26 Jan

Setting the Pace

Posted by Kate Hofler in Community Leaders, Greenville Forward News.

Last night, I participated in the opening session for PULSE’s Pacesetters Program. I am delighted to do the program this year so I wanted to share some of my experiences along the way. First of all, if you are not familiar with PULSE, as a young professional it really is a must for networking, building friendships, and learning about the Greenville community. You can join for a minimal fee ($50 for Chamber members) and the benefits are far-reaching. Even in the past three years that I have technically been a “young professional,” I have seen the program grow exponentially. Some of the best features of PULSE include the annual Hangar Party, the socials, leadership luncheons, and I am also looking forward to the new program — PULSE Sports. But perhaps the most valuable program that PULSE members enjoy is Pacesetters.

The Pacesetters program seeks to bring together young professionals in the Greenville Community with mentors, leaders in the community willing to share their experiences, build connections, and offer advice. The participants are broken into groups of 10 and each group has two mentors. We will meet with our group and mentors on a monthly basis, with 5-6 group development opportunities for everyone participating in the program.

Last night, we met at the Upstate History Museum to learn about the program, meet  the people in our mentor groups/group leaders, and participate in some team building activities to get to know each other better. I am really glad that I chose to do Pacesetters at this particular point because meeting new people and building friendships is a new challenge after being in school where your peer group is automatically created for you. It definitely took a year or so to find my “real life” groove.  Now that I have grown confidence, lost some of my shyness, and learned how to get to know people faster the experience last night was far more enriching.

I am already looking forward to connecting with more people my age, learning about their experiences, and learning more ways to plug in even further to the wonderful community we have here. If you want to learn more about the program, check out their website: http://www.greenvillepulse.com/programs/pacesetters/.

24 Jan

How do you see the road ahead?

Posted by Kate Hofler in Community Leaders, Connectedness, Creativity.

Recently, Brock Koonce (our Program Director) was filling the Greenville Forward team in on the TEDX Salon that Headstrong helped facilitate discussing the role of youth in Greenville’s future. As he was telling us about the presentations, one thing really stuck with me and became an interesting illustration for community journeys. One of the featured presenters is a member of a group of teens in Greenville called Substreet Parkour. If you attended TEDX last year, you saw them perform. But if not, the best way to explain parkour is doing gymnastic-style stunts on everyday objects. For example, if you followed the Substreet Parkour crew around for the afternoon, you might watch them take a flip off an overhang, only to run up a wall and jump off a seemingly too steep embankment.

Needless to say, they make worry-prone folks like myself cringe just imagining how they could get hurt. And my big question, how do they not? Answer: they definitely do. And as Brock continued to summarize the most impressive points of the speaker, he quoted something the young man said…and though this is a quote of a quote, it went something like this, “When I am outside on roads, I can’t even walk in a straight line. All I can think of is how to turn what is up ahead into a jump.” They run ahead, constantly looking for new hurdles to climb, and they get hurt. But they keep going. It is freeing, it is unifying, and it is (for them) just fun.

So I think you might guess where I am going with this. As a community, we always have a road ahead. Some of us can only think of getting to the next destination, putting on blinders for our environment around us. Some only see a steep hill with an end so far off that they have lost hope. Some see it as a race and don’t care how they get there. And some turn the road ahead into a creative journey where the destination is just another stop along the way.

I want Greenville to be like the kid who can’t help but visualize the path in front of him as his own medium for creativity. I want Greenville to be willing to see the road block ahead as a means for a jump — not the end of the road. And even if we get hurt along the way, at least we dared to try, and try again.

22 Jan

What is a community garden?

Posted by Reece Lyerly in Environment, Gardening for Good, Health and Wellness.

As we described last week, Gardening for Good is a network and resource center for community gardens in Greenville, SC.  So, you may be wondering, what is a community garden?

At Gardening for Good, we support the American Community Garden Association’s broad and inclusive definition of a community garden as any piece of land gardened by a group of people.  We believe the core aspect of a community garden is civic engagement, or more plainly, the people.  Although gardens are composed of a variety of produce, herbs and flowers, community gardens come to life through the tender love and care of their garden members.  For this reason, we seek to include and celebrate the many types and varieties of community gardens available in Greenville County.

