About Youth Empowerment America. (www.y-e-a.org)
Many organizations that have chartered themselves with changing the world in a positive way do not include young people in their decision making process. Ancient mechanisms of conformity that systematically squash natural youthful optimism are inherent in all of the world’s organizations and societies. In America today most adults statistically do not believe that young people have what it takes to make positive changes to the world. Young people are seen by adults as selfish and uncaring and unruly and they are even viewed with trepidation. On the other hand an overwhelming vast majority of young people poled believe that if given the chance by adults, they have what it takes to make dramatic positive changes to their communities and the world. Youth Empowerment America was created by a young person to be a mechanism for young people to overcome these limitations and bias so that natural youthful optimism can be organized effectively for positive change. YEA is a federally recognized 501C3 non profit charity organization. We are an all-volunteer organization and we are also exploring ways to raise money to create some paid staff positions.
Youth Empowerment America’s mission is simply to teach young people the fundamental principles and leadership skills for creating positive change in their local communities and schools.
This teaching is done via speeches, workshops and consultation with other organizations that want to more effectively engage youth into their mission and work. We also have a newly created Chapter program so that young people can work with YEA’s curriculum directly through self paced modules. Once a YEA chapter is established via a simple online process, chapter leaders and their members choose one or more of YEA’s programs to work with, or other issue, and then membership dues enable us to supply supporting curriculum, tools and services to meet that group’s needs.
Our Values
The operating values that we enforce in all of our work are as follows:
◦ We organize people on the basis of vision, caring, and responsibility, not on the basis of anger.
◦ We motivate people toward the common good, not for self-interest.
◦ We encourage people to propose solutions, not to protest wrongs.
◦ Our objective is to win, by setting realistic achievable timebound goals, rather than just be morally right.
◦ Our approach is to persuade and win over ever more allies, never to identity so-called “enemies” or to attack or embarrass the opposition
◦ We organize for broad diversity, bringing as many relevant perspectives into the thinking as possible.
◦ We are committed to one another in the struggle to create positive social change, and will continue together to dream, act, and believe in creating a better world.
Our Programs
Soul Renaissance, Community Timebank, Street Theatre, Word of Mouth, The Youth Charter and Fight the Lockdown. We have blueprints for each of these programs that offer ways to improve our communities. For more information on each please visit our website at www.y-e-a.org/programs
YEA's Soul Renaissance (www.y-e-a.org/soul)
The Vision
Combining fun, all inclusive community participation, grass roots community organizing, volunteerism and soulfullness with the shelter construction process. Creating aesthetically pleasing, debt free, non-toxic and highly durable shelter options for the masses within an ecovillage context.
The Objectives
To create a core group of individuals skilled in grass roots community organizing principles and strategies to increase public awareness and hands on knowledge and experience with community adobe construction technology within an ecovillage context.
Goals
In the spring and summer of 2005 we aim to expose 1,000 more individuals to Community Adobe Construction Technology and eco-village concepts while completing the construction of The People's Gazebo in South East Atlanta, into an aesthetically pleasing structure that provides inspiration to do more of this work.
From here we want to develop leadership that can begin replicating self directed teams of volunteers that can spread the technology out into the community at large.
Methodology
At the core of the Soul Renaissance program is The Volunteer Building Party event/s which are planned and coordinated by a voluntary committee. The Volunteer Building Party event/s can take place over a day, a weekend, or several continuous weekends and/or weekdays depending upon the needs of the project. These events take place in the warmer spring and summer months and they are festive, participatory and interactive, with teams of individuals making adobe bricks and laying and sculpting them under the guidance of team leaders, musicians and performing artists providing rhythm and inspiration to work to, and food specialists preparing and serving food. The committee is responsible for creating the logistics and budgets of these events and then creating the necessary infrastructure and fund raising mechanisms to support them. The events are to be used by the committee as the foundation to build leadership and create sustainability and replication.
Definition and Analysis of terms.
