Community Leaders to be honored at Grassroots Leadership College celebration

Grassroots Leadership College (GLC) is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a community fundraiser honoring the accomplishments of seven outstanding graduates: Sandy River for Dance Alive (Art and Culture), Donna Asif for Homelessness Dialogues (Prisons and Poverty), Tamra Oman for Voices Beyond Bars (Prisons and Poverty), Johnny Ellis work with fathers (Supporting Families), Sara Alvarado for Nuestro Mundo (Youth and Education), Tammy Bieberstein for Weed Warriors (Health and Environment), Cynthia Lin for MEJO and Operation Welcome Home (Neighborhood Organizing), and a special surprise award for community stewardship to former mayor Joe Sensenbrenner on Saturday, April 26th from 7-10 p.m. at the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center, 953 Jenifer Street in Madison.

The community and GLC alumni are invited to celebrate five years of developing grassroots leaders in Madison. The evening, complete with music and hors d'oeuvres, will feature speeches from GLC participants and awards for outstanding accomplishments. The GLC is raising money for their general fund.

Grassroots Leadership College executive director Amy S. Mondloch said “It’s been a really great beginning. Right now we have over 300 graduates out in the community taking the lead in more than 70 projects and dozens of organizations, and it feels like we are only just starting to really take off.”

The 5th Anniversary Fundraiser offers an opportunity for area residents interested in creating strong neighborhoods and improving their own communities to learn first-hand how the GLC works, hear directly from alumni and build relationships with fellow residents. This event gives alumni a chance to reconnect, learn about new opportunities and continue to support grassroots education and activism.

The GLC is committed to empowering Madison’s grassroots leaders by teaching community organizing skills. The more than 300 graduates are now contributing to the community through more than 70 different projects and in dozens of organizations. Some past projects include: crafting the market basket survey that led to the opening of Pierce’s Market on the Northside; creating and developing of Weed Warriors, a group that rids public spaces of invasive plant species; and creating the Dialogues on Homelessness. These are just a sampling of the many positive impacts GLC graduates are having on the community.

Mondloch said of the graduates, “These folks are just amazing! We’ll be getting the opportunity to honor some of them at our 5th anniversary party. Each one of the awardees deserves the accolades of the whole community for their contributions and they are just a small sampling of beautiful people we’ve had the opportunity to work with who are touching every corner of this community.”

Growing out of a single semester, the GLC now offers semester programs twice a year as well as intensive workshops focusing on individual topics, el Programa de Liderazgo Comunitario for the Spanish speaking community and a Place Based series. The cornerstone of the curriculum, the General Semester includes classroom work as well as organizing projects that each participant designs and works on with an individual coach.

As with all GLC events, children are welcome.

Donna Asif
Shortly after beginning the General Semester with the Grassroots Leadership College Donna Asif found homelessness to be a prominent issue in the group and in the city of Madison. “[The GLC] gave me a very good base from which to step forward. I arrived with questions.” Donna began talking to people experiencing homelessness, residents and business owners. Her neighborhood organization, Capital Neighborhoods Inc allowed for the formation of a committee. Donna was appointed chair. The committee’s three main tools were education, outreach and engagement. They wanted equal representation for all of those impacted by homelessness. The Neighborhood Homeless Initiative[g1] <#_msocom_1> then created the Dialogues on Homelessness. Their work included an open session that gave faces to the homeless. One of the greatest challenges in creating the dialogues was deciding on their format. One-on-one outreach for ideas in the homeless community provided answers as to what the event should be like.

Asif states that a strength of the Dialogues on Homelessness is that the dialogues “have emerged according to the will of the people." They are built on an appreciative inquiry model, an equal footing that continues to build on communication and respect. “Street outreach has been successful: lending an ear, giving information, brainstorming with someone, and sticking by their side until the steps can be taken.” Asif continues to work in the homeless community, building relationships and looking for answers to many questions. She noted that the GLC “gave me the courage to speak, the awareness of what tools I have and what I need to acquire. There is camaraderie, even when I’m not there, they’re with me. It is a fertile place, for each of us to come out with the best we’ve got.”

The seventh session of the Homelessness Dialogues will be held on May 17th, 2008, at the Central Library.

