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CELEBRATING LIFE AFTER RESIGNATION

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LIFE

Celebrating Life After Resignation

Kimberly Chiswell Team Sydney, Australia, T1,Q4

Before Kimberly Chiswell joined the Team Management and Leadership Program (TMLP), the world looked scary, filled with threats of global warming, terrorism, corruption, epidemics and global financial crises. The impact on Kimberly was that she often felt overwhelmed with fear and afraid of the future, so much so that she was could not fathom bringing a child into this dangerous place. She didn’t believe that anything she did, not even her job as a social worker, could really make a difference.

But in November of 2008 she joined the Landmark Education Team Management and Leadership Program and within a couple of weeks her worldview shifted. Even her apprehension about bringing a child into the world changed and she asked herself. “Kimberly, if you were to not add any judgments but simply come from nothing and create, what would make a difference at the end of this year-long course?” Her response was “I would have a baby”.

In the first quarter of the course, she created a colorful, musical festival entitled “Viva la Vida! (A celebration of life the Latin American way!)” The event was alive, exciting, and raised $3000 for a Mexican orphanage.

A week later she and her husband conceived a beautiful soul.

In the last quarter of her year in the Team Management and Leadership Program Kimberly realized she’d been saying she couldn’t really do anything about the threats to the environment, but she saw she was afraid to be responsible for the difference she could make. She created a ‘game’ designed around building a community of gardeners who would get together and inspire each other to harvest and share their produce.

The result for her game was to have ten neighbors sharing ideas to improve their soil, sharing the food grown in their local gardens and fish from the sea. But her game really began when she realized she could be accountable for the environment by having her community reduce carbon emissions for transporting food and by putting healthy fresh food on the table. She says, “There is nothing like eating fruit and veggies freshly picked!” The unexpected benefit of her game has been a stronger sense of community.

Kimberly now knows herself as someone who can make a difference with the environment. She is being the change she wants to see in the world for her family and for her community. Rather than living in a world filled with fears, her new life is filled with incredible heroes and heroines committed to creating love, peace and abundance with freedom and ease!

Written by Kimberly Chiswell/ edited by Judi Romaine

CONTRIBUTION

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JUAN

Contribution

Juan Cortes, Team LA, T2,Q3

Juan Cortes loves having kids win in life and in the process, discovering they are the leaders of the future. Juan designed his Game in the World, Contribution, inside of the Team Management and Leadership Program, so that the children of Los Angeles can enter art and writing contests at the community level and get the experience of winning.

The possibility of his game is being of service, powerful, loving and generous, the outcome is people experiencing love, abundance, and contribution with each other as one extraordinary family of the world.

Juan’s wife and team leader, Lisa Marie Valle supported her art students from her inner school East Los Angeles Skill Center and other schools in the Los Angeles area to enter art contests. In one instance, she had her students enter the an Asian-American Culture art contest and the great thing was that the majority of the students entering were of Hispanic descent and two of them, who painted Japanese-Americans in the interment camps during World War II in California, won first and second places. Those students discovered in the process that you don’t have to be Asian to win an Asian-American contest because they are the world. The winners were honored by meeting with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, tickets to Disneyland and a scholarship.

One student from Lisa’s school wrote a piece about his mother entitled 3:00 am. in which he acknowledged his mother, a single parent, for waking up so early to take care of his needs and make sure that he was prepared for his day. The miracle was that his mother saw her commitment to him acknowledged at the ceremony where he won a prize. All the students get to see that just entering a contest is being a winner and that life is always about playing.

What Juan learned from his Game how important a team is in the playing of a game, and he has discovered that he actually has the power to create something amazing in the world.

