RTV# 16 Balance Screen Time!

A Year of Raising the Village: Week #16. How Balanced is our Screen Time? Who is sitting in front of a screen right now? Chances are, if you are reading this, you are! Have you ever tracked the number of hours you spend face to face with a screen (TV's, cell's, iPod's, iPad's, computers etc.)? The number might surprise you and send a message about what kind of balance you currently hold between face to face screen time and face to face connecting-with-the-rest-of-the-world time. Why not set a challenge and see if you can reduce the time spent in front of the screen and encourage the children and families you know to do the same?!

Call it a celebration... that is what one initiative is doing this very week. April 18th to 24th is Screen Free Week. Turn off screens and Turn on Life! Check out http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/screenfreeweek/why.htm Technology is not all bad - but it takes a balanced and informed approach to reap the benefits while leaving behind the rest (for children, teens AND adults!) Here are a few more bits and pieces that ring the "pay attention bell" to how much plugged in time we take in:

• Based on an analysis of brain development literature during early childhood, research concludes that heavy computer use prior to age seven may generate in diminished language skills, interpersonal difficulties and an inability to play symbolically. (Jane Healy, 1998, Failure to Connect: How computers affect our children's mind - and what we can do about it.)

• Check out this is a fascinating TED Talk by Patricia Kuhl looking at linguistic abilities of babies. There is one part of the research that compares learning from a person (live) and learning from the same person but on a screen. Guess what the result was? Nothing from a screen and significant from person to person interaction. http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies.html

Village Raising Question: What does your screen balance look like? (and what are you going to do about it?)

RTV #15 Blitz a family friendly business crusade!

• A Year of Raising the Village. Week #15. What makes a business child & family friendly?




• When do you know that you’ve stepped into a child and family friendly business? What signs do you look for? Is it the children’s clothing displayed around the room or toy area in the corner? (Maybe) Is it the age appropriate products or services? (Perhaps) Or do you look deeper?




• What makes a child and family friendly business?

How about a business that maintains employee benefits and human resource policies that truly support a growing family: Check out Naples Alliance for Children http://www.napleschild.org/family_friendly.php This resource includes small and large business criteria. “The importance of family policies and benefits in the workplace is becoming crucial to men and women when they evaluate employment opportunities and also to employers who compete for working parents in the labor market. Employers are now called upon to create a work environment that meets the expanding and challenging role of the working parent. Family Friendly workplace programs payoff in dividends by attracting and retaining the best employees, increasing productivity, increasing employee morale, reducing turnover, absenteeism and tardiness, and reducing health costs related to stress.”

How about a business that evaluates their practices: The Family and Parenting Institute in UK http://www.familyandparenting.org/reportCard2010 has an excellent review of the multiple issues related to family friendly business practices including work/life balance, cost of raising a child, maternity and paternity benefits, transportation and housing costs, neighbourhoods and green spaces….. How does your community score? They also have a survey on family friendly services http://www.familyandparenting.org/familyFriendlyServices

How about a business that upholds ethical commerce & safety: Ethical commerce commits to the well being of children and families and considers design, manufacturing and sales (among a host of other important criteria). They follow the UN Convention of the Rights!

Ethical marketing: See: http://www.parentsforethicalmarketing.org/

Businesses Safety of children: This link celebrates business for installing seat belts on shopping carts: http://www.welcometowilliamslake.ca/index.php/business-profiles/2647-local-businesses-thanked-for-family-friendly-practices.html

Ethical Commerce is part of the foundational work that the Centre for Child Honouring upholds http://childhonouring.org/covenantprinciples.html or http://childhonouring.org/blog.html?item=108

So come on people, engage with business...start a family friendly business crusade! Talk about what attitudes, practices, policies and atmospheres affect you and send the message that children and families matter! Village Raising Question: What messages do your local businesses send to children and families?

RTV #14 Embrace Change. Spark Change

A Year of Raising the Village - Week #14. Be the change you wish to see!

Einstein said that we can't solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. That means that if we want to see change we have to change ourselves. Change isn't easy for many people. (that is probably an understatement!) As a village raiser, we have the opportunity to set an example by being agents of change. Carla Rieger, a Vancouver based "creativity catalyst" (http://www.artistryofchange.com/) recently shared her top 3 practices in what she describes as the artistry of change.


