Gen-Z for Changes work is advocacy, not messaging. He points to the fact that Gen-Z for Changes members do extensive independent research to verify the information they receive from the White House before amplifying it online, and he notes that Gen-Z for Change is not paid or compensated for any of the content it creates.

Its not like were huge Joe Biden superfans, Kohn-Murphy says. Like, we were pushing for Joe Biden because we wanted to use our platforms to make progressive change, and at the time, it was the most effective way to do so.

Indeed, the coalitions influencers are not shy about broadcasting their disagreements with the administration when they arise. In a recent video on her personal TikTok account, Victoria Hammett, a Los Angeles-based influencer and Gen-Z for Changes deputy executive director, criticized the Biden administration for failing to support Medicare For All one of the several policy areas where Hammett says she has publicly broken with the White House.

I feel like the Biden administration and many Democrats have kind of forgotten about the people that supported them and are not as concerned with what their supporters want [as they are] with bipartisanship, says Hammett, whose personal TikTok has over 750,000 followers. Personally, as a creator, one of my frustrations is seeing Biden [be] unwilling to do things that his supporters want him to do, like canceling student loan debt, for example.

For his part, Kohn-Murphy compared the briefings that the White House hosts for social media influencers to the daily press briefings that the administration provides for journalists and reporters.

If people think that a briefing is propaganda, then theyre not going to like what Jen Psaki does almost every day for basically every news organization in the country, Kohn-Murphy says. This has nothing to do with messagingThis has to do with creators; many of them were already using their platforms to spread information and to combat misinformation.

This comparison, it must be said, is not a very good one. Despite their likely sincere commitment to ensuring the accuracy of the information that they disseminate, Gen-Z for Changes influencers are not journalists in any recognizable sense just as they are also not straightforwardly activists or policy advocates or even, as their right-wing detractors have claimed, Soviet-style propagandists.

In reality, it is difficult to fit the work of these progressive influencers into any pre-existing category of political communication. Policy advocacy? Well, sort of. Journalism? Not really but if you squint, maybe. Activism? Yes but also no. Perhaps the most accurate thing that can be said about these influencers is that they exist in the gray area between activism, citizen journalism and old-fashioned political messaging, serving as harbingers of a paradigm shift in political communications that has yet to be fully realized or understood.

In this respect, Gen-Zs progressive TikTok army resembles no group more than the burgeoning collective of academics, journalists and policy researchers that has coalesced under the purposefully vague umbrella of disinformation researchers. As the journalist Joe Bernstein argued in a recent story for Harpers, this multidisciplinary group of researchers, which has styled itself as a sort of non-partisan EPA for content, also defies straightforward categorization. Although these researchers have made it their mission to expose the spread of various sorts of toxicity on social-media platforms, the downstream effects of this spread, and the platforms clumsy, dishonest and half-hearted attempts to halt it, their real ideological function, as Bernstein points out, is a bit more complicated than that.

In its quest to cleanse the media ecosystem of contaminated information, Big Disinfo serves two distinct ideological functions within the Democratic ecosystem. On the one hand, Big Disinfos war on disinformation feeds into center-left accounts of Trumps ascendancy that explain Trumpism primarily as the result of conservative media manipulation and right-wing conspiracy theorizing rather than as the product of genuine populist anger about the failure of Americas ruling elite. In this respect, Big Disinfo helps absolve the Democratic Partys ruling elite of its responsibility for creating the political, economic and technological conditions that allowed Trump to flourish in the first place, shifting blame onto the social media companies and media organizations that allow false information to circulate.

On the other hand, Big Disinfo plays an essentially revanchist role in the public debate over truth-telling. By arguing that the power to distinguish reality from falsehood ultimately rests with Americas objective truth-tellers, disinformation researchers bolster the authority of the institutions whose role as gatekeepers of the information ecosystem have been most dramatically undercut by new technologies: the mainstream media, institutions of higher learning, deep-pocketed think-tanks and the government itself. As Bernstein writes, That the most prestigious liberal institutions of the pre-digital age are the most invested in fighting disinformation reveals a lot about what they stand to lose, or hope to regain.

A similar set of risks befalls Gen-Z for Changes decision to join the information wars on the side of the White House. Despite well-founded concerns about TikToks role in spreading false and misleading information, the platform still harbors a potentially transformative political possibility: to create a radically decentralized, highly personalized and thoroughly democratic information ecosystem that wrests power away from traditional gatekeepers. At least on its surface, Gen-Z for Changes activity seems to be in the service of this promise. After all, the organization has successfully built a media network that reaches billions of viewers every month all for the price of cell phone service.

Yet by casually deferring to the White House as a reliable source of information on an issue as politically fraught as the war in Ukraine, the group risks reinforcing the very same information hierarchies that gave rise to the misinformation crisis in the first place. Coming from a generation whose political outlook centers on skepticism of powerful institutions and opposition to hierarchy in all its forms, it is also a decidedly un-Gen Z thing to do.

All of this invites the question: To what degree do the political objectives of the TikTok left resemble those of prior generations of Democratic Party activists, and to what degree are they meaningfully distinct?

In some respects, Gen-Z for Change, which is incorporated as a 501(c)4, shares the goals of any progressive advocacy group: to influence federal policy by pushing the Democratic Party to adopt a more progressive platform. Indeed, the Issues page of the organizations website reads like a comprehensive wish list of progressive priorities: climate justice, disability rights, gender equality, reproductive rights, gun safety, racial justice and so forth.

