(This summer, our Michigan team is working with GreenNation on the Green Economy Leadership Training program. This entry was written by GELT-er Ayoola White. Cross-posted on Solutionaries.net)

Caulk gun? Check.

Window kits? Check.

Toolbox? Sink aerators? Clipboard? Check, check, check.

Every morning, for the week and a half that the GELT team performed weatherizations, we hustled to prepare for the day. We gathered our supplies, called Highland Park residents, and hurried off to our destinations. People generally tend to regard all neglected communities as if they were identical, but we quickly recognized that no two houses were alike, neither in their weatherization needs nor in their family dynamics.

At every household, we were offered a little peek into the stories of those who lived there. Many of the narratives were nonverbal, implied in sighs, creaky stairs, and the giggles of children running around. Karina, an outspoken woman who has resided in the area for a long time, actually took the time to verbalize her story to my partner and me.

What surprised me so much about Karina was how freely she spoke about events in her personal life, especially to two young strangers. She had no qualms whatsoever about conveying her feelings about her ex-husbands, her ailing mother, her battle with drug addiction, or her complaints about certain neighbors. Her narrative was more than a little shocking, but, in the end, she gave a simple, yet moving account of how she took a step toward ridding herself of her pain.

Until recently, Karina never felt comfortable in her own home. To her, the walls held memories of toxic relationships and bitter shouting matches. In her studies as a student of natural healing, she eventually realized that she had to change her surroundings if she was to take control of her life. So she painted her walls a whimsical shade of pink.

Karina’s fundamental lesson for us was the importance of honoring oneself. People without self-respect and self-love are like black holes that swallow everything, even light. They make destructive decisions and can never truly move forward.

Listening to Karina’s story has made me realize that we cannot forget that there are individuals in the environmental movement. Coalition building and community organizing are vital, of course, but we cannot simply regard ourselves as identical cogs in a machine. We must learn our strengths, hone them, and adapt them.

(This summer, our Michigan team is working with GreenNation on the Green Economy Leadership Training program. This entry was written by GELT-er Zack Holden. Cross-posted on Solutionaries.net)

As we came to the door, I was feeling pretty negative. Tired, frustrated with the cancellation of our early morning appointment, I had bitterly informed my partners that they should take the ‘lead’ on this house, that I just wanted to follow orders and let one of them take up the task of explaining who we were and everything we were doing to the home owner. I had a vague sense of ill ease as we reached our destination on Hill Street in the northwest of Highland Park, as the last time we had lugged a weatherization kit through the neighborhood, we had been told we were ‘in the wrong neighborhood’ by a group of teens.

When we came up the front steps and knocked on the door, I noticed the tape holding together the screen door and the lingering smell of stale tobacco, thinking we were in for a interesting experience. We heard a man hollering at us, asking who we were. A woman soon came to the door, asking who we were and who we were looking for, telling us she didn’t want our ‘shit’, Needless to say, we were taken aback by her rather aggressive manner, and the weatherization was nearly dead on arrival, until the man, her husband, informed her that he had in fact signed up. She was further relieved when (in direct contravention of my previous promise to my partners) I explained to her that our service was in fact free, and that we would not only give her the supplies but actually install them as well. When she realized we weren’t trying to scam her or otherwise pull some trick, her demeanor instantly shifted from stand-offish to absolutely friendly, and a smile came over her face.

As we headed into the basement, her husband offered a brief explanation of her initial resistance to us- there had been a ‘death’ recently, and tensions were running high. I didn’t have to wait long to hear the full story. As I burned my fingers trying to install CFLs, she told me that the death in question was in fact a triple murder that had recently occurred on the block, leaving three young men dead, with no news coverage and little hope of justice. She explained her initial hostility, saying there was a huge drug problem on the block.

These were the first revelations of many. As we worked our way through her home, sealing holes, replacing bulbs and sink heads and putting up weatherstripping, we learned that she had reclaimed the home from drug dealers who had taken over the house after her mother’s death, and how strangers still showed up at her door looking for a fix (she thought we were of this category), how drive by shootings were a regular occurrence (instead of putting plastic kits over windows with leaky edges as we might in other homes, we covered the windows taken out by a recent shooting). How murders were common and a 90 year old woman had been raped on the block just the other week. How she wanted to get out of the neighborhood, but she was living on her unemployment checks after losing her job as a medical assistant.