Written by Judi Romaine, Edited by Minling Chuang

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TMLP Times Contributors:

Dave Baldwin

Jeff Bonar

Valri Castleman

Minling Chuang

Judi Romaine

Cecilia Rossiter

Steve Schapiro

Djuna Wojton

Wendy Zalles

DREAMS FROM LIMA

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Carmen Page- Team Florida, T1, Q1

Growing up in Lima, Peru, Carmen Page witnessed the poverty in her country first hand.Every time she went to a restaurant, she would see a line of hungry children pressing their faces against the window while she dined.She also saw that women were not valued in the society.Often times they worked long hours and received very little compensation, only $2 per day, while male counterparts earned more money and worked less hours.Most women felt useless and had low self-esteem because they are unable to provide for their children.Witnessing those types of incidents inspired Carmen to make a difference in the lives of the women and children in Peru.

After two years of hard work, her dream is now being realized through the non-profit organization she created, called One-By-One.The mission of One-By-One is to bring economic prosperity to impoverished communities, by supporting women to become self-sustaining, micro-entrepreneurs so they can create a better life for themselves and their children.

How does One-By-One work?The organization provides all the resources to support these women in creating a successful and sustainable business.

In the past two years, Carmen and her team trained a group of women in Peru to build their own companies from scratch.They researched which type of business would be most feasible, determined the product type to sell, researched the market places in which to sell the product, and secured raw materials. Currently, they are in the process of renovating a building for the manufacturing operations, securing GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards) certification, and much more.Her team is also creating additional services for these women to improve their self-esteem such as personal growth seminars, nutritional guidance, financial advice, and more.

With One-By-One’s help, these women will have a safe environment to design and manufacture beautifully hand-crafted 100% certified organic baby clothing.The next steps for these women are to market and sell the products they produce.However, even before these women have sold a single item, they already are living their dream.They know that they are acknowledged in their community, their work is appreciated, and that they have been given a chance to create a better life.

In the past two years, Carmen has learned so much from her participation in Landmark Education’s Team Management and Leadership Program (TMLP). She attributes much of One-By-One’s success to Brandy Baldwin, a Team 2 TMLP participant who coached Carmen during the project’s second year. Carmen registered to be a part of TMLP to complete the project with structures, technology for building teams and teamwork, and help from fellow TMLP team members.Her dreams are fulfilled by sharing in dreams realized by the numerous women that One-By-One helped – and will continue to help for years to come.

“I used to think that one person could not do much to make a difference, but now I believe that we do matter, our voice matters.One person can make a difference in other people’s lives.We can be a contribution and make the world a better place.”- Carmen Page.

If you would like to find out more about One-By-One or contribute to the organization, please visit http://onebyone4life.org.

Written by Minling Chuang

RED PANTS FOR THE WORLD

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Red Pants for the World

An army of young women out to alter the planet

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Judi Romaine- Team Cincinnati, T1, Q4

“After surgery I was still in a lot of pain,” said Judi Romaine.

“I had bankrupted the identity I had. I used up everything that looked like possibility. I could decide to die.”

For a woman who has been active in Landmark Education for more than 30 years, this is a startling statement. Landmark Education produces courses to give people the tools to live powerful lives and lives that they love. It is all about possibility.

“Team was the last stand for transforming that [bankrupt identity],” said the Bloomington, Indiana author. So she joined Landmark’s Team Management and Leadership Program. (TMLP).

Among other things, TMLP equips participants with the skills to create teams and teamwork in any situation. Judi decided to use the skills to inspire “an army of young women living created lives out to transform the planet.”

Judi formed a team and they named themselves Red Pants for the World. According to Judi, “Red Pants became a metaphor for young girls and women who are out to make a difference and living lives where they are unconstrained.”

The idea came one night in September 2007, a year before she joined TMLP. Judi was sitting on her couch with a few friends and they were brainstorming ideas for a party. One of the lady’s jumps up and yells, “Let’s have everybody come to the party wearing red pants!”

The image of an army of women all wearing red pants at the same time hit Judi like a lightning bolt. She thought, “Yes, a cadre of women with the courage to wear red pants tells the world that they are bold, powerful and free.”

Where did Judi decide she could make the biggest difference? Half a world away. In the past few years there have been many stories in the news about Afghanistan. Judi was struck by all the images of women there who have not been allowed to express themselves.

