SOS Asheville

Report #: 19

Name of Topic:  Meaningful Inclusion of Racial and Ethnic Experience in our Work

Name of Leader:  Amy Sawyer

Names of Participants:  Valeria, Clare, Kathleen, Veronica, Kathy, Chris…Others…

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):

Use what you have to reach out and learn other people’s stories, lives.  A flyer inviting someone isn’t just enough.

The issue of developing an open/accessible group often gets tabled.

There is a lot of pain and guilt involved in interacting with different people with purpose

People of Color cannot fully be themselves:  Always needing to ask, “If I go here will I be accepted?

In Germany there was a huge education campaign to come to terms with the Holocaust…but in the USA, slavery has never been discussed or reconciled in that way.

Reconciliation with ancestors is important.  Not something for one person to do alone – reach out and ask for help.

Racism exists.

Take the power.  Teach somebody, make it personal, remove the “they.”

Embrace the desire to do & change & commit to it

Understand that change may be uncomfortable, but the rewards are equally amazing.

Ancestors have good and bad stories…find role models and ask their help, and pray for the ones who were not role models.

Ancestral reverence

Step through fear and feel what is right.

Give orientation to help people learn about new ways to process.

Start with what is close to you & move out in concentric circles.

Report #: 18

Name of Topic: Healing Diverse Women inner healing issues working with teen pregnancy, motherhood and family issues

Name of Leader: Veronica W. Jackson

Names of Participants: Veronica and Steve Arpin

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one: Teenage pregnancy and dysfunctional families

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):How to help with inner healing:  Focus on healthy relationships, have stability in their lives, teach them to have respect for  themselves and others, teach the girls that no means no. 

Future Action/Next Steps: to have training sessions for inner healing, parenting classes and workshops, teaching some cooking skills and women to mentor, bring in positive  role models and mentors to work with them and have pregnant teens to mentor to the preteens to keep them from making some of their same mistakes, to be encouraging and supportive to the preteens. 

Resources Required (who should be involved, finances, non-paid labour, other):Organizers need to find common ground and bring in women who have been through the same situations and developed healthy relationships, brining it to the local community centers and churches.

Report #:  3

Name of Topic:  Educating & Integrating the Poor into Society

Name of Leader:  Valeria Watson-Doost

Names of Participants:  Teresa, Kathy, Steve, Lee, Veronica

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one:

Asheville is a liberal community with poor not being able to participate.  Some of us live in an ivory tower and speak a different language.  Fear of our differences separate us.  Old fears still operate, e.g. blacks still racially profiled by police and being physically attacked in neighbourhood because you are vulnerable and different.  There is still some instinctual and physiological part of us that causes violence over differences.

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):

People must find value in things, our common values.

People experience each other through their own history and experiences of powerlessness.

Examples of actions people in the group have taken:

• Take artists into the communities, being available to community

• Working with single mothers, deal with their stress, to see their situation as hopeful, suggest ways to help each other

• Create a cultural center for teaching

• Teach transferable skills, trade skills

• Cooperative work days, water catchment, community gardens.

• Teaching parenting skills

Integration of African-American was worst thing for AA culture, the structure of community was lost. 

How do we restore the village experience now that is inclusive?

System of capitalism requires layers of people with lots of resources at the top and layers of poverty below.

How do we shift the dialogue and change the current system?

We need to use our individual talents to teach others, commit to be in poor communities.

We need to recognize that there are groups already working to address these issues.

There is a history here in Asheville and there may be a comfort with the way things are.

People need to know there is a way out when they get oppressed and depressed.

The public schools create followers and the private school creates leaders, self-sustaining system.

How do we stay connected and accept differences?  One person’s personal journey was to accept all the cultural lines in her own blood – Celtic, African, European, and Native American.

The first lie is that we are different.  We fear letting go of our separateness.

Future Action/Next Steps:

We need to find a space to be together doing things people like to do.  This could be a recreation center, creative community project.

How do we get people excited about something new?

Could we do a documentary/film to illustrate what is outside to those who are in insular communities? Expose folks to the unfamiliar.

We must each individually step up to the plate in our own lives and do what we can to create inclusive community.  We need to support each other.

We need self-honesty and reflection about how we do deal with each other.

We need a new way of dealing with fear, other than fighting and attacking.

We need to manifest our ideas and projects and see them be completed to encourage others.

We need to support each other and not try to do it alone, ask for help, not be dependent on others doing it for us.

We can teach each other skills and simplify, do things for each other so that we don’t need to go outside for help.

We need to create tools for self-empowerment.

We may need a whole new way of being.