The organizations objectives are also more fundamental than that. In addition to contending with a national Democratic Party thats dominated by white-haired Baby Boomers and aging members of Gen X, Gen-Z for Change also has to combat its own generations political lethargy and congenital political fatalism two characteristics that, in both kind and degree, distinguish Gen Zs political outlook from those of their predecessors.

To its credit, Gen-Z for Change has correctly diagnosed the source of Gen Zs political malaise. Faced with the convergence of multiple generation-defining crises and the apparent failure of Americas political institutions to respond adequately to these crises a significant number of Gen Zers have given up on organized politics altogether. Against this backdrop, Gen-Z for Changes primary objective is to convince young people that Americas political system isnt entirely unresponsive to their demands.

The approach they have taken to this challenge is subtly brilliant: Take Gen Zs fixation with social media both a symptom and a cause of their generations political paralysis and turn it into the vehicle of its political empowerment.

What we realized with these tip lines and with the Starbucks project is that people really want to feel like they have some sort of agency in the world, because oftentimes when we see that theres nothing going on with our national government, [and] theres very little progress on the issues that Gen Z cares about, we feel like we have no control over anything, Joshi says. And when we present these incredibly important actions like taking down oppressive tip lines people are easily engaged because they want to feel like they can be involved in something.

Its a matter of, like, what can you do strictly from mobilizing young people from their homes, Kohn-Murphy says. There is a lot more to be done [but] right now, our platforms are on social media. The most effective way that we can make change are things that do materially benefit people, even if theyre not, like, fixing the entire problem.

Along the way, Gen Zs progressive TikTokers have discovered something about the platform that the brightest political minds in Washington have yet to fully grasp: that TikTok is a forum for political action, not just a tool for reaching would-be voters. Communications staffers on Capitol Hill look at TikTok and see another channel for spreading messaging to potential voters; meanwhile, the new generation of online organizers look at TikTok and see an entire universe of forms of direct action. After all, why lobby lawmakers to take down an anti-critical race theory snitch line when a handful of Zoomers with their iPhones can break it instead?

In this respect, the potential impact of Gen Zs ongoing experiment in TikTok politics stretches far beyond the White House. What is brewing among young progressives on TikTok is a massive online experiment in participatory democracy, a potential transformation in the way that young progressives engage with and, when necessary, circumvent Americas political institutions. As is true of all digital paradigm shifts, the possibilities of the movement can sound hopelessly abstract but in reality, they are very concrete. Julianna, the organizer behind the anti-abortion tip line protest, points to her own life story as evidence of TikToks potentially egalitarian effects.

I grew up [in a] working-class, single-parent household in a very small town. Ive struggled with health issues and other stuff my whole life. And I didnt think that I would be able to do a lot of impactful things in life, Julianna says. Now Im in a place where Im in meetings with the White House and talking to the Senate Majority Leader [Chuck Schumer].

At a moment when populist and anti-elite sentiments are flourishing on both sides of the political spectrum, it is no surprise that the countrys political leaders are beginning to explore new ways to harness TikToks political power to their own ends. Yet for the young activists who nurtured political TikTok into existence, this opportunity also presents a challenge: to maximize TikToks power as a tool for progressive change without sacrificing its transformative and transgressive potential.

The uncertain future of Gen Zs TikTok revolution received a passing mention at the end of Saturday Night Lives parody, when cast member Bowen Yang sauntered into the Oval Office dressed like the popular Japanese content creator Kazuhisa Uekusa known for performing nifty tricks with a toilet plunger affixed to his bare chest. As magisterial music played in the background and with the camera slowly zooming in on the plunger stuck over his nipple Yang waxed poetic about the transformative power of TikTok, urging viewers to never underestimate the power of new technology and how it reaches young people in ways you can never understand.

The joke at the very end is, Dont underestimate the power of TikTok and making change, and right at the end, We get more views than the [nightly] news, Joshi says. Theyre saying that as a joke, but its actually true.

See original here:

Inside the Progressive Movement's TikTok Army - POLITICO - POLITICO

Most of Holly Harpers life seemed pretty traditional. She married at 24, had a baby girl and lived what she called the perfect picket-fence life. But even then, she never considered her approach to life to be conventional.

My personal life story is one of experimentation, travel, dabbling in everything, connecting people and dreaming, Harper shared. For as long as I can remember, Ive brainstormed ways to get my beloved community [and] chosen family to physically be in the same space whether living in the same town or vacationing together or retiring to the same cul de sac or assisted care community when we are Golden Girls.'

As a military spouse, she lived in seven states and Europe. During that time, she cultivated an eclectic group of friends and leaned into her unconventional side.

After 17 years together, Harper and her husband separated and sold their house. After living in an apartment for a year that never felt like home, she decided it was time to look for a place of her own.

Holly Harper

Harper had owned several homes throughout her marriage and was well aware of the expenses and demands of owning a home. Although she had contacted a realtor and started the search for her own home, she knew it would be a challenge to find one that worked with her budget as a self-employed single mom, especially in the Washington, D.C., area where she lived.

Then, in April 2020, she caught up with her friend Herrin Hopper during the lockdown. During their conversation, the women realized they were both newly single and shopping for homes.

In D.C., its common to have a duplex or condo, so we thought: What if we bought neighboring units? Harper explained.