Sara Alvarado
Sara Alvarado began her community involvement at full speed as a member of the board of Nuestro Mundo. Sara worked to get the school, Nuestro Mundo, approved throughout her semester at the Grassroots Leadership College. While deciding on what would be the school’s model the board sought the approval of the Madison Metropolitan School District. That approval proved to be their biggest challenged. After working through all the red tape, Nuestro Mundo was approved.

Nuestro Mundo is now a K-3 school where children learn to read and write in Spanish before English. In kindergarten, ninety percent of the day is spent in Spanish. As children progress, each grade brings more English into the classroom. This program differs greatly from traditional English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. The students come from both Spanish-speaking households and English-speaking households. By bringing together these students instead of separating them as traditional ESL programs may, Nuestro Mundo has achieved great success. Nuestro Mundo is full with 250 students and has a waiting list. Sara says, “The kids are doing great. We have a strong parent run site leadership program.” Sara learned to utilize her resources while in the GLC and to never give up.

Tammy Bieberstein
Tammy was already working on getting Madison’s parks and green spaces adopted by their neighborhoods to help rid these spaces of invasive plant species for three years when she joined GLC’s pilot semester in fall of 2003. Her group was growing but still was not big enough to spread faster than the garlic mustard. With the lessons she learned in GLC and a great ability to tell stories, Tammy got more people involved, including a few celebrities like Mayor Cieslewicz. Last spring, over 300 people pulled garlic mustard as part of the Madison Area Weed Warriors program. 2007 was a strong year as Tammy recruited five new leaders to help coordinate work parties. That equates to having five parks adopted, to varying degrees, by people in those neighborhoods. That fits very well within her group motto "Building Community, Protecting Biodiversity." Tammy states that each year since GLC gets more inspiring than the last.

Rosa Delgado
Rosa Delgado is originally from Mexico. Currently she lives in Sauk City. Before her involvement in El Programa de Liderazgo Comunitario (EPLC), Rosa helped her community in different ways; serving as interpreter for doctor’s appointments, court hearings, and bringing English classes to Sauk City.

One day, Rosa received an envelope in the mail from a community organization. That envelope included information about el Programa de Liderazgo Comunitario (EPLC), the GLC’s Spanish language program. “I thought that I needed something like that. I felt that it was going to help me to knock on new and bigger doors” she stated.

Before her involvement in EPLC Rosa felt that something was missing. She explains that she was not confident about her work. “I did not have anything that would back me up. I would go to social services agencies to ask them to bring services in Spanish to my community and they would ask me questions like who was I and what my job was” She smiles and says; “now when they ask me those questions, I tell them that I have a certificate from La Escuela de Liderazgo Comunitario.”

Now Rosa feels more confident about her work in her community. “ELPC has enabled me to be more secure in what I do. I feel that I have the right to ask as many questions as I need to social service agencies,” she states.

With great concern she explains that the Latino community is going through really difficult times these days. “People don’t know their rights,” she explains. Rosa has witnessed raids in workplaces and the fear the community lives under. She continues explaining that people are afraid of going to work and to community meetings. “That really concerns me,” she states. That is the reason why Rosa is working on bringing Know Your Rights workshops in Spanish to her community so people know what to do in the case of any contact with police or ICE officials. “I want people to feel free to ask questions in Spanish without an interpreter, and more importantly that people know that they also have rights,” she concludes.

Rosa explains that she is really happy to have had the opportunity to be part of EPLC in the Fall of 2006. “I came from far away because I quickly new that EPLC was teaching the basics of how to be more efficient in my community” she states.

“Even though, I face so many challenges, I am so confident that I can overcome all of them” she says with a smile. Maybe the greatest one is the fear in the community. People fear to get involved in their community and are forced to live in the shadows.”

ELPC has continued to help Rosa. “Now, people come looking for me. In the past I was the one looking for people who wanted to get involved in their community.” She adds, “I trust myself and I am more confident of my work.” Rosa benefited from all workshops. “The greatest lesson that I take with me is that if I fail, I now that I have the power to stand back up and continue working.” Once in a while Rosa goes back to her notes if she needs to refresh some of her skills. She concludes, “Someone has to do something in our community, we have to be the ones who make change.”

