Blog Posts

SOAR at Initiative Forum!

6/30/2015

Last week a few of SOAR's ambassadors had the opportunity to gather in Järna, Sweden for YIP's annual Initiative Forum.

"Initiative Forum is an annual conference hosted by the Youth Initiative Program in Jarna Sweden. It is hosted by and for people who want to enact positive change in the world. It is a space for learning, inspiration, networking, and collaboration. Participants can come to share and learn about initiatives for change from around the world. It combines lectures, personal stories, workshops, discussions and celebrating into a week that will awaken the intellect, warm the heart, and rejuvenate the spirit."

Following in the spirit of this gathering our team had the opportunity to give a brief presentation of SOAR's vision as well as take questions from the audience. We wanted to say a big Thank You to the organizers of Initiative Forum for creating such an inspirational 5- day event as well as giving us and so many others the space to share about our ongoing projects! We are sparked and excited to welcome in our first batch of participants for what will be surely be an exciting 6 months of learning!

Thinking about applying to SOAR? There are still a few places left!

Apply Today!

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Spring Updates!

5/13/2015

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The new SOAR site in Greek is up! Check it out at
www.syn-yparxis.com/

This year is our pilot year! Be one of SOAR's pioneers and contribute with your own unique color, questions and discoveries to the foundation of this life expanding program.
Applications are still open!

Come learn about SOAR

!! SAVE THE DATE !!
For those in Athens who are young, open and curious to learn more about SOAR:

On the 17th May at 1pm we invite you to a festive presentation of the school in the garden of the Astiko Agro of Chalandri/Athens, with food and games. Sifnou and Garittou street (entrance from Sifnou), 3 minutes from the metro station Agia Paraskevi.

Στις 17 Μαΐου, 1μμ, θα γίνει γιορτινή παρουσίαση της Σχολής στον Αστικό Αγρό Χαλανδρίου, με φαί και με παιχνίδι. Οδός Σίφνου και Γαρυττού (είσοδος από Σίφνου) στο Χαλάνδρι, 3 λεπτά με τα πόδια από τον σταθμό του μετρό Αγία Παρασκευή.

* * * We'll be waiting for you to tell, share and play! * * *

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Applications Are Open!

4/7/2015

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Important Dates:

Applications open till- July 7th
Acceptance letters sent out- July 31st
SOAR Begins- November 23rd

To start the application check out our Application Page

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What is the role of democracy today?

4/6/2015

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SOAR Applications Open Tomorrow!

A Mini Series: 9. Being Young Today

Mekila Wittman
age 20, USA

What is the role of democracy today?

I think that as climate disasters destabilize government, democracy will become less dependent on extra personal systems, such as governments, political parties and religion for its definition and instead become more dependent on the values of individuals. I think we are coming to a time, when our first world faith on democracy is going to meet a huge challenge. In the face of climate change huge economic disparity and the resulting rise of extremism. I think we will see a rise in a popular ideology, which does not look very much like classical democracy. So the role of democracy, will become personal work.

I think people choosing to behave democratically in a world, which is gradually becoming more afraid and consequently more selfish, the rise of individualism which in some ways in hugely celebrated in democratic countries is ironically the philosophical downfall of the core values of democracy which rest upon the principal of social unity. As we struggle to solve the enormous issues that we have placed before our global society today I think we will find that the role of democracy, must reach out beyond being a governmental idea and become a social global reality. We cannot have democracy in one small bubble of the world which is funded by totalitarianism in another part of the world. That is not truly democracy. And it cannot be sustained.

I think that we will see an interesting fusion of classical democracy with social discipline. Certain universal social disciplines. Ultimately a democracy where people are encouraged by the local culture to simply take advantage of all available resources, all available labor, lacks a certain moral aspect which makes democracy un-sustainable. And in negotiating for a new democracy, we will be treading on some dangerous territory of maintaining an ideology of freedom while promoting social discipline simultaneously. I think many global leaders will be faced with the moral problem of trying to control the actions of the people they are responsible for to avoid greater crisis while simultaneously preserving those peoples freedoms. In this process we may see some very beautiful and some very terrifying transformations of the idea that is today called democracy.