They agreed to find a multifamily property with (at least) two units of similar size in a kid-friendly neighborhood close to public transportation. Another must was that neither family would sleep in a basement.

Holly Harper

They found a four-unit building and closed on it in late June 2020. Soon after moving in, they sought renters for the remaining units. Single mom of two Leandra Nichola replied and came in on a rent-to-own plan.

In December 2020, Jen Jacobs rented the top-floor studio unit. The single, childless friend of Hopper and Harper was looking for a change from the loneliness she experienced at the height of the pandemic.

The women named the home Siren House as a symbol of female empowerment.

Harper says that her co-housing partners are also unconventional.

We are free spirits, free thinkers, and open to building relationships with one another and others in general with transparency and compassion, she shared. Things are always going faster than we can keep up with, but it is much more like sisterhood than a Real World D.C. situation.

Holly Harper

Self-awareness, self-care and building firm boundaries are top priorities for the women.

We support one another in a number of ways, from one-on-one conversations, meetings, festive occasions and catching each other when we stumble, Harper said.

As with any family or community, issues arise. The group is mindful of handling practicalities, such as home repairs, as a team. They tackle emotional matters that come up head-on, making it a point to meet and talk things out.

The best part about it is we cant run away and hide from our own demons, our own triggers, our own bad behavior, said Harper. We hold each other with trust and empathy, but also hold each other accountable to being mature and healthy humans.

Holly Harper

And it doesnt stop with their cozy living quarters. They also help one another achieve their pursuits and goals. Together, the women opened the Takoma Park, Md. cafe Main Street Pearl in March 2021. Nichola, whose longstanding dream has been to open an eatery, manages the cafe.

The women said they all live as an extended family that genuinely cares for one another. The kids live like cousins, reaping the rewards of being surrounded and influenced by multiple unique, devoted adults.

Harper hopes that Siren House will encourage others to consider unconventional living arrangements no matter what the housing market looks like, citing the continuing decline of the traditional family, longer lifespans and environmental concerns as catalysts for change. In addition, she believes that smart co-housing communities can enable smaller living, less commuting and the advantages of creating your own family support network.

For all of us, the greatest benefit is having your biggest cheerleaders pushing you forward through imposter syndrome, hesitations, self-confidence dips, aging, dating, mom-shame, child-rearing, career growth to truly live a joyous life, Harper shared. We know its possible and we want to help one another so when we need help, we have someone to help us in turn.

Continue reading here:

These Single Moms Bought A Group House Together And Created A Community - Simplemost

Anirban Nandi, director (emerging business and strategy, India leadership team), Mars.

Note to readers:Fit to leadis a series of interviews with business leaders on their approach to fitness, leadership and navigating the new normal.

Growing up in Arunachal Pradesh and Shillong, Anirban Nandi,director (emerging business and strategy, India leadership team), Mars, recalls he wasnt an athlete but did play some sports. It wasnt until he was working in Dubai when the scale was inching towards three figures that he realized he had to do something. I was obese, had an unhealthy lifestyle and didnt like what I had become, he says. So, about 10 years ago he started running on the treadmill. The results came quickly, he moved from the treadmill to the road and within a few months ran a 10km race too.

Fitness has become such an integral part of his life now that during the first lockdown, he climbed up and down the 15 storeys of his building. Amid timelines and multiple initiatives, running is the one time when I can be with myself and my thoughts without any disturbances or distractions. I have had some Eureka moments during such long runs, Nandi says. Nandi who leads a company that sells chocolates believes in moderation when it comes to his products as well and is firmly of the opinion that you are definitely not going to be in a good state of mind when ill; so everyone must work on their health and wellness.

Edited excerpts:

How do you achieve your health and fitness goals?

I am intentional about fitness. I run twice a week averaging 25 km to 35 km per week, strength training four times and yoga once a week. Occasionally, I cycle. On average, I spend 90 to 120 minutes a day, six days a week on fitness activity.

Favourite fitness activity

Long distance running. It allows me ample time to reflect on multiple aspects of my professional and personal life. I find that highly therapeutic.

Your toughest?

As much as I want to swim, I have not been able to learn swimming.

Your new normal

There was no point worrying about how the normal has changed. You find out ways and means to navigate through these complex times find innovative ways and means to progress and connect at work. I calendarized business and offline connects to ensure we spend quality time on both, similar to what we would do in office. So technically, the new normal is more similar than different.

Has your fitness routine, in any way, helped you navigate the uncertainties of the current times?

I dont have empirical evidence to support it but I worry less and have developed a more solution-driven mindset. I use marathon metaphors like one mile at a time when managing or navigating complex and ambiguous challenges. The discipline that I have been able to maintain has given me more confidence in my abilities and made my resilience stronger.

The one change you would encourage your teammates to make to deal with the challenges of current times

I propagate health and wellness, probably overdo it because I believe you can only do better if you are fit and healthy.

Leadership lessons in your fitness journey

Too often we spend a lot of energy on competition and external factors. In fitness, you can be overwhelmed with what everyone is doing I realized the importance of focusing on myself and the process defined every achievement or miss, professionally and personally with very little interference of luck.

Preparing for my first marathon required me to train in a disciplined and planned manner. Same applies to leadership: make a plan, focus on the next step and review it not to find faults but to unlock bottlenecks and progress.

Passion is overrated, resilience is underrated. You are bound to hit roadblocks like injuries while training. The passion and motivation could end abruptly. It is your resilience which can bring you back. This is so similar to work, we all wish every project, every task goes smoothly, but it never does.