Johnny Ellis
Johnny is known around town for his work with Voices Beyond Bars, as a co-author of several books, and as an advocate for people with HIV/ AIDS, returning prisoners, and individuals dealing with the struggles of poverty. One of Johnny’s latest projects since his graduation from the GLC has been a campaign to encourage fathers to accompany their children to the bus stop on the first day of school; he will be continuing this campaign again in the fall. Johnny continues to be involved in the community along with his wife, GLC graduate Abraham Rose, through the ministry of Love Truth and Beauty where they offer help in hope, help, and encouragement to those who feel left out or forgotten.

Johnny explains a little bit about his campaign and experience with the GLC. “The nature of the campaign is to get fathers to be more involved in their children's life and education. To plant a seed on the first day of school that will impact them the rest of the semester and hopefully the rest of their lives. The challenges we faced were fear of commitment. Most men we spoke to were excited when they heard about the project but they felt like they were being put on the spot, so some found reasons to back out. But we still had a few and we plan on having more this time. So we did have some success.”

“This time we're involving the Urban League of Greater Madison and their fatherhood program and members headed by Vincent Cherry. There's so much that I learned from G.L.C. Mostly that everyone is a Learner and a Teacher, and everyone is a LEADER. I also learned how to sharpen the skills I already had. I have the confidence to believe that no obstacle to large to overcome.”

Fermin Gaytan
Originally from Mexico City, Fermin has lived in Madison for 6 years now.

Fermin learned about El Programa de Liderazgo Comunitario (EPLC) in a Spanish language newspaper. As he read a short description of the workshops he wanted to become part of the PLC, “all the workshops were so interesting” he stated. Fermin also added, “I wanted to know what was going on in my community and also how to get involved in it.”

Before his participation in PLC Fermin admits that did not participate in activities in the community. Now, he says, “I am more conscious of the reality of my community.”

When his work schedule allows him, he volunteers at the Workers Rights Center. “I do little things like making phone calls, arranging appointments, and motivating people to come to the center to volunteer or if they have problems in their workplace” he explains.

Fermin is also a member of the theater group, “Dignidad sin Fronteras” (Dignity without Borders) which is an effort of the 2007 alumni of EPLC. He has been really active in the theater group. He played a key role planning the play “Conoce tus Derechos, No Dejes que te Deporten” (Know your rights; Don’t let them to deport you) which recently debuted in a Know Your Rights training here in Madison. Fermin refers to the theater group as a tool to educate and motivate people to get involved in their community. He adds, “one of the goals is to educate people and create conscious about our problems and challenges.”

Fermin is also an active member of the EPLC planning committee. He explains, “I decided to be a member of the planning community because I believe that La Escuela de Liderazgo Comunitario EPLC is doing a great job in the community.” Fermin also believes that EPLC is making the community stronger.

When talking about his successes, he says, “I am super happy that we were able to organize the play. We did not let the fear stop us.” He adds that it was a community effort.

Each workshop gave Fermin important tools. He explains, “The workshops have improved my life, I get to apply the tools almost in each life situation.”

Being a member of the planning committee gave Fermin a safe space to make his voice heard. He is always willing to give input as to how to strength the program, especially for upcoming Fall workshops.

Fermin has many hopes. One of his greatest hopes is that people in the Latino community have more opportunities to participate in the broader community. He says, “some of us want to get involved in our community but sometimes we don’t know how to go about it.” He believes that La Escuela de Liderazgo Comunitario gives people the knowledge and the tools to get involve in their community. He also believes that EPLC promotes a personal change that leads to social change.

Fermin acknowledges that he and the perhaps the whole Latino community face many challenges while getting involved in their community. He explains, “One of the biggest challenges is that people are forced to work so much and have little free time. They also have to dedicate time for their families.” He explains that his involvement was not easy, “it was hard for me to find the time to get involved in El Programa de Liderazgo Comunitario.” He believes that when people do not have the opportunity to get involved in their community, there is little hope. He adds, “People forget what is outside. They are so concerned with their families that getting involved in their community is not a priority.”

