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The Peace Wall

At Bread for the Journey, we know that the most healing things are often birthed when people gather to break bread together – that’s how Bread for the Journey came into being! Around a different table, in Ashland, Oregon, a group of friends gathered in March 2007. During dinner, Jean Bakewell shared her vision of creating a Peace Fence in Ashland, where people of all stripes could post positive expressions about the human spirit and hopes for peace and the planet's well-being. Jean’s dream was to transform a n unsightly chain-link fence running alongside a popular walking path next to the railway line into a beautiful Peace Fence. Friends and others in the community responded enthusiastically to an invitation to create fabric art panels expressing hope and peace. The night before Mother’s Day, 67 panels were attached to the fence as a surprise offering to the town. Eventually, more than 200 works of art, many by schoolchildren, decorated the fence.

In 2008, the Peace Fence was destroyed by vandals. However, the community has responded to this violation with a creative new idea – a permanent Peace Wall. Each panel of the Peace Fence had been photographed when originally placed on the fence, making it possible for their images to be reproduced as durable ceramic tiles. The new Peace Wall, to be erected in front of the library, will be unveiled on International Peace Day in September, 2009. For more information visit http://www.peacefence.org. Bread for the Journey of Ashland was happy to grant $700 to this beautiful and inspirational community project.

Money Metamorphosis

Recent news coverage highlights tragic stories of people being caught in the downward spiral of this economic recession – neighbors losing their homes, struggling under crushing debt and medical bills, and some committing suicide. Our culture is in desperate need of turning around our relationship with money. Crystal Arnold is working to inspire and train people to develop healthy relationships with money. Her Money Metamorphosis workshops (http://moneymetamorphosis.us) teach practical skills so that participants learn to track their money, align their finances with their values, and work toward fulfilling their life’s vision. The three-week series facilitates a powerful shift in participants’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors toward money, opening new and vitalizing pathways as people learn to integrate money into their lives through conscious attention. In order to make the workshops available to all, regardless of ability to pay, Bread for the Journey of Ashland was happy to grant $700 for scholarships.

Youth Education and Awareness Committee

Local food and sustainability. These are a rallying cry for the Youth Education and Awareness Committee under the auspices of Transition Town Ashland and the local food security movement. The committee is educating and inspiring area youth to not only eat more local and organic food, but to motivate them toward an interest in gardening and growing food, as well as promoting Transition Town and the local food movement to their parents.

Bread for the Journey of Ashland provided $500 to help the students create and sell special T-shirts and fabric patches at local Earth Day events. Students and community artists designed and printed the organic hemp/cotton shirts for the project’s fundraising efforts during the highly visible spring celebrations.

More Ashland stories and contact information.

Austin

La Fuente (“Fountain”) Quenches Thirst for Knowledge

In a city with an estimated 300,000 Spanish-speakers, local non-profit La Fuente sponsors Austin’s only GED preparation program offered in Spanish. Presently, about 20 students participate in the weekend program to help them master the five subject areas that they will be evaluated on for their GED. The demand for the GED-preparation class is so high that two additional classes will soon be offered on the weekends. The teacher, Susana Trujeque, is an immigrant herself who is inspired to help others make a successful transition to this country. She told Bread for the Journey, “I believe that I am here to offer my service and to believe in the people I meet who are seeking support to realize their hopes and to advance them.” Bread for the Journey of Austin was happy to give the program $1,000 to help purchase supplies such as scientific calculators, books, test guides, and computer software.

