Check out this great video about our participants’ experiences in the Twin Cities Summer of Solutions 2011 made by Brynn Haugen and Kalpana Vallabhaneni!

A question I am often asked while running into friends, family, or meeting new people.

I used to have a really difficult time answering this question, due to the vast possibilities and powerful emotions I have associated with Summer of Solutions. I’m working with the Twin Cities team, and up until a couple weeks ago I tended to throw out phrases such as “youth leadership,” “sustainability,” “green economy,” and “it’s super cool, I promise,” with hopes of creating a semi-coherent explanation of what I am up to this summer. Depending on the audience, some people just nodded their heads in approval, having heard key words indicating it is a meaningful program. Many friends could sense my vibes of excitement and continued to ask for more information about what, specifically, I am working on.

During one of our weekly community reflection sessions a while back, I realized what I came into this program intending to work on has completely changed. I wanted to do urban agriculture work, and spend some time outside getting my hands dirty. But when the projects were announced, the one I felt I could make the most impact in completely overtook my attention, and I have been dedicating hours to this project since. I’m working on outreach in the Highland Park area, with hopes to re-invigorate the closing Ford manufacturing plant. It’s a great project that really speaks to me, having spent a significant portion of my high school years messing around in the Highland village.

Now that I’ve secured my interests for this summer, the big question for me is, “what will I be doing this fall?” I still have some of time to figure this one out, but it will definitely involve implementing many of the tactics I have learned this summer. I hope I will be able to educate my peers at school and pass on the passion I feel towards this work. I’m really grateful for going with my gut instincts in this program & following where my passion leads me. I have spent much of my SoS work with a smile on my face, which is a great thing to look back on as I reflect on my summer.

When I journal or write things that are only meant for me to write, I often use this term called ‘my work.’  I don’t mean my job, like the thing that makes me money. I don’t mean checking things off of my to-do list. I mean the ‘work’ that when I say it, sends tingles down my spine and makes my heart smile. It’s the work of joining with millions of other people, some of whom I know, some of whom I will never meet, to collectively heal our world.

The distinctive thing about ‘my work,’ and the thing that makes me feel so good when I say it, is that it really is work. It’s slow, and incremental, and not always glamorous or even visible. It’s copy and pasting data into a spreadsheet for hours late into the night, and knocking on doors in the blazing heat, and making dozens of phone calls inviting people to community meetings.  It’s spending  a week to prepare a two-hour anti-oppression workshop, and spending six weeks to organize a two- hour community energy forum, and spending seven months to plan an eight-week summer program, simply trusting that each will have an impact to justify all that time.

This ‘work’ is so powerful because it is a true expression of deep love for the world, and hope for the future. I was introduced to this concept at a summer camp where I worked two years ago, where the phrase “Work is love made visible” was often thrown around. However, it was not until Summer of Solutions that I fully understood what this means.  My work with Summer of Solutions helped me fully embody the idea that to work in developing the green economy is not just about getting things done, but also about continuously enacting our loving the world.

This concept is expressed beautifully by the poet Kahlil Gibran, who writes:

“Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.”

This other important thing about ‘my work’ is that it really is mine. As Gibran puts it, the work that we do was assigned to us when the Earth’s dream that we are fulfilling was born.  ‘My work’ is beyond my choice. It seems too integral to my being to be something I could ever get disillusioned about.

My goal as I leave Summer of Solutions and begin a year of launching a brand new program (New York City- it’s on!) is to carry my passion for ‘my work’ into all my interactions. My hope is that I can engage new people in this movement by fully demonstrating that this work makes me feel fulfilled and happy and grounded, not just when I win or succeed, but just because I’m doing ‘my work.’

Elana Bulman- Twin Cities Program Leader

Kyle Gename

Throughout my time as a student at Macalester College, I have always thought of myself as an environmentalist. For my first year there, I practiced and explored my philosophy on the environment and resource use in a very personal way. I became and avid knitter, an Environmental Studies major, and to the dismay of my freshman roommate, a person who showered infrequently.

In my sophomore year, I wanted to get involved in a more collaborative way. I began to think, “I certainly cannot create real change without the support and action of my peers, why go at this alone?” I decided to get involved in my school’s student environmental group, the Macalester Conservation and Renewable Energy Society, or MacCARES. I also started working in the sustainability student worker network and went to Powershift, a national conference geared towards young adults interested in creating change through grassroots activism. Throughout my two years of exploring my environmentalism at Macalester, my ideas of what I wanted to do and be were changing.

After sophomore year, I decided that rather than go home and read through the Harry Potter series for the tenth time, I wanted to find more useful work. I kept my eyes and ears open to the opportunities available to me. Through MacCARES, the student group that I had joined, I met two of the program leaders for Summer of Solutions Twin Cities, as well as several of the programs’ past participants. Through their encouragement and rave reviews of the program, I decided to apply. It sounded like an amazing program, and one that would help me to develop further as an environmentalist.

