how will you create positive change

7/28/2019 How Will You Create Positive Change

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How Will YOU CreatePositive Change?

By Leah Oviedo


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Is there something negative about your community or the world thatyou want to change? The good news is thatYOU ARE CPABALE ofmaking that happen. Real sustainable change happens when weconsciously choose to change our individual lives and make differentdecisions. Through our personal actions we create a ripple effect, we

become role models, and we inspire others to see how they can succeedby showing them what works. If you want to make a positive differencein the life of others you must lead by example.

The founders of 16 amazing organizations, programs, and socialmovements have shared their experience with how they created positivechange and what inspired them to act. They shared what obstacles theyovercame and the results of all that work. From their stories you will

have a blueprint of how to get involved and create positive change.

The role models in this book are not famous and dont have millions ofdollars. They are not politicians or CEOs oflarge corporations. The

media doesnt report their every move in the news, yet they are creatingchange that affects you, me, and billions of people. They are humanrights activists, environmentalists, health activists, youth mentors,educators, innovators, and community leaders. They are different

genders, ages, and skin colors. They live in different countries and havedifferent beliefs. What they share in common is taking action to solve aproblem. They consciously chose to make our world happier, healthier,

safer, and accepting of others. They were not simply handed anopportunity, but instead saw problems and created solutions.

At the end of the book is information to help you take that first step andsome resources to help you succeed.

My hope is this inspires you to be a force of change for good. Alwaysremember that you are capable. Follow your passion to people andplaces who can guide you on your path. It has been said many timesthat you must actively be the change you want to see(in your personal

life, community, and the world) for that change to happen. Wishing forand hoping will not make change. Learn from these amazing people.Take that first step and see what you can create.

Change is up to you.

*As you read please keep in mind that not all of the people in this bookwrite or speak English as their first language.


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Jasmine Gray of Jazs Jammies &More Than Skin Deep pg.4

Frank Baird of Walk a Mile in Her Shoes pg.7

Ameila Roskin Frazee of Make it Safe pg.11

Ryland King of Sprout Up pg.13

Lauren Parsekian & Molly Thompson of the Kind Campaign pg.16

Ian Quinn of Halt the Hate pg.19

Maria Mejia an AIDS and HIV activist pg.22

Emily May of Hollabackpg.26

Tun Sukonthamarn Flancman of PooPoo Paper pg.29

Shadrak Kyobe of Empower And Care Organization, EACO pg.31

Nakisha Varlack-Harris of Girl Power United pg.35

Katia Gomez of Educate 2 Envision pg.38

Ron Tinsley of Prophetik Soul pg.41

Linda Le of San Diego Veg Fest pg.44

Christopher McFadden Jr. Youth Mentor pg.47

Kirin Macapugay of BIBAK Youth pg.50

- Its Up To Youpg.55


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Jasmine GrayJazs JammiesandMore Than Skin Deep

Jasmine Gray is the founder of Jazs Jammies which provides free, new

pajamas to children who experience extended stays in hospitals andshelters. She was inspired from her own experiences with fighting a rareand painful birth defect AVM(Arteriovenous Malformation). More ThanSkin Deep is a documentary she is creating to share the story of herselfand others who are fighting AVM, including her surgeon and his searchfor a cure.

What was your inspiration or what necessitated you to beginthis adventure? I was inspired to start Jazs Jammies Inc. afterspending months in the hospital battling a rare birth defect calledArteriovenous Malformation. I continued to be as active as I could in GirlScouts throughout the years, and when it was time to do our seniorcommunity service project, I decided to address the need for morecomfort for those staying extended periods of time in the hospital.

More Than Skin Deep was inspired by my specialist James Suen at theUniversity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences telling me that at 71-years-old he was determined to find a cure for Arteriovenous Malformation(AVM) and then retire. He was building a super team of doctors and

scientist for the task. I felt the world needed to know about their effortsand about the patients surviving and thriving with AVM. I decided to putthe M.A. in TV/Film that I had recently earned from Syracuse Universityto a good cause, and document it all.

What steps did you take to create your program? To create Jaz

Jammies Inc., I first completed a pajama drive as a Girl Scout GoldAward project, and we collected over 850 pairs of pajamas. Then, Idecided to continue the drive by partnering with the school I was

attending for undergrad, Middle Tennessee State University. The schoolsOffice of Leadership and Development allowed me to have collectionboxes in various buildings and also paid for flyers. I also developedrelationships with campus groups who collected pajamas on behalf ofour organization. Then, while at Syracuse, I submitted the necessary

paperwork to become a 501c3.

