Joy is one of the key design principles of the CFC and we look for threads of joy in all of the nonprofit organizations in our community. Each nonprofit has a mission to reduce some form of suffering in our world, and we believe that perhaps a way to reduce suffering is connected to both compassion and joy. Below is a collection of writing that highlights these glimmers of joy we have witnessed.
A quote that has been on my mind a lot recently – and that I have brought into some Community for Change gatherings – is the following (from the organization, The People’s Supper, that equips people to host small dinner parties as a space for connection and healing):
Social change moves at the speed of relationships. Relationships move at the speed of trust.
When I think about the definition of community (perhaps in lieu of “relationships” above) – which is something we do a lot at the Community for Change – deep trust is always a required quality. Whether said community is strangers helping one another in the aftermath of a natural disaster, or a community that has been in existence for much longer, such as Maria Souza’s friends from when she started dancing ballet thirty years ago – I have wondered if communities form with perhaps the unspoken yet shared belief that each person has the others’ best interest in mind.
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
To say that Starfire is a nonprofit in Cincinnati that works with people who have disabilities is one of the greatest understatements of the decade. Yes, this is true stripped down to the most literal sense, but it is impossible to summarize Starfire by the people it serves and fully capture the spirit of the transformational work they are doing, breaking down artificial barriers and bridging the private and public life of neighbors.
It can be so easy to feel pulled under by both the mundaness of day-to-day work life and the regular, overwhelming realization that in the non-profit world you have a standard to “solve” problems that are somewhat unsolvable even in a 10 to 20-year time frame...typically much longer. We can bend under the pressure of deadlines and budgets and the suffering itself that non-profits intend to alleviate.
Fear and its many undermining forces can supplant even the remote possibility of joy. Guilt and obligation and “giving back” can displace the far greater power of passion in all aspects of operations.
Maybe the pathway of reducing suffering is connected to compassion…and joy…
Earlier this fall, Pip and I got to video chat with Lan from India to catch up and connect together from different continents. Some of you may know Lan from CFC and Crosby events, and he's cc'd here.
During our conversation, I stopped Lan mid-stream to ask permission to write a few paragraphs on what he had just told us. Below is my best attempt to encapsulate the power of the work he is doing with the Azim Premji Foundation specifically on education for girls. The goal of the program is to help their families and communities see the value in their education instead of arranged marriage, which is often seen as the lesser of two evils.
As an addendum, the UN, Int'l Labour Organization and Walk Free Foundation just released the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery this week (Exec Summary attached). Of the 40 million estimated in global slavery, 15 million are estimated to be in forced marriage. This is the first time forced marriage has been included in this report, and with it, the proportion of people on this planet that are slaves comes to 1 in 200.
This CFC joy piece is centered around something I bet Brynne and Pip never really imagined we would cover when they started the Community for Change a number of years ago…💩.
Human waste. Poop. Crap. Sh*t. Defecation.
I imagine you are currently sitting in your office desk or maybe on your couch with your laptop after the workday and this was likely not what you thought you would be reading about when you opened this unread message…but here we are! Get comfortable :)
After I visited a few startups in India last fall and Pip suggested I write on how joy is woven throughout their work, I knew the organization Samagra and their SmartLOO platform was going to be a fun one to write. I’ll get to more of what they do below, but in short, they are in the business of making sure every Indian has access to safe and clean toilets.