GALS Support Mothers in Need

Brigid Dodson is a nurse and mother with a heart for assisting women who have no one to support them during childbirth. Numerous clinical studies have found that having a doula – or a knowledgeable, experienced companion – present at birth tends to result in shorter labors with fewer complications and reduces the need for pain medication, epidurals, cesareans, and other medical interventions. In addition, women with this support are less likely to experience post-partum depression, feel greater support and self-esteem, and have more success with breastfeeding. To offer every woman this support, Brigid founded GALS (Giving Austin Labor Support) http://givingaustinlaborsupport.org/. The program, offered at a local hospital, trains volunteers, similar to doulas, on how to offer support and comfort to women who have no one with them during this critical time. Bread for the Journey of Austin was pleased to provide a grant of $1,000 to purchase uniforms for the volunteers, training guides and supplies. The program is now expanding to serve women in prison, young women at Gardner Betts Juvenile Detention Center and women at the family detention center for seekers of political asylum. As GALS continues to strategically reach out to women in need they realize their core belief that “Every woman deserves to have nurturing care during their childbirth experience.”

More Austin stories and contact information.

Oakland

hippysauce

Vibrant arts make for vibrant, engaged communities. hippysauce, located in West Oakland, is an integral part of a rich and diverse collective of artists, activists and revolutionaries. hippysauce is committed to working with the community to bring artists and activists together to express their art and “to proclaim our strength and power as a community that dreams, imagines and creates.”

Hippysauce has created an arts space for local artists to enrich the community with the performing arts, a gallery for visual arts, movement and yoga classes, workshops and seminars. Recent activities included providing a café space for specialty organic menus and offering a series of dynamic movement classes. The most recent upcoming activities are monthly gatherings of live music, theatrical performance, and dance.

Bread for the Journey of Oakland was pleased to grant hippysauce $750 to further their efforts in fostering arts awareness to the community and in offering a space to bring local artists together. We wish hippysauce much future success!

More Oakland stories and contact information.

Orange County

Raising the Next Generation of Mariachis, Family Style

The Ceja family has just started a mariachi music school in San Juan Capistrano, CA. and they already have 90 students. They meet in the evenings twice a week with their students and teach the instruments themselves. Father Alex does all the administrative work, and mother Rosa teaches elementary school during the day and teaches beginning and intermediate guitar to students at night. Son David, the director of the program, teaches advance guitar, guitarron and trumpet and daughter Carmen teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced violin.

The Cejas ask for a $35 a month donation per student and $15 a month donation per additional family member. As most of the students are from low-income families, some are unable to donate at times. Some of the students are now ready to play at local events and start raising money for the program. Their next pressing need is for Mariachi suits. Bread for the Journey of Orange County gave the Cejas a grant of $2000 – $1500 for mariachi suits and $500 for the next important thing they need.

A Front-Row Seat at Nature’s Stage

Nathaniel Lansley is an Eagle Scout with a vision to help restore one of his community’s treasures. He plans to rebuild the seats at the outdoor amphitheater at the Oak Canyon Nature Center in the city of Anaheim. The Oak Canyon Nature Center is a 58-acre natural park, offering a beautiful oasis and “outdoor classroom” to the residents of Anaheim. The park offers one of the few remaining areas of oak woodland and coastal sage scrub in the region. The amphitheater provides a natural setting for educational programs and events, and provides income for the park. Nathaniel has city approval, donated lumber, friends to help, but needs a total of $3000 to complete the project. He wants to involve the community in raising funds for the project, so he needed funds to purchase supplies for a car wash fundraiser. In addition, he wants to purchase pizza for his project workers who will be working with him this summer. Bread for the Journey of Orange County gave Nathaniel $500 to start with a promise to contribute up to $750 more as a match for any amount he raises over $1000.

Nourishing Elders, Body and Soul

Many homebound seniors in Orange, California depend on Meals on Wheels not only for physical sustenance, but also for the companionship and conversation with program volunteers, which may be their only chance to be with others. With rising gas prices, many volunteers have been unable to continue delivering meals, and have asked for reimbursement, which is not in the budget. Bread for the Journey of Orange County was pleased to give $1000 to Orange Elderly Services, Inc. to pay for the volunteer's fuel expenses and help keep our senior neighbors nourished, in body and soul.

More Orange County stories and contact information.