For More Than Skin Deep, I created an fundraiser with the intention ofraising $5,000 toward the documentary. With the help of Indiegogo andother personal/organizational contributions, we were able to raise$10,000. This money has gone toward purchasing a camera and filming


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of short films featuring AVM survivors. Then, these films will be used togarner awareness and secure a partner to fund the full-lengthdocumentary.

What obstacles were you forced to overcome? With Jazs Jammies,

one obstacle was making sure that communities and people on campuswere aware that the drive was going on so that we would have enoughpeople collecting pajamas.

With More Than Skin Deep, one obstacle was finding the funding tomove forward with production. We have at least been able to gatherenough resources to start the process.

What were the hardest problems to solve or actions to take? Thehardest problem to solve with Jazs Jammies is maintaining the samelevel of pajama collection each year. Because my family and I have themajority of the responsibility with the small size of Jazs Jammies at thispoint, it can be hard to complete all the work necessary to keep thepajamas rolling in. It is a matter of people knowing about theorganization and taking the time to collect.

With More Than Skin Deep, the hardest problems revolve around beingable to follow the most compelling AVM survivors and getting a networkor other partner to get involved with providing the funding needed to

complete the film. Production cost can mount with travel and otherexpenses. Even though technology has made filming cheaper, it stillcosts travel to different locations, have the necessary equipment andcomplete the post production necessary to create a high quality filmproject.

What must you do to stay operational? With Jazs Jammies, nowthat we have a solid foundation, we need to create partnerships withother organizations that have access to people who could create pajamadrives on behalf of the organization. We also need to develop a strong

board that can provide the knowledge and resources needed to expandthe organizational infrastructure of the organization.

More Than Skin Deep has to continue filming with AVM patients,continue to build buzz around the films progress, and the capitalize withpartnerships that yield access to funding and distribution sources.

Who, if anyone, helped you succeed? My faith and dependence onGod have allowed me the emotional and spiritual foundation Ive needed


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to overcome my personal obstacles and the opportunities needed tofurther my goals. My family parents, sister, extended family andloved ones have been instrumental in giving me the support andencouragement needed along the way.

Do you have any advice for readers who want to get involved orstart a similar program? The best advice I can give you is look at theobstacles you have survived in your life and ask yourself, how can I useall of these things to make a positive impact in someones life? Whatlessons have I learned and how can I find creative ways to pass thoselessons on to those around me? Make sure you have a strong spiritualfoundation and a few people you can trust because this will carry youthrough the challenges you will face as you begin your journey to

starting your own program.

What else should we know about your work? Jazs Jammies andMore Than Skin Deep both need passionate, hardworking people to keep

the nonprofit and film project moving forward. Jazs Jammies needspeople who can host drives, create events, or otherwise participate.More Than Skin Deep needs creative minds of all kinds to create anawareness movement for rare vascular abnormalities around this film.

Please go to www.JazsJammies.org and www.MoreThanSkinDeep.me tofind out more.

Email [email protected] or [email protected] get involved.

Follow on Twitter at @MoreThanAVM


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Frank BairdWalka Mile In Her Shoes

Frank Baird created a program to involve men in ending sexual assault

and violence towards women. Walk a Mile In Her Shoes is aninternational march to stop rape, sexual assault, and gender violence.Men participate by actually walking a mile in womens high heel shoes.This is not to prove that men can handle pain. It is an opportunity forwhole communities to talk about violence against women. Gender andsexual violence can be uncomfortable to talk about. With these marches,both victims and those who would like to pretend it doesnt exist aregiven a chance to create long term change in their communities andsupport local rape crisis centers.

What was your inspiration or what necessitated you to beginthis adventure? Most perpetrators of sexualized violence are men, butmost men are not perpetrators. I was working as a therapist at a rapecrisis center that helped women overcome the negative effects ofsexualized violence. The organization had a prevention educationprogram, but it was small and the typical didactic information spoken atpeople instead of with them. Experiential education is much moreeffective than didactic information, so I wanted to create an educationprogram that was dramatic, impactful and could reach more and more

men, something with publicity power. Typical prevention educationprograms require an organization to actively outreach. If we coulddevelop a program that was so interesting people would seek us out, wecould spend more time educating rather than looking for opportunities toeducate.