What impact does your image of a fit leader have on your team?

You will need to ask the team that I like to believe I am inspiring them to pick up healthy habits. These habits also allow me to keep pace with all the younger members of my team and the organization, and I dont mind teasing and challenging them to beat me on the fitness front.

Has being fit helped you become a better leader?

I think and feel better, I am more energetic and resilient This allows me to lead by example and practice what I preach.

Your leadership style

An authentic leader, a thinker who derives energy and insights from people, details, and experiences. My leadership style is based on the fundamental principle of trust, empowerment, and the ultimate belief that you are only as good as your team. I look forward every time to be very intentional in the teams overall development, in both personal and professional capacity.

On achieving work-life balance

Once you are a slave to your habits, you work around your tasks to ensure you get the right balance. I also try to be intentional on the place I stay at so that it saves time commuting to and from office. So, planning your hours to the tee is probably what you might say is the secret sauce towards maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Goals for the year

I have a dream to run the 72 km Khardungla Ultraan unpredictable race that you run in extreme cold at a height of 18,000 feet. Similar challenges excite me at work, where we are scripting a disruptive growth story, unleashing initiatives for exponential growth in e-commerce and unlocking some innovative profitable business models for the unit.

See the rest here:

Fit to Lead | Anirban Nandi: "Passion is overrated, resilience is underrated" - Moneycontrol

Wellness, with its self-help rhetoric, absolves the government of responsibility to provide transformative and effectual action that ensures women are safe, delivered justice, and treated with respect and dignity, writes Kate Seers and Rachel Hogg, from Charles Sturt University, in this article republished from The Conversation.

Wellness is mainly marketed to women. Were encouraged to eat clean, take personal responsibility for our well-being, happiness and life. These are the hallmarks of a strong, independent woman in 2022.

But on the eve of International Womens Day, lets look closer at this neoliberal feminist notion of wellness and personal responsibility the idea womens health and well-being depends on our individual choices.

We argue wellness is not concerned with actual well-being, whatever wellness guru and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow suggests, or influencers say on Instagram.

Wellness is an industry. Its also a seductive distraction from whats really impacting womens lives. It glosses over the structural issues undermining womens well-being. These issues cannot be fixed by drinking a turmeric latte or #livingyourbestlife.

Wellness is an unregulated US$4.4 trillion global industry due to reach almost $7 trillion by 2025. It promotes self-help, self-care, fitness, nutrition and spiritual practice. It encourages good choices, intentions and actions.

Wellness is alluring because it feels empowering. Women are left with a sense of control over their lives. It is particularly alluring in times of great uncertainty and limited personal control. These might be during a relationship break up, when facing financial instability, workplace discrimination or a global pandemic.

But wellness is not all it seems.

Wellness implies women are flawed and need to be fixed. It demands women resolve their psychological distress, improve their lives and bounce back from adversity, regardless of personal circumstances.

Self-responsibility, self-empowerment and self-optimisation underpin how women are expected to think and behave.

As such, wellness patronises women and micro-manages their daily schedules with journaling, skin care routines, 30-day challenges, meditations, burning candles, yoga and lemon water.

Wellness encourages women to improve their appearance through diet and exercise, manage their surroundings, performance at work and their capacity to juggle the elusive work-life balance as well as their emotional responses to these pressures. They do this with support from costly life coaches, psychotherapists and self-help guides.

Wellness demands women focus on their body, with ones body a measure of their commitment to the task of wellness. Yet this ignores how much these choices and actions cost.

Newsreader and journalist Tracey Spicer says she has spent more than A$100,000 over the past 35 years for her hair to look acceptable at work.

Wellness keeps women focused on their appearance and keeps them spending.

Its also ableist, racist, sexist, ageist and classist. Its aimed at an ideal of young women, thin, white, middle-class and able-bodied.

Wellness assumes women have equal access to time, energy and money to meet these ideals. If you dont, youre just not trying hard enough.

Wellness also implores women to be adaptable and positive.

If an individuals #positivevibes and wellness are seen as morally good, then it becomes morally necessary for women to engage in behaviours framed as investments or self-care.

For those who do not achieve self-optimisation (hint: most of us) this is a personal, shameful failing.

When women believe they are to blame for their circumstances, it hides structural and cultural inequities. Rather than questioning the culture that marginalises women and produces feelings of doubt and inadequacy, wellness provides solutions in the form of superficial empowerment, confidence and resilience.

Women dont need wellness. They are unsafe.

Women are more likely to be murdered by a current or former intimate partner, with reports of the pandemic increasing the risk and severity of domestic violence.

Women are more likely to be employed in unstable casualised labour, and experience economic hardship and poverty. Women are also bearing the brunt of the economic fallout from COVID. Women are more likely to be juggling a career with unpaid domestic duties and more likely to be homeless as they near retirement age.

In their book Confidence Culture UK scholars Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill argue hashtags such as #loveyourbody and #believeinyourself imply psychological blocks, rather than entrenched social injustices, are what hold women back.

Wellness, with its self-help rhetoric, absolves the government of responsibility to provide transformative and effectual action that ensures women are safe, delivered justice, and treated with respect and dignity.

Structural inequity was not created by an individual, and it will not be solved by an individual.

So this International Womens Day, try to resist the neoliberal requirement to take personal responsibility for your wellness. Lobby governments to address structural inequities instead.

