Collaboration of MassClimateers and SummerSolutionists

Western Mass Team - Worcester

After brief stop-overs in South Hadley, Amherst, and West Brookfield, we are now in Worcester (pronounced properly as Woo-stah). We are staying with the Summer of Solutions (SOS) students (they call themselves the Solutionists) just off the Clark University Campus. They're a really great group of people and we're learning so much from each other!

Last night we had a potluck and joined in on their weekly check-in meeting. Since both programs are just about at their half-way points, it was a great way to review how far we've come, what we have left to do or change, and compare strategies between groups! We discussed issues like time management, goal-setting, and motivation. We did a great exercise where we each wrote things we thought were going well with our programs and things we thought should change and passed the papers around so we could add/respond to other's comments. It was great to get the creative juices flowing and see the thought processes from everyone in the room (about 17 people in all).

Even though the MCS projects center around clean energy, and the SOS projects around gardening and green jobs, we found many similarities in what we liked about our programs. First, we found it empowering to know that we are not alone. (There are 10 total SOS programs around the country and of course our 2 other MCS teams!) Second, we all found great value in the lifelong friendships we have been forming over the past few weeks. Lastly, we recognize the importance of environmental programs like ours working together to create a better human presence on the planet.

The Solutionists are working with other organizations such as the local youth-led Toxic Soil Busters who use phytoremediation to create adequate back yard environments for families to grow their own food. They also have weekly guest speakers and "skill shares" where individuals offer to teach their special talents to the group (this week's just so happens to be bike maintenance by a local bike shop owner). As one of the head Solutionist organizers, Lila, put it, we are here "learning through others, and learning by doing."

In the Awakening the Dream Symposium it talks about Joanna Macy's three ways by which that the Great Turning is made possible (holding actions, creation of alternatives, and shift in conciousness). Neither of the three works by itself, but instead they all rely on each other, so there is no use in trying to determine which is the best. Between MCS and SOS and other people we have met this summer, we have all of those bases covered. There are those that better their local community with public organic gardens, farmers markets that boast Community Supported Agriculture, symposiums that change the way we think about our daily actions, those people that raise support for renewable energies. It is this stellar cooperation and collaboration of our efforts that will create our eventual success.

Stay Green!
--Leila