Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Evolution

And here are the details!
First of all, the background of all this for me...personally.

I have always had a heart for the voiceless. Felt a need to advocate for those who could not do it themselves. It has been an aspect of who I am for as long as I can remember. Even as a child I remember "standing up" for those who were the underdog. And it has come through in the jobs I have held as an adult, the field I chose to pursue my degree in, the way I choose to spend my money as an adult and the way I raise my children today.
I believe that everyone has the right to a voice.
Period.
I am no better than the starving mother in Africa who will do anything to keep her children alive.
No better at all.

Over the course of the past several years, this has become even more apparent to me.
I traveled to Guatemala in 2007 and was able to witness extreme poverty for the first time in my life.
And it was heartbreaking.
I came home a different person. Completely broken and in a panic to align my life in a way that allowed me more freedom to come alongside those who were living a life I had never known.
And so it started.

We began working towards aligning our personal lives with our world view.
We rearranged our priorities.
And a group of women and men here in town decided to start doing some projects to help those in need.
The plan was to do one a month.
To keep the suffering and struggle right in front of us so we did not forget. So we didn't caught up in our day to day lives and comforts and forget about those fighting to put food on the table or keeping their families alive.
It started with plumpy nut.
We raised money to buy plumpy nut to be distributed by UNICEF.
Our next project was back packs.
We collected back packs/pajamas/diapers/toothbrushes to stock our local foster care closet for children who were pulled from their homes and brought to foster homes with nothing.
And our next project?
WATER.
Do I really need to link anything to remind you about water?
:)
I think not.
And there we sat for a couple of years.
We became educated on water.
The more I learned about the water crisis, the more passionate I became.
I firmly believe the water changes everything for a family, a village, the world.

Through the process of learning about water, my eyes opened to a whole new world. Extreme poverty filled my mind and ways to eliminate it kept me up at night.
It just seemed to me that there had to be a way.
The gap is just so huge.
It seems like there are enough resources and enough need, and that somehow those things could be brought together in a way that is more than just a hand-out.
In a way that could help a whole community change from the inside out.
But if there was a way, I could not see it.

During these last few years my passion for the environment has grown as well.
Huge huge desire to preserve what has not already been destroyed.
To find a way to live healthy and care for the earth and its resources.
So many things I read began to link social justice and the environment.
It was becoming a common theme in what I was passionate about.
Be love. Care for the least of these. Caring for the earth benefits those on the other side of the world.
I think this has also come through in my blog regularly.
Two of the things I was most passionate about were coming together.
It has been exciting.

I have been sitting back thinking about how all of this has evolved and it's quite amazing.
A year ago Jody and my dad went to Africa with charity: water.
At that time, Jody met Becky Straw. And they clicked.
Both caring about restoring dignity and ending global poverty.
They stayed in contact and of course, their relationship evolved as well.

SO.
That brings us to the past few months.
I have listened as Jody began talking about social enterprise and partnering with effective social ventures that are already doing work on the ground and succeeding.
There has always seemed to be a gap between people who want to play a role in ending global poverty and finding a way to do that.
Always a question to whether or not we were doing it the right way. Always a belief that we could not throw money at a problem and solve it, but not a lot of avenues to take working towards internal change in a country.
Enter in Becky Straw. :)
Becky and Jody put their minds together and came up with a new way of looking at things.
Connecting regular people, like you and me, to some of the world's most effective social ventures.
They use a lot of big words and complicated ideas, but bring it down to a level that I can even understand. Which isn't easy. :)

So they decided to start a non-profit.
They began to build a TRIBE of people who felt strongly about these things.
And as of today, they are over 120 strong. People from around the world.
The Adventure Project became incorporated and last night held their first board meeting.
I had the honor of being part of that meeting and voting on issues that will affect the organization and how how things are done.
It was super exciting.
Today they are hitting the ground running.
And I am hoping that a few of you decide to hop on board.
It is going to be an amazing ride.

The mission statement for The Adventure Project:

A journey to end global poverty by supporting the world’s greatest social ventures.

How it will work:
1. Identify low-cost, high-impact solutions to some of the world's greatest challenges. Highlight one of these per quarter.
2. Align with the best organizations already tackling these problems. Organizations that believe in the value of "teaching others to fish". Helping them grow so they can achieve their vision.
3. Creating a TRIBE of people who share the vision and support the belief that we all deserve dignity. This tribe will champion the cause and educate others.

So exciting!!!

I'll be blogging later today about the first project.
I'm SO excited about it!
It brings together all of my passions into one.
I cannot wait to see this evolve even further.
If you are interested in being part of the Tribe, you can learn more about it HERE.
If you just want to learn more about The Adventure Project, you can read about it HERE.
It's awesome.
And I can't wait to get started!

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2 comments:

Courtney said...

that was SUCH a good post, cassie. explained your heart and the WORLD so well! thanks!

Beckysblog said...

love your heart friend.
thank you for bringing this opportunity to us...