Follow your anger, not your bliss, call out injustices when you can. And in the words of sexual assault survivor and advocate Grace Tame, make some noise.

Kate Seers, PhD Candidate, Charles Sturt University and Rachel Hogg, Lecturer in Psychology, Charles Sturt University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Wellness is not women's friend. It's a distraction from what really ails us - Womens Agenda

What started as a student club focused on eating disorder awareness has led to a new nonprofit founded by two Penn 2021 graduates, the Body Empowerment Project, which is helping hundreds of teenagers in Philadelphia public schools.

Christina Miranda and Amanda Moreno have expanded the Be Body Positive Philly program from two high schools last spring to seven in the fall and then to eight high schools and a middle school this spring semester. They have recruited and trained 22 current Penn students as volunteer facilitators to lead the one-hour, weekly after-school workshops that teach a health-centered approach to self-care.

Preliminary data from their accompanying independent research study, in partnership with Penn and the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), shows a statistically significant increase in body appreciation and a decrease in eating disorder symptoms by the high school students who have completed the 10-week program.

Its just such an emotional experience to be able to build something from scratch, see it be so impactful and see so many people join our volunteer base to share the same mission, says Moreno. Its been really incredible.

Be Body Positive Philly is one of three projects chosen for the 2021 Presidents Engagement Prize. Awarded annually, the Prizes empower Penn students to design and undertake post-graduation projects that make a positive and lasting difference in the world. Each project receives $100,000, as well as a $50,000 living stipend for each team member.

Christina and Amanda took their Presidents Engagement Prize and ran with it, growing their Body Empowerment Project in thrilling and inspiring ways throughout the past year, says Interim President Wendell Pritchett. The positive impact their initiative is having on so many Philadelphia students is enormously important, and I believe, because of their commitment, it will surely be long-lasting.

Be Body Positive Philly has just been selected for another award, earning first place in the 2022 Greater Philadelphia Social Innovation Awards community behavioral health category for innovative service models leading to emotional, psychological, and social well-being.

Miranda and Moreno say they are encouraged by the research results and the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the program, with 97% of the 128 students in the fall saying they would recommend it to a friend.

We were happy to see with the fall data that our program has worked similarly across all the different schools and demographics and populations that we work with, says Miranda. Depending on where a student is when they enter the program, they take away something unique to them and their situation. So that has been really cool to see.

Their program is also on campus, Be Body Positive Penn, a series of eight weekly workshops free of charge to Penn students. One is specifically for student athletes in partnership with Penn Athletics.

Both pre-med neuroscience majors and chemistry minors in the College of Arts and Sciences, Miranda and Moreno met during their first week on campus freshman year, living in the Quad and taking many of the same classes. They say they are passionate about the project in part because of their own personal histories.

Moreno immigrated to the United States with her family from Cuba when she was 7 years old. I had an accent. People were constantly commenting on my appearance; I was too thin, says Moreno, who is from Miami. All of these messages that you receive really do affect the way that you grow personally and professionally.

Miranda, who is from Milford, New Jersey, says she struggled with anorexia in middle and high school. This would have been life-changing for me. If I had a program in high school, I think it wouldve prevented my eating disorder. So really this is so personal to me to be able to help other high school students, she says.

I have always been really passionate about eating disorder advocacy and now I just cant even imagine not continuing doing this specific work for the rest of my life. Christina Miranda, co-founder of the Body Empowerment Project

Miranda is a co-founder of the Penn student chapter of Project HEAL, Help to Eat Accept and Live, and was president for two years. Moreno also served in several key leadership roles. The club sponsors eating disorder awareness efforts, educational workshops, and body-positivity campaigns on campus.

They say the pandemic was the catalyst for them to expand their work to reach high school students, as eating disorders spiked among teens during quarantine. Their research led them to The Body Positives research-validated curriculum. The pair completed facilitator trainings and worked with the team to create a virtual format for a pilot program.

The pilot proposal went through three extensive reviews: one each by the Penn and CHOP institutional review boards, and another by the School District of Philadelphia. Miranda and Moreno then led the Be Body Positive Philly workshops virtually with 18 high school students in two schools last spring, Kensington Health Sciences Academy and Paul Robeson High School.

Caroline Watts, a psychologist and director of school and community engagement at Penns Graduate School of Education, was their mentor for the Prize, and is now a programming advisor on the Board of Directors. Watts is also a principal investigator on the research study, along with C. Alix Timko, a psychologist in CHOPs Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program.

They are so impressive. And theyre incredible at what they can do and what they can learn. And what theyre able to put into action just continues to grow, Watts says. The project is at a very exciting time. They are engaged, they are optimistic, and they are strategic.

With the Prize funding in hand and working out of their Center City apartment, the pair first focused on incorporating into a nonprofit, with pro bono help from a lawyer and an accountant, successfully becoming a charitable tax-exempt organization. Moreno built a website and Miranda set up social media channels.

And they worked to identify schools for expansion, which ended up being easier than they expected. The school districts medical director, Barbara Klock, asked them to conduct a professional development training for 300 public school nurses, discussing eating disorders and body image issues and how to address those concerns.

We knew that this program was needed and that it was a problem in Philadelphia schools, but we were shocked to see how many nurses reached out to us asking us to bring the program to their school, including many middle and elementary schools, Miranda says. So, suddenly, we had a waitlist of schools. It made us feel like we wanted to expand this program as soon as possible.

