EVENTS 📆
What's your experience with inclusive leadership? #diversity
Can leaders create a space for dialogue, empathy and belonging through others' lived experiences? How do you eliminate microaggressions if you don’t talk about them when they happen outside of work.
I'm hosting a kitchen table conversation on this topic on Sunday, May 16 at 7:00 PM EDT on @clubhouse Join us if you’re available here If you have questions, please reply to this email. I'm happy to walk you through how Clubhouse works and how to install and setup the app, so you do awesome when you join an event.
TRENDING 🔥
(Video) One Good Thing: 98-year-old hosts virtual women's group
Covid-19 disrupted 98-year-old Trudy Berlin's weekly women's group at the Levis Jewish Community Center in Boca Raton, Florida. With help from the center, she took "The Ladies Room" online, which she ran since 2000. Since March, Berlin hosted Tuesday morning conversations with about 50 women, mostly age 70 and up from the US and Canada.
Berlin, a strong advocate for older women and the power of community, says:
“As you grow older, I think that the world can become very difficult for old people and they give up. ... I think if communities could learn to do this, and if government could learn to do this, just to listen and then respond. That’s the important thing”
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says nearly one-fourth of adults aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, which has many health risks. Berlin's energy and resilience is a lesson for anyone wanting to build a strong and vibrant listening community:
“I always feel when I sit here that I’m on a spaceship...We’re set to go. And we’re all flying off together.”
How to take community building to the next level: A case study with Motor Culture Australia
If you're a business owner and want to build a thriving community, ask Tom McPherson. He founded Motor Culture Australia in 2018 -- a community that welcomes anyone with a passion for cars or motorcycles regardless of brand. He wanted a better, positive, friendlier environment for car enthusiasts without the negativity and exclusiveness of the car industry.
The result was a fun, educational, and beneficial community to members. Despite being an online community, the company offers members access to automobiles, exclusive events, and experiences, that helps them meet and connect in person.
His 3 strategies to build a strong community are to stay ahead of trends, expand your network, and prioritize social responsibility. One mistake communities often make is to fail to recognize the benefits of balancing online and offline participation.
Building a strong presence online can help in-person community building communities stay in touch with their members no matter where they are. While the primary advantage of the community is forging real, tangible human relationships, the online aspect expands the reach of the community.
5 factors that contribute to students finishing high school
1.6 billion students in over 190 countries were disrupted by Covid-19. Closures of schools and other learning spaces impacted 94% of the world’s students, up to 99% in low and lower-middle income countries.
A research team from the University of Calgary studied factors around student engagement, achievement, and school completion. While all five factors covered are important, we highlight explicit inclusivity. A commitment to inclusivity and diversity equips all students with the ability to participate equally in society. Schools committed to explicit inclusivity better engage:
"those historically marginalized by mainstream schooling, including Indigenous learners, Black and racialized students, LGBTQ+ students and students with disabilities or behavioral, communication, intellectual, learning or physical challenges.
TOOLS 🛠️ ⚙️
How doing less can help you accomplish more
Sleep deprivation hurts productivity and adversely affects health. Almost one-third of Americans get less than 6 hours of sleep each night according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Employees with fatigue cost employers $136.4 billion a year in health-related lost productive time in the U.S.
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that helps you gain control of your time by prioritizing breaks, reducing distractions, and optimizing your brain, so you get more done in less time.
The Pomodoro technique consists of 5 easy steps:
- Pick a task
- Set a 25-minute timer
- Work on your task until time is up
- Take a 5-minute break
- Every 4 Pomodoros, take a 15-to-30-minute break
Taking a break allows you to come back to a task with a different perspective. It gives your brain a chance to tap into clarity, creativity, and insight. ... Implementing rest periods, whether it’s via the Pomodoro Technique or some other methods, will help reduce fatigue and stress.
POP CULTURE 🎥🎵🎮
(Film) Inhale Exhale Draw
The short film, "Inhale Exhale Draw" is an official selection for the 2021 WHO Health for All Film Festival. It was shortlisted from 1200 global entries and directed by Cynthia White.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said:
We hope the festival is not just a way to tell stories, but to change the arc of people’s stories around the world, towards better health.
Visual and performing artist, Bill Doan, who lives with anxiety and depression, founded The Anxiety Project. He believes art in its own way is a form of meditation. It helps you feel grounded and offers a great distraction for your mind. The short film opens with a quote from Doan:
I draw as a way of imagining my mental health rather than mental illness.
(Film) Just Breathe
The short film, "Just Breath" was made in 2015 by a Mindful Schools graduate, Julie Bayer Salzman and her partner Josh Salzman.
The film is about the power of mindfulness to transform anger, as spoken by a group of elementary school kids. Salzman overheard her then 5-year-old son talking with his friend about how emotions affect different regions of the brain. He was explaining how to calm down by taking deep breaths -- something they learned in kindergarten.
NOTABLE PEOPLE📝 📖🖊️
A day in the life of the nonprofit co-founder and activist Saad Amer
Saad Amer, the 26-year-old co-founder of Plus1Vote, launched his non-profit company in 2018. It wants to improve voter turnout in national U.S. elections using social media to create campaigns and engage young people.
Amer says their mission is:
To improve the representation of young people and people of color in our democracy, especially on issues such as climate change and social justice. ..I saw a need to energize young people, especially young people of color, to come into the voting space.
It should come as no surprise that Amer's days are full. He wakes up at 8 am and calls his team at 9 am. On one day, he prepares one of many speeches delivered at the UN. On another day, he's partnering with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former Vice President Al Gore to host seminars on climate change and voting rights. Then, he's teaming up with magazines as he did with V magazine during the 2020 election for a campaign called V is for Vote. His company partnered with Uber to provide free rides to polling stations.
After dinner, he writes pieces on the climate crisis focused on environmental justice, civic engagement, and climate solutions for his Yale fellowship with The OpEd Project. Later, he listens to music and audiobooks before falling asleep between 11 pm and 2 am, only to repeat the same demanding schedule the next day.
LASTLY 🏠 ❓ ℹ️
CFP News profiles people who collaborate on cool stuff impacting communities. Archive issues can be read here.
Flavian DeLima founded Collaborate for Purpose. Besides the newsletter 📧, we have a podcast 🎙️ and run kitchen table conversation events🔥.
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Hello friend,
Welcome to Issue 7 of the newsletter. The theme is mindfulness in honor of World Meditation Day on May 21st.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies defines a disaster as:
Disasters sometimes bring on added mental health consequences like PTSD, anxiety, and depression. They affect the at-risk groups the most like women, children, and older adults. In June 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that about 40% of adults in the U.S. reported at least one mental health concern. It was 10% a year earlier.
As the lockdowns and restrictions ease in various places, some people will take longer and find it especially hard to reacclimate to "normal life". They will experience fear, frequently check for symptoms, and avoid social situations and people. Researchers have named this pandemic phenomenon the COVID-19 Anxiety Syndrome in a paper in Psychiatry Research.
It's important to be mindful, kind and allow people around us to get back to their "normal" in their own time. It's even more important to remind them that they are not alone. Today's issue shows how kids and the elderly can manage their anxiety by connecting to their breath and with each other. World Meditation Day reminds us that we can heal by stoping to breathe, one breath at a time.
Ghanaian poet, Petra Amoako, based in Ontario, Canada wrote a powerful poem called Healing.
Healing (by Petra Amoako)
Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask.
Flavian
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CFP News is a weekly roundup of the best links on how people collaborate, create social impact and build community. An online version is here and archives are here.