The team’s goal is to raise $100,000 by 2012 for a school in Afghanistan. Red Pants for the World has formed a partnership with Nafissa, a woman who escaped from Afghanistan in the 1980s during the war with the Soviet Union.

Nafissa now lives in Paris and created Solidaire Provence Afghanistan, a non-profit whose objective is to help the most unprivileged Afghans and raise awareness on the Afghan culture in France. Red Pants has already raised $650 in online donations for the Solidaire Proveance to support the distribution of books in an Afghan village. (To protect the girls and women the name of the village cannot be disclosed.)

Red Pants hasn’t confined its work to just Afghanistan. The team provided a $500 microloan to a Cambodian woman who wanted to build a new house for her nieces and nephews after their parents died.

To raise money, Judi created an online store www.cafepress.com/redpants to sell and promote Red Pants for the World products like journals, note cards, bumper stickers, mugs and bags.

This August, Red Pants partnered with the Silk Road Institute – an Indiana-based non-profit led by an Iranian born professor. Silk Road Institute promotes self-expression and freedom through music.

Closer to home, Red Pants is working in Bloomington with abused women who have children. They are in the process of starting a writing group to enable the women to write their stories and share them with the world. Judi wants to “have these women lit up and seeing that they are fully expressed in the world and share it in a way that makes a difference for others.”

Red Pants is committed to publishing these stories on its blog, www.redpantslegacy.blogspot.com. As an author, Judi will assist the Red Pants girls in publishing their expressions in book form.

There’s another team in Elkhart, Indiana, a town that has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. In September 2009, Red Pants is starting an afterschool writing program for 6th grade girls in low-income neighborhoods. The objective is for these girls to build a Red Pants team that fulfills their individual visions.

Judi’s passion for giving women the ability to create bold, powerful lives stems from an incident 50 years ago, when she wasn’t much older than the 6th graders she is inspiring today. When she was 15 years old, Judi’s sister Gay was killed in a car accident. She was just 17. “Gay never got to fulfill on her life,” Judi said.

In that moment, Judi felt alone and decided she would live a life where she would be independent and not depend on anyone.

It was through her participation in TMLP, that Judi realized how her entire life was based on that incident. “I sentenced myself to the idea that I’m on my own.”

She created an isolated world designed to do things alone. As an author she works from home, by herself. And she has been successful living in the world she created, publishing three novels.

Since joining TMLP, Judi’s life has transformed. “Before TMLP, my notion of team was that everything funnels through the leader. Applying what I learned through TMLP, my neighbors have been coming to me. People are willing to be a team together to support each other.”

“Now, I have an expanded sense of knowing myself as someone who makes a difference in the world,” Judi said. “By myself I never would have tried to do any of this.”

She noted that the more she looks for examples of what she is standing for, the more it shows up. Recently, CNN ran a story about a 14 year-old girl in Pakistan starting a blog based upon her commitment to ending terror attacks in her country. She shares poetry, stories and news. “She’s being is a perfect expression of Red Pants showing up in the world,” said Judi.

Through Red Pants for the World, Judi has gone from a hospital bed, believing she had done all she could in life to a woman creating a legacy. She has given women globally the opportunity Gay never had – a world full of women expressing themselves, wearing red pants, and creating a life they love.

Written by Steve Schapiro & Don Murphy

PASSIONATE LEADERSHIP

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PASSIONATE LEADERSHIP

Angela Wilson-Team Detroit, T2,Q4

ANGELA WILSON has a vision for Detroit. She has a vision of a city where children are nurtured and cared for, a place where families have access to everything they need. She believes that it is city leaders who will transform her city.

With this in mind, she made the decision to run for Detroit City Council. She used her participation in the Team Management and Leadership Program to create a Game in the World where, with the help of four teams, she would be elected to the city council. She and her teams created the acronym PEOPLE – standing for People Empowerment, Openness, Principled Leadership and Excellence in Detroit government.