As official partners with the school district, they were able to work with the Districts Office of Strategic Partnerships to choose and expand into new schools, teaching in person, in the fall: William L. Sayre High School, West Philadelphia High School, Girard Academic Music Program, Kensington High School, and Mastery Charter-Shoemaker Campus.

Although the neighborhoods and school populations vary, nearly 90% of the students self-identified with a minority group, and two-thirds are enrolled in the national free and reduced-price lunch program.

This semester they added the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and the first middle school, also at Mastery Charter-Shoemaker. They plan to introduce their program in elementary schools this year, ultimately reaching students across all primary and secondary education levels.

The other challenge was to recruit current Penn students as facilitators to teach the workshops. The pair brought on a diversity, equity, and inclusion chair, fellow Penn 2021 graduate Jennie Vyas, and reached out to various cultural and affinity groups on campus.

We wanted to have facilitators who really mirror the population of students that we work with, Moreno says. Our facilitators are diverse in many ways, and come from very distinct backgrounds and lived experiences, including eating disorders.

The facilitators completed 30 hours of training on the curriculum as well as on diversity-equity-inclusion issues, trauma-informed practice, and information about the Philadelphia schools and neighborhoods.

Our volunteers are near-peer mentors because we are really close in age to the high school students so they can relate to us but we are also still a little bit further along in life, so they want to learn from us and hear what we have to say, Miranda says.

Penn sophomore Ashley Acevedo, a neuroscience major and Hispanic studies minor from Philadelphia, is a pre-med student interested in adolescent medicine and eating disorder assessment and treatment in part because she struggled with her body image as a teen.

I thought it was a good way for me to step aside from the science and the medicine and go back to why this may be happening. This program helps me learn how I can best speak to young people to maybe prevent this, says Acevedo. I feel like its a problem that a lot of people have with self-image, especially now with social media.

Sophomore Randy Bach, from San Diego, learned about the opportunity through Project HEAL. My facilitators and I all agree that we wish we had something like this in high school, voices advocating for weight neutrality and self-empowerment, he says.

Its just such an emotional experience to be able to build something from scratch, see it be so impactful and see so many people join our volunteer base to share the same mission. Amanda Moreno, co-founder of the Body Empowerment Project

Bach is executive director of the student-run Penn Apptit magazine, an emergency medical technician, and a Penn Medicine research assistant. Im extremely interested in the significance of eating behavior and its role on consumption as a neuroscience major and possible nutrition minor, says Bach, who also plans a career in medicine. Be Body Positive Philly helps me bridge my studies between both mental and physical health and how food is a big part of both.

Miranda and Moreno recruited and trained additional facilitators over winter break, so there are enough to place three at each school, ensuring two will be in each classroom while also allowing Penn students flexibility in their schedules.

The other important effort was recruiting high school students to participate. Miranda and Moreno went to all of the designated schools in the fall to explain the program, speaking in classes and hanging out with students in the cafeteria at lunchtime.

A challenge they didnt anticipate was getting parental consent forms signed to allow the students to participate, necessary for their research. To ensure parents understood the program, they created videos to go along with the forms for the spring enrollment, with Miranda speaking in English and Moreno in Spanish.

Penn student facilitators took part in spring recruitment. When I went back to Shoemaker to recruit for the new semester, every student from the previous group that I saw ran up and hugged me, says Penn junior Amanda Nance, a psychology major and nutrition minor from San Diego.

In the fall, 128 students in seven high schools were enrolled, and this spring, 150 are enrolled in the eight high schools, including nearly 20 in the middle school. Workshop groups range from 12 to 30 students, and facilitators break classes into smaller clusters for activities.

The workshops include a Brave Space Agreement, Moreno says, where we encourage our students to come out of their comfort zone, explore topics that they havent discussed before, and also challenge any preconceived notions. Students learn about building confidence, advocating for themselves, and managing social media, along with specific lessons on intuitive eating, joyful movement, and health-at-every-size.

A lot of these lessons are very personal, so people can bring out their own perspectives and their own stories and their own backgrounds, says Acevedo.

Each semester starts and ends with the students completing a survey to track changes in eating disorder symptoms and body appreciation. It also allows us to follow up and check in with students we are concerned about, working closely with the eating disorder treatment team at CHOP, Miranda says. We have a student safety plan in place, in connection with the school nurses and counselors.

Testimonials by the students speak of the value of the conversations and connections.

The part of this group that made the biggest impact on me is how more confident I feel talking about my body issues and how Im not alone, one West Philadelphia High School student shared.

The Penn facilitators also say the experience has been important to them. I feel like as much as the students may be learning, Im learning so much myself, too. And within this program, Im also helping my own body image and self-love, Acevedo says.

Ensuring their nonprofit is self-sustaining in the future, they are working with a financial advisor, actively applying for grants, and had their first fundraiser in December, raising $17,000, surpassing their goal. Primary costs are the training fee for each facilitator, transportation expenses for Penn facilitators to go to the schools for in-person workshops, and meals for each workshop group, as many of the students face food insecurity.

Body Empowerment Project also offers fee-based professional trainings for individuals, corporations, and nurses and educators. They will eventually offer a fee-based program to private schools to offset the costs of keeping the program free for public schools. They even have merch, sweatshirts with the slogan all bodies are good bodies.

Theyre now learning about the business of running a nonprofit, and how to balance the business side of this work with the mission side, and it is a really interesting point of growth for them, Watts says. Theyre really looking at how theyre going to be able to leave the project in a stable financial state so that they can move into a different kind of role as they enter medical school in the fall and have someone else handle the day-to-day operations.

