US New Culture

From ImprovEverywhere.com, Over 2,000 people press play at the same time on the same Mp3 and have an epic balloon battle in cities across North America. This trailer video shows footage from all 4 stops on the tour. Visit our website to see many more videos and photos.

SV for Obama Campaign Co-Manager Owen Byrd speaks at the 2nd Town Hall Meeting on February 11, 2009, about one of our volunteers, Katie Jacobs Stanton, joining the Obama administration.

Join us for a special evening with Praxis Peace Institute Founding Director, Georgia Kelly, as she discusses the unique collaborative business model of the Mondragon Cooperatives located in the Basque country of Spain. Founded in 1955, Mondragon now encompasses 264 businesses and employs more than 100,000 worker-owners. It is a highly successful cooperative model with over 50 years of proven success. They have established research centers, bank and credit unions, a university, youth cooperatives, and small to large businesses. This presentation will cover the ethics and vision of Mondragón as well as unique success stories that are an inspiration to those seeking alternatives to business-as-usual. The goal of the Mondragón Cooperatives is to create community through economic relationships and to transform society through conscious economic practices.

In this presentation Staci Haines explores the challenges for integration of personal, community and social transformation. She introduces Pachamama Alliance community to somatics, a powerful approach to change integrating mind and body, our deepest values and an understanding of the social context in which we live.

“We have inherited values and habits on an individual and collective level that don’t necessarily align with our visions for the future. Modern neuroscience shows us that these habits don’t change through new ideas alone, but can be transformed through holistic approaches which address the conscious and unconscious mind, the individual and collective practices. Somatics uses principles and practices from Aikido, ontology, systems change and meditation, and is grounded in neuroscience research. How do our new ideas become new actions and ways of being? How does this happen individually and collectively? “

Staci is the founder of Generation FIVE and nationally known in her work in the field of somatics. She specializes in bringing this work to social and environmental justice movements, cultivating social leadership and addressing the transformation of individual and collective trauma. She is an author and has a DVD highlighting somatics in healing trauma, and trains somatics with individual leaders, organizations and movement sectors. Staci and a core team have developed the national Somatics and Social Justice Collaborative which launches in 2009.

This event was recorded on Tuesday, January 13, San Francisco.