He also points out that immigration is a big challenge for the community. He explains, “They are creating so many laws that further oppress our community…there is less freedom to organize.” He worries that people in the community are afraid to leave their house. He explains that people are forced to hide in their houses as an effort to survive.

One of the great lessons that Fermin learned in the EPLC is that now he is able to understand how the system works. He learned how to participate in his community. He also adds, “I can make my voice heard. Now, I am more confident and feel that my opinion is important.”

Perhaps, the greatest lesson that I take from EPLC is that now I know for sure what the power of organizing is. ELPC gave me the basic to organize. Organizing helps me to be a better person and makes my community healthier.”

Cynthia Lin
Cynthia was new to Madison wanting to meet local activists and organizers and was directed to the GLC by a friend. Cynthia worked with the GLC as a coach in the General Semester for Therese Malischke. Since that time Cynthia has begun working with the Madison Environmental Justice Organization (MEJO), and Operation Welcome Home, an organization of homeless and previously homeless folks working for social justice, serving as a representative on the grants allocation committee of the Wisconsin Community Fund, and working with residents of Wexford Ridge on their capital campaign to build a new community center. Cynthia has also played a key role in coordinating el Programa de Liderazgo Comunitario, the Spanish-language GLC program. Cynthia does all this and more while attending at graduate school at the UW.

Cynthia learned “Through GLC and subsequent work there are many different kinds of leadership. Sometimes the most powerful leadership one can do is to follow the lead of others. It's been great to tap into a network of support and learning. It has been powerful and inspiring to be with people participating in La Escuela de Liderazgo, and see them doing such amazing work for change.”

Tamra Oman
Tamra Oman participated in the Grassroots Leadership College’s General Semester in the fall of 2004. Upon graduating from GLC, Tamra made a very astute observation.

“The very first day I couldn’t put together -- ‘I want a garden in the middle of the city’ to ‘I want to save people from killing themselves’, but as I sat and listened and we started to talk to each other, we started talking about things, and we started getting things together. I thought, ‘Oh, my god, it’s all the same point.’ Every single one of us wants something different. It’s all about the same things -- healthy families, healthy lives, and healthy communities. It all comes in the same way.”

Tamra is now a drug and alcohol counselor and is finishing her Human Services Associates Degree. She is co-chair and outreach coordinator for Voices Beyond Bars and works with the Department of Corrections helping prepare incarcerated individuals for their release. She serves on the board of Directors of the Dane County Timebank, is part of the city’s Weed and Seed steering committee, is involved in the Social Change Collective at MATC, and is an active member of New Life Church where she serves on the church’s steering committee for a 12 step program. Tamra is also working toward her dream of opening SISTER House, a transitional housing program for women leaving the prison system.

Sandy River
When Sandy came to Madison she had a history working in community organizing across the seven northeastern states. After forming Dance Alive with the support of the Green Party in New York she wanted to form it in Madison as well. While copying fliers for Dance Alive one day, Sandy bumped into GLC Executive Director Amy Mondloch. Amy encouraged Sandy to apply to the Grassroots Leadership College and Sandy was accepted.

Once Dance Alive began it grew very fast. The Madison Area Peace Coalition helped Sandy create a website to spread the word. After the initial challenge of starting small, word spread, and dancers and other volunteers emerged.

Dance Alive! seeks to create regular fun-filled and enriching socio-cultural events that will begin to turn ignorance and misconceptions into understanding, prejudice into acceptance and appreciation, fear into trust and respect, and isolation into openness and connection.

Now in its fourth year, Dance Alive collaborates with community organizations, college organizations, and Lakeview Lutheran Church. The sponsoring organizations help staff and promote the dances. Dance Alive is working to build a core of volunteers who will plan, promote, and work on an event each month. As Sandy called on volunteers for the last dance she says she got all the support she needed.

“I appreciate what I learned from the presenters, organizers, and the other participants and their enthusiastic support, and especially Amy and her support,” Sandy said in reflection. Perhaps the greatest lesson she learned at the GLC was “I can’t do it all myself, I need to trust others.” The GLC strives to create a support network and the model of grassroots leadership calls upon all to become involved in an organization’s process. As evident at the last Dance Alive event, when Sandy received the support she needed from her community.