Yay, we do workshops. But not the usual style. The ultimate style of having co-creative gatherings are JAMS in the tradition of YES! (www.yesworld.org) Read their story here and check out the video for live impressions.
- We organize jams with teenage hero changemakers, and
- we also adapt this approach for other people… change-oriented students and adults, who are “beginners” compared to YES! members, but feeling the call to become a changemaker or upgrade their influence.
THE SETTING
- 2.5 DAYS
- 2 facilitators
- 26 participants
- 2 cooks
- 3 babies
- 1 magnificent seminar house in the mountains
- 3 horses
- 2 organic store angels donating 300€ worth of delights!
OUTCOMES
- Tears and dreams
- Worldview change on people and youth power
- Moms regain hope in the future of their babies and kids
- 14 people launch projects, starting the week after; incl replication of Will Allen’s “Growing Power” (urban farming using hydroponics with 17-fold yields per hectar as countryside farmers
- 18 adults commit to serve as mentors-on-demand to the 5 youth
- 1 solid, loving regional network – the “Changemaker Tribe” – founded in splendour!
- Plans for Winter Meeting, Eater Gathering, Summer Camps
- 4 German/Austrian teens with potential as YL changemakers and speakers
- Youth meets Canada’s super teen Robyn Hamlyn for taking the “Blue Communities” Reslution to Europe; water protection through regional legislation
- 1 YL Ambassador making presentations in schools
- 500€ funding for printing YL Poster and Presentation Kits
SHIFT HAPPENS!
THE TOOLS
- Uplifting music; including Earth Guardians songs
- A magic box of methods;Â some from the YES! Jam Facilitation Manual
- YL Videos
- YL Poster Set and Cardgame
- Storytelling
- Skype meetings with YL Hero/ines and Ambassadors from Canada, Bhutan, India and Italy
INSTANT OCCURENCES THE DAY AFTER THE JAM
- Youth are fired up for a YL YOUTH JAM as soon as possible
- Request for a german youth speaker at foreign office event on development and human rights
- $1,000 job for YL film team for UN Climate Summit in Paris
- National network of 400 presenters on global issues connects with YL
- The same network organizes a workshop on how to use YL Media, Methods and Services to equip the classes for positive change follow up
- Donations for YL Warrior Honour Shirts to give to YL Hero/ines meeting at Paris UN Climate Summit
- Radio interview on YOUTH-LEADER for the Conference of Visionaries on the next week-end
- Request for Video Greeting for the Italian YL branch inspired by our Skype Session
- Request for YL Info brochures for Indian YL Ambassador to hand over to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi on occasion of screening of “I am Malala” film this month.
Our first YL Jam in GERMANY has been blessed with the best imaginable team:
Megan Williams, straight from an epicentre of youth leadership spirit – BOULDER, COLORADO, home town of world-famous Earth Guardians Xiuhtezcatl and Itzcuauthli Martinez. Megan has grown up at a school practically living YES! spirit, been living in such a commune, and is inspired to the brim with the achievements of her teen neighbours that have caused ripple effects across her region. Now that she lives in Austria, she feels like cultivating the same spirit around her.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING really is to embody this freestyle, free flow dynamic passionate spirit. That’s why people in Europe need such natural North American changemakers to bang boom uplift the Europeans living in these lands of strong institutions and collective stewardship (both of which are practically absent in North America) but no heroism (yep, zero hero awards in Europe and also no potential applicants for anything living up to the humbling sacred achievements of North American teens, or adults, for that matter!).
So, what better partner could Megan find but
Eric and YOUTH-LEADER for the contents, methods, empowerment, pedagogical back-up and support network, so we co-designed a JAM, inviting regional schools and a dynamic network of wilderness schools / trainers … who started feeling the wish to teach their young students to reconnect to nature and themselves AND ALSO to heal and transform their communities and societies to protect the Earth they love!
Circumstance and surprise created a constellation of 24 adults and (only) 4 teens, which made the Jam take different turns and shifting priorities from the original focus on “teens” and “youth leadership in schools” to adults, worldview shift, finding vision, passion, commitment for their own project visions …
The group was excellent! This means – they were open-hearted people AND they were driven to participate by genuine care, and ready to pay 300€. They knew this was not a common, free, lukewarm info workshop, but something that appeared on their path, recommended by the veteran wilderness training mentor they have known and valued and joined on a path of personal transformation for years.
This made the JAM particularly intriguing for us changemakers… to have a mentor who sensed he wants his advanced students to learn something ELSE on top. And people with a good sense of listening, observance, community. Cool! Â
How would people respond to a new and exotic phenomenon of youth leadership and social entrepreneurship from a distant, very urban and hyped land?
THIS VIDEO CONVEYS THE SPIRIT OF HIGH ATTENTION, OPENNESS AND COLLABORATION .
