Your prosperity, health, and well-being are largely dependent upon the structure and sustainability of the community you live in.

Today’s technologically advanced age of globalization is a unique time in our history as our connections and communities really do extend to include our entire country, society, and some would say, our entire planet.

In the current diminishing economy most of us are feeling the “pinch” as global economic pressures change the way many of our larger social institutions perform. Municipal services and benefits that communities believed were trustworthy are no longer ample enough or available at all.

Why fight City Hall, or Wall Street? In communities everywhere people are simplifying the structure of their lives to be less engaged with and more independent from institutions they no longer see as aligned with their personal ethics or well-being. But living as a hermit in a cave, or as a survivalist in the backwoods isn’t really the goal.

Well Structured, Sustainable, Local Grassroots Community Groups and Regional Coalitions Can Fill The Void.

A new grassroots system is emerging that is developing and strengthening regional resources, exchanges, and investments. It consists of neighbors, municipalities, and counties working together to resolve issues impacting local residents. The objective is to further the Common Wealth and community exchange.

Grassroots groups are organizing new kinds of local initiatives: Community Supported Agriculture, Community Gardens, Alternative Energy Coops, Local Currencies, Time/Job Banks, Local Transit/Ride Shares, Business Co-Operatives, Local Media.

As well, regional coalitions of synergistic and sometimes competitive grassroots community initiatives are becoming essential to meet growing needs under decreasing budgets.

For example: From January to June 2009 the 33 independent faith-based and citizen group sponsored food pantry and hot meal sites serving Central and Southern Berkshire Counties of Western Massachusetts saw demand rise approximately 40%. Program support failed to rise with that demand.

These independent service groups had never before coordinated their efforts in any meaningful fashion until the Berkshire C-Act Food Net formed a regional coalition to unify the region’s charitable food services.

By linking the food sites with community gardens, restaurants and grocery stores, promoting a “Grow an Extra Row” program for private gardens, collecting blemished produce from local farms, and developing a shared transportation system the initiative is meeting the local needs for food support.

A similar regional coalition is blossoming to coordinate a new local hydroelectric generation network. Eleven local dams have been targeted to share a new cooperative approach to licensing and funding for the installation and maintenance of power turbines, with the proceeds benefiting the communities.

Common Wealth… Common “Energy”…
To form and ensure the sustainability of these regional coalitions the Berkshire Co-Act utilized a unique, holistic understanding of organizational structure and group dynamics. A particular balance of shared goals, operational values and communication practices all work together to keep diverse groups working together in harmony.

As a trained scientist and organizational consultant I have studied organizational dynamics and found them to be consistent with the laws of energy. The deeper nature of energy is an interconnected field that makes physical matter manifest. Likewise, harmonious collaboration can amplify your community’s energy and make local initiatives manifest.

When you purchase shares in a community supported agriculture program, or simply shop at a local farmers market, you are supporting interconnection. When you patronize your local hardware and grocery stores, and avoid large multinational corporate chains, you are building community. When you plant a garden and grow an extra row to donate to local pantries or start exchanging local currency it stabilizes your neighborhood. When you participate in virtually any grassroots community organization or coalition, you are weaving a tapestry of collaboration. This interconnectedness moves you towards your own deeper nature.

This Common Wealth/Common Energy tapestry empowers us all to come together with others to create a new system that taps into a collective wisdom. It builds capacity and skills within our communities that emphasize culturally and environmentally appropriate practices. It develops partnerships of trust and genuine caring.

The transition of towns and cities in this fashion becomes motivated not only by the wealth potential on a material level but also on a personal well-being and spiritual level.

The understanding, tools and skills are available to anyone who wants to participate in or facilitate a grassroots community group or coalition. Learn the science of a well-balanced community group structure and join us in a new framework of independent local prosperity and self-sustainability.

Paul Deslauriers put his 25 years as a community organizer and consultant into his most recent book “The GRASSROUTE GUIDE: a Roadmap to Community Empowerment”. A how-to manual for grassroots community groups, organizational development, team building & leadership training. www.grassroute.org

By: Paul Deslauriers

We’ve all had the exhilarating experience of meshing with others to create a synergistic experience, one where our spirits were uplifted. In these moments, the energy of every individual member of a group contributes to and merges into a collective energy, a synergistic force around which anything seems possible-and often is. But all too often we’ve come away from these endeavors without the tools to sustain that energy collectively or individually.

Since the 1980s, I have worked as a business consultant, and have consistently observed six key characteristics present in highly effective groups. These same six characteristics are used by physicists to describe the makeup of subatomic particles that are in essence, energy. Six thousand years earlier sages depicted the nature of energy with these same characteristics and this became a foundation for yoga and Ayurvedic medicine.