Adobe
Other names – cob, mud brick building, coarse adobe, wattle and daub, building with clay, earthen building, monolithic earthen building. Adobe is mixtures of clay mud, sand and straw that are sun dried over time not oven fired.
Community Adobe Construction Technology (C.A.C.Ty)
Groups of people coming together as volunteers and using the ancient art of adobe construction to build stuff including shelters, homes and villages. Using adobe methods in conjunction with large pools of voluntary labor is the traditional way that adobe methods have been used.
CACTy “swot” analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
Strengths
-extremely low cost materials,
-completely non-toxic,
-made from a plentiful, readily available, resource (clay) that is also renewable.
-very durable,
-extremely resistant to weather extremes such as temperature and earthquakes,
-brings people together as it works best with groups
-it is a fun meaningful activity
-easy to learn.
Weaknesses:
Requires lots of manual labor.
There is not much general public awareness and/or acceptance of this technology.
Opportunities:
To provide above adequate shelter to those without. To provide a shelter alternative that is much less toxic than modern shelter. To provide debt free shelter. To create a new kind of living settlement that could compete against other forms of housing developments. To bring people together to create unprecedented levels of freedom, security and fulfillment.
Threats:
Change is not easy. People may feel they are not able, or interested enough to create free time to participate. Our current mentality is very strong.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like with any SWOT analysis, the weaknesses and threats can also be viewed as opportunities. Lots of manual labor can be seen as a way for lots of people to get some good healthy exercise through doing very meaningful work. The fact that there is not much public awareness and allot of collective mental resistance can be seen as something that will attract people looking for something new and challenging.
F.A.Q.
If building with clay is as good as it appears, then why isn’t it as popular as Coke or McDonalds?
Everyone will have to formulate their own reply to this question because it will come up. You’re welcome to use my reply which is …
“ well if Ray Charles was such a popular and talented genius of a song writer and performer, loved and respected by so many millions of people from all over the whole world, then why was he banned from singing and performing in the one place that was his favorite place, his very own home, right here on the land that is now most commonly referred to as the state of Georgia, USA? “
Threats and obstacles to CACTy.
The greatest threat to the success of the proliferation of CACTy is the devvashevvarevva (pron. Devva-shevva-revva) mentality or “debt for shelter forever” mentality which has been shaped over thousands of years.
The devva-shevva-revva is also a reality we are simultaneously creating and living in.
The devvashevvarevva or D-shev forms the driving mechanism of a large part of our lives and our daily routines. The D-shev mentality states that in order to have access to necessary adequate shelter we must continue working for it, for ever, to pay for it. This mentality does not have any plan or strategy to free current or future generations from this burden. Rather it has us focusing most of our energy on perpetuating our current reality. The devvashevvarevva is upheld by an underlying sense of progression, development, accomplishment and superiority that is learned and shaped through “education” and “culture”.
The Devvashevvarevva is also:
- systematically ignoring, denying and assaulting time tested construction technology which uses large pools of all-inclusive volunteer labor (men, women and children) in a fun, festive and celebratory way, to create extremely inexpensive, highly durable, aesthetically pleasing shelter from non-toxic, plentiful, readily available materials
-a mentality that has accepted that the ideal house will be made of materials that create and emit toxins such that indoor pollution can often be worse than outdoor pollution.
-denying us of the reality of being surrounded and sheltered by nice smooth walls made of the readily available, health generating materials of unfired sun-dried mixtures of clay and sand (adobe)
- a mentality that has created homes that surround us with expensive, toxin producing and emitting products like concrete, chemically treated wood, chipboard, plywood, gypsum, tar, fiberglass, polyurethane, plastics, nylons, aluminum, steel, asbestos and lead.
- held together by many millions of smaller thoughts, actions and beliefs that have been formed and passed on over time through generations.
- part of a reality that has extracted the element of fun and excluded women and children from the construction process.
- a mentality that denies the true tangible possibility of beautiful shelter without debt.