When I decided to become a participant of Summer of Solutions, it was based on conversations that I had with people who were already involved in the program. They said that SoS had shaped them; it was a place for them to grow. When I asked what they liked about the program, they told me that participating was a formative experience in their lives as young leaders and that by stepping out of their comfort zones during their work, they were able to become more well-rounded. I am happy to say that these reviews have been on par with my own experience this summer.

Throughout my time in the program, I learned something that I had forgotten about myself: how I grow and develop as an individual. This summer I remembered that I reflect best on the work that I have done using few words and simply recollecting the new skills that I have learned. This is how I have stepped out of my comfort zone this summer, not by talking or explaining, but by doing something new. By doing, I have grown stronger as a young leader and an environmentalist.

Since we spend so much time as a collective group talking about how we are feeling and discussing what we are doing, I find it strange that the times that I most cherish when working for SoS are the times that I am not saying anything at all. My experience is defined by what I do physically and the personal reflection of what I am doing. I have grown much more as an individual this summer when I have thrown myself out of my comfort zone and done something that I normally would not. If you told me two months ago that I would be taking notes in small group meetings and be responsible for accurately reporting those notes, I would have told you that you were mistaken. I am God-awful at typing, and have just recently learned to type without looking at the keyboard. I have also never blogged before (Am I doing a good job?) and am terribly afraid of what other people think of my writing. Beyond participating in new ways during small group sessions, I have also stepped out of my spatial comfort zone. I have never had a sense of direction or the inclination to exercise very much, but this summer I decided that my bicycle would be my primary mode of transportation. I am pretty excited to say that I have never learned more about different streets or bike routes than I have this summer. The moral of the story is that SoS has been a formative experience for me in the way that it has challenged me to act in ways that, until very recently, I did not think that I could. It has also made me realize that I find physical labor and action more memorable and significant than just talking and listening.

Even though many of the hours that I work for SoS for the next two weeks will be spent discussing my feelings with the other participants, I am excited for the growth that I can realize this summer not by talking, but by doing. I am also glad that I have been able to reflect on these ideas for long enough to understand them. Here’s to spending the rest of my time as a SoS participant growing by doing.

This week, the climate activist Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in prison for standing up against oil companies and defending our future.  During this historic moment of great courage, I’m reminded how our justice system is inherently flawed, and imaginging new possible futures that include more kissing.

You would never hear a judge say, “I sentence you both to kiss and make up.” A little silly, yes. Almost as ridiculous as our current system of mass incarceration.

When a hero is behind bars, a murderer walks free, and our prisons hold more black men than slavery ever did, it’s time to ask what’s underlying the statistics, and imagine new possible futures.   The Smooch project (a winner of the Possible Futures film contest) is doing just that — gathering photos of people sharing affection, capturing some powerful stories, and imainging a future where a mother chooses to forgive her son’s killer.

When I think about a new possible justice system, I think about how much I love living a city with such a energetic spirit of social justice. A friend of mine, who owns a green business in Oakland, once compared Oakland to Paris.  Although we don’t have the Seine, we do have Lake Merritt and a lot of geese. I love how Oaklanders walk and bike everywhere, there’s a “take to the streets” energy, the climate is almost always 70 degrees, and people hang out at hipster cafes drinking coffee in the sunshine.

I was recently biking up 35th Ave, right near Fruitvale BART station where Oscar Grant was shot. As I headed to our Summer of Solutions Oakland planning meeting, I was in awe — beautiful, purple, hanging flowers had bloomed on all the trees lining the road.  In the midst of delicious smells coming from the Pupuserias, little dogs barking behind fences, and store windows that still display photos of Oscar Grant, I saw the beauty that is only Fruitvale.

Reading all the blog posts about Tim’s sentencing reminds me that our criminal justice system is immensely flawed, and we need to change it.  We need systems that address root causes of violence, not lock away black and brown children. We need to honor heroes who stand up for our future, not put them behind bars.  We need to acknowledge how imbedded issues of race, class, and power are in our current justice system, and work towards a system of Restorative Justice. (I can only imagine what Tim’s sentencing would have looked like if we were using systems of restorative justice, not a system owned by corporations.)

Finally, we need to imagine a new possible future for our justice system and our world. Hopefully, one that includes more kissing.

For information and insights on the state of our prison system, check out Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

*Cross posted from: We Are Power Shift blog

By Kalpana Vallabhaneni

During World War II, 20 million Americans planted “victory gardens” and they grew 40% of this nation’s produce supply. Urban farming is something that has been around for decades and has already proven itself. It can support America, so why not prove it again to people who don’t believe us? Urban Farming is not only used to create an abundance of food for people in need by planting gardens on unused land and space in the city, but it is also used to cut down on crime, beautify neighborhoods, and increase health and wellness around specific community.

Participants in Summer of Solutions in the Twin Cities have been working long and hard on a variety of projects ranging from maintaining an aquaponics system to weeding gardens to researching the cities vacant lots to find arable land for new urban farms.  With over 20 participants focusing their energy and effort into specific projects there has been a lot of success all over the cities.

