H.O.P.E. Fest, A Back to School Festival!

Alright everyone, the hustle, bustle and frenzy of back to school is upon us however I have great news and a celebration you will for sure want to mark on your calendars! This Sat. Aug. 27th from 11am-5pm, The H.O.P.E. Foundation is sponsoring a Back To School Festival and you get FREE lunch too! There will be so many different vendors there, backpacks will be given out, of course everyone gets school supplies and even prize drawings for a couple of bicycles, a skateboard and much much more...no one will leave empty handed! There will be different arts & crafts stations for all ages, a bounce house, health care information and screenings, fingerprinting for your kids and a time to come together as a community to help support our kids while giving them a safe and fun afternoon!

If you would like to donate any supplies we can never have enough! So if you happen to stop in to one of those big stores, you know the ones I mean...where folders are only 1cent or crayons are 25cents or...well, you get the picture and you're able to purchase 1 or 2 items or maybe even more... Please bring them with you to the check-in table when you come in and we'd be happy as well as grateful to take them off your hands and find them a happy home with some extremely deserving kids! This is especially true for backpacks, we have a shortage of backpacks so unfortunately not everyone will get one, each child will have a bag to put their school supplies & goodies in but some won't get an actual backpack, sad I know but "WE" as the community can change that so that every child walks out with one! :) Ask your friends and neighbors to get involved, heck maybe you can't afford a backpack on your own to donate but if you've got a group of friends you can divide that $15 between all of you and its only $3, $4 or maybe even less than that and that is do able! 

Let's make this an amazing afternoon and get the kids extra excited to go back to school!

Date/Time/Location- Saturday Aug. 27th from 11am - 5pm at Stevenson Elemetry School 515 Lime Ave LB

For other questions please email Pam at foundhope2009@gmail.com (562-506-3606) or Marie at misdamarie@yahoo.com (562-682-6902) or click on the flyer above...HOPE to see you all there and THANK YOU in advance for all of your generosity, change begins one person at a time!

Come Join the First Catalyst Network Open Meeting!

Every 3rd Monday of the month, we're hosting regular meetings open to the entire Catalyst Network starting August 15th from 7-9pm at the Catalyst Space, 430 E. 1st Street, Long Beach, CA 90802. Mark your calendar!

This is your opportunity to meet other people from various parts of the network. We will have time for you to announce your upcoming events or programs. You can meet potential partners and you can explore possibilities for collaborative projects. We'll also feature 3-5 collaborative partners in the network each month as they share about why they do what they do, their programs and events, and their current needs. This month, we are featuring:

• Southern California Green Economic Council
• Leap Frog Yoga
• We Be Well 

Identifying Your Issue

When I was 14 years old, I survived suicide. It was a crazy confusing time in my life and I felt alone. I thank God that I survived because life got better. Not easier. Just better. 

We can sometimes feel helpless when we observe things or events in our community that trouble us. We may hear news of suicides among youth across the nation. We may walk past the person in need just outside the grocery store hoping for some change or a carton of milk. We may learn of a death in the family of a neighbor. We may see the seemingly endless trash and styrofoam littered across the beach.

These things can make us frustrated and angry or sad and hopeless. As a catalyst for change in our communities, we should ask ourselves:

What can I do about it?
What can we do about it?

An important step towards creating a productive impact in our communities is making that shift from identifying a problem to articulating the issue. What's the real issue at hand? What's the root of the problem? This requires a reframing of the lens we're using when we look at our community. It's not simply about seeing the problems in our community and complaining about them with any friend or person who will listen. It's about looking at our community through the lens of ownership - I see something I don't like, I need to do something to change it for the better.

So the real issue may be youth empowerment, hungry families, neighborhood engagement, or clean beaches. What's the real issue you're concerned about? This is a way of beginning to develop a plan for impact. Because once you can identify a problem and then articulate the issue, you can then develop a vision for what you want. This vision is the solution. And this solution should include an actionable plan that can include the involvement of others.

In developing your plan, consider the scale, scope, and resources available and needed. What are your measurable objectives? Be specific. How large or small do you want your project to be? Are you wanting to keep this local or do you want this to be a national organization? Is this a one time event or do we need ongoing actions? Who can help? Who is currently on your team and who needs to be on your team? Are there specific jobs that need to be assigned? Do you need to raise funds? Do you need equipment? Most importantly, what's your timeline? What kind of time constraints do you have?

With most any plan, you need to rally people to join you in your effort. So a good way to get people involved in your cause is to keep your issue rooted in common values. Then connect those values to the way you tell people about your cause. For example, you too are concerned about the suicides among young people and we share a value for helping our youth feel loved, confident, and safe. So let's together get as many people and organizations as we can to hold a community rally for the youth.

What ever your issue may be, remember that you may encounter resistance. There may be people who just may not respond to your call for participation. Remember that resistance is an opportunity to create a better strategy or it's simply feedback that you just haven't found the values that resonate with people. Find the value they care about, and you'll make that connection.

If you'd like further tips, advice or support for catalyzing your community around a particular issue, contact us here and we'll see how we can assist.

Good luck and keep being a catalyst. Connect and affect!

Eric Leocadio
Founder/Executive Director
Catalyst Network of Communities

Note: some of these tips were taken from a workshop conducted by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force on "Barriers, Resistance, and Conflict" at the Believe Out Loud Power Summit conference this past weekend in Orlando, Florida organized by the Institute for Welcoming Resources.

Welcome to the New GoCatalyst.org!

Hi everyone,

Well this is it! Our new web site! Over the years, we've had several iterations of a web presence ranging from a custom built site that I coded from scratch to building certain tools and features to then switching to a wetpaint platform to then rebuilding the site from scratch again to be more simplified to then building other tools and features to now this one - what you see now.

If you've been around long enough, you'll have seen this evolution in our web presence. But that also reflects the evolution and growth that we've experienced as a community, as an organization, and as catalysts. You see, we're not a perfectly refined organization that has everything packaged for mass reproduction. Rather, we are a living organic community of people who simply want to connect with each other and to affect each other. Organizationally, we're just trying to do that better and better.

With this new web site, I hope you'll continue to come back to find valuable, useful and interesting content for helping you to connect and affect. You'll find current buzz going around town in our News & Events page. You'll find volunteer opportunities. You'll finding listings of our collaborative partners throughout the Network. And you'll find this blog where I'll try to share with you openly about things we've learned along the way - the journey of being a catalyst in our city. The point is that you'll be one too! So follow along and walk with us.

Connect and affect, my friends,

Eric Leocadio
Founder/Executive Director
Catalyst Network of Communities