Relational/Holistic: At the subatomic level, nothing exists unless it engages another energy source in a complex web of relations. In fact, matter is nothing more than interconnected fields of quantum energy. When we engage in relationships with others, we are touching something sacred and inherent to all life. When a group’s values include teamwork, social connections, networking, informing, and brainstorming, they are creating an interconnected field that mimics the existence of every particle.

Intention/Alignment:
Scientists discovered that the moment they inquire into the nature of subatomic particles, the phenomenon they are looking for happens. Our thoughts and beliefs affect the outcome of our endeavors. That same power is amplified in a group when we align our intention with others in a shared vision; the group energy empowers that focus. Shared vision and corresponding goals require dialogue, listening, and ownership. This focus identifies the standards, goals, and values for the group which should be supported through ongoing positive and constructive feedback.

Diversity/Balance:
Quantum energy is the seed of our diverse universe. Within this common seed lies the manifestation of the vast material realm. When groups are inclusive regardless of race, culture, and social skills, they embrace the common seed that we all are and align with our deeper nature. Intolerance opposes energy’s nature. Quantum energy also has symmetry and dynamic balance. Likewise, maintain a balance within teams, be aware of being too dominante, stressful, or lethargic.

Possibility/Uncertainty:
The quantum realm is not a world of actual physical events; instead, it is a world filled with numerous unrealized possibilities for actions. Where there is possibility, there is also uncertainty. When a group takes on a new initiative or develops individual’s talents and passions they embrace possibility. This translates into staff development, a mentoring program, acknowledging successes, and looking at what needs improvement. These actions foster a learning environment on all levels.

Open/Flowing:
Scientists refer to the quantum realm as “the dissolution of the rigid frame.” In the higher realm there is not even a frame of time. Organizations and process that are rigid oppose the deeper nature of energy. We need to dissolve the rigid judgments and structures we build in our lives, our relations, and organizations. Empowered grassroots groups have: listening, forgiveness, transparency, and spontaneity as part of their group’s culture. A mechanism for conflict resolution exists. Pockets of withheld information are rare. There is a willingness to evolve as an organization.

Love/Synergy:
Energy travels in waves. When two waves are in sync there is synergy. When we are in sync with quantum energy’s deeper nature we maintain a high vibration that is felt as love. Love in its purest form has no conditions or forms attached; this is where brotherhood and sisterhood flourish.

When these six behaviors are integrated into a group’s culture, that organization functions at a high energetic level. Participants are uplifted and rejuvenated. This makes logical sense when you start with the scientific fact that “everything is energy”, communities generate group energy fields, and when groups align with the nature of energy these group energy fields vibrate at a higher level where love, trust, and collaboration flourish. In that kind of “High Energy” environment anything is possible.

Author Resource: Paul Deslauriers put 25 years as a community organizer and consultant into his most recent book “The GRASSROUTE GUIDE”, a how-to manual for grassroots community groups. Covering organizational development, team building, leadership and communication skills, setting goals and operational values, managing volunteers, meetings, events, brand imaging, local media…all from a perspective of building a “high vibrational group energy”.

By

Paul Deslauriers

The collective power that comes from grassroots organizing can raise a barn, find a missing child, respond to a natural disaster, or transform a nation.  Community can bring healing and upliftment, and is the most powerful expression of celebration and unity. Grassroots communities have historically been the primary mechanism for social change, human rights, environmental regulations, and improving working conditions.  Grassroots groups can be a way to rapidly create new systems that support community self-sufficiency and abundance.  The power of community has potential to bring enrichment on many levels including both personal and spiritual renewal.

This community power is being tapped in the Berkshires through a wide range of initiatives. The Berkshire Food Net is a unique collaborative effort dedicated to ending hunger, food scarcity and malnutrition throughout Central and Southern Berkshire County.  A 40 percent increase in food assistance participation over the past six months has resulted in some meal sites running out of food.  An assessment was conducted during January and February of 2009 that involved thirty two panties and meal sites and included ten important service providers and supporters.  This first time collaboration resulted in a strategy of twelve initiatives on how to revise the existing food network.  Several of the initiatives are underway, such as networking and supporting community gardens, and delivering the fresh produce to meal sites.  Another initiative seeks funding for reducing wastage by networking, soliciting and transporting donated food from grocery stores and restaurants.

Community action can tackle any issue.  One Berkshire group focuses on the woeful economic condition in our nation and studies Fractional Reserve Banking, derivatives and credit practices. They offer a twelve week course held in Great Barrington.  Presently, they are looking at expanding local currency using Berkshares, and are forming a Depositors’ Association. They are members of the Common Good Bank, where all bank profits benefit the community.  This group is now offering presentations and house parties, to teach a way out of the financial crisis through local currency use.

