Small Victories = Greatest Impact!! Now Onward to March!!

Every once in awhile, you find your weeks flash by, your household in disarray, you are eating bad foods, not working out, and just spiraling out of control, until you stop and think to yourself why am I doing all this? Then something magical happens that reminds you how worthwhile the work you are doing really is....It also sneaks up and shows you small signs that you are actually making an impact...Well, welcome to my February!

Since the start of 2011, life has been rocking & rolling in a powerful direction!! With the start of R.A.G.E-Resident Association of Greater Englewood whom hosted 3 successful aldermanic candidate forums, the launch of Media-N-Motion and Docs & Dialogue expanding its been an awesome 1st quarter of 2011!

Some have even said the candidate forums slightly impacted the election on 2/22.  Who knows?? One thing for sure is 5 out of the 6 wards that serve our neighborhood have landed in the run-offs....Which means RAGE may need to go back to the lab and produce a couple more forums...Stay tuned!  Also, for a full recap of the Who's Running Summit check out the Englewood Portal here: http://www.englewoodportal.org/news/2082

Yes I say this on every blog entry, but I truly see EXTRAORDINARY things happening in Greater Englewood...I mean EMPIRE status operations that will assist in a true makeover/overhaul!!



Courtesy of Quality of Life Plan of Englewood





There will be urban gardens, fresh produce stores, FOR PROFITS businesses, banks, investors, developers, improved schools, additional community schools, art-based programs, job/resource centers, youth peace zones, cafes, dine-in restaurants, strip malls and more!!  I am seeing these changes happen in small doses now and it will continue to expand! There was a blueprint of this plan back in 2005 so there is no need to reinvent the wheel we just to need to push this plan forward....Small victories will make the greatest impact!!




Courtesy of Quality of Life Plan of Englewood

  
Another example of how small victories make the greatest impact started back in October/November when I met two remarkable residents Tonika "Toni" Johnson and Tesha "the Teacher" Dickerson. I wrote about these dynamic ladies in previous post when discussing the program we started, "Media-N-Motion" a youth media program.

 

We started Jan. 5th with 15 hopefuls and ended Feb. 26th with 10 dynamic youth reporters! This was another resident driven program that we are very proud of and is now anxious to move into cycle 2! During cycle 1 we linked up with Officer Wormely who manages the 7th District Youth Enrichment program, booked West Englewood Library and last Saturday we were awarding our Englewood Youth Reporters with certificates, colorful newsletter, Best Buy giftcards, & journals to encouraged them to continue to write!!

The newsletter titled, “Englewood Youth Times" (See Below) was a hit at Docs & Dialogue that this group of future leaders came up with the idea to sell the newsletters and they actually made $23.50 in profits!

Media-N-Motion Closing Ceremony/Docs & Dialogue at KKC

Again, to be a part of a process to assist our future leaders in thinking creatively and to help them make some money was just magical...I couldn't be more proud of them!! Well, Saturday was another So Fresh Saturday and after the awards, Greater Englewood got a sneak preview of the must see documentary “Louder Than A Bomb” before it airs on OWN presented by Docs & Dialogue. Community members, youth and all involved enjoyed this heartfelt story of teens competing in poetry slam...Another small victory that is making an impact...

I actually was asked on Saturday, when I am going to stop....And to answer that question, I am just getting started so stay tuned for more!!! Check out Media-N-Motion newsletter below....Remember small victories makes the greatest impact so be proud of each & every accomplisment & as always TAKE ACTION to Create the Life you Truly Desire!!