Peacejam approaches

Hey everyone, we only have 2 weeks until the Peacejam Conference... and we are all getting really excited. Over the summer our group of young people have been working hard to get ready. They have put together a series of workshops that we will be running on the theme of Poverty and Violence in South LA. On September the 11th we will be inviting up to 100 young people from he Conference to join us and learn a bit more about what life is like in this part of LA. A big thanks to everyone from the Urban Oasis Collaborative and elsewhere who have helped prepare all the workshops,

wish us luck :)

Peacejam

As you can see from the photos below we had the first meeting of the young people who are going to plan and deliver the service learning project we are doing as part of the Peacejam conference. It was definitely a great start and I am excited by what these young people can and will acheive

For Francisco

First meeting (2)

Youth Team meets for the first time

Last Wednesday We finally met for the Peace Jam meeting. I felt like it went pretty good. However, when it comes to people coming together to help out the community I try not to have really high expectations from people. But I must admit I was really impressed with the way everybody came together. By the end of the meeting, I felt like we all had accomplished. Awareness was spread, opinions were heard, people came together. It was a pretty successful couple of hours.

Juan P

PeaceJam

After meeting with Julie Rodriguez from the Chavez Foundation the Urban Oasis Community Collaborative has been invited to support Peacejam with organising the service learning project for South Central Los Angeles. This will be the opportunity to showcase some of the work that is going on as well as act as a catalyst for Urban Oasis and our growth towards our combined goal. Exciting times and please check here again for additional information about the conference in the Fall.

Visit to PATH

Last week we had a great visit to PATH, something that really inspired the group. Seeing what they have done in uniting numerous service providers for homeless people under one well designed roof really demonstrated that Urban Oasis really is an achievable dream. Also we had the chance to meet with Joel the CEO at PATH which was really helpful and constructive. Meeting people with similar large and exciting vision is always a bessing.

Some new and not so new faces

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Originally uploaded by paddyfaetheprovince

Getting the Base right

The Urban Oasis Community Collaborative met last week again and did some work on the guiding principles for Urban Oasis. Its exciting to have so many dedicated people sharing a common vision. Every time we meet new possibilities spring up and we think of more people we want to invite in. Next week we visit PATH and see a vision of what a collaboration did for the homeless people of LA. Hopefully this will continue to inspire us to make Urban Oasis a reality

Next Steps

We just finished in the meeting and I have some homework to do. We are going to draft up a joint agreement that everyone involved with Urban Oasis can sign off on. Then we are going to decide who we invite to join the party - and ask them to visit PATH, a homeless project that we could learn a lot from. The ball is starting to roll....

Key Concepts

March 2008 a group of interested parties met at the inaugural Urban Oasis Community Collaborative. This is the group which will grow to being the partners in Urban Oasis represented on the Elder Council

The Key Concepts they agreed on for Urban Oasis are as follows

• Unconditional Love / Unconditional Positive Regard
• Unity
• Collaboration
• Gift Centered Approach
• Family
• Human
• Cross Agency Training
• Professional Development
• Elder Council to guide
• Awareness of Cultural / Community Context
• Nature / Beauty and Healing