Citizens are addressing local green energy production by recapturing our region’s original hydroelectric power grid.  Their group’s vision is “zero net energy” meaning the energy used locally is equal to what is produced locally. In Central and Southern Berkshire County there are forty dams and conduit systems that have the necessary requirements for producing electricity but are not doing so. Citizens are organizing a study of the feasibility of restoring and tapping this energy source. They are sponsoring the first collaborative meeting with environmental, regulatory, engineering, state and funding organizations to utilize this existing resource to benefit our community.

Another committee of people has formed a timebank, which is similar to a barter system except that in a timebank you trade your time, “time dollars”, as a liquid currency. This is especially convenient because the person who provided a service for you can be reciprocated by anyone else in the organization when he spends the time dollars he earned from you. Each person’s hour is valued the same as any other person’s hour. The group has forty five active members offering more than one hundred different services, and asking nearly as many requests. The timebank is accessed through the internet, with members listing their personal profiles, offerings and requests. Timebanking is another workable form of currency.

To illustrate the power of grassroots community efforts, all these programs described originate from one group, Berkshire Co-Act (Community Organizing for Action).  If one group of volunteers can accomplish this much in one year, then you can begin to see the potential of other grassroots organizations in our region, such as BRIDGE, Railroad Street Youth Project, Project Sprout, Volunteers in Medicine, Orion Grassroots Network, and Volunteers for Change, just to name a few.

Regional grassroots groups that work collaboratively with other groups can tap even greater potential.  Often, organizations function in individual silos, never really accessing the possibilities that are achievable using a collaborative approach.  Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, in North Adams has been going strong for twenty five years.  Their community forum is a pool of resources and creativity to deal with community needs.  A similar collaborative is underway in Central and Southern Berkshire.

Become involved in grassroots community initiatives.  Participants often claim they receive much more than they give.  Attend meetings with other concerned citizens, volunteer at meals sites, and plug into something that is not focused on personal gain, but is about serving the community.  This involvement will nourish and feed your spirit.

The Author

Author Paul Deslauriers

Paul Deslauriers has over twenty-three years of experience as a community organizer, management coach, organizational development consultant, and workshop facilitator. He has worked with diverse groups such as the Alaskan Inuit, Icelandic, and Hawaiian communities. He was coordinator and coach for a group of two hundred and eighty-seven grassroots communities focused on activism in the United States and Europe. Presently, Paul is the Executive Director of Community Organizing for Action (Co-Act), which is involved with locally produced energy, ending hunger and malnutrition, public transportation, and local currency. Paul also gives workshops throughout the country involving grassroots community development and improving group performance.

Incorporating his wide experiences, his most recent book “The Grassroute Guide: a Roadmap to Community Empowerment”, lays out in a practical and applicable format, insightful principles of community organizing.

In his novel, “Bearer of Light: A Catalyst for Global Change”, Paul weaves six key characteristics of successful communities throughout the story, while providing hope and an uplifting approach to the challenges faced by our local communities and nation.

Employing innovative, new-paradigm concepts for “high energy group performance” he has served such clients as Hoechst, Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus, IKEA, and over seventy TV broadcasting and advertising agencies, he has also authored “IN THE HIGH-ENERGY ZONE: The 6 Characteristics of Highly Effective Groups”.

Participate in Strengthening your Community

Contact: info@co-act.org, 413-232-7888

Food and Nutrition

Become involved with community gardens, meals sites and pantries, education, local organic food production, and farmer’s markets.

Alternative Energy

Support locally produced energy, Low impact hydroelectric, biofuels, and energy conservation

Local Currency

A local currency can revive our local economy, host house parties, become part of a depositors association, and Common Good Bank. Contact John, johngrootjr@gmail.com

Time Bank

Use “time dollars” to get things done, over 100 services available, no money needed, use the currency of your labor. Contact Michael, arepeee@yahoo.com

Co-Act Weekly Meeting

Every Tuesday meeting starts at 6:30 PM with a pot luck feast and meeting from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM on engaging topics. 52 Maple Hill Rd., West Stockbridge. Contact Paul, paulnrg@aol.com

berkshire green click on the link and go to page 45

By Paul Deslauriers

Grassroots organizing is on the rise. Dedicated individuals are uniting and participating in causes and initiatives around the world. Their coming together generates a focus and group energy, that when developed properly, holds great power and potential.

Grassroots groups come together to participate in a broad range of initiatives. They can resolve growing needs in the community or support community self-sufficiency. They can bolster co-operative businesses or protest injustices by big corporations and government. Grassroots groups can center on social activities, religious matters, or personal support systems. Providing a community network can heal and develop local areas so they prosper, despite stress from a faltering economy. Developing grassroots groups is a way to empower people locally to take action and achieve common goals.