Miranda and Moreno say they are even more committed to Body Empowerment Project, given their own experiences in the past year, and evidence of the programs impact, and plan to stay involved long-term even as they plan to go to medical school.

Moreno says she now is considering pursuing a masters in public health as well as a medical degree. A lot of the work that we do is public-health oriented; its about addressing a very common health inequity that we see in our community. I think that being an active player in improving access to preventative care has shifted what I want to do with my career, Moreno says. Not only do I want to be a physician, but I want make sure that I focus on minority health moving forward. This work has really inspired that.

Miranda says she has always been really passionate about eating disorder advocacy and now I just cant even imagine not continuing doing this specific work for the rest of my life ... Its just so important to us, the success of this project.

Homepage image: Moreno (left) and Miranda say they are committed long-term to the Body Empowerment Project, even as they plan to enter medical school in the fall.

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Body Empowerment Project is a health-centered approach to self-care | Penn Today - Penn Today

10% of Book Sales This Year Will Be Donated to Humanitarian Relief Efforts in Ukraine

On 9 March 2022, Cossolotto will lead a virtual workshop highlighting ideas from in his recently released book The Joy of Public Speaking. Participants will be Eastern European-based staff members of a global development firm dedicated to building positive change in transitioning societies. On 10 March, Cossolotto will conduct an in-person Lunch and Learn workshop at Splash Zone in Oberlin, Ohio.

Matthew Cossolotto is an author, guest speaker, executive speechwriter, and speech coach. His senior-level leadership communications career spans the corridors of power on both sides of the Atlantic from NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, to the Speakers Office in the U.S. House of Representatives. A former aide to Congressman Leon Panetta, Cossolotto has coached and penned speeches for senior executives at a wide range of organizations, including UCLA, GTE, Pepsi-Cola International, and other Fortune 100 corporations.

In The Joy of Public Speaking: Find Your Voice and Reach Your Peak Potential, Cossolotto distills many years of high-profile speechwriting and speech coaching experience into a comprehensive, how-to guide to help experienced, novice, and terrified speakers alike. Cossolottos breakthrough book and entertaining seminars are packed with powerful mindset shifts, profound insights, and practical tips that can help you advance your career, enhance your leadership skills, boost your self-confidence, and make a difference in the world.

Ten Percent of Book Sales Will Support Humanitarian Relief in UkraineCossolotto dedicated The Joy of Public Speaking to his former colleagues at NATO, the 30-member transatlantic alliance that was founded in 1949.

With that dedication in mind, commented Cossolotto, and in view of recent tragic events, I have been wondering what I and my readers, students and clients can do to help the people of Ukraine during the current crisis. I have decided to donate 10 percent of my book sales this year to humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine.

What Participants Will Learn in Cossolottos PodiumPower! WorkshopsOpinion surveys confirm that most people rank public speaking as one of their top fears, along with spiders, snakes, and death itself. Cossolottos inspiring new book and workshops embrace a simple, commonsense proposition: People who learn to enjoy public speaking tend to be better at it than those hobbled by anxiety, trepidation, or outright terror.

Workshop participants will learn about these and other powerful concepts to propel them on their journey to joy:

Cossolottos Triad Empowerment System (TES): Reach Your Peak PotentialThe Joy of Public Speaking is the first book in Cossolottos personal empowerment trilogy. Two more books are coming soon. One highlights the seven essential habits of SUCCESS and another promotes the power of promises with a foreword by Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. These books and related coaching/speaking programs feature a unique combination of three power tools: Habits, Speaking and Promises. Cossolotto refers to this as the Triad Empowerment System (TES). TES supports Cossolottos long-term mission: To help millions of people around the world achieve their dreams, keep their promises, and reach their peak potentialon and off the podium.

The Joy of Public Speaking is available on Amazon books.

Follow the full story here: https://przen.com/pr/33446743

Excerpt from:

Matthew Cossolotto, Former NATO Speechwriter and Author of The Joy of Public Speaking, Will Conduct Two PodiumPower! Workshops the Week of March 7 -...

I got to grow up in Greece, in a nurturing and empowering environment that has always conveyed that desire and skills will take you wherever you want to go. On the one hand, as the leader of social and corporate responsibility of a global group, there is no doubt that the issue of women's empowerment and concern for their rights and the egalitarian conception towards them, are at the core of my daily pursuits and that of the company.

I believe that this duality is shared by quote a few senior-level women, who have developed thanks to their skills and their investment, while witnessing the struggle of many women around the world, to overcome obstacles, prejudices and limitations imposed on them by the environment, consciously or unconsciously, and make the most out of their abilities and aspirations.

And this, in my opinion, is where the role of companies, whose issues of corporate social responsibility are at the core of their work, comes into the picture in the most significant way. Many companies in the world today understand that corporate responsibility is not a secondary part of doing business, but an essential and integral part of it, and therefore it must be incorporated into the strategy and day-to-day conduct.

Accordingly, a company cannot hold a true concept of corporate responsibility without the issues of promoting women, empowering, and nurturing them, being inherently and deeply integrated within its conduct, consciously and while setting a living and lasting personal example. The most significant place where companies can act in for women is within themselves: making sure that they create and promote a nurturing and encouraging environment that helps women climb over barriers and examines them only based on their skills and abilities.

