In the weeks since the January gathering the Twin Cities team has been getting used to Skype, lots of Skype. We are currently all in different cities: Patricia is in Minneapolis; Aly is in Northfield, MN; Elizabeth is in Ashland, WI; and Maddie is in Canada. So we have been faced with the challenge of 4 different schedules, 3 states, 2 time zones, and 2 countries. Needless to say I think all of us are pretty excited for when we can all be I the same place.

Patricia and Maddie talking about the Twin Cities program at the Chicago January Gathering

Despite all this we have been having fun and getting a lot done! Only two of us were able to make it to Chicago for January Gathering, so we had fun sharing everything we learned with our fellow program leaders. We planned lessons in Chicago which we then shared with the rest of our team in the weeks following. There was and Anti Oppression session, a Media and outreach session, ahow to work google docs session. We used the time to practice facilitating, and we are planning on having a facilitation recap when we are all back in the Twin Cities.

We also have gotten a lot done for our summer program. We also are hoping to expand our urban farming program, by working with a local restaurant and grow food for them! We are also trying to figure out how to expand our relationship with Spokes. Now that the bike shop is up and running, we are thinking that we might be teaching bike safety classes and do outreach for them.

All in all the past few weeks have been busy, but fun. It is hard to adjust to not seeing everyone in person, but soon we will all be in the Twin Cities for the summer and really be able to get into our projects.

Maddie Wilson, Twin Cities Summer of Solutions