The four teams, with two leaders on each team, are:

1) Resource development team – to raise money and secure other resources including businesses, people and time;

2) Community team – to engage the community, recruit volunteers, community events, creating events around a platform and align with others platforms;

3) Partnership team – to focus on creating partnerships with other candidates and share resources; and

4) Leadership team – to manage all teams, making broad policy decisions, approaching and supporting other teams.

When Angela lost the primary on Tuesday August 4th, she and her team leaned some invaluable lessons, the most important of which was to not give up on the game. They are still passionate leaders committed to transforming their city, but have aligned behind two winning primary candidates and will bring the power of their game to those leaders.

The transformation Angela is committed to for Detroit has already begun. People are seeing the possibility of a city that isn’t doing business as usual – they are not settling for ‘the way it’s been.’ A big shift occurred in the last election: of the six incumbent members running, only two made it into the top five. Since the top nine candidates will become the city council members, at least four will be new. This has never happened in Detroit politics before. Detroit is playing a different game now – a game of transformation.

Angela has learned two critical things from her game: First, that team–a real team, not just names, requires people who are committed and clear about their role. Second, she learned that it is crucial to listen ‘for’ what people are committed to, not just the words but for the intentions behind the words.

As she completes her second year in TMLP, Angela found out what was important was not just winning a council seat, but the training and development in playing the game and learning what works in the practice of playing.

Written by Judi Romaine, Edited by Jeff Bonar

EXPRESS YOURSELF

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‘EXPRESS YOURSELF’

Georgia Bruton-Team Sydney, AustraliaT1, Q 2

Imagine not having access to the tools that allow us to create and the tools that allow us to be self-expressed. The tools that let us explore our talents and live lives we love. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of thousands of homeless Australian kids who do not have this opportunity and are just struggling to survive.

This was our inspiration in creating ‘EXPRESS YOURSELF,’ an exhibition to raise money for ‘Youth Off The Streets’ (YOTS).

Youth Off The Streets is a community organization whose mission is to “help disconnected young people discover greatness within by engaging, supporting and providing opportunities to encourage & facilitate positive life choices.”

For More information go to http://www.youthoffthestreets.com.au

The mission of this project is to educate and inspire people to be fully self-expressed in all areas of life.The goal of the project was to generate funds to supply an art program to underprivileged children in Australia so they can also have the opportunity to express themselves.

The vision for the project is to create a world where “every child has the tools to be self expressed.”

‘EXPRESS YOURSELF’ was a successful, exciting, fully self-expressed event by our team in the form of an art auction featuring a range of fantastic art pieces created for the event by both homeless kids and famous local Australians. It was held at Bondi Beach and included break-dancing and musical performances by incredibly talented homeless kids along with well known DJ’s and singers. The head auctioneer from a leading real-estate agency brought an extra flair to the auction. The header logo on this article is one of the images created for the event.

Over 150 people attended the high-energy event. Express Yourself generated a lot of good PR and over AUS$12,500 was raised to start an art program at the local YOTS schools, now in the process of being launched. Many of the homeless kids involved in Express Yourself are now inspired to include some form of creative expression in their future career choices. This event is now ready to be rolled out in Melbourne, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand and is in the Sydney calendar as an annual event.

The vision of homeless kids, with the tools they need to be fully self-expressed, inspired, moved, and consistently motivated everyone on the Youth Off the Streets team to be in action creating an event that no one would forget.

This project was created and completed by Georgia Bruton as part of the Team Management Leadership Program. The project not only provided funding for YOTS and homeless kids. It allowed Georgia to get back in touch with her own artistic self-expression. This project allowed her to both work with what she loves and to make a difference in ways that mattered to her and others on her team. With this training in managing teams, Georgia now has the freedom and ease to expand her own work and foster more projects that contribute to her community and the world.

MICHELANGELO'S GROUP

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Terry Mottinger- Team Cincinnati, Team 1, Quarter 1 

Terry Mottinger is an art teacher who has a special charge. She teaches kids to love art. She works in an inner city school in Columbus, Ohio. She always loved kids but recently discovered a special passion for them. She dreams of creating artists for the future; giving them real training in the arts world so children can become whatever they want in life–kids following their dreams. 