This is the sort of situation that can present the central problem of organizing around environmental and sustainability issues in places like Highland Park. How could she devote attention to protecting our national parks or atmosphere when protecting her home is a matter of life or death? I honestly believe that the solution lies in programs such as Green Economy Leadership Training (GELT) and weatherization in particular. It allows for community and its residents to work together not only to save money on their utility bill and understand environmental impacts, but to also reconnect with one another.  Weatherization makes both environmental and economic sense. I hope it can present an outstanding site to develop the necessary, mutually beneficial relationships in places such as Highland Park.

(This summer, our Michigan team is working with GreenNation on the Green Economy Leadership Training program. This entry was written by GELT-er Ayoola White. Cross-posted on Solutionaries.net)

Green Economy Leadership Training (GELT) has been filled with varied challenges. One day we’re constructing raised beds out of wood reclaimed from abandoned houses. The next, we’ll discuss applications of permaculture and the dangers of nuclear power. Since we are constantly defining and redefining our goals as a group, our activities tend to be hectic. Last Friday afternoon, we took on yet another challenge: canvassing residents to find candidates for free home energy improvements.

Hitherto that sweltering afternoon our primary interaction with the Highland Park community involved people from the neighborhood coming to us. Kids helped us pull weeds and remove bushes. Adults sat in on classes, sometimes, or walked around, carefully observing our work. Friday was the first day that we, the participants of GELT, collectively went to meet the people we’ve been working to serve. Armed with clipboards, sign-up sheets, and flyers, we fanned out.

Upon reaching the first household in my assigned turf, the southernmost region of Highland Park, I was stunned to discover that the words I had so smoothly recited that morning were not so smooth anymore. It was as though I suddenly had no clue what I was doing anymore. Luckily, my inner nervousness and confusion didn’t flow outward enough to repel absolutely everyone, and I was able to gather a few signatures in the first hour or so. I eventually tweaked my spiel to something that was comfortable for me to remember. But still, in the journey between each door, I kept scrutinizing my tactics. Am I talking too fast? The way I stammer is so embarrassing! Am I saying too much? Did I forget to say ‘thank you’ to that last lady? Is there something in my teeth?

Even when I was able to overcome self-consciousness, though, I felt that there was a moderate disconnect between me and the people I visited. Thankfully, most were friendly, and no one slammed a door in my face, but the people appeared wary of me sometimes. Given my unfamiliar face and the clipboard I was carrying, perhaps I was mistaken for a census worker or a salesperson before I opened my mouth to speak. Some were incredulous that the home energy visit I was describing was free. Others seemed suspicious of me, and they asked me where I was from and whether I worked for a utility company and was trying to get them to switch their service. It was as though there were walls of thick glass separating us, sometimes, making communication challenging.

In addition to reflecting on my own actions those of others, I was also mindful of my physical surroundings. My canvassing partner and I covered a total of three streets in that afternoon. Each street had its own character, its own look. One street was filled with lovely houses and breathtaking gardens, but there weren’t that many people outside enjoying them. The next had houses that were shabbier, but more people were congregating and conversing on porches. The last one was a mix of the two. What a contrast from my neighborhood, where every house, every street is a copy of all the others.

Despite the many abandoned and decrepit houses I saw everywhere, I noticed that immense vibrancy existed among the pockets of squalor. People were walking around, greeting their neighbors. Kids played together and adults watched out for them. What’s more, there were plants growing EVERYWHERE. Lawns, left untamed, exploded with greenery. Leaves and vines grew out of stairs and floorboards. It’s as if millions of sinewy green hands are emerging from the ground to pull the houses into the earth. How ironic it is that places like Highland Park are often thought of as sites of urban decay, when so much growth is taking place.

Since our goal in GELT is community building, not gentrification, it is vital to tap into the positivity that already exists here, rather than assuming that we have all the answers and that we’re here to rescue the weak and the downtrodden. On Friday, we GELT-ers made connections through our canvassing work that I hope will evolve into a strong network of people who will shape their neighborhoods into comfortable, sustainable living spaces. Together, we’ve already gathered about 50 signatures from people who want to make their homes more energy efficient. From here, our impact shall grow.