Community gardens can serve various communities including neighborhoods, after school centers, public parks, schools, churches, businesses and non-profits.  The more than 40 community gardens here in Greenville serve all of these different communities and more!  Over the coming weeks we will provide highlights of community gardens, but for now here are a few highlights.

As you can see from these photos, community gardens range in size, format and style, reflecting the various community where they are located.  Greenville, SC has a very diverse range of community gardens – contact Gardening for Good to get involved today!

19 Jan

On paying it forward…

Posted by Kate Hofler in Connectedness.

I read last week in one of my various social media scans of a coffee shop with a patron who will occasionally purchase a cup of coffee and leave $100 to be used to buy drinks for others until the money runs out. The patron would stop by weekly and eventually, her actions caught on — most anyone who visits the coffee shop will receive a free treat or will leave money to pay for one for another.

This concept really shook me. In our modern world, we hear all the time about how folks are retreating within themselves most of the time — leaving the bulk of their interaction to that behind a screen. But a story like this one, about someone who truly “pays it forward” — to be cliché — is really inspiring.

I’ve started listening for similar stories around Greenville. I heard of the man who complimented a fellow YMCA goer on how he noticed she is always there, working really hard, and wanted her to know it was paying off. And of the Starbucks employee who gave away some coffee to thank a loyal customer. The friend who bought a hungry man’s groceries. Or of the neighbor who walks her dog every morning and moves papers thrown in yards to porches so they won’t get wet or so her neighbors won’t have to venture too far in the cold to pick them up.

All of these little actions have an impact — whether it lasts five minutes or stays with you so much that you share the story with someone else and walk with a smile all day. It is certainly powerful to think about how easy it is to take an extra, small step to change someone’s day.

So the point of all of this is not to tell you to go out and do something small but just to encourage you to notice when it happens and if this “noticing” leads to action of your own, well that might just be paying it forward after all…

18 Jan

Challenge Series Presents: A Community Concern

Posted by Brock in Uncategorized.

 Across the United States, High School Graduation Rates in Most

Urban Districts Are Between Fifty and Sixty Percent.

A COMMUNITY CONCERN

A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT COMMUNITIES WHO

REFUSE TO ACCEPT FAILURE AND ARE WORKING

FOR A CHANGE

January 31, 2012

Doors Open at 6:00p.m.

Film Starts at 6:30p.m.

The Warehouse Theatre

37 Augusta Street

Greenville, SC 29601

Join Greenville Forward as they bring you another thought-provoking conversation, meant to challenge, enlighten and inspire.

Click here to order tickets.

 A Community Concern

 

“A film giving visibility to the power of organizing as a way to improve urban public schools.

Across the United States, graduation rates in most urban districts still remain between 50 and 60 percent. A Community Concern is a documentary about people who refuse to accept failures, and are working for change. Their spirit, passion and commitment shows that when organizers, parents, youth and educators work together, they are successful. It brings together stories of people facing different challenges, but share similar goals.”

www.acommunityconcern.org

Details:

Showing on January 31 at the Warehouse Theatre.

Doors open at 6:00

Show starts promptly at 6:30 (film length is 75 minutes.)

Admission is $5

Order tickets at acommunityconcern.eventbrite.com or email bkoonce@greenvilleforward.com

Space is limited.

17 Jan

Did you know? – Community Indicators Project

Posted by Kate Hofler in Greenville Forward News, Research.

Last Thursday, as we had our first Board Meeting of 2012 and welcomed three new board members, Russell did a short presentation on the status of our Community Indicators Project. As he was discussing where we are with the project, I realized that many folks may not know exactly what this project is all about and why we are doing it. So, I thought I would take a minute to explain why the Greenville Indicators are vital for Greenville, and for measuring the progress of Vision 2025.

We often use quotes on or newsletters, website, etc. about the importance of measuring progress in order to plan strategically for the future. As an organization working to implement a longterm Vision, it is vital for us to measure what has been achieved and what is yet to come. We sometimes refer to ourselves as the organization that stops to take Greenville’s pulse to make sure she is healthy and moving forward. And this project is the perfect rubric for doing just that…

Ten years ago, the United Way of Greenville County and the Greenville Chamber of Commerce published the last Community Vitality Indicators. These indicators measured the health of Greenville, determining areas of weakness and the potential for future growth. The project built on an effort started by the Community Planning Council in 1993 with the Report Card on Greenville County, and was an effort to inform and educate the citizens of Greenville County on important issues so that we would all be better prepared to make sound decisions  — impacting both personal courses of action and the broader allocation of community resources.