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What are some of the new stories around economics and money?

4/4/2015

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A Mini Series: 8. Being Young Today

Darius Matthie, age 20
Germany

What are some of the new stories around economics and money?

In so many situations in my life I have experienced how much separation is created through the way we use money today. The way money is and was working during the last centuries was based on in-personal transaction which caused competition and a sense of separation. Today it has reached a point where this idea of independence is so big, so huge that we think that we don’t need anybody anymore. We can buy what we need from a person and when this person dies we can just pay somebody else. This causes an understanding of separation and consequently a lack of empathy.

We are living in a very interesting time. Two stories which could not be more different are meeting each other and are co-existing next together. On one hand competition and greed have seemed to reach its highest point and on the other hand a huge desire of connection has started to awaken in us. A desire to be in service of the community, to be in service of the earth.

I think that one of our most elemental and ancient desires is to be truly connected with the people and land around us. Gratitude is, as I see it, one of our most initial states as a species on this earth. We know deep inside that life is a gift. Gratitude is arising in us by seeing the beauty of nature of the ecosystem. Nature gives us its fruits. This feeling of gratefulness is so elemental so natural so existential. I have personally experienced how good it feels to give something just for the sake of broadening myself to the others among the community. When I give something unique from me, I give a part of myself. I expand myself. The gift economy which is really growing in different parts of the world is embodying this desire to give, to give something personal and to make every exchange a little bit more sacred.

Looking into the future I am full of confidence that this awakening to our elemental desires of giving and connecting will manifest itself in the systems that we have build up. Its already happening in so many places and step for step this new story will hopefully replace the understanding of separation and isolation. Lets rock it!

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How does the story and the work of the self start? What can this look like?

4/2/2015

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Breaking News!
SOAR's applications open April 7th! Are you ready to start working with your story? Stay updated by signing up for our newsletter.

A Mini Series: 7. Being Young Today

Aylah Lowenstein
age 27, USA

How does the story and the work of the self start? What can this look like?

The story of self starts at conception. As soon as one enters the world, their story begins. Perhaps it is a left-over story, perhaps not; regardless, the moment ones eye blinks open from the dark vortex called womb, we begin our story.

At the beginning, we live our story without much personal choice. Our parents are our guardians and decision makers. Hopefully their choices are made out of love and for the greater good of their child's story. The ideal is that our story begins with a sense of safety and love. There then comes a point when the mind is able to understand what the human outside of it needs. That is when one can begin to pave their own story. Unexpected twists and turns may arise at this point. Personal, random or thought-out decisions can lead you to completely unknown places. Almost always one must face emotional baggage within their story.

These chapters of one's story can be challenging but also rewarding. Our stories are full of ebbs and flows. At some point your story may lead you to the birth of a child-where a whole new story begins to be written. My hope is that within the demanding work and conscious choices of our personal stories, our children's stories will be composed with more ease.

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Where is the place for intergenerational relationship in the building of today’s new society?

3/25/2015

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A Mini Series: 6. Being Young Today

Bruna Viapiana age 27, Brazil

Where is the place for intergenerational relationship in the building of today’s new society?

For me this is important. We are never creating new things, we are using things from the past, and giving it a new definition. Older people are more experienced. It is really important to hear them so that we can use their wisdom for our development and evolution.

Young people have a strong energy of doing. Older people have the wisdom of previous experience, but sometimes they don’t have the energy for action, doing, or starting over. The two mixing together can create a healthy relationship

Some of the challenge of this has to do with respect and patience that comes from both generations. In my own experience in politics I witnessed this. The older people look at us thinking that we were immature. They could not see sometimes that things change and it can be hard for them to move with the changes that are happening. For us it was hard sometimes to understand how important it was what would be shared with us. Especially as youth we often think we already know everything. I am curious to know how we can have the conversation that allows for the best potential of both ages?

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What does it mean to be part of a young international community and/or network?

3/10/2015

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A Mini Series: 5. Being Young Today

Marilha Balieiro age. 25
Brazil

What does it mean to be part of a young international community and/or network?

