My Life. My neighborhood. Our world.

This morning (8/31//09) Gov. Culver's I-JOBS program awarded Legion Arts a grant of $4.8 million toward the purchase, restoration and improvement of CSPS Hall on Third Street SE in the New Bohemia section of Cedar Rapids. 

The official announcement from Legion Arts says it all: 

"To say we're grateful is putting it mildly.

The African American Museum of Iowa will reopen its doors on January 17, 2009 with the premiere of its long-awaited exhibit “No Roads Lead to Buxton,” and an all-day open house to see how the Museum has changed since the 2008 floods. 
 

 Learning from the Past/Planning for the Future
(note: includes practical applications of sustainable models and green concepts)

December 9-10, 2008
Marriott Coralville Hotel & Convention Center
Coralville, Iowa

 Green Communities is the first national green building program focused entirely on affordable housing. Launched by Enterprise in fall 2004, Green Communities is designed to help developers, investors, builders and policymakers make the transition to a greener future for affordable housing.

A comprehensive offering of Green Grants, loans, tax-credit equity, training and technical assistance gives developers and builders the resources to bring green projects to life....

In Phase One of our Grassroots Organizing process you did your homework on The Big Picture of your issue area and selected a specific agenda on which to work. Understanding the Big Picture of your issue is crucial to grassroots organizing but so is doing your homework on the People related to your issue area. In Phase Two you identify The People Networks related to the agenda you just selected and dig in deeply to assess your network resources and support.

Now that you have done your homework and researched The Big Picture surrounding your issue, it is time to Map the Issue Space. Mapping the issue space helps you to find a course of action - your agenda - with goals you can measure and success you can track. This is a real brainstorming event, and it gets to be a lot of fun.

There is much we can learn from people who have faced natural disasters in other places. How they coped with the day to day aftermath of a most traumatic change in their lives gives us insight into our own. If nothing else we can learn that what we feel - the emotional numbing and detachment, followed by disappointment, anger, resentment and bitterness - are all natural parts of the recovery process.

Tunnel vision is a real hazard of grassroots organizing. When you are passionate about an issue or focused on a specific agenda, your view of every thing else around it can get mighty cloudy. You might hear what you want to hear, see what you want to see and put on blinders to any competing information. The problem is that YOU may not see/hear alternative viewpoints, but others in your community will not be so blind or deaf. And, your credibility can be gained or lost forever if you are not well prepared with real information.

Last night's evening news on ABC did a wonderful segment on the importance of community gardens as places for people to grow their own produce and to save money in these tough economic times. This morning I posted "our story" as a comment to the ABC on-line article noting how Community Gardens in Cedar Rapids can be the glue that begins to knit back our neighborhoods.