THRIVE - Cradle to Career Initiative's New Executive Director

Inspired by Geoffrey Canada's "Whatever it Takes" approach which led to the nationally recognized Harlem Children's Zone, a few key foundation and community leaders in town quietly came together to begin making major investments in finding out what would it take to successfully implement a cradle to career strategy in Santa Barbara County.

With the help of Lois Mitchell, Orfalea Foundations President, I did an earlier post discussing what is Cradle to Career.  In this post I mentioned that existing efforts underway weave school districts, non-profit agencies, service providers, government, business, families, higher ed, and other public-private partners into a supportive safety net focused on strengthening families, neighborhoods and students ability to succeed.

The efforts of the initial foundations and community leader's aren't so quiet anymore.  In fact, the initiative continues to grow, has a new name called THRIVE, and a new impressive Executive Director, Anita Perez Ferguson who you can read about in Noozhawk.

The other week, I was part of an education event which brought together the boards from Storyteller, THRIVE, CALM, and First 5 to talk about collaboration.  Anita introduced herself and the keynote speaker.  What really blew me away about this event, wasn't actually the very noteworthy keynote speaker, but the clear resolve among these agencies to successful collaborate for the betterment of our community.

It was clear that Anita Perez Ferguson will be a key driver of this success and continues to make me proud to live in a community that very possibly is within striking distance of “making sure that all the kids in (Santa Barbara County) are going to be able to achieve academically and compete economically.”

Nobel Peace Prize Award to Two Liberain Women

 

 The New York Times reported that the Noble Peace Prize was award to three women last week, two of whom are Liberian.  The first is current President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (pictured left) who is Africa's first and only female head of state and is up for re-election this very week.

The second is Leymah Gbowee (pictured right), who spoke just last week at UCSB.  President Sirleaf's efforts these last six years to rebuild a country that destroyed every part of its infrastructure during 20 years of civil war is impressive.  However, it is Leymah's story  of courage that really inspires me.  

Leymah was a victim of the war and trapped in an abusive marriage as a young mother.  Rather than suffer helplessly, she helped to mobilized the Liberation Mass Action for Peace which grew to include hundreds of Muslim and Christian women who peacefully protested the constant state of civil war.

After months of unsuccessful peace talks between the various violent warlords, this group is credited with ending the war by literally blocking the doors of the peace talks so no one or nothing could get in or out until a settlement was reached.  The support of this group is also credited with Sirleaf's subsequent election.

TAKEAWAY#1:

It is Leymah's story that inspires hope in me that progress can be made and that we are not on what often seems like a never ending journey for peace in far off lands that we mostly just read about and don't know how to support.  Maybe our belief in people like Leymah will travel the universe and somehow find it's way to another courageous sole.

In fact, PBS is broadcasting a special on Women, War and Peace featuring Leymah and other courageous women.  The series starts tonight and broadcasts Tuesday nights until November 8th. 

TAKEAWAY #2:

Maybe Leymah's story will inspire us to take action closer to home for something we beleive in, big or small, that until now we felt was a loosing battle.


You can see the story of the Liberation Mass Action for Peace in the documentary "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" and you can read Leymah's story in her book, "Mighty Be Our Powers."

The Absolute Easiest Way to Support Your Public Library

I am a huge fan of the public library.  I firmly believe that access to knowledge is central to a free and civil society and deeply value the role libraries play in disseminating this knowledge. You can support them with two mouse clicks.

The Santa Barbara Public Library is a finalist in Verizon’s Check Into Literacy Program—a grant that will give up to $25,000 to support adult literacy services.

They need your vote (and the vote of all YOUR friends) to get the grant! Vote now by clicking on the link below, scrolling to the bottom of page and choosing “Friends of the Santa Barbara Public Library” in the blue box to the right.

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/VerizonFiOS?sk=app_217164111631555

(voting is on Facebook, but you don't need a Facebook account to vote)