There is no doubt that the energy industry in general, and gas production in particular, is characterized by a prominent male dominance. It is a tough industry, rich in capital and risk, with significant geopolitical interfaces, factors that are probably traditionally perceived as more "masculine". At the same time, in Energean, women now make a considerable % of the company's human capital - both at the employee level and at the management level, and the numbers are only growing from year to year. The many women I talk to and meet with during my work, inside and outside the company, are proud to be part of an industry that has a far-reaching impact on every field in which we live, and feel equal in a company based on values of transparency and commitment to the world we live in.

In my view, organizations and corporations in which the gender issue has been fully implemented and are operating in countries and regions where women have long been perceived as equals when it comes to value and opportunities, should focus their efforts in developing the next step in female empowerment: developing and investing in elements such as commitment, ambition, passion and enthusiasm. These are the levers that will take successful, opinionated, and talented women from wherever they are in their careers, to the next level. As the Greek poet C.P. Cavafy wrote in the poem Ithaka: Laistrygonians, Cyclops, wild Poseidonyou wont encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you

And above all we need to emphasize that this is not a favor that we do for women. It is not only the moral and right way, but also the economic and profitable one. Corporates who adopt this way get a diversity of voices and ideas around management tables and as a direct outcome a better growth and productivity. This is in the best interest of the organization and for us all as a society.

Ilia Rigas is Head of CSR at Energean

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Corporate responsibility to women empowerment: an essential part of doing business | Ctech - CTech

The future of Knowledge economy lies in investing in the upskilling of the youth and young children in schools. However, it is the case across the world that students are still in need of the skills and competencies necessary to succeed in a knowledge economy, despite being enrolled in formal education.[1] Quality education prepares young people for economic and personal empowerment that positively impacts national economies. Yet, large numbers of learners are failing to have access to skills they need to transition to work and realize opportunities in the information age.

Data from International Labor Organization shows that more than one in five (22.4%) young people aged 1524 were neither in employment, education, or training in 2020. What is more, two out of every three of these (67.5%) are young women, who outnumber men two to one. [2] Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims to address this by ensuring an inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.[3]

Ericssons Connect To Learn program is our global education initiative and partnership with like-minded organizations Supporting Sustainable Development Goal(SDG) 4 aims to ensure inclusive, quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. Connect to Learn supports this ambition by using technology to give those most in need access to quality education.[4] We believe improving educational opportunities is also vital for achieving other sustainable development goals, such as gender equality.

Girls in particular have a much greater chance of improving their quality of life through education, with a World Bank study showing that every year in secondary school correlates with an 18 percent increase in a girls future earning power.[5]

In Oman, we are deploying the Digital skills program as part of Connect To Learn initiative at the Center of Excellence for Advanced Telecommunications technology and IoT (CoE) to inspire the youth into exploring, learning, and choosing careers in STEM. Similarly, providing initiatives that aims to upskill curriculum developers and ICT educators alike, removing traditional barriers of time and space, in addition to enabling schools to cross national and international boundaries.

With this ambition, Ericsson has partnered with number of public, private, and nonprofit organizations working together in support of a quality education and digital inclusion for all. Omans Ministry of Finance, in partnership with Ericsson, has established the Center of Excellence for Advanced Telecommunications technology and IoT (CoE) to provide students, researchers, and startups with access to latest 5G and IoT technologies.[6] As part of the CoE, school students aged 11 to 16 years, will have access to a variety of hands-on learning modules in its Digital Labs benefitting 1,700 students by end of 2023. The program will provide students with the opportunity for practical training by experienced facilitators and help them discover the fun of programming and learn basic digital skills in robotics, electronics, AI, creative coding, and game development. Exposing children to basic ICT concepts can influence career choices for some and convey a basic understanding to many.

Furthermore, in cooperation with the New York Academy of Sciences and in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation we have launched the Junior Academy Program[7] in 2021. The program will give 100 Omani youth between the ages of 13 and 17 the opportunity to receive mentoring and participate in the Internet of Things challenge for virtual innovation. Our target is to give the opportunity to 200 students by 2023 to develop scientific research and innovation skills required to find solutions and build prototypes solving real life problems using IoT. Worth mentioning that since its announcement the program received great local interest from students and parents alike.

Ericsson is also offering new learning experiences by partnering with specialized online learning platforms and enabling access to quality online courses to ICT learners and educators. By the year 2023, 2700 learners will have access to the learning platform. In addition to Ericssons own educational portal Ericsson Educate that aims to upskill senior year university students specializing in technical qualifications.[8]

Education is at the very core of economic development and a key to a bright future. ICT is increasingly at the center of the education process offering new and creative ways to combine classroom experience, home learning, global outreach, and connectivity to the burgeoning world of online learning.

[1] https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf

[2] https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_737648.pdf

[3] https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4

[4] https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/sustainability-and-corporate-responsibility/digital-inclusion/access-to-education

[5] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2016/04/13/world-bank-group-to-invest-25-billion-in-education-projects-benefiting-adolescent-girls

[6] https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/5/2020/omans-ministry-of-finance-signs-agreement-to-establish-a-center-of-excellence-for-advanced-telecommunications-technology-and-iot-with-ericsson

[7] https://www.nyas.org/programs/global-stem-alliance/the-junior-academy/

[8] https://educate.ericsson.net/

Link:

Catalyzing a New Generation of Learners Through ICT - Ericsson