Given the transformation of Greenville County in the last 25 years, the data presented was useful, made a difference, and helped leaders plan to create the Greenville we know today. However, it is time now to move forward with the next phase of measurement and planning for Greenville with the Community Indicators Project, a partnership with several organizations that will be maintained and housed under Greenville Forward.

The Community Indicators Project is a new vehicle for monitoring and reporting data – indicators – that provide a balanced perspective on the health, prosperity, vibrancy, and caring of Grenville.

We are just getting started on pulling together data on over 400 measurement areas. So buckled up your seat belts and prepare for an interesting data journey that may just lead to Greenville’s next great project…

13 Jan

Gardening for Good – Introduction

Posted by Reece Lyerly in Environment, Health and Wellness.

Greetings cyber world.  This is my first post on the Greenville Forward blog, so I feel it is important to introduce myself and Gardening for Good.

Gardenin for Good fellow

That’s me in the picture above.  My name is Reece Lyerly and I am the Gardening for Good fellow with Greenville Forward.  Here are a few fast facts about myself.  I am originally from Roswell, GA.  I studied Earth and Environmental Sciences at Furman University.  I am an avid runner, but more importantly I love to be outdoors.  My life goal is to be a contestant on Survivor (yes, I love reality tv).  My new year’s resolutions for 2012 are to live simply, enjoy fresh cut flowers, cook often and drink lots of hot tea.  In the past 6 months, I’ve become a community garden advocate and enthusiast through my position at Gardening for Good and I look forward to sharing more about that venture in the coming months.

Gardening for Good is a new collaboration in response to the rapidly expanding community garden efforts in Greenville, SC.  Gardening for Good provides a network and resource center to help community gardens flourish and produce abundant harvests for their members and surrounding communities.  Gardening for Good seeks to improve public health, strengthen community ties and transform Greenville through community gardening.  For 2012, Gardening for Good hopes to see more Greenville residents join community gardens, growing an abundance of fresh produce, making new friends and being active in the process.  Check out our website (www.ggardeningforgood.com) for more information on how you can be involved.

Check back next Friday for your weekly community garden post!  We will define what it means to be a ‘community garden.’

11 Jan

Unplugged

Posted by Brock in Uncategorized.

Hard to believe, but when I started my very first job at an ad agency in Greenville, SC, I had no cell phone.  I didn’t need one.  I had everything I needed at my disposal for some reason.  My email was on my computer.  My friends were a phone call away from my desk phone or home phone.  I basically knew what was going on in their lives on a daily basis while drinking over beers at Connolly’s or East Court Grill or wherever we went out.  That’s how I kept in touch then.  I went out almost every
night.  I caught up.  I ate.  I had fun.  I went home.  I went to sleep.

I went out to talk.  Now, with the age of Facebook, Twitter, 4Square and various other social media outlets, I don’t need to.  All I have to do is log on to find out what’s going on with my friends.  Sometime that is the ONLY way to find out.  Cause none of them answer their phones anymore.  But, if I go on facebook, I can see pictures of their kids, their spouses, their fun vacations.  I can even get an insight into their scale of happiness.  If they post quotes a lot, the probably are searching for something.  If they are posting on pictures of other folks, they probably miss someone.  If they don’t post at all, they are probably busy.

This is life now.  I went from not having a phone in the year 2000, to recently breaking my phone (on accident) and immediately (at 9pm) going to Verizon because I needed a new phone.  I needed to be connected.  I could not take being unplugged to the plethora of information at my finger tips.  How could I talk to my wife?  How could I find out where my colleagues were?  How on Earth would I ever make it to Smuggler’s Plane level on Angry Birds Rio!

Sure, I’ve got an ipad.  Of course I do.  But, I can’t fit that in my pocket, and checking facebook on it kind of sucks.  I needed connection.  I knew that every second I wasted not having my phone, I was missing calls, I was not reading texts, and I was becoming more and more UNconnected by the second.