(Global Exchange’s Michigan team is working with the local community in Detroit to transition it to a clean, green economy starting with Highland Park. One of our Michigan organizers, Scott Meloeny introduces the Green Economy Leadership Training (GELT) summer program.)

[Cross-posted from It’s Getting Hot in Here.]

This country has been built and influenced by each generation that has come to pass. While we still face major social issues, these previous generations have contributed some of the most impressive feats known to man, developing unique and marketable skills and tools that have fueled an extraordinary amount of growth and set the highest standard of living the world has ever seen. However, our generational brethren also left behind something else: a very specific mind set on the world.  A mind set that can be seen today powering our infrastructure, shaping our culture, and instilling our values. One that was relative to the times of our mothers and fathers, grandparents and great-grandparents but now stands outdated and dangerous.

Bob Dylan was right when he said “the times, they are a changin’.” In fact, times have changed.  One doesn’t need to look very far to see that our previous generation’s systems, values and ideas were built to be supplied by a finite source that right now is exhausting our planet’s resources, while destroying its species and environment.  It is here we can witness most explicitly our generational divide. One in which past generation’s values, skills and mind sets are no longer suitable or sustainable for us. We need to embrace this divide. But we must do so carefully and in a way that equips our peers with new skills, values and perceptions, and also enables older friends, families and neighbors to partake and share in building a new holistic, clean energy economy.  It’s time to have exponential learning overcome exponential growth. It’s time to value accumulated wisdom overcome accumulated wealth.

BUILDING A BRIDGE TO SOMEWHERE

To bridge this multi-generational divide we need to integrate education and training,  applying both to communities and peoples who need it the most. Unfortunately, past generations relied on a model where the privileged would go off to higher learning, while others were left behind in communities ill-equipped to make necessary, sustainable changes for growth.  As we have seen recently with our older college grads, the path of post high school education does very little to prepare one for the skills needed to mend social, economic and cultural inequalities.  This is where we believe the first steps can be taken. The skills and knowledge that go beyond the classroom and make tangible impacts in the community is what we at Global Exchange see as a potential equalizer for such existing inequalities.

The Green Economy Leadership Training (GELT) is the first program from GX to begin to integrate education and community while applying empowering solutions derived from these community classrooms.  GELT provides present day skills, knowledge and experience that present and future generations will need to not only assist in building a new energy economy, but also to live in a way that creates a healthy and positive synergy within our world. With technical skills in renewable energies, energy efficiency, permaculture and community development combined with personal skills in chi-wellness, yoga, nutritional health and lifestyle consciousness, GELT seeks to train and empower generations of people to collectively build, work and live in the clean energy economy.

THE HIGHLAND PARK PROJECT

The Green Economy Leadership Training, a Global Exchange and GreeNation program, calls Highland Park (HP), Michigan headquarters.  Once a model city for all to follow, HP no longer finds its current infrastructure and skills suitable for a clean economy transition. However,  HP has the unique opportunity to restructure its system, re-skill its workforce and reactivate its pioneering attitude that once led a nation decades ago and become one of the first clean economies of its kind.

Although only its first year, GELT will look to achieve some watershed moments by the end of summer.  Already, ten individuals have received their certification in permaculture.  Even more are being trained on how to weatherize homes and will then go out and perform up to 200 weatherizations throughout the city.  This is especially important, as up to 40% of Highland Park residents live under the poverty level, making it very difficult for many to adequately heat their homes.  Proper weatherizations will provide a 10-15% decrease in monthly bills, giving some financial relief to local residents but more importantly providing them a safe, warm home during Michigan’s long winters.  In addition to training, classes in demand-side economics for renewable energy and energy efficiency will give participants the understanding of what it takes to transition to a clean energy economy at both the local and national level.