Youth know what is right and what is wrong. We don’t always have words to explain what we see or how we feel, but we know.

Because of this, it is so important to have programs like YIP or SOAR to find a way to express these things inside of us and discover that we have the support to put these thoughts and feelings into the world.

Being part of international community, you have this feeling that you are part of something much bigger. Maybe there is a war going on somewhere far away, but you know that you have a friend there that is near to this war. The war becomes closer and much more true for you. You don’t have the emotional distance any more. Everything means something.

You also know that everything you do matters for the others and that people see and care about you. This network is the most important thing for youth that are doing things in this world. When you meet people that have this same concern for the world, you know that you are not alone anymore.

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What skills and tools can programs like SOAR offer to participants?

2/18/2015

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A Mini Series: 4. Being Young Today

Nil Roda-Naccari Noguera, age. 24
Barcelona, Spain

What skills and tools can programs like SOAR offer to participants?

Let me start with a very honest statement: I was never very concerned about the world. Not with climate change or hunger issues. While many of my friends where volunteering for NGO’s, working for a Socialist Revolution to start in my town or organizing big charity events, I was just taking children and teenagers on excursions to the mountains. Ok, don’t get me wrong I cared deeply about the world then. I just didn’t know that caring for my self, my people and my direct environment was also caring for the world. I cared for that which I could act on, and at the time that didn’t seem to be the most popular view.

In fact, that didn’t save me from feeling a bit off every time that my friends would introduce me to one of their causes. We would talk with passion about inequality, or governments and evil forces playing with the stock market, or how important it was to send crions to the poor African kids. I felt off not because I couldn’t feel it in myself, in fact, I grew to develop a very strong capability of speech when joining into these kind of conversations, sometimes becoming a vehement steward of peace and justice myself. No, I felt off because I wondered with envy: How do they know? How do they manage to trust so deeply? I felt I was the odd one, the one pretending to care about all of these issues when actually what I wondered was “what can I do with myself to be more happy?”

This feeling of oddness walked everywhere with me, in fact, it was always a counterforce inside that I could not fight, so I had to instead learn to live with it. I found acceptance in others and truth in the outside world. I naturally learned to fit. I had many faces for many places, I had answers for everything and really little interest in questions that I couldn’t respond to. And so I kept seeking what was outside of myself letting these feelings push me forward even more, until I was finally invited to look inside.

Long story short, life brought me through a wonderful journey within and without for the past 5 years that reached it’s culmination point while I was a participant at the International Youth Initiative Program. I studied there for 10 months, the first 10 months of the rest of my life, and it was there that I, for first time, had the time and space to look at those inner oddities, and the opportunity to discover that they were the source of my power. It was also the time where I discovered what was truly burning inside me, the time where envy left me and was instead replaced by passion, love and eagerness to serve the world.

But how? Well, at this point I would say that programs like YIP or SOAR are basically incubators for social innovation, safe spaces where groups of individuals are given the time and the opportunities to break inner and outer rules of structural and cultural establishment to let a deeper wisdom -in service- arise. In short lets just say that it’s like living in a TED Talk for 10 months.

This experience nourished and helped me to define and step into my work. It gave me dozens of technologies and tools (and not just the theory but the experience of those in multiple scenarios) and brought me to the hands of real experts in various fields like group facilitation, organizational consultancy and personal growth, worth thousands of euros in workshops, courses and seminars.

However, I would say that the most important skills for my life and my work that I developed through this program were observation, deep listening, presence and intuition. Each individual, group of individuals or situation ask for different solutions and approaches, and now that I am working with different teams and individuals in tackling within their organizations one of the major challenges of humanity: how to work together and co-create from a healthy space. I am realizing how often I go back to my notes to get inspiration from the exercises and experiences we had, and how often I let go of all the guidelines so that I can create my own exercises. Because of the understanding given by the long exposure and practice with these technologies that enhanced my capacity to observe and to listen to what the situation asks for, and because of the daily use of all this skills and the incredible outcomes they generate, it allows me to trust that what my intuition is telling me is the right thing.