Many people assume that urban farming is planting vegetables, fruits, and herbs in open spaces in a city and it is, but urban farming can be so much more! A small group has been working on a urban chicken coop! They have been researching various locations, chickens, and a design so they can build the best coop in town. Thus far in the summer they have located a space in Minneapolis and are starting to build the coop this week. They are still trying to figure out which chickens are the best–in terms of the care they require and the number of eggs they lay. After talking to some locals who already have chicken coops and using their best tool, the internet, they will determine which chickens to put into this handmade chicken coop in Minneapolis.

Another group of participants are focusing their energy into generating their value through crime prevention at the Harrison Neighborhood Association Peace Garden.

Look at all the muscle we bring the the garden!

This farm was started to help stop violence, prostitution, and drug trafficking. The simple tasks of weeding and beautifying this farm has helped keep this previous prostitution corner a safe, healthy, and beautiful street corner for community members to enjoy and cherish. With a small but powerful group, they are able to help keep the Harrison Neighborhood Association Peace Garden be a safer and happier place.

We not only generate value for the community through Urban Farming but many of us are gaining personal value through farmer trainings, beautification, and researching vacant arable lots around the cities. There is a group of participants who are interested in the physical processes of Urban Farming.

Look at that broken piano part that is now a beautiful sign for the garden!

Concrete Beet has multiple young Urban Farmers who  started urban farms recently by taking a vacant lot. They worked out logistical details with the landowner and covered the entire lot with a garden. Now they are helping participants learn the ins and outs of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares and the physical labor or harvesting, planting, and planning. A few participants are also researching the cities vacant lots to see if empty lots could be turned into new urban farms. They research the price, location, and soil quality, because farmers needs arable land for a garden to be successful. There is another group who is helping with the beautification of the farms. Most recently they have rescued a broken piano and hand painted beautiful signs on the old, damaged piano pieces. These signs are displayed around various parts of the garden.

The last Urban Agriculture project that participants from the Twin Cities are working on is with a 5O1C3 non-profit, YEA (Youth Enterprising Agents) Corps. There are about 15  participants who are working as interns at YEA Corps who are each focusing on different aspects of indoor urban farming. YEA Corps is working to empower youth with job skills and sustainable education. YEA Corps is not the typical urban farming project to many people but it still focuses on sustainable food production in an urban setting. Their current focus is on mushrooms, aquaponics, and vermacomposting. Each intern has a different aspect that he or she is focusing on ranging from being a mushroom specialist to learning how to treat the vermacompost. Some of the interns are working on research while others are filming videos for YEA Corps. There is a wide variety of job skills and indoor urban farming expertise that are being learned everyday at YEA Corps.

So far this summer we have accomplished a lot all over Minneapolis and we look forward to seeing how much more we can do! We are all gaining valuable skills and knowledge by helping the community around us!

By: Taleya Hamilton

A soccer mom suggesting more soccer fields for her children…

A young professional couple raising the concern of property value if a light rail system is installed next to their house…

These and many other local community concerns have been raised and addressed through the public meeting hosted by the ARISE/Summer of Solutions Team. ARISE (which stands for Alliance To Re-Industrialize For A Sustainable Economy) is a coalition of community residents, students, labor union and city leaders who have come together to create sustainable solutions to local redevelopment projects in their communities. Green manufacturing and multi-use development are the anchors to ARISE’s vision; however, clean energy, mass transit opportunities, and localization of basic services (i.e. waste management, food production, etc.) are significant players in formulating the sustainable solutions for job growth and a diverse tax base. One clear message ARISE wants to convey is that everyone from the soccer mom to the young professional couple can have a voice in the development of their community.

The Summer of Solutions team has been working diligently and progressively with ARISE throughout the summer to carry their message forward. Through the guidance of Lynn Hinkle (the ARISE visionary), participants have engaged in the various components of the vision, which include research for the universal template that is being created to promote ARISE in local communities, recruitment of land developers, and community outreach.
Currently, ARISE coalition and the Summer of Solutions team has centralized their efforts on a 135 acre site used by the Ford Motor Company in the Highland Park area of St. Paul, Minnesota. This site, established in 1924, has been an assembly plant producing the Ford Ranger. As the Ford Ranger sales significantly slumped in the past years, Ford Motor Company has decided to close the doors to its St. Paul location as soon as December 2011. This decision has sent St. Paul city planners and the Highland Park residents reeling for answers to mitigate the economic impact. Hundreds of workers will be laid off and a community that was built around the Ford Motor assembly plant will need to find a new local economic driver.

ARISE has recognized this concern of the area stakeholders as well as analyzed the valuable features of the land (i.e. the hydropower plant nearby and sand mine tunnels underneath the site) in order to develop renewable energy scenarios that will allow for the community to be self-sustaining in the next planning efforts devised. For example, ARISE is looking into converting the sand mine tunnels into ground source heating for the site as well as affordable housing options for the green manufacturing plant employees and their families.

ARISE coalition is an ongoing initiative that will continue after the summer months have passed. If you or anyone you know are interested in spreading the message of our work and providing additional expertise in the subject matters highlighted, please contact us 708-274-7344 or mn.arise@gmail.com. Also, visit our website at http://www.arisemn.org.