United States of America

9 ICCP 2022

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Community Regeneration

Bonds and bridges among people and environments

ECPA is partner of the 9 ICCP Conference that will take place this year in Naples from September 21 to September 24

The call for papers is still open (June 10, the final deadline) as well as the opportunity to benefit from reduced fees.

Don’t stall, take a look at the Conference website and organize your trip to Naples. And yes, you can also attend online, but if we may make a suggestion….take the opportunity to benefit from a conference of great scientific and applied interest and enjoy the beauty of a unique city in the world. Why not take advantage of all the benefits? Naples, Italian and European community psychology are waiting for you.

Visit the conference website https://9iccpnaples.com/

People Protecting Each-other Sustainably – PPEs

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People Protecting Each-other Sustainably (PPEs) was developed to recruit and manage over 100 Northeast
Ohio volunteers. People Protecting Each-other Sustainably used the social media platform Facebook to facilitate material donations, volunteer recruitment and training, and to function as an ongoing central communications hub. Leaders used an assembly line process with zero contact pick up and drop off at multiple stages of production to allow safe assembly and distribution of face masks.

A total of 7,695 handmade face masks were created to distribute to local frontline responders in 10 weeks. Use of upsourced and donated materials allowed this project to reduce potential landfill waste and made a zero cost project possible. Volunteers had positive responses to the project and reported benefits from their participation.

This model has been successfully recreated by a smaller group in Geauga County, Ohio, with similarly successful results. Clearly this model of community mobilization has the potential to be replicated in other state of emergency crises and emergency response situations to produce lifesaving or necessary equipment when industry standard equipment is not readily available.

For more information, please click here.

Story submitted by Andrew Snyder, USA

asnyde20@kent.edu

Project Taillight

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Project Taillight seeks to connect low-income residents with proactive headlight, taillight, license plate light, and/or turn signal repair services for free. Students of the Columbus State Automotive Technology program provide labor for this innovative public safety and crime prevention program. Because non-violent crimes are more often linked to poverty and lack of opportunity, this program reduces the need for residents and police to interact over minor violations.

Photo retrieved from columbusunderground.com

The goal of the program is to reduce minor traffic violations, allowing police to focus on more violent crime, while also reducing the number of times residents are pulled over along the side of the road for non-violent crimes. Additionally, it is a way for Columbus State students to give back to the community.

Some repairs have proven greater than the students can manage, but they work to coordinate assistance. They have interactions with the residents and learn how to provide customer service. The program has a $50,000 budget and also received a $25,000 contribution from the Columbus Department of Public Safety general fund. They hope to grow and expand.

For more information, please click here.

Story shared by Leslie Hatch Gail, USA

Middleton’s Village to Village: Making “Junkers” Run Again

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Eliot Middleton donated his first vehicle in January of 2020. Since then, he has given away 90 more to people that need cars. Eliot worked on the cars during his off days and donated his first car to a mother of a disabled child who needed the car for regular hospital visits. According to Eliot, the woman decided to pay it forward. She got a job, bought a new car, and will donate the car given to her by Eliot back to him.

Photo retrieved from goodlivingguide.com

In November of 2020, a foundation was started called Middleton’s Village to Village. The foundation is run via the foundations’ Facebook page with support from friends and family.

A lesson that learned from Eliot’s story is that good deeds inspire more good deeds.

For more information, please click here.

Story shared by Tressa Greer, USA

21 Days of Peace: Pilot Program to Deter Crime

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A grieving Minneapolis community is asking for information that will lead to the gunmen who killed two children and seriously injured another. KG Wilson’s 6-year-old granddaughter, Aniya Allen, was the last of the three children shot in the head and the first to die. KG Wilson is on his bullhorn and passing out flyers, looking for justice and closure for his family and the others impacted by gun violence in the community. Nine-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith took her last breath Thursday night. Ladavionne Garrett Jr. was shot 29 days ago and is still fighting to recover.

Photo retrieved from minnesota.cbslocal.com

21 Days of Peace” officially kicks off Friday night. Church and community members are combining efforts to patrol high-crime areas to be a presence, as well as to offer resources for those in need.

A community that has issues with poverty and oppression are able to mobilize for a common cause and able to gain support or organizations.

For more information, please click here.

Story shared by, MoDena Stinette, USA

Liberating Lawns: Addressing systemic oppression in the food system

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Cheyenne Sundance is a 23-year-old advocate for urban farming. Sundance began Growing in the Margins so that people like her affected by the systemic oppression in the food system can grow their own food. In 2019, Sundance began a 12-week free mentorship program that trains low-income urban youth in the art of urban agriculture. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Sundance launched the Liberating Lawns to address food insecurity within Toronto. Liberating Lawns matches individuals who want to grow food but lack space with people with gardens to spare.

