Empathy and Richmond Community Organizing
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Dear All,
I can be there Wednesday, looking forward to it.
Some questions:
What is the decision making process for the NPA Empathy project?
For example, is a Judy Baca Mural a done deal or will there be some more
discussion about it?
I am curious what all the other meeting attendees think and feel?
I personally did have some reservations that I'd
like to voice.
One for example. There was talk in the meeting about community organizing. It was mentioned that
an important part of the NPA empathy project is to do local organizing. It's
important to build a creative local support base for the value of empathy and
filling the 'empathy deficit' that President Obama talks about. The soul of the
project is based on Obama's call for more empathy. Also, Obama lead a certain
inclusive and empathic style of local organizing that I feel it would be good to
incorporate, build on and support (both organizationally and financially).
I was thinking about that and community organizing aspect doesn't seem like a good rational for bring in someone from Southern California. There are other arguments for doing it of course. Bringing someone in from Southern California to do community organizing in Northern California doesn't seem very efficient. The East Bay has some of the best and most active community organizers anywhere in the country.
I'm writing up some of my other thoughts about the meeting and will be discussing this with our Empathy Group this Saturday and will gather their feelings as well. I'll send that out once it's formulated. I also, hope to hear what other RAC meeting attendees feel?
In terms of organizing that is already underway, I wanted to let everyone know what our Empathy Group is already doing related to community organizing around the Empathy Project. Here is just a bit of what we are doing;
1. Empathy Website and Discussion List
We have a Website created for the project and a discussion list that servers as
a focal point for information. It can be seen here.
Empathy Group
http://CultureOfEmpathy.com/
East Bay Stories of Empathy
http://CultureOfEmpathy.com/StoriesGrant
2. Empathy Group - Ten Core Extremely Committed Members
We have a core group of people that
meet in our house that are working on the empathy project. The group is
continuously growing as well. We have 2 new people signed up for this weeks
meeting. We've held meetings since November of
2008. We meet every week, for 3 hours! For our 'East Bay Stories
of Empathy' project members have committed to volunteer around 2,000 hours. You
can see some photos from our meetings at;
http://CultureOfEmpathy.com/Meetings.htm
3. We are Reaching Out to Local Community Organizations
We are building
support and involvement for the empathy stories project.
Here is a list of organizations that have; signed up to be partners, show interest in being partners or that we want to contact. We want to reach out to
as many East Bay Organizations as possible.
http://CultureOfEmpathy.com/StoriesGrant/Organizations.htm
Do you have suggestions for other organizations we could contact?
It's
especially helpful, if you can personally introduce us to the organizations
director.
4. Outreach at California Democratic Party Convention in Sacramento.
See the video of our outreach:
VIDEO: Empathy Group @
Organizing for America Listening Tour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm2YScdLpr0
The state democratic party just held it's convention in Sacramento, April
24-26
We went there and promoted the empathy project and worked on building support
for it.
Here's some of what we did.
a. We handed out 1,000 flyers about the project. See video.
b. We talked to many, many people about the project. See video.
c. Nancy Pelosi
Joan talked and shook hands with Nancy Pelosi. She was signing books, but didn't talk about empathy. (However, Nancy's speech was full of references to Progressive Values)d. Hilary Crosby win's Party Controller Position
Hilary Crosby is our local El Cerrito Democratic Club Party president. She ran for State Democratic Club Controller position. I shot the video for her promotion piece. I also consulted her on incorporating empathy into her campaign and video, which she did. In an upset, she won the election for state Democratic Party Controller. I don't know if running on empathy helped her campaign. Will have to check with her on that. Anyway, she has a mandate to support empathy, since she ran on it. See video at bottom of page at: http://www.hilary4controller.come. Empathy Article in Each Tote Bag.
Andrew Byrnes who is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley wrote an article about the importance of empathy in the democratic party. His article was placed in each of the 3,500 tote bags which were given out. This really helped set the stage for a great receptivity for the empathy project. I met for half an hour with Andrew and we talked about the empathy project and how we could work together to promote empathy. Here is his article.Harnessing the Power of Empathy:
http://blog.cadem.org/partyline/2009/03/harnessing-the-power-of-empathy.html
Building A Lasting Democratic Majority By Understanding What Keeps People Up At Night, Andrew Byrnes,f. Contact with Obama's USA Service in Washington DC
We talked with Buffy Wicks who is director of the USA Service in Washington DC. This is a new organization of the Obama administration that will oversee and promote community service in the country. Buffy said service will be a LARGE component of the Obama administration and they have a big program they are rolling out. I believe this will be one way they are working to fill the empathy gap. Service will be a way of embodying empathy in the community. This is defiantly something that should be woven into the empathy project. We gave Buffy a flyer for the empathy project and she said she'd look it over and check it out.
5. Outreach at Organizing for America
See the video of our outreach:
VIDEO: Empathy Group at
Organizing for America Listening Tour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBHRoavxRFc
The organization that the Obama campaign created was called Obama for America. They
are converting this into Organizing for America (OFA). They just sent out teams
around the country for an Organizing for America Listening Tour. They wanted to
hear from the grass roots about their ideas for moving forward. They just
held a meeting in Oakland with 350 people signed up and about the same at
another event in San Francisco. Our Empathy Group went to the Oakland event and talked to Mary
Jane Stevenson, CA State Director OFA about the Empathy Project. We promoted the
project to the attendees and gave out flyers. We will be in contact with the
Ruby Reid the Bay Area director who has seen the empathy project website and is
very excited about working with us. You can see us at work, check
out the video and you can see local East Bay organizing in action.
6. Bay Area Nonviolent Communications (BayNVC) Group
We are working with the BayNVC who are project partners. They are a group that
does a lot of work with empathy and have a great deal of experience with the
hands on implementation of empathy. They work, for example, with inmates
at San Quentin Prison. We'll be interviewing 10-15 of their trainers on the
theme of empathy. We are attending a meeting/house party with them this weekend.
7. El Cerrito Democratic Club Article
I submitted an article to the local Democratic club newsletter about the project.
The newsletter goes out to 300 people in the area. I hope we will be able to
contact the local Republican clubs as well. Wouldn't that be great to get
Democrats and Republicans together to talk about empathy! Now that would be a
news story!
8. Interview with State Senator
Loni Hancock - She Supports Empathy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26gxRJWkw3k
I interviewed our state senator, Loni Hancock and she is a big supporter of
empathy. She says it's her most important value! You can see the
interview.. Her story is about seeing, as a young girl, the animals in cages in
the Zoo and being very disturbed by their treatment. For the past 2 years
I've been interviewing people on What are Progressive Values? and this interview
was part of that.
9. Talked with Our Assembly Member Nancy
Skinner
I gave her a flyer at a recent community organizing event at the Nevin
Center. I've interviewed her before talking about what values are important to
her and will interview her again on her feelings about empathy.
10. Video Taping and Documenting
We are doing ongoing video taping and documenting our outreach and placing it on
the internet.
See the previous video above.
best
Edwin
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I feel this moment is a once in a life time
moment. It's important to approach it in the best way.