Resilient Communities Archive

 

Resilient Communities was a major undertaking to help people discover our own capacities for resilience at the close of the millennium. This site now serves as a repository for the resources that were developed and offered as part of that initiative. Please come in and look around.

Resilient Communities use a combination of live-satellite video conferencing, simultaneous audio streaming on the web, articles and links to other resources delivered on the web, locally organized community-based discussion circles.

This effort was launched by Northwest Regional Facilitators (NRF) and Robert Theobald. If you're interested in developing similar programming for your organization, please contact Bob Stilger, former Executive Director of NRF and founder of New Stories, a nonprofit corporation he founded in 2000 to carry on the work he and Robert had done over the last 30 years.

The first three Resilient Communities Programs were hosted by Robert Theobald. Tapes of these programs, and other resources are available. Click Here

The final program was hosted by Vicki Robin of the New Road Map Foundation. Those resources are also available. Click here

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Below, you'll find access to the other resources developed in support of this initiative.


Everywhere people are looking for new ways to bring meaning into our lives.  Resilient Communities is one of many efforts to connect us.  Our purpose is straightforward:

 

icon12.wmf (7382 bytes) Help us talk with each other about what's important as we work to change our lives.

icon12.wmf (7382 bytes) Provide resources to deepen those conversations

icon12.wmf (7382 bytes) Make it easy for people to share what they are learning, thinking and doing.

 

Here's how:

   

arrows3.wmf (2512 bytes)Find out about our Live Satellite Video Conversations. Earlier this year thousands of people in hundreds of communities in North American came together to talk with each other about resilience.    Also, you'll find reference material from our programs on January 22nd, April 8th and May 27th,  including quotes, real audio and video, quesions that were raised, and other resouces.  Click on the link above for full details.

 

arrows3.wmf (2512 bytes)Look over our resources on the web.  We are gradually assembling a world-class array or resources to help people think about resilience, talk with others about resilience, and act to make their own lives more reselient.  Check out what we've got so far by clicking on the link above. 

 

arrows3.wmf (2512 bytes)  Where does y2k Fit?  That's the great question these days, isn't it?   Lots of sites on the web cover y2k in depth these days.  We'll try to give you some of what we think of as the common sense basics.

New.gif (152 bytes)"y2k Wisdom" Quicktime video montage produced by Ben Levi and Lisa Spicer. Requires QuickTime 4.0 on PCs or QuickTime 3.0.2 on Macs (download at http://www.quicktime.com)

 

arrows3.wmf (2512 bytes)What About You?   Check in with us, using this handy webform to tell us what work you are doing to build resiliency.  We'll be figuring out how to share your work here on this site.

 

arrows3.wmf (2512 bytes)Feature of the Week. Lots of aricles are finding their way to us these days.  Approximately once a week we'll present one here.  These will also be placed in our Feature Archive for future reference.

Engaged Living

by Vicki Robin


Something is moving across America. In a myriad of ways, Americans are opting for quality of life over quantity of stuff.

Millions are swimming upstream against the consumer culture. This "quality over quantity" ethic is showing up in the food people buy, the way they educate their children, how they manage their finances, their deep engagement with religious and spiritual values, the depth of their friendships, their unwillingness to be hurried and harried, what they want from politics and public life and the mindfulness they bring to dying. In short, we want a life, not just a job and all the trimmings.

We are creating options for gracious living amidst the tawdry, prefabricated fixtures of MacWorld.....

Click for whole article

 

What's Behind Resilient Communities?

Something's afoot in the United States, and Canada, and Australia, and Europe, and Asia and Africa -- all over the world. Increasing numbers of people are saying they want a different life than that being offered by industrial-era society. Paul Ray, in his 1997 Integral Culture Survey: A Study of the Emergence of Transformational Values in America says that as much as 25% of populations in industrial countries are looking for a better way of life.

Why?

Forces are coming together to shift dynamics in very dramatic ways. There is a growing split between the rich and the poor not only within countries both developed and undeveloped but also, of course, between them. There is a huge increase in population over the last century, which when coupled with production increases, has led to shortages of land, water and clean air. There is growing evidence that global warming and climatic instability, evidenced this year by the number of severe fire and flood problems around the world, threaten current human habitation patterns in significant ways. New forms of nuclear, biological and chemical weaponry are threatening humanity and both nation state rivalries and terrorism create continuing anxieties

There is an economic crisis as our reliance on economic growth and affluence collides with changing personal commitment and ecological realities. There is a social crisis as growing poverty and growing wealth co-exist on the same planet. There is a moral crisis as our ability to feel outrage about the state of the world is buried by our busyness and statements from economists and politicians that "we have no choice." There is an ecological crisis as fish stocks are overconsumed, fires burn out of control, forests diminish, land erodes. And there is, above all, a spiritual crisis as we lose sight of our real goals and substitute instant gratification in place of a search for true meaning.

At the same time, the seeds for change are growing. More and more people are beginning to examine the ways in which they are living their lives. Those of us doing so are saying that we want less stress and more time. We're saying we want to have a positive impact on the global environment rather than a destructive one. Many are being drawn to a new emphasis on building healthy relationships and towards exploration of spirituality.

We are looking for a new way to live -- a more resilient way of life.

(continued)

 

 


Resilient Communities was brought to you by

Northwest Regional Facilitators

Disclaimer:

Any y2k information in this site is made under the protection of the Year 2000 "good Samaritan"law recently passed by Congress. This information is provided "as is" and NRF makes no express or implied representations or warranties, including warranties of performance, merchantability, and fitness for a particular purpose. NRF does not guarantee the completeness, accuracy or timeliness of this information. Your use of this information is at your own risk. You assume full responsibility and risk of loss resulting from the use of this information. NRF will not be liable for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages or any other damages whatsoever, whether in an action based upon a statute, contract, tort (including, without limitation negligence) or otherwise, relating to the use of this information.

 

Date Last Modified: November 28, 1999