Community empowerment does not necessarily require a big commitment of time or energy. Holding meetings and following up on tasks for even a few hours a week can rid a neighborhood of crime, change repressive laws, create a food bank, community garden, a ride share or community wellness clinic. Small contributions result in big change.

All grassroots groups share fundamental commonalities that can impact their success or failure. The laws of group dynamics, organizational development, physical, social and spiritual sciences pertain to all. Application of these sciences increases the synergistic forces at play in all community groups and amplifies effectiveness, generating an environment in which people want to participate simply because they get much more than they give.

Successful grassroots community development requires a range of personal, interpersonal and organizational skills that go far beyond recruiting a few members, planning a protest, or taking a creative action. To have an effect on its community a grassroots organization needs to retain talented people, and must also have a strategy and process for engaging the community at large.

A wide variety of skills and activities are required: conducting factual research, defining and instilling your groups’ goals and core values, developing collaboration and teamwork, raising consciousness in the community, inspiring and mentoring others, building a brand image, and generating financial support and media attention. These activities become much easier with established core values that uplift the group energy such as being interconnected, aligned, balanced, and positive. These values become the foundation for a caring loving community which greatly increases a group’s potential.

Owing to the increasing demands of social needs in a declining economy, individual community groups do well to reach out to similar or complimentary groups for coalition building. Collaboration is often more appealing to a funding source as an investment because they realize their contributions will fulfill many community needs simultaneously.

If the resources for developing this collective energy and the key pieces affecting your group’s potential are not readily available within your group, seek out an insightful mentor, or a reliable reference source of &quotbest practices” for grassroots community development.

Community groups are valuable not only for what they can achieve but also for how people feel when working with others on community initiatives. A &quotHigh Energy” emerges when people pull together and tap the power of community. In these moments, we feel buoyed and uplifted by our colleagues and companions; we’re more creative, more responsive, more engaged and more at ease. In these moments of empowerment, communication and collaboration flow freely and easily, and celebration springs forth naturally and authentically. The energy of every individual member of a group contributes to and merges into a collective energy, a synergistic force around which anything seems possible, and often is.

About the author

Paul Deslauriers put 25 years as a community organizer and consultant into his most recent book “The GRASSROUTE GUIDE”, a how-to manual for grassroots community groups. Covering organizational development, team building, leadership and communication skills, setting goals and operational values, managing volunteers, meetings, events, brand imaging, local media…all from a perspective of building a “high vibrational group energy”.

Paul Deslauriers, Author of the GRASSROUTE GUIDE

Energy is integral to all we do and experience.  Our overall health, well being and vitality is an expression of this energy. The energy we put into motion, our emotion, as well as all we feel, involves a subtle energy. The bio-chemical and electrical impulses we sense is driven by forces that reside in our body.

Without energy we cease to exist. Even the cells of our body when broken down to their most fundamental element are patterns of energy. Scientists probing into the makeup of our universe found that what seems to be physical is actually localized patterns of energy. This fundamental energy flowing from within our being, streaming out and across the universe, fluctuates in strength and vibration.

When our energy runs low, we feel it – and our productivity, creativity and activities diminish.  Conversely, a high energy increases our potential.

The same occurs within any group endeavor.  When the energy level decreases the group’s vitality and productivity is likewise reduced.  Maintaining a high energy within a group results in a greater capitalization of talents.  All the great coaches know this and strive to intensify their team’s energy for key games.

Think of your own experience of being energized and feeling more alive within a group setting. Recall a time, even for an instant, when you felt connected and uplifted by the group you were a part of. It may have occurred among family, team sports, school, community or at work.

When people in groups I work with are in this high energy zone they describe experiences that you can probably relate to: “I felt connected and supported by something much bigger than me.  The positive bond among the group lifted me up.” “When  the individuals of our team worked together as a single, seamless unit, we beat the odds.” “I felt a connection among the group that brought me out of myself.  The blocks and barriers I often find in relationships didn’t exist.”

If you think about it, these moments often occurred when the whole ends up being greater than the sum of its parts.  When the individual contribution of every team member is combined to create a collective energy, a powerful force, that makes the seemingly unattainable readily achievable.

My experience in working with over 100 organizations is that when a high energy is maintained the group is more effective, grows faster and has more satisfied members, employees and constituents. Those who become involved in the organization are uplifted by their affiliation. There is a much higher retention of great volunteers and employees. In these environments you can feel the high energy when you walk through the door.

The GRASSROUTE GUIDE was created to give you the tools you need to create and maintain this kind of high energy zone in your community grassroots organization. Working together in harmony your group can accomplish anything.