It does not show contents and project outcomes. It focusses on methods, intensity of connection, expression and listening. THE PEOPLE being captivated by ideas, people speaking from the heart, listening, exploration, dreaming and formulating their deep vision. Sense the feeling and atmosphere, the open hearts!
PURE BEAUTY, HUH?!
Some impressions may strike you as unusual (different from common process facilitated seminars squeezed into mental cages and straight jackets not felt or truly understood by the practitioners). It is these soft elements opening soul, sparking revelations, enabling authentic deep connection, … and then merging with concrete, visionary contents for personal, group, societal and planetary purpose … and evoking the (usually missed!) needed tangible follow-up.
PEOPLE LOVED THE YLÂ STORIES, VIDEOS, THE INSIDE VIEWS of these phenomenal young people, showing us the path
- how to feel
- strong, doubtless, focussed on what is right
- how to clearly spread their message with media, teachers and citizens
We experienced many aha-moments, reconnecting with feelings, dreams, putting words on things one had sensed but lacked the clarity to grasp, re-defining oneself, letting go and healing old attempts and breakdowns, rekindling vision, discovering trauma, blocks and apathy, letting go of fears, celebrating our love for the living, sensing pain and anger and transforming it into creative drive … experiencing shared passion and collective knowledge, competence and resources in dialogue sessions … as well as giving space to feelings, slow rolling tears as revelations found their way into minds, hearts and guts… and turned into smile, hugs and Hi5s.
Wouldn’t you want to experience this and see it happen among young people and caring adults?
Stories and videos like these! The Poster Set you see laid out on the floor, the card people have been reading from… you can browse the full collection of 48 hero/ines here; patience, let the poster slideshow load.
The 4 youth brilliantly re-connected / strengthened their personal passion, vision, focus topics and priority projects … Â standing in the sovereign, shining truth and clarity that makes finest youth leaders.
Remarkably, 14 of 24 participants finished by formulating long-held dreams and aspirations, with solid confidence and concrete action plans for instant implementation “starting tomorrow & this week” backed by a new, loving network of people (indeed, a regional “tribe”) and “mentor partnerships” between youth and adults, as well as “support networks” between adults.
The focus on individual development, vision and projects, topped by collaboration of the community left little space for the bigger picture of youth leadership, its secrets of success, methods and mechanisms, as well as making youth leadership omni-present at schools through YOUTH-LEADER media, methods, services, community and leadership programs.
THESE important dimension did of course find their place … in midnight sessions with participants with a priority on large-scale youth empowerment!
It was an excellent experience of adaptation to groups’ alchemy, needs and vision.
Altogether, the JAM was a Miracle of activity, growth, surprise, love and empowerment.
It’s the stuff that happens when magical people like Eric, Megan and our myriad of friends present on video, skype, posters, cardgames and music meet with people responding to their heart’s call for reducing the suffering in the world and learning how to “create the beautiful world that their hearts know is possible, but their mind yet does not comprehend how to create” (Charles Eisenstein).
YL videos, solutions and spirit awaken precisely this knowledge, vision and embodied feeling!
That’s big. We have to tell Charles and his fans!
WHAT’S NEXT?
The regional Changemaker Tribe will build on its commitments, network and share the experience with their friends, invite more people and plans to organize a winter party (for sharing achievements and adventures), easter gathering (as a follow-up) and summer camps – using their wilderness training infrastructure and upgrading their program for kids with changemaking contents. That’s mighty awesome!
PARTICIPANTSÂ have begun sharing stories with family and friends and moved tears.
YOUTHÂ are pumped up to join a pure YL Â YOUTH JAM with a hot as heavens program focussed on teen-powered action and conquering schools and streets across the country, continent and beyond.
YOUTH-LEADER Ambassadors are studying our Media, Methods and Services … to learn and share and use in their environments  for presentations, exhibits and fundraisers.
THE MARRIOTÂ FOUNDATION is looking forward to equip our Ambassadors with media sets and to evolve our partnership. THANK YOU! WE COULD NOT DO IT WITHOUT YOU!
PARTNER ORGANIZATIONSÂ are organizing follow-up workshops for their networks. THANK YOU FOR SEEING THE AWESOME VALUE IN OUR TOOLS AND SERVICES!
OUR FILM TEAM is booked to interview changemakers and document special youth sessions of the UNITED NATIONS Climate Conference in Paris.
ERIC is sharing news of this wonderful event and offers for organizing likewise with and for others.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL YOUNG GENERATION EVER IS DISCOVERING A BRIGHT NEW WORLD & SPREADING ITS BUTTERFLY WINGS FOR CREATING IT
WILL YOU HELP US PASS ON HUMANITY’S FINEST SPIRIT & KNOWLEDGE TO THEM?
Our JAMS are naturally different each time, as a mix of contents, setting, group and surprise.
WILL YOU JOIN or CO-ORGANIZE or INVEST in ONE?