San Diego

San Diego Indie Music Fest

The San Diego Indie Music Fest, held on March 28, 2009, celebrates the spirit and power of independent music to make a difference in the world. The Festival is the brainchild of Alicia Champion and Danielle Lo Presti. Danielle is a pioneer who works tirelessly to empower artists and enrich the independent music scene. Alicia Champion is a young artist whose independent recording label, Champ Records, has showcased the work of many up and coming independent artists. Together, Danielle's wisdom of experience and Alicia's fiery passion to climb any musical mountain makes them unstoppable. Working side by side throughout Southern California, and playing the stages of festivals, clubs, activist showcases and more, this duo is lighting a fire of awareness and hope throughout the all-too-often embittered music world. Bread for the Journey of San Diego was happy to make a donation of $100 to the festival to support the independent spirit of musicians to speak, sing, and play their truth.

More San Diego stories and contact information.

Santa Fe

With A Little Help From the Worms

Miguel Santistevan believes in teaching about sustainable agriculture through the use of simple hand-operated tools. Michael, who is working on his Ph.D. in biology, has founded a new group called “Sembradores” (“Master Cultivators”). On land that has been cultivated by his family for generations, he works with high school and college students in agriculture, research, and education to deepen their connection to the earth through cultivation.

Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe gave Miguel $350 to purchase two pieces of equipment and attachments. The first is a high wheel cultivator with a slicing hoe to attach to it. The second is a seed planter with a fertilizer applicator that Michael plans to retrofit for vermicompost intensification or worm compost, from worm bins that he and the students have constructed. These tools are key to his educational program , and BFJ of Santa Fe is happy to support this worthy project.

More Santa Fe stories and contact information.

Seattle

Fry Bread for Justice

After attending the grand opening ceremony for the new Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center in Seattle, Bread for the Journey of Seattle was compelled to find a way to help. The stories shared by tribal elders and the native songs and dance were both haunting and inspirational. After visiting with James, the Director of the Cultural Center, we learned of the overwhelming need to raise $130,000 for an expert witness to represent the tribe’s court challenge for Federal tribal recognition, which would ensure that the people of Chief Seattle have their full rights as a tribe. Bread for the Journey of Seattle expressed our commitment of a $1,000 grant to help the tribe. However, in the spirit of community, rather than an outright donation to the legal fund, we hoped to help encourage creative community participation. The idea James came back with was both brilliant and community-minded.

James proposed a series of fundraisers featuring traditional fry bread as the main component. The tribe would use the $1000 grant to fund Fry Bread for Justice Day. His belief was that the fry bread events would generate funds for the legal challenge and increase community awareness of the tribe’s struggle for Federal Recognition. In James’ words, “Bread for the Journey would be exactly what we would be doing...Using a traditional food to fund our needs.”

The tribe has since raised over $5,500 at two fry bread fundraisers with one remaining. James reports that the Fry Bread for Justice events have provided a great opportunity for the community to come together and help. In addition, the Duwamish Tribe has raised another $30,000 that James attributes to community awareness centered around the Fry Bread for Justice campaign.

Ministry of Presence Grows

Over the past year, Mary’s Place of Seattle has become a friend to Seattle’s chapter of Bread for the Journey. Mary’s Place provides refuge and sanctuary for homeless and formerly homeless women where support for spirits, minds and bodies is found. In the fall of 2008, Mary’s Place was given the opportunity to make a long-time vision a reality: to create a support network for homeless women who have been hospitalized or incarcerated. Bread for the Journey proudly supported the center’s “Ministry of Presence” with $1,000 in seed money.

This compassionate program has received support but also confronted challenges. Consequently, they have had to re-envision how to implement a program that works within hospitals’ legal requirements to protect patient confidentiality. The problem was how to get the word out to women in need. Mary’s Place has gotten creative with flyers and cards to spread the word to hospital chaplains, social workers and to homeless women themselves that support is available. The word has gotten out. Trained volunteers have begun visiting women in the hospital. Mary’s Place needed additional funding to strengthen the Ministry of Presence in the hospital and now to extend it to the jails. Bread for the Journey of Seattle was pleased to contribute an additional $1000 to strengthen this program’s path to success.