2010 Summer GELT Course Catalog

GELT is also building for the long term to create a model clean energy economy and it all begins at the micro level. It’s here GELT is seeking to create a foundation for a city wide food system that will provide nutritional food year round to all its residents as well as install a farmers market that will be available in the fall of 2011. This will be done by redeveloping vacant lots throughout the city and connecting them into block based cooperatives that give ownership to residents.  However, achieving food security for local residents will not be our only goal.  GELT will also look to implement a micro-grid utility over the next three years.  This entity will provide energy to residents in a variety of ways.  First, by converting two homes into utilities that provide electricity and hot water (solar photovoltaic and solar hot water) through renewable sources, as well as heating and cooling (geo-thermal). Residents will then have the opportunity to reap the benefits of renewable energy and ownership of their power production.  These localizes systems will look to employ community residents so that we may come full circle in providing a community based model of the clean energy economy.

The Green Economy Leadership Training will be a flagship program of Global Exchange, as we will continue to run more programs throughout the fall and winter and into the new year until we can make our vision a reality; a community model of a holistic, clean energy economy. It’s always been said that a narrow mind set is an obstacles to change, but we hope through our community actions to overcome even this profound psychological barrier.  GELT seeks to be one of many actions that will bring about tangible solutions for creating a model clean energy economy in Highland Park, Michigan. Because as today’s generational shift continues, we must fully embrace the responsibility to continue healthy evolutions in this country as well as doing what we can to reverse problematic ones.

As we prepare for the long holiday weekend all across the country, we at Global Exchange are taking some time to reflect on ideas of freedom that we have been working on together with you.  From the US Social Forum, to reaffirming our independence from oil to ending the travel ban to Cuba, join us as we share with you four ways to think about freedom on the Fourth of July.

  • From June 18th-22nd, thousands of activists from around the country converged in Detroit for the US Social Forum to look at ways that the social movement can grow and connect to each other. Global Exchange was there showing a film about the Climate Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia and how it connects to local struggles for Climate Justice around the world. In Michigan, our local organizers introduced the summer Green Economy Leadership Program (GELT) bringing youth and local communities together to rebuild Detroit from the ground up.  (Read more about Global Exchange at the US Social Forum)

    photo credit: US Social Forum

  • As we begin to build a more just and sustainable world in our local communities, we must also declare our independence from an empire of debt and energy dependency. TJ Buonomo of our Chevron Program writes a great piece urging us to do just this and lends strong support for domestic renewable energy.
  • Another victory for freedom is just in our horizon as the fight to end the travel ban to Cuba reached a milestone this week. On Wednesday, the House Committee on Agriculture passed the “Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act” putting us one step closer to ending the travel ban this year and setting the stage for a more humane, sensible, and just U.S. policy towards Cuba. Check out all the ways you could experience Cuba for yourself.
  • Lastly, what better way to ring in the holiday weekend than by participating in our Summer time Fair Trade S’mores campaign. This Fourth of July kicks off the beginning of the most delicious political action you can take this summer, by calling on Hershey’s and the rest of the cocoa industry to help alleviate poverty and end abusive child labor in the cocoa fields and make the switch to Fair Trade. Celebrate the freedom and independence small-scale Fair Trade farmers have in a system that empowers them to escape the cycle where profits rule and maintain their traditional lifestyle with dignity.

From the urban gardens in Detroit to the cocoa farms in Africa, Global Exchange continues to work towards a more just, equitable, and sustainable society. As the US Social Forum taught us, another world is possible and the only way to achieve this change is by taking action into our own hands. As our founding fathers and mothers taught us, freedom and justice for all can be achieved if we stand together.

photo credit: US Social Forum

After a political let down in Copenhagen back in December, activists around the world have been mobilizing into action, understanding that we don’t have the time to wait for our leaders to make the changes we need to see in national legislation, in global treaties or agreements.  This attitude is prevalent in Detroit this week.  Beginning with the great discussion at our session Wednesday morning, Anti-Imperialism is Green, to the workshops on movements in Central and South America, to 350.org’s 10-10-10 Global Work Party campaign.  People are sick of waiting for change, so they’re taking it into their own hands on the local level.

