Leaders of Today and Tomorrow

Be the best leader you can be today, so that those who come after you can be even greater! 

We all had a dream bigger than what we could accomplish, greater than we could see, and reaching higher than we could achieve-if we did it alone. This week I've been apart of the Aspiring Leaders Academy in Central. A partnership of Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), Solomon Movement, 4 Kids Foundation, Lighthouse Inc./Heaventrain, community parents, and the youth from Cleveland.

I've had an amazing week thanks to all the youth in The Aspiring Leaders Academy. It's a group of youth from 5th-10th grade simply learning, working, and being leaders in their communities through activities, games, and field trips for five weeks during the summer.

I've often thought if I only had known then, what I know now how much farther I could have been. That's what we are trying to do with this camp for the youth.

 Leaders are guiding and influencing our youth everyday-whether positive or negative, they are watching and learning by examples.

Circles of Influence

Teamwork

The craziest spaceship game ever, from my friend Lashunda that taught about effective leadership and achieving goals.

We are going higher!!!!

Waving the Magic Wand

On June 10th our 2nd Neighborhood Circle Meeting took place in the Central neighborhood. In this meeting our goal was to find some common ground with our "magic wand survey" and come up with the first step in our action plan. 

 On the table was a black magician's hat, some sticky notes, markers, and smiley face stickers. Not the usual items for a magic show. We were missing the deck of cards,  scarves, and of course the rabbit. 

The neighbors wrote on a sticky note what they would change in the neighborhood and put it in the magician's hat. Each person took their turn. Then the hat was passed around and the notes were read. 

Then the magic happened. The neighbors started talking about the possibility of what the neighborhood would look like and what they would do to help out. We voted on each slip of paper with our smiley face stickers the most important item of change.  

Now this is the sad part: I recorded the entire conversation on video but forgot to press play. I couldn't believe the mistake I made. 

Some of the neighbors were unable to atttend so the next meeting they will share their ideas and continue the discussion.

Neighborhood Circles

The first step in getting to know our neighbors is through our Central Community Survey. The goal is connecting neighbors gifts, finding the best part of each neighborhood, and finding what neighbors would do to improve their communities.

After the individual fills out the survey, we follow up with a phone call and an invitation to attend a Neighborhood Circle Meeting.

The goal of a Neighborhood Circle is to bring neighbors together but keep it small and multiply the circles in a neighborhood. When I think of what we want to accomplish it's listening to the voice of the community, sharing talents, meeting neighbors, and creating new friendships.

We invited between 6-8 people for our first Neighborhood Circle Meeting.

We stamped, cut, and pasted hand-made invitations for all attendees. Part of the fun of being a host of Neighborhood Circle is all the planning and preparation. Not really work when you are having so much fun!

Finding a place where everyone would feel comfortable was very important.

The Neighborhood Circle met at the Cleveland Public Library Sterling Branch.

Three weeks before the meeting, each of the attendees received a hand-made invitation in the mail with the details of the meeting. Everyone RSVP'd for the event within two days!

Another important part is making sure that the individuals were welcomed with good food. Since we didn't have time or a kitchen to make food we decided on ordering a take out from Hot Sauce Williams.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together- African Proverb

This quote was our theme for the meeting. Everyone participated in the "mapping of our lives." Looking for common ground and sharing the impacting stories that brought us to where we are today. It was important that we shared something that was personal to us-to establish trust between each other.

We found common ground: most of us have moved a couple of times, experienced different neighborhoods, and been challenged in some kind of way to make us grateful and stronger and part of who we are today.

One of our friend's sharing his story

Brandy and a friend looking for her birthplace in Cleveland.

The lady in the blue t-shirt is a good friend of mine I've known for about 2 years. Through our conversations on that day we both found common ground in one of our dreams, "we both have aspirations of being teachers."I look forward to sharing more of her story in another blog post. She is pretty amazing!

 The next meeting, we'll share a potluck meal together and continue our conversations.  

Bunnies, Worms, and Chocolate Frosting

Happy Easter...this post is way late!

On Easter Sunday, it was cold and rainy. Not the kind of weather you want kids running around the yard looking for hidden gems-eggs filled with candy and goodies. The easter egg hunt was postponed instead we brought the party inside at Cedar.

Mike and Ike Candy, Brite gummy worms, and sugar wafers

Stamps, colored paper, stickers and stamp pads for cards

Making our bunny planters...

 The Glue for the wafers-chocolate frosting...yummy!

Stamping and coloring cards for family...

They were so creative! They became rabbit family cars, worm farms, and even a rabbit house!

 Cleaning off sticky-chocolate fingers !

 The kids were great and we had a lot of fun :)

When it was over the children went home with a bag of candy, easter eggs, and a couple of bologna and cheese sandwiches.