Choose your attitude.
Fish! (by Stephen Lundin) also does a great job outlining how attitude is all about choice. Feelings are things we can't control, but when it comes to how we approach and respond to situations - we are in the driver's seat. Ask yourself: what attitude are you choosing right now? What attitude do you want in your life more often? What attitude do you want to model in your home, workplace, neighbourhood and community? What attitude will it take to raise the village?


Let go and lean into problems.
Rieger suggests that if the roller coaster of life starts to go downhill, act as if you are confident about dealing with the situation until you also feel confident. It's a "fake it until you make it" or "think it and you'll be it" scenario. Actions and feelings are intertwined. Psychology suggests that the brain tells the body how to feel and then the body acts accordingly. As the roller coaster starts going downhill, pry your white knuckles off the bar, lean into the rapid change in altitude and FEEL (don't resist) the thrill. Recently, a group of innovative village raisers came together getting ready for ACTION! They had talked and explored and researched and were narrowing in on a project that had some exciting potential. The closer the group got to making a decision, people resisted, hesitated and pulled back with increasing force, Rieger calls these folks change-challenged. Take her quiz to find out if you are change-challenged or a change artist - and LEAN in.

Think in possibilities.
Creative thinking can be learned and practiced. Books (and apps) are filled with brain games to generate ideas, create new opportunities and improve old products or processes. Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko is just one resource that we use to break out of traditional patterns of thinking and play around in the innovation sandbox. Gamestorming by Gray, Brown and Mucanufo is another one that has tools for groups. Ask "what if" more often.

Ghandi said be the change you want to see. Can't argue with that! Einstein and Ghandi were pretty smart and both changed the world!

Related blogs:
Take the Change-agent Challenge
Be a Mischief-maker


Village Raising Question: What's the change you are going to be?

RTV # 13 Plant Seeds! Community Gardens!

A Year of Raising the Village - Week #13. Plant Seeds in your Community. Be a part of a Community Garden! Want to encourage others to be excited about good healthy food? Have a passion to be part of a sustainable food system? Well, community gardens are planting seeds of inspiration. Here are a few of our favourite links (thanks to community nutritionist Helene Dufour for sharing her favourite links with us):

• Want to encourage children’s excitement about good healthy food? Growing Chef. Chefs for Children’s Urban Agriculture Program: Supports and encourages the development and growth of urban agriculture and provides an avenue for chefs and growers to engage in the community and to support food sustainability. http://www.growingchefs.ca/

• How to celebrate local food? FarmFolk/CityFolk Society is a non-profit society that works with farm & city to cultivate a local, sustainable food system. They develop and operate projects that provide access to & protection of foodlands; that support local, small scale growers and producers; and that educate, communicate and celebrate with local food communities. http://www.ffcf.bc.ca/index.html

• What are the benefits for children? Check out this resource which shows the many developmental benefits of plants in the playground. What are children learning as they take part in gardening? They learn in holistic ways (emotional, social, physical benefits). www.councilecd.ca/files/PanCanadianEDI_Poster_DevelopmentalBenefitsofPlantsinthePlayground.pdf

• Is your school district on board? Vancouver school board adopted a progressive school garden policy and process document to replace their previous, restrictive version. It's now available online - it will eventually be formatted with graphics/ diagrams, but in the meanwhile, you can view the content at: http://www.vsb.bc.ca/district-policy/io-school-food-garden-policy

• Want to formalize your community garden effort? Check out these City policies: See this one from Victoria: http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/pdfs/cmmnty_garden_policy.pdf?zoom_highlight=gardens or this one from Toronto: www.city.toronto.on.ca/food_hunger

• In the web-link explorer spirit? Keep clicking! Here are a few more: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kinder/commun.html http://www.childrenfirstpg.com/communitygardens.htm

...Send us your links and we will add to this blog.

Village Raising Tip: Community gardens are a great way to involve both children and adults in beautifying community while working with nature and working on food sustainability!

RTV #12 - Carpool!

A Year of Raising the Village - Week #12.

Can I hitch a ride?

We know that carpooling is good for the environment - it reduces traffic congestion, saves fuel and decreases air pollution. It also saves money, time and lowers stress. Another less recognized perk of carpooling is the opportunity for social interaction and engagement.