- the mentality that teaches our children to conform and continue upholding this current mentality and reality rather than encouraging them to rebel and organize themselves in ways to create something different and better.
- the mentality where working for shelter is considered a good healthy, meaningful and righteous thing to do even if it requires doing work that is not healthy, meaningful or righteous.
- a mentality that accepts that one should be prepared for and even expect to spend long periods of time each day for many years, working at jobs that may be less than fulfilling in order to pay for shelter.
- a mentality that creates some kind of link between the size of the empty space that exists between the walls of the inhabitant’s shelter and their perceived level of fulfillment, happiness, success and / or their worth.
- the mentality that blocks us from the reality of many people coming together and having fun while creating beautiful non toxic homes in a short period of time, that will last several generations (thousands of years) and which cost very little or no money.
- the mentality that blocks us from creating large scale debt free shelter or large scale freedom and security for the masses.
Exercise.
Before reading the following question and answer, complete this exercise. Close your eyes and feel the virtue of fairness. Feel the warmth and the inner glow of openness, honesty, fairness and equality in your stomach area. Feel how the positive virtues have a healing and rejuvenation to your body mind spirit and especially your stomach area. Use a smiling feeling inside to transform and release any heavy or uncomfortable feelings such as worry and pity and then repeat.
Q: The devashevarevva perpetuates unfairness and environmental pollution. True or false.
A. The truth hurts but so does living a lie. Yes it’s true. There are a growing number of people now who are beginning to question many things we accept as normal including the shelter industrial complex, the modern home and the devashevarevva. And there is very good reason to do so. Because if we were to take the time to deeply analyze the modern home and everything it takes to make it, including all the sources of all of it’s components then we might be disturbed. For example we might find that creating the modern home is in some way linked to the creation of pollution, and to perpetuating unfair economic realities between us and individuals that are much lower down on the global economic pyramid matrix. We might find that in order to make our house, resources were taken from a poorer country in ways that could very easily be perceived as unfair. We might also find that pollution was created in someone else’s neighborhood in order to produce the materials used in the creation of the components that make up our home. Concrete and cement forms the foundation of the devashevarevva and scientists have figured out that every ton of cement produces one ton of carbon dioxide which is contributing significantly the greenhouse effect that scientists say is affecting the whole planet in a negative way. Back in the day street knowledge states that you do not put a boom box on the concrete coz it drains the battery. The same goes for a car battery. Well what if the human being is also a battery of energy and the concrete that we most often use as the foundation of our home is draining our life force energy like it does a battery?
Just as what happens at each part of our body, mind spirit effects all other parts of our overall health, each part of the planet and humanity is linked from an ecological perspective and what happens on the other side of the planet effects us here and vise versa. Pollution and unfairness may be affecting us perhaps less directly but still affecting us nevertheless. This conversation and line of thought only leads to one conclusion, the same one made by many thousands of rational minded scientist, that continuing as we are will only make things worse for everyone including ourselves eventually and that we must therefore begin taking steps to make things different. I believe that leading a community adobe construction project is the single best thing you can do to make a positive difference to our current reality.
Before reading the next question and answer complete the following exercise: Close your eyes and feel a deep level of fulfillment created within from giving to others, empowering others and including others.
Q. True or false. We are also paying for our devashevarevva with our health because it is exposing us to pollution directly, right here and right now.
A. True.
Many experts now often cite how indoor pollution in the modern home is most often worse than the worst outdoor pollution. This is because virtually every component of the modern home is made of a material that is emitting some level of toxins. Everything from the plastic carpets, to the paints on the walls, to the chemically treated pressed chipboard walls, to the chemically treated wood frames, to the fiberglass and other materials used to create insulation between the inside and outside walls, to the plastic or aluminum siding, to the polyurethane polishes we put on wooden floorboards and the concrete floors. When combined with the products we use to maintain our home and modern lifestyles such as “cleaning” agents, air “fresheners,” insecticides, synthetic perfumes, and “personal hygiene” products, this produces an environment that is much less than ideal for human habitation. This means we should probably include the word toxic in the long version of the meaning of devashevarevva and change it to “debt for (toxic) shelter forever mentality”
Exercise: Imagine if you could live in a home or at least a little room that is just as healthy and energizing as being at the beach or in the woods next to a waterfall. Remember this is very possible with community adobe construction technology. Close your eyes and picture that reality for yourself and your family and friends and others.