A professional artist herself, Michelangelo was always Terry’s favorite artist. He did the kind of art that inspires Terry, spontaneous and inspired. Since she pictured the children in her classes learning art the same way, she decided that Michelangelo’s Group would be a great name. 

The kids of Michelangelo’s Group create all kinds of art, from decorating the school dance to making jewelry to throwing pots to painting to dancing. Her group is waiting to hear if they’ve been invited to show their work at the Student Art Show of the Columbus Museum of Art, a prestigious invitation. 

So far the response to Michelangelo’s Group has been an overflow of enthusiasm; parents so excited they turn up at school to find out what’s happening, kids dropping by at any moment, other teachers asking what’s going on. The school principal loves Michelangelo’s Group and the kids feel honored to be part of a special group. Everyone wants to be part of Michelangelo’s Group. 

Terry says so far she hasn’t been stopped by problems and now her Game in the World is getting bigger and bigger. She’s excited by the possibility of expansion and adding team members. Terry says the only thing she’d have done differently in starting Michelangelo’s Group would have been to be more confident and playing a bigger game from the very beginning.  

The next steps for Michelangelo’s Group are to push it out into the community further–to executives in the arts organizations such as the Greater Columbus Arts Council and to professionals who can share their gifts at low or no cost with the kids. 

What if the world started playing the game of Michelangelo’s Group with Terry and her kids? She believes we would all live in a world with every person in touch with creativity, in touch with humanity and in touch with the art spirit. 

FREEDOM OF CHOICE FOR CHILDREN

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freedomofchoice

Sylvie Chapdelaine- Team Montreal, Team 2, Quarter 1

 

Going through a divorce is never easy, but as Sylvie Chapdelaine found out, it was even harder for her seven year old son, Francois-Xavier. Constantly bouncing between his parents’ homes was difficult for him. He felt caught in the middle and pressured to choose one parent over the other. Francois didn’t want to hurt either one and was afraid to express his feelings. Sylvie felt as though she was losing her son.  He was no longer happy and had become withdrawn. 

 

Fast forward to today. Francois-Xavier is a fully self-expressed child, full of life and love. How did this dramatic change happen?  It all started with Sylvie’s commitment to her son and the knowledge she learned through Landmark Education’s Team Management and Leadership Program. Sylvie had a vision of sharing love, freedom, and wonder authentically with her son, and inspiring other families going through similar circumstances to create the same for themselves. She was excited about the notion of families where the children of divorced parents could freely express their feelings. Out of this dream, she created her Game in the World, Freedom of Choice for Children. The game itself was to design a cookbook for her son, Francois-Xavier. But this wasn’t just any cookbook. It was one with a special ingredient, Francois-Xavier.

 

Rather than creating a cookbook for her son, Sylvie empowered Francois-Xavier to create a team to make the cookbook.  She discovered that at seven years of age, Francois- Xavier was a true leader.  He inspired his team to complete every task of the cookbook –from selecting the recipes to designing the vision for the artwork to developing the stories about the recipes. His cousins picked out the recipes, his grandmother wrote the stories, and his uncle developed a family website so they could track the progress of the book. They are having so much fun that they want to create more books and short stories together in the future.

 

In the last three months, Francois-Xavier has completely transformed.  He is now able to freely express himself. He feels loved by his entire family and no longer feels the need to choose between his parents.  Sylvie knows that when Francois-Xavier is older and reflects on this period of his life, he will remember how much fun he had creating this cookbook with his family and the freedom and self-assurance it brought him. 

 

With the cookbook in the process of being completed in August, Sylvie, her son, and the entire family wants to be a model for families caught up in divorce. They are committed that all children from divorced families are able to be fully self-expressed just like Francois-Xavier.  They want every child to have the Freedom of Choice; the freedom to rise above the circumstances of divorce and create their own future. 

