Multicultural Village- Village Talk
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Multicultural Village- Village Talk

Like Skills for young professionals( Communication, Assertion, Negotiation, Cooperation, Trust)

I am now beginning to wonder where, when and how do young professionals entering the work world or just finishing up college get necessary life skills (communication, negotiation, dealing with oppression, assertion, trust, collaboration, cooperation) from. Interestingly some people call these the soft skills but I want to say these should be renamed  HARD skills because without them young professionals lives could find themselves in hot, hard, hellish waters.

All too often I see a CULTURE OF CONTENTION, where YP's seem to think it is useful to use contentious tactics. Well who is surprised when we the adults teach them well and then we complain that they are a mess. Well I think we created the problem so its time to strive for change.

So with this in mind comes the Young Professional's Village. 

The Schedule for the Scholars of Promise: Young Professionals Skill Building Village

Sat July 18th a.m. Conflict :Styles, Personality, Gender and Inventory
Sat. July 18th p.m. Communication: Intent and Impact Reflective listening, Assertion Dialogue v.s. debate
Sun. July 1 th a.m. Peace Building : Being Peace, Being Bold, Taking Risks
Sun July 19th  p.m.  Violence: Violence prevention, Peace as non violence, Soul Force
Mon. July 20th a.m.  Power: Win, benefit and shine, Power with, Getting what you want
Mon. July 20th p.m. Oppression: Faces of oppression, Finding oppression thru action, Dialogue
Tues. July 21st a.m.  Evaluation and Assessment
Tues. July 21 st p.m.   Film Festival and Dramatic Problem Solving Dialogue

Book of choice for YPV. Three cups of Tea

Just trying to do my part.

In Peace,

DMC

Posted by Multicultural Village at 4/30/2009 10:07 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment

The 11th Hour time is running out

I was on a DVD crave yesterday with my classes. I used this movie at Multicultural Village-Cumaca to teach "Too Hot to Handle" and it was a hit with the youth. Most of my college students come form Urban communities and so NO connection between themselves and the environment. After seeing the DVD many were scared shitless. Good. If every time we go to throw away a plastic bottle or leave a light on when we shouldn't and we think we are committing SUICIDE then we may change our CRAZY ways.

One of the great ideas the DVD shares is that we cannot "SAVE THE PLANET" earth will always be here. Whatg we need to do is "SAVE OURSELVES"! We cannot live on a planet that is 250 degrees celsius that rains sulphuric acid so we need to save ourselves and do some simple easy things.

There are 10 things we can do to "SAVE OUR LIVES"

  1. Change a bulb from regular to compact florescent
  2. Drive less God knows its good for our fat butts
  3. Recycles more...don't fill the land fills with more nasty junk that is not biodegradable
  4. Check our tires to improve gas milage and dump less CO2 into the atmosphere
  5. Use less Hot Water..Kidane please take shorter hot showers
  6. Avoid products with lots and lots and lots of packaging...it cuts down on garbage
  7. plant a tree, it will help to absorb CO2
  8. turn off electronic devices when not in use. This isn't only for the airplane you know, shut off the TV, Radio and unplug the Cell Phone charger  why use energy when we don't need to
  9. Adjust your thermostat...put on a sweater or if too hot put on a tank top
  10. Be the solution and change you wish to see

Not hard to do. 

In Peace,

DMC

Posted by Multicultural Village at 4/18/2009 8:56 AM | Add Comment

Invisible Children- Going beyond your fears

Yesterday in my Peace and Conflict class we looked at the "documentary". It was powerful in so many ways. For me it gave a clear sign that if you have the motivation to do something good, that NOTHING  can and should prevent you from moving ahead with it. Those three guys knew they were hungry to DO and went forward unafraid. This is a good example of going past your fears to get what you desire and oh boy did they get that.

I promised my fried Tedd Li from www.warr3.org that I will pass it on. The only criteria for getting the DVD is that you have to post a comment about it to this blog and encourage as many people that looked at it to post a comment to this blog as well. This is how a MOVEMENT begins.


Let's see if we can make some of the invisible injustices visible so that someone somewhere can do the right thing.


In Peace

DMC

Posted by Multicultural Village at 4/18/2009 8:36 AM | View Comments (7) | Add Comment
Because it takes Village to Change a life