Now if you have read all the previous contents of this workbook and seen the pictures (www.y-e-a.org/soul) or had someone describe them to you if you are unable to see them, then you are ready for this next exercise before taking that first step into a whole other reality. This exercise is the first step to taking it to the next level. This exercise is called the initiation or nishy for short, or the nishy noshy for the poetically minded individuals. Are you ready for the nishy?
The Nishy.
Get into a comfortable position and take a few deep breath. As you inhale your belly expands and then as you exhale the belly contracts or goes inward. Then close your eyes and say this mantra exactly how it is written. Before you close your eyes, read it first carefully in your head a few times and then begin reciting it out loud in a slow, deliberate, deep, authoritative voice.
“Yo. The devashevarevva’s gots to go.”
and repeat it three times out loud until you can do so without laughing.
You can also try saying it really slow and drawing each word out really long so it all joins together as one word similar to monks when they do the Ommmmmmmmmmm chant.
Congratulations to all those who successfully completed the nishy. You are now ready to take a step towards chipping away at the all powerful (but also actually silly and shallow) devashevarevva, which in case you didn’t know has gots to go.
The D-shev can be compared to prejudice, racism and sexism, in that it is something that stems from mankind’s greatest and most vulnerable weaknesses and fears, and is based upon a one-sided or narrow minded reality that gets more and more limiting, narrow and detrimental to all participants the more forward you go into it. Unlike prejudice, racism and sexism which have been recognized and identified, the D-shev exists in an unrecognized, unidentified and invisible form and so therefore presents a different kind of obstacle to humanity and the game called human life on planet earth. Overcoming the D-shev together presents the human family with a unique and exciting opportunity.
If the devvashevvarevva is the empty icky sticky bubble we live in now, then CACTy is the nifty prickly little prick that’s gonna pop it. Wow.
Cacty. (pron. Cack-tie) Community/Communal Adobe Construction Technology which equals group volunteerism plus adobe construction techniques.
Stepping outside of the Devvashevvarevva.
The devvashevvarevva is a collective thing that is made up of many thousands and millions of other individual thoughts, actions and interactions with each other. In order to step outside of it we have to add many smaller different or new thoughts, actions and interactions to our lives to change our daily routines and habits. Just like in order for the people of this country to have changed the reality of legal and accepted slavery of blacks, to the current reality, it required first a few and then eventually many people doing many little things differently and continuing to do them over and over again.
Here is a list of 12 things we can start doing immediately to help us begin stepping outside of the devvashevvarevva.
1. Learn, practice and master the science of how to engage and lead others and how to more effectively bring people together to create meaningful, tangible positive community change.
2. Share information and pictures of community hand sculpted homes and structures with others.
3. Daydream and imagine being part of a large team that can come together to build a beautiful structure for someone to live in.
4. Imagine a bunch of friends and allies coming together in the spirit of fun to build the home that you will live in.
5. Look within to discover ways to learn and practice habits that will make these dreams realities.
6. Look without to discover time tested methods for making dreams realities.
7. Make plans to visit hand sculpted homes made of clay.
8. Make plans to participate in a mud brick/adobe/cob building workshop.
9. Develop expertise in community adobe construction technology or CACTy
10. Organize a CACTy Volunteer Building Party Event in your neighborhood or backyard.
11. Learn about converting privately owned land into land trusts to build structures on.
12. Learn about the ecovillage concepts and find ways to implement them into your current and future communities.
--------------------------------------------