What steps did you take to create your program? We wanted tocreate an opportunity for men to wantto become involved in efforts toend sexualized violence. We wanted to avoid traditional didacticinformation that "talks at" instead of "with." We wanted to create anexperience that has greater impact and memorability than simpledidactic information.

We thought it would be fun to use the metaphor, "you can't really

understand a person's experience until you walk a mile in their shoes,"and have men literally walk one mile in women's high heeled shoes. PattiDengler and I explored and developed how it would work, how we wouldinsure that men and onlookers would have the experience we intendedand get the messages we intended. Then we pitched the idea to smallgroups of women and men. We wanted to get the first reaction when


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someone heard about this. When that went well, we enlisted the aid of alocal rape crisis center and organized the first Walk a Mile in Her ShoesEvent in 2001 in the San Fernando Valley in California.

Following the first Walk Event, the enthusiasm of the organizers and

the participants spread throughout California as everyone talked aboutthe event and and their experience of it. Walk Events began in California,then in a few other states and Canada. Once we put up a web pagewhere people world-wide could get information on the Walk and seepictures of men in heels that legitimized this effort, the momentumgained exponentially.

What obstacles were you forced to overcome?

Obstacles we overcame:Uncertainty that this was a good idea.

Uncertainty that this idea would actually get men involved in endingsexualized violence.Uncertainty that this idea would be understood as a sincere effort andnot parody.Uncertainty that men would actually learn something from theexperience.

Uncertainty that this idea would actually raise funds for local rape crisiscenters or domestic violence shelters.Recruiting local rape crisis centers, some of whom were suspicious of

men who claimed to be interested in helping with this cause.Making sure the press got the intended message and did not distort ormis-report.Figuring out how to coordinate world-wide efforts with next to no moneyand nearly no staff.

How to expand the message and effectiveness of Walk Events.Making money for headquarters in addition to all the local organizations.

Ok, we haven't overcome that obstacle yet. Except for registration feesand a few donations here and there, all the money raised by Walk

Events goes to the local rape crisis center or domestic violence shelterbeneficiary. We are still trying to figure out how our headquarters canearn more money so we can further develop the Walk and its

effectiveness.

What were the hardest problems to solve or actions to take? Thehardest problem to solve has been coordinating world-wide efforts withan extremely small staff at headquarters. We have managed toautomate some tasks, but we continue to have to manually process Walk


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H o w W i l l Y o u C r e a t e P o s i t i v e C h a n g e

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 3 b y L e a h O v i e d oL e a h O v i e d o l o v e s t o w r i t e a n d i s t h e a u t h o r o f " F i e r c e : A N e w

G e n e r a t i o n o f F e m a l e E m p o w e r m e n t " , " I A m M o r e T h a n J u s t a G i r l " , " Y o u C a n F i g h t B a c k : E m o t i o n a l a n d P h y s i c a l S e l f

D e f e n s e " , a n d " W o r d A r t a n d A f f i r m a t i o n s " . L e a r n m o r e a t

I m p o w e r Y o u . o r g

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t

T h a n k y o u t o e v e r y o n e w h o s h a r e d t h e i r s t o r y o f s u c c e s s f u l

c h a n g e . T h a n k y o u t o m y f a m i l y a n d f r i e n d s f o r y o u r

u n c o n d i t i o n a l l o v e a n d s u p p o r t .

A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . N o p a r t o f t h i s b o o k m a y b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y

f o r m o r b y a n y e l e c t r o n i c o r m e c h a n i c a l m e a n s i n c l u d i n g s t o r a g e

a n d r e t r i e v a l s y s t e m s w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n i n w r i t i n g f r o m L e a h

O v i e d o

T h e i n t e r v i e w s i n t h i s b o o k m a y n o t b e u s e d i n a n y w a y s h a p e o r

f o r m w i t h o u t c o n s e n t f r o m t h e w r i t e r o r o r g a n i z a t i o n w i t h w h i c h

t h e y a r e a f f i l i a t e d .

P o w e r e d B y B o o k e m o n . w w w . b o o k e m o n . c o m
http://www.bookemon.com/http://www.bookemon.com/

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