In conclusion, I think that programs like YIP or SOAR are cutting edge spaces of innovation, maybe too innovative to be recognized as so. Because of this it is time for us, the Alumni of such programs to show the world what is possible to create out of the space that these experiences opened inside us.

Let’s let the future emerge!

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What is the new story we are co-creating today?

1/25/2015

2 Comments

A Mini Series: 3. Being Young Today

Diane Keyes, age.19
Vancouver, Canada

What is the new story we are co-creating today?

When we sit in Circle together there is an image that comes to mind. It's an image of a blue lake underneath a dark sky covered in thick, black clouds. At the precise moment when all of a sudden there is a break in the clouds and the sun comes bursting through shining down onto the water, there is a feeling of elation, hope and possibility. This moment of break-through is the feeling I get when I sit in Circle. When we talk about what we want for the future, we are challenging the old story. With this, I think it is important to have empathy and compassion for this story – understand that it once served us and that it was created because there were needs. Now we want to meet those needs in a different way.
I see a world in our future where men and women are equal - equal to the point where there is no distinction between woman and man. As well, I’m excited to see the future embrace gift economy and to live in a world where people have an inherit sense of abundance. With this sense of abundance, confidence and stability will grow in ourselves, allowing us to move forward and do what we want to do. I think fear is what is stopping us from making the changes we want to see in the world. There is another image I have of the world where there are no borders and we are a global village. This includes really supporting, balancing, and encouraging diversity and unification in order to tackle issues of prejudice and discrimination which are based on economic, racial, and religious differences. There may not be a world without conflict or challenge, but I do envision a new way of working with our challenges. I can see us meeting each other with a much greater deal of openness, compassion, and understanding.
This includes taking into account the full story of each individual – which is, I believe, always beautiful.

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Thinking about applying to SOAR? There are still a few places left! Apply Today!

The new SOAR site in Greek is up! Check it out at www.syn-yparxis.com/This year is our pilot year! Be one of SOAR's pioneers and contribute with your own unique color, questions and discoveries to the foundation of this life expanding program. Applications are still open!

Come learn about SOAR

Important Dates:Applications open till- July 7thAcceptance letters sent out- July 31st SOAR Begins- November 23rdTo start the application check out our Application Page

SOAR Applications Open Tomorrow! A Mini Series: 9. Being Young Today

Mekila Wittman age 20, USA What is the role of democracy today?

A Mini Series: 8. Being Young Today

Darius Matthie, age 20 Germany What are some of the new stories around economics and money?

Breaking News! SOAR's applications open April 7th! Are you ready to start working with your story? Stay updated by signing up for our newsletter.

A Mini Series: 7. Being Young Today

Aylah Lowenstein age 27, USAHow does the story and the work of the self start? What can this look like?

A Mini Series: 6. Being Young Today

Bruna Viapiana age 27, BrazilWhere is the place for intergenerational relationship in the building of today’s new society?

A Mini Series: 5. Being Young Today

Marilha Balieiro age. 25 Brazil

A Mini Series: 4. Being Young Today

A Mini Series: 3. Being Young Today

Categories

Thinking about applying to SOAR? There are still a few places left!

Apply Today!

The new SOAR site in Greek is up! Check it out at
www.syn-yparxis.com/

This year is our pilot year! Be one of SOAR's pioneers and contribute with your own unique color, questions and discoveries to the foundation of this life expanding program.
Applications are still open!

Important Dates:

Applications open till- July 7th
Acceptance letters sent out- July 31st
SOAR Begins- November 23rd

To start the application check out our Application Page

SOAR Applications Open Tomorrow!

A Mini Series: 9. Being Young Today

Mekila Wittman
age 20, USA

What is the role of democracy today?

Darius Matthie, age 20
Germany

What are some of the new stories around economics and money?

Breaking News!
SOAR's applications open April 7th! Are you ready to start working with your story? Stay updated by signing up for our newsletter.

Aylah Lowenstein
age 27, USA

How does the story and the work of the self start? What can this look like?

Bruna Viapiana age 27, Brazil

Where is the place for intergenerational relationship in the building of today’s new society?

Marilha Balieiro age. 25
Brazil