abi Possibilities

I've just added a wonderful site to our Links resources -- Nate St. Pierre's site called ItStartsWith.Us.com

This is from Nate's introduction to his site (I've added the bold):

The goal of ItStartsWith.Us is to build a global community of individuals focused on making a positive impact in the lives of the people around them.

Each and every one of us has the ability to change the world by touching lives in this way. And when we hear more about the positive things others are doing, we become more aware of the opportunities we have to make a difference for the people around us.

Right now I’m starting small with a simple blog, broadcasting stories about people making a positive impact, and hopefully inspiring others along the way. I have some big ideas of where this site can go in the near future, once the community has a chance to build up. Eventually ItStartsWith.Us will become a true database-driven social networking site focused on positive change, with a unique set of tools for that purpose. It will open up previously blocked lines of communication among people with a common vision, and then we’ll see what we can do.

How cool is that?

For me, it brings to mind not only what we would like to see in every Possibilities' community, but also a similar thread in other organizations I admire and want to emulate in some way.

Even before Possibilities was started, I became a donor-member to a Canadian organziation called Interpares - Latin for "among equals". They are a social justice organization that works world-wide to support development projects. But their approach and philosophy has a bit of a twist --

Interpares sees what it does not as "giving charity", but as engaging with the people living there, helping them to craft or implement their own solutions, not importing solutions from Canada, and offering resources to help to allow them to achieve their goal.

Here are some quotes from their 2008 Annual Report that reflect this kind of inspirational thinking:

Our task is to find the promise of the world we want in the present we know, and to nurture that promise.

Welcoming the signs of the future we want can be risky. Nothing is guaranteed. And we have learned we can be bitterly disappointed by utopian visions, predictions of a bright future that never comes to pass.

Our best efforts therefore lie not in striving for a far horizon that will always elude us, but rather in paying close attention to the present -- in all its diversity and complexity and possibility. ...

As we act together today, we get a glimpse of the future we desire, and our hope is sustained.

Is any any wonder that  I tried to develop Possibilities on their model?:

• Work together with our community Members, not trying to impose solutions we think are best
• Focus on the near future, looking for signs of what we want in what we are experiencing now
• Look for opportunities to create change that takes us closer to what we want
• Create and nurture a sense of community -- that we are all in this together and can help each other to keep moving forward

Which brings me full circle back to Nate St. Pierre's site and a one-minute video he created to simplify his already simple message: Changing the world through people making a positive impact in the lives of others. Take one minute to watch the video - The Point of All This-  and comment -- here or on his blog. It doesn't matter -- Just get involved.

It Starts with Us.