Photo retrieved from OptimistDaily.com

Many people enrolled in the mentorship program so that the initial plot behind the church was no longer enough. As a result, Sundance’s initiative took over a greenhouse within the city, a year-round urban farm. It is hoped that farming education given to the youth will be a seed of revolution that will address that oppression within the food system.

This initiative addressed the inequities in the food system by mentoring urban youth in urban agriculture and also by linking those interested in urban farming but without space, with those with space to spare.

For more information, click here.

Story shared by Margaret Sergon, USA

Million Gardens Movement: Plant a Garden For Every Household Living in a Food Desert

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The million gardens movement is a charitable and educational initiative that hopes to combat food insecurity and malnutrition. Begun by Kimbal Musk, the movement hopes to accomplish this goal by putting a garden in every household. The little green gardens are ready to use, they come with a customized growing plan and online lessons and activities to support the growth of relevant at-home vegetable and fruit gardens. A donation of ten dollars enables the movement to put these gardens in homes and in classrooms.

Photo retrieved from MillionGardensMovement.org

5,000 gardens have already been distributed. The community is engaged by either donating ten dollars to give a garden to a family, those already gardening sign up to join the movement, or read and contribute to the blog and tell other gardeners about it.

This initiative will provide fresh vegetables and vegies for families living in food deserts. Families will be empowered to grow and tend their fresh food. Besides, families also learn about different spaces within their homes that can house vegetable gardens.

For more information, click here.

Story shared by Margaret Sergon, USA

Google-backed drones drop library books so kids in Virginia can do their summer reading

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Kelly Passek, a librarian at Montgomery County School District in VA, came up with the idea of having drones deliver library books to encourage more kids to read from the safety of their homes. Passek could receive the book orders from the children, find the books from different libraries, package them, and deliver them to the Wing facility for the drones to deliver them.

Photo retrieved from washingtonpost.com

Wing library book delivery was/is available to nearly 600 students within Christiansburg, VA, which makes it possible for the students to get free reading materials.

This innovation kept alive the interest to read by making available the reading materials during the lockdown. It was also hoped that the innovation of drone-delivered books would instill the desire to read in more kids.

Story shared by Margaret Sergon, USA, based on a story originally collected by the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies of Ball State University, Indiana, USA.

More info here or at msergon@my.nl.edu

Avivo opens Avivo Village the nation’s first indoor tiny home community for individuals experiencing homelessness

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Avivo Village, an indoor community of 100 secure, private dwellings or “tiny houses” created to provide shelter to individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness, opened in Minneapolis’ North Loop Neighborhood on March 8, 2021. Avivo Village was created as a COVID-era means to shelter individuals in a socially distant, dignified way. Residents will have access to Avivo’s unique combination of recovery services, mental health services, and career education and employment services.

In December, a preliminary opening of Avivo Village provided indoor housing for 16 initial residents — many of whom have since found housing while working with Avivo’s housing case managers. As of April 16, nearly 70 residents were housed in Avivo Village’s tiny home community.

Picture retrieved from Freethink

One major inequity in Minnesota’s homeless community is a disproportionate number of Native Americans experiencing homelessness compared to Minnesota’s population as a whole (11% in 2019 of surveyed homeless via hmismn.org compared to 1.4% of MN population via Census.gov in 2019). Avivo Village was created in partnership with the city of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, and the state of Minnesota – but also with a strong partnership between Avivo and the White Earth Nation and the Red Lake Nation, to ensure a welcoming community.

Story submitted by Aaron Shaffer, United States of America

More info here or at aaron.shaffer@avivomn.org

Chicago Couple Cancelled Their Wedding But Used $5,000 Catering Deposit To Feed People in need

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Emily Bugg and Billy Lewis of Chicago had to cancel their big wedding because of COVID-19, but their cancellation uplifted the needy. This happened after the couple asked if the caterer could convert their wedding food into donated thanksgiving dinners for those in need. Consequently, 200 thanksgiving meals were served to Threshold clients, who are individuals with mental health and substance use challenges.

Thresholds’ clients had a thanksgiving meal. The CEO of Threshold said the donation was truly needed because their clients were not likely to have a thanksgiving meal in 2020 due to financial constraints brought upon by the pandemic. The donated food uplifted the clients’ spirits, warmed the givers’ hearts and enhanced the community spirit.

There are creative ways of giving, even and especially during challenging times.

Illustration: Elena Scotti/The Guardian

Story shared by Margaret Sergon, USA, based on a story originally collected by the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies of Ball State University, Indiana, USA.

More info here