An interesting study done at the University of Michigan argues that carpooling is a good indicator of individual social capital.  When people choose to carpool (while it may be influenced by cost or convenience), they participate in an activity where they must spend time with other people. Trust is required and, we add, contributes to a supportive relationship.


Related Posts include:
How attached is your community?
Raising Socially Responsible Kids.



Village Raising Question: 

When is the last time you offered or accepted a ride with a friend or colleague?

RTV #11 - Gather and share stories about what community means to you.

Tracy Smyth, Paul Born & Tammy Dewar

A Year of Raising the Village - Week #11.

What does community mean to you?

Community Conversations: Mobilizing the ideas, skills, and passion of community organizations, governments, businesses, and people…not only a great idea but also an excellent book. Author, Paul Born – with us in the photo – was keynote and fellow presenter at the Putting it into Practice Conference in Langley, BC. Paul, himself a master storyteller, had the audience enraptured with his tales of community conversation and community change. Community conversations uncover the ideas, skills and passions that exist in community by drawing out the stories people have to tell! Since the release of his book, Paul and his colleagues at Tamarack asked 500 members of their learning community this question: What does "experiencing community" mean to you? The survey responses, entitled 500 Voices: Experiencing Community are a rich look into being in relationship with others.

During our Village workshops, as well as when we interview for our newsletter, we enthusiastically ask people what community means to them. Take a look at the Artisan Piazza Page on this blog. In it we continue to highlight artists and their interpretations of community through art. Each piece comes from a story held by that artist, powerful enough to turn into something physical! To see who our next artist will be, sign up for our spring newsletter. (sign up here)

Healthy Eating - Active Communities offers a site full of great examples of how a community can use stories to advocate for positive change. We love the Greenfield Walking Group story of how mothers and children transformed a park to become a clean, safe place. The site also shares some great story telling tips and the best questions to ask to elicit the juicy ones! Also check out our storytelling blogs

• The Story Behind Powerful Presentations
• Sparkling Dream Catchers
• Sharpen Your View! Distribute Cameras to Children and Families
• Navigate the River of Data & Dialogue

Village Raising Question: What story do you have to tell that describes what community means for you?

RTV Week #10 - Talk: Then Put it into Practice!

A Year of Raising the Village - Week #10.

Think about what you are putting into practice!

We have spent the last two days in the Fraser Region (just outside of Vancouver) at an Early Childhood conference "Put it into Practice". We were stoked to share our Village Experience with others as well as to learn from an interesting troupe of keynote speakers in the areas of evidence, quality and leadership. Taking time to think about the application of evidence brought to mind a passage from our book Raising the Village. See if this scene is familiar to you at all...

Sleeves rolled up, furrowed brows, slumped shoulders, a heaviness in the air...Weighed down with an all-consuming responsibility, no one in the room dared pause for so much as a coffee break. The participants were focused, intense, and determined to wade through the fog and confusion. In front of each chari was a stack of papers bursting with negative statistics and cold statements about the well-being of children in the community. On the one hand, the documents held great validity and interest for those around the table. On the other hand, the information they bore failed to reflect the spirit of the community or the hard work that this group and others had dedicated to children and families. The overwhelming task before them was to make sense of the data, define the key issues, and make a plan to better meet the needs of the community. (Raising the Village, 2009)

This is a situation many of us working with communities can relate with. It can feel heavy when faced with cold hard facts and yet it is these cold hard facts that can be the fuel to keep us seeking new ways of working together. When faced with data - take time to talk about it, ask questions, vent emotions, look at it from different perspectives and then talk some more. Through conversations that matter, a process will be revealed.

It's worth the heaviness.

At the conference we heard some great ideas about HOW to "put it into practice" that resonated with how we try to show up. Here are our top 3.

1. Working together is what it is all about. Truly! We could choose to work harder (hmmm) or get smarter (huh?) or partner better (yeah!!!)

2. It is never just ONE thing that derails development...so it's not going to be just ONE thing that fixes things either. This is so true whether it is applied to child development, business development, collaborative development - you name it.

3. Take time for deep conversations so that WE change and then we'll actually be able to MAKE change. (oooh gives goosebumps!) As Einstein said, you can't solve a problem with the same mindset that created it.

Village Raising Question:

How do you deal with cold hard facts?

What are you putting into practice?