More Seattle stories and contact information.

Sebastopol

The Global Student Embassy

Lucas and Jasper Oshun are passionate global explorers who believe in the power of cultural exchange to foster understanding and peace. The brothers were troubled that students in other parts of the world often lack finances to travel internationally, and American youth often lack the expanded worldview gained from exploring unfamiliar and possibly uncomfortable terrain. To this end, the Oshun brothers created The Global Student Embassy (GSE) with the hope of hosting international students in their hometown of Sebastopol, and sending local high school students to travel and participate in community service projects abroad. For their early 2009 inauguration, GSE sponsored five South American high school students, four from Argentina and one from Peru. The two week exchange to Sebastopol enabled the South Americans to present aspects of their culture to elementary and high school students in Sonoma County, and to observe and participate in an array of diverse local events, such as lectures, dances, and joining a group of teens from Analy High school to construct a community garden directly in front of a trailer park in Sebastopol. In the summer of 2009, eight high school students from Sebastopol are planning to travel to communities in Argentina and Peru to participate in similar efforts.

In order to document GSE’s community service projects and promote their vision to potential funders and students, Bread for the Journey of Sebastopol provided a grant of $1000 for a digital video camera and additionally offered the video production expertise of a local friend of BFJ. Jasper and Lucas plan to produce a promotional DVD, and as their project gains momentum, they plan to use their new video equipment to communicate their successes and adventures on the internet via tools like YouTube. See http://www.seb.org/gsefirstpics.html.

More Sebastopol stories and contact information.

Southwest Michigan

Opening Doors for Service through Yoga

For Kirsten Kloster, a student in the Holistic Health Program at Western Michigan University and a part-time yoga instructor at Sangha Yoga in Kalamazoo, yoga teacher training was an incredible experience, not only to deepen her understanding of yoga, but also for deepening self-awareness and her connection to community. To open this door for others, she came up with the idea of a Yoga Teacher Training Scholarship fund. The scholarship fund will enable students to complete a 200-hour training resulting in certification to teach yoga anywhere in the US. Scholarships will be based on need and applicants must write essays demonstrating both their financial need and their dedication to yoga, as well as explaining what they plan to do to give back to their community (such as offering classes to at-risk youth or elders in nursing homes). Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan was happy to provide $1000 to help fund the scholarship program and to help purchase books to start a resource library.

School Garden Grows Well-Rounded Children

Lincoln International Studies School is a public magnet school in Kalamazoo which uses an international studies curriculum and diverse community partnerships to ensure that all children become responsible, self-motivated achievers . The elementary school is beginning a garden project to facilitate cross-curricular, hands-on learning by providing an outdoor garden-based classroom to be utilized by teachers, students, parents and community members with the goal of enhancing the social, emotional, physical and academic growth of Lincoln students. The garden will be grown in raised beds on the school grounds and will start as a Lunch Recess Garden Club. Working with self-selected teachers and Amolia Moore of Kalamazoo Communities in Schools, students will learn about planting, growing and harvesting vegetables and herbs. The project will also emphasize the international theme that plants migrate like people do. Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan was excited to provide $1200 for building materials, equipment rental, gardening tools and supplies, seeds, soil, and promotional materials for this inspiring project.

Helping Parents – and Children – Get a Great Start

Every year, Pam Swaim plans a Parent Expo for the Great Parents Great Start program at Lewis Cass Intermediate School District. The District provides special education and instructional support to make sure that all of southwest Michigan’s children can succeed. The Parent Expo brings families together to learn about what resources are available to them, to meet with local service agencies and to participate in school-readiness activities with their children. Since March was Parent Awareness Month in Michigan, this year the event focused on the theme of Safety. Activities included Stop-Drop-and-Roll fire safety training, an opportunity to create a child ID Amber Alert Kit, and a presentation on bullying. Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan was pleased to grant Pam $1300 to purchase First Aid kits to distribute to the families that attended the expo.

More Southwest Michigan stories and contact information.

More Stories of Community Support (2008)