I read, many years ago, an article that talked about George Orwell and some other folks and the need for being connected to information.  The article said that, in the future, the MOST important people would be those that were the least connected.  Meaning, the harder you were to get in touch with was directly proportionate to your importance in society.  I fear, and I know this comes as a shock, that they were wrong.  Thank you Ashton Kucher.

So, now we wait each day for a ding, beep, vibrate or some other type of tone to connect us to our information.  Because it’s everywhere.  You miss it?  You’re out.  Go to the back of the line.  You get it?  You’re in.  Free soup for you.

And, I am just trying to catch up.  I feel that I would have been AWESOME in the 50′s or 60′s.  A desk.  A phone.  A pile of paper.  No computer.  No email.  No facebook or twitter.  Work comes.  Work goes.  Conversation happens.  And, all I have to do to be in the know as much as my neighbor is read the paper.  Or actually talk to my neighbor.  I mean, I’m telling you.  I would have been the CEO of some organization. Very profitable.  Very efficient.  But, alas, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (RIP) and Steve Allen (or is that Paul Allen?  The one who ones the Vikings.  That guy) have given me various ways of getting my information.  OH!  And, don’t forget Zuckerberg, and Tom I. InventedMyspace.  It used to be if I didn’t read the paper for a week, I could catch up.  Now, if I don’t look at Facebook about every 13.4 seconds, I’m out of the loop.  I actually get so far out of the loop that I don’t know what the loop is.

So, in a nutshell, the internet, email, cellphones, facebook, twitter, 4square all make me stressed.  I am a man who likes to be on the inside of the knowledge.  They all make me feel as if I am on the outside looking in and the time I waste doing my actual work that pays me, gets me more behind.  Stress.  It’s what’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I need a nap.

This whole thing was written by a 35-year-old.  Not a 70-year-old.  Or an 85-year-old retiree.  This was written by someone who is not old.  Not by a long shot.  A newbie in some circles.  Now my great-aunt is on facebook and instead of sending me a card for my birthday, I get a facebook comment.  That makes it very hard for her to give me an envelope with 75 cents in it.

Oh, and the latest twitter post on my ipad is from @UberSoc.  Its says: “Have you updated your UberSocial for Blackberry to version 1.304?  Download here if you haven’t.”  Crap.  I gotta go…

10 Jan

On the Community Calendar…

Posted by Kate Hofler in Connectedness, Greenville Forward News.

I have a daily task at Greenville Forward. Every day, without fail, there is an event to be added to our comprehensive Community Calendar. This fact tells me two major things. One, Greenville has a lot going on. From nonprofit events to concert and performances, to a very engaged government structure, there is something to attend on any given day depending on your interests. And two, Greenville Forward is delighted and honored to host the only calendar in Greenville that strives to be the most comprehensive and conclusive calendar in the County.

I mention these facts not to boast and pat ourselves on the back, but because we want to be sure you know about this feature and that you are aware of how dedicated we are to making it a complete community project. I am always looking for submissions from areas of the community that I  may not have accessible schedules for upcoming events, etc. As a community focused nonprofit, our subject is Greenville County. We are dedicated to making Greenville even better tomorrow than it was today as we work to implement the goals and dreams of Vision 2025. The calendar came about as a direct result of that goal.

Initially, it started because we noticed how difficult it is to schedule a nonprofit fundraising event when you do not have the dates of all of the major events other groups are doing right in front of you. We also knew how wonderful it would be to offer advertisements for all of the events happening in Greenville — a one-stop shop for everything happening in Greenville was our ultimate goal. We have dreams for making it even more user friendly, with “add your own event” sections and an even more visually appealing layout. However, those goals are longterm. For now, we are focused on enriched content.

So, if you have an event coming up and you don’t see it on our calendar, what are you waiting for? Email all calendar submissions to me, kate@greenvilleforward.com. Go ahead and take a look right now, you might just learn something new…http://greenvilleforward.com/calendar.htm

9 Jan

January Momentum Recap: Greenville’s Resolutions for 2012

Posted by Kate Hofler in Momentum.

Last week, Greenville Forward hosted the first Momentum Series event of 2012; a special look at what should be included in Greenville’s list of resolutions for the coming year. To begin, Program Director Brock Koonce led the group in a brainstorming session, exploring the accomplishments and challenges of 2011.