Global Exchange’s Michigan team has been working on national policy and legislation for four years now.  In the past year, we’ve transitioned to more localized work on the ground.  We’ve had overwhelming support from the community on this work.  In Lansing, during Powershift last fall, we launched a Bicycle Cooperative.  This bike co-op has received tremendous support from the community as it works to make transportation safe, easy, affordable, fun, and green.  The bike co-op offers an alternative to the current imperial, economic system.  People are able to come and get work on their bike done for a donation of either time or money, or free if neither is possible.  Parts and tools are available, all of which have been donated by community members.

The summer program in Highland Park is yet another example of localized work to transition to a clean, green economy.  Global Exchange is working to transition a block in a neighborhood in Detroit by working with the community.  At the same time, youth activists are getting Green Economy Leadership Training (GELT), learning about alternative energy, permaculture, and reusing resources to retrofit homes.  This type of work shows what the green economy could look like.  It’s a model which can be replicated and modified all over the country.  And similar projects are popping up all over.

This past week, over 20,000 people gathered in Detroit for a common goal, another world – a better world, a green, more just world. In order to reach this world, we will need change on all levels.  But we can’t wait for our leaders to make those changes.  We need to start taking action ourselves.  And as the Social Forum demonstrated, people are doing this all over the world.  Its time for us to follow suit and do the same.

(Casey McKeel is part of our Midwest Climate and Energy Campaign based in Lansing, Michigan where they are working together to build a green economy in the Midwest.)

(US Social Forum photo stream)

(This is the fifth (and last) in a series of posts by Executive Director, Kirsten Moller as she pedals her way to the US Social Forum. Read on as she shares her journey from Upstate NY to Detroit and the lessons learned along the way.)

US Social Kirsten

Downtown Detroit doesn’t look much like the rest of Detroit. Some people say that the city is revitalizing itself from the center outward. Its high rise buildings glisten in the morning sun, the neon signs from the Casino across the river shine with promise of instant wealth and the river walk is a pleasant stroll from the hotel to the Cobo Center where 10,000 people are meeting to talk about a different kind of revitalization.

Nolan Finley, an editor for the Detroit News welcomed the Forum with an editorial entitled:  “Detroit hosts leftist cavalcade” calling the gathering a “hootenanny of pinkos, environuts, peace-niks, Luddites, old hippies, Robin Hoods and Urban hunters and gatherers. In other words, a microcosm of the Obama administration.”  When we read the piece out loud the only thing we disagreed with was the last microcosm part.  We are not here to endorse the current policies which escalate the war in Afghanistan under new leadership, which allow the oil disaster in the Gulf to continue and, without a doubt to replicate itself in the future, and which is creating cities and rural communities hanging on to fewer and fewer social services.

The idea of the forum is to put people first, to confront neo-liberal policies where ever we find them (and sometimes they are well-hidden) and to link our struggles in a web that can begin to transform our world as we confront the power of the corporations and the state.

Since the beginning in 2001, unions, community based organizations, youth groups, NGOs and artists have attempted to build a sense of community and dialogue that can augment and amplify each other’s work.  The official newspaper of the forum reminds us that “this path puts people over profits and values action over pontification.”

But for leftists who struggle daily to have a voice in their communities, the temptation to pontificate is sometimes just too great!  When faced with a list of over a thousand workshops to attend, it is impossible to figure out which one is going to cut through an analysis of where we are, to a vision of where we want to be, and how we are going to get there together.  The result for many of us is that we flit from partial workshop to partial workshop, hoping to find the one truly inspiring meeting that will make it all worthwhile.  Its kind of like being at an all-you-can eat buffet and trying to taste a little bit of everything with the end result that you feel stuffed and unsatisfied.

So the challenge for today is to pick a topic, stick to it — enjoy the energy and diversity in the hallways and streets but stay put for the harder work of committing to change that we can make together.

The US Social Forum is part of an international set of fora happening with social movements around the world, in Turkey, Paraguay, Québec, Mexico, Iraq and Palestine all leading up to a World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal next year.   When we learn to link our movements, listen to each others stories, respect each other’s struggles and reach out past our own struggles, maybe we will be able to generate new strategies and vision for the other world we are all working for — a world of justice, sustainability and dignity.  I urge you all to listen to Amy Goodman’s reports on DemocracyNow! who has the remarkable ability to capture an overview that eludes those of us still rushing from workshop to workshop.