 

Sylvie recognizes that she could not have done this alone.  She acknowledges Team Montreal for supporting her and giving her the strength and courage to keep the possibility she created for her son alive at all times.  Through the Team Management and Leadership Program, Sylvie has learned to stay powerful, fully self expressed and at ease; even during the times she could not physically be with her son. Through the game she created, Sylvie and Francois-Xavier have created a relationship full of fun, laughter, and most importantly, love. 

LITTLE GEEKS

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littlegeek1Little Geeks is based in the belief that literacy through technology is a basic human right. Andy Walker, the creator of Little Geeks, is determined to level the computer and internet playing

 

littlegeek2field so that every child has access to computer technology and the internet, giving them access to the world community.

The foundation supporting Little Geeks was begun two years ago as a project designed from a vision of love, inclusion and knowledge for every child in Ontario. It is committed to leveling the playing field for children without the economic means to have a computer. Hundreds of children in Ontario are now connected to the internet and to the world through their computers.

Any child between the ages of 7 and 17 who shows an economic need will get a free computer with a one-year internet subscription and free technology assistance to get started.

Little Geeks gets its referrals from agencies, from schools or just the ordinary person discovering the project on the internet. They are proud to declare they have not turned away a single child.

Andy Walker says he created Little Geeks because he himself found success in college when his parents gave him a computer. His computer success allowed him to become a television personality, an author of four books, and eventually to create a successful company. Technology literacy launched Andy into a world of abundance.

Two years ago, at the inception of Little Geeks, Andy began to wonder if a kid like himself, coming from an average background, could achieve great things through technology, what could be possible for somebody coming from an underprivileged background? He saw computer technology as a way for each of us to go far beyond our communities into a world where anything was possible. So Andy created Little Geeks, believing that technology literacy and a connection to the internet was a basic human right.

While Andy had already achieved success in his career before he began Little Geeks, something was missing for him in his life; a sense of fulfillment and joy was lacking. Since then, with the creation of Little Geeks two years ago, he has experienced fulfillment he never imagined. He’s met the woman of his dreams, he’s happily married, and he sold his company, making him financially free. With Little Geeks, he says he continues to expand the tangibles of what he always wanted in life–love, marriage and money–but even more important, the intangible quality of being fulfilled. He believes everyone who makes contribution the main focus of their lives will discover fulfillment beyond anything they’ve thought possible.

Little Geeks has been recognized in dozens of media outlets across Canada and on the internet but none of this was predictable. Since beginning Little Geeks two years ago, Andy and his team have been stopped numerous times; they ran out of money, they lost their premises, they were criticized in the media and they even considered shutting the project down. But Andy has discovered in his commitment to Little Geeks that big breakdowns cause big breakthroughs. For him, the barriers they ran into were merely signs he was on the right track and he used those problems to remind his team to get back to where they started – their commitment to love and inclusion through knowledge.

What’s next for Little Geeks? To expand the game nationally and internationally. He sees computer literacy being available in every city and every continent, every government, at every level. He has visions of sharing his game with the UN and the G8, and especially with the leaders of African nations. He envisions Little Geeks creating communication everywhere, creating instant communities around the globe that keep furthering education, a planet where we are all in communication.
Andy Walker – (completed Team 1 November 2008, Toronto)

PAGES

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pagesWhat do you think about a book on toddlers by toddlers? That’s Pattey Boyde’s Game in the World. It’s called Pages. As a grandmother, she noticed how much children have to teach adults about playing and she decided to author a book that captures the ways of beings of toddlers; a book about toddlers by toddlers.

For Pattey, children represent freedom and full self-expression Children can teach us adults how to play; how to be honest and play honestly, reminding adults what it’s like to play as children again. In turn, Pattey says that the book, Pages, gives toddlers a chance to contribute through their own words and their own art work.

Since designing her Game in the World, Pattey has discovered that the journey is different than the target or the goal and the game is about playing. She finds that Pages, her dream of authoring a children’s book, has given her a sense of being fulfilled, with the ability to pursue her dreams in many areas of her life. She sees it’s possible to live a life of no regrets.

Pattey Boyde, Team Vancouver

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