Accomplishments in 2011:

Greenville County Schools started a healthy initiative eating plan that was piloted in 11 schools and is going to expand to 20 more schools in 2012.

The Parks and Recreation Department completed their greenhouse gas emissions inventory and established the Green Ribbon Advisory Committee to help Greenville reduce its carbon imprint. There will be more charging stations for electric vehicles scattered throughout the city in 2012.

CU-ICAR has continued to make a big impact on the economic and innovative climate in Greenville.

The Innomobility Conference showed that sustainability, jobs, and economic development are significant focus areas for Greenvillians.

The Swamp Rabbit trail is growing, and so are its spurs throughout the County.

The Greenville Transit Authority received a statewide award for Most Improved Transit System. It has new buses and is now more readily running on schedule. They are hoping to push the intervals from one hour to every half hour in 2012. The buses also now have bike racks.

Greenville County Council worked to improve partnerships in the County; for example, the Heritage Green project will be a focus area of partnership in 2012. The County will continue to focus on economic development in the coming year, supporting programs like Innoventure and Immobility. The County is one of 23 counties that has an AAA credit rating in the United States and they were still able to cut their budget by 7%. The County also added deputies in areas where safety is a concern.

Greenville Forward’s HeadStrong program is working steadily to increase engagement with Greenville’s youth. The City’s Youth Advisory Council and FYI are working to offer more collaborations and events for the youth in Greenville.

Challenges Facing Greenville in 2012

Education must become a stronger focus area for policy making, reform, and financial support by the community. “You can’t grow jobs when a third of your population is not graduating from high school.” “We need to find a way to reduce dropout rates and we need to get the folks who graduate to go on to higher education.” The programs that were in place to stop dropouts are no longer being funded (like Graduate Greenville).

“Teen pregnancy rates are increasing and school boards in South Carolina are not mandated to teach reproductive health curriculum – it is just recommended.”

“There is a crisis of animal tethering in Greenville. Animals are abused far more often than they should in Greenville.” (There was much discussion about this issue but the County representative pointed out that there is an anti-tethering ordinance on the books now.)

The Big Resolution: Food insecurity for Greenville children.

While we were discussing the challenges for 2012, one issue rose above the rest. We discussed education-related issues explicitly, but the key issue related to hunger.

One in Four children are food insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal is coming from. 48.9% of students in Greenville County receive free and reduced lunch every day and it is all intricately connected with education, poverty, and the future economic development in our community.

South Carolina does not mandate free breakfasts for all students. However, if students do not have proper nutrition, they cannot perform. The first thing Greenville could do to address this issue is to identify pockets of need. Children often do not want to identify themselves as needing food so this is difficult to determine. Additionally, students who eat free and reduced lunch during the school year have no major sources for food during the summer.

Overall, there is a lot of pressure on the School District to solve the issue. One attendee pointed out that the community needs to pursue “inreach” instead of “outreach,” looking towards the greatest needs of our community first. She suggested creating and using programs that match corporate assets with community programs, something like Charity Tracker.

Another attendee pointed out that USC has toolkits you can use to identify food insecurity in your community. The school system has one of the only tracking mechanisms to determine the families that are in need.

There need to be more programs in place for providing food for middle and high schoolers particularly because they are often neglected. City community centers partner with programs like Project Host to try to help some children receive a hot meal before they leave after-school programs.

Teachers often do not know that hunger is the real issue for behavioral problems in their classrooms. There should be more educational resources for teachers and funds for them to keep a supply of food in their classrooms for children that are in need.

The group also pointed out that this is a national issue. Greenville Forward will continue the conversation on this topic, so stay tuned…

As the hour of discussion came to a close, Brock asked for folks to list the first thing they would do in Greenville if they were given the key to the city and the ability to change one thing.

 

What would you do first if you had the key to Greenville and unlimited resources? (Responses in no particular order)

“ Breakfast in the classroom… Educate people about the importance of education…Connect constituents with elected officials…Improve the adherence to community guidelines that keep our community beautiful and pedestrian friendly…Move some of Greenville off of Main Street…Get bus rapid transit or light rail…Create a local area network to offer transportation to those who cannot and do not drive to access grocery stores, etc…Make sure there are sidewalks everywhere…Get every child a computer…Make Greenville a final destination for people.”

 

 

 

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