Bioneers by the Bay 2009

An AMAZING weekend ahead!

2009-10-23T22:43:00.003-04:00

Well one day down, two more amazing days to go. What a joy to see all of our planning and dreams come to fruition. I saw saw so many friends, old and new, and what positive energy!

A big thank you to everyone for your support and love. Looking forward to a great weekend.

Glenn Oliveira
Marion Institute

AmeriCorp Team

2009-10-21T00:21:00.003-04:00

We couldn't put on the conference without our amazing AmeriCorp team, read more here http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091021/OPINION/910210329/-1/NEWS10

Bioneers by the Bay in the Standard Times

2009-10-13T13:30:00.002-04:00

Check out today's Standard Times article, profiling Bioneers by the Bay and our Kick-Off Event. The Kick-Off will feature the NRDC film ACID TEST and Will Allen!

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091013/NEWS/910130344/1018/OPINION

Early Bird Extended to Tuesday the 29th

2009-09-23T14:45:00.001-04:00

We have decided to extend the Early Bird Registration to Tuesday the 29th of September. This will be your last chance to save over 30% off of the regular admission. Please pass the word on and we hope to see you in October.

FRESH the movie on Friday Night

2009-09-17T11:13:00.002-04:00

There will be a screening of FRESH at this years conference on Friday night from 7:00pm-9:00pm.

Along with the movie screening there will be a Q&A with director/producer Ana Joanes and one of the star’s of the film and Bioneers by the Bay Keynote Speaker Will Allen.

Has anyone seen this film yet? It's pretty great and it will be amazing to have Ana and Will there.

What's New?

2009-09-08T10:45:00.001-04:00

What is everyone into this time of year? Other than being in the middle of organizing this amazing conference, which is a lot of work for our small team but oh so worth it, I am excited about apple season : )

350 Day of Action, Saturday at Bioneers

2009-09-08T10:42:00.001-04:00

We have just about finalized plans for our 350 Day of Action on Saturday of Bioneers by the Bay. It will be at 5:00pm, with a couple of great speakers, performers and a great action item right downtown! Check back soon on the program tab.

What do we want our future to look like?

2009-03-11T17:09:00.008-04:00

Maybe every generation has said “there has never been a time like now.” But it is true ten times over for this generation. We have the spirit of the 1960s with access and opportunities that generations before us only dreamed of and a President who, so far, seems willing to listen and ready to act. In other words, we will have no excuses if we are unable to make deep and positive change.

It’s time for us to step up our game.

I spent last weekend in Washington DC for an event called PowerShift09. The event, organized by a youth organization called the Energy Action Coalition, aimed to bring together a convergence of young people from across the nation to send a message of bold, comprehensive and immediate federal climate action to Capitol Hill. And of course to share information, meet other engaged youth, and learn new skills. It was an impressive event with incredible energy - a testament to the potential power of collective action. Wandering through a conference center with 10,000 other young people, all gathered to take responsibility for righting the wrongs in the world, got me thinking about many things.

Three main questions kept running through my mind:What exactly do we want? Who do we want to do it? How do we want it to be done?

Simple enough questions but I am learning more and more just how difficult it is to have a clear vision. Sure we want a sustainable world that is just and inclusive, in which everyone has access to food, employment, education, clean water, clean air, and open space. Yes we want Green Jobs not Jails. But what do these things LOOK like? HOW do we do them? Who will play what roles?

Underlying all those questions were two more: How do we gain the knowledge we need to answer those three questions? How do we build a movement that is unified enough to get what we want once we figure out what that is?

Come together. That is the best answer I could come up with [the Beatles had t all figured out]. Come together to share information and, perhaps more importantly, to build relationships.

I’m hopeful that Bioneers by the Bay: Connecting for Change can help us start to answer some of these questions. Help us build relationships, help us DESIGN and IMPLEMENT our future. A daunting task for a young person, but what I’m realizing is that it’s a daunting task for ANY person. We need EVERYONE’s help to figure this stuff out.

We need to start deciding what we want our world to look like. Now.

I am committed to doing what I can to make this year’s Youth Initiative a training ground for creativity, action, and solidarity. Applications are in for the Youth Committee and we’ll hit the ground running within the next month. But I could use your help - please send in your ideas, help us reach out to more schools and organizations, volunteer to be a mentor.

Think of the Youth Initiative as a resource, a tool that you have at your disposal to bring people together and make things happen.

Send questions and ideas to: kalia@connectingforchange.org
or call: 508.748.0816.

We Want Your Input

2009-03-05T13:46:00.000-05:00

We want your input, so we can better shape this years conference. No one knows better about what our attendees needs or wants are better that you, our attendees. So please share any ideas, comments or thought you may have right there on this blog.

STAY CONNECTED

2008-11-19T20:20:00.001-05:00

Share your thoughts with other Bioneers by the Bay attendees throughout the year: what keynotes you loved, what you would like to see next year, what you are doing in your community to create positive change...

Early Bird has been EXTENDED

2008-09-23T14:07:00.002-04:00

The Early Bird deadline has been extended to OCTOBER 10! So there is still time to REGISTER.

2009 Workshops

2008-09-17T23:22:00.007-04:00

Due to the huge influx of Bioneers by the Bay: Connecting for Change workshop proposals we have created a form for 2009 workshops. Please click here to fill out the form and email it to info@connectingforchange.org. Please keep in mind that Bioneers by the Bay is focused on visionary and practical solutions for restoring the earth and its inhabitants.

Videos of Presenters

2008-09-17T23:22:00.005-04:00

We have posted videos of all of this years Keynote Presenters, click here.

Poisoned Profits

2008-09-17T23:22:00.004-04:00

Why are so many American children – one out of three – sick with autism, ADHD, asthma, birth defects, cancer and other chronic illnesses? Why is infertility on the rise, and the ratio of male babies dwindling? With poignant stories of community and families, Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children offers the evidence connecting the exponential increase toxic chemicals in our everyday lives to this epidemic among the children of baby boomers, the first to be raised in a truly ‘toxified’ world. It reveals why, even as individual parents and pediatricians struggle to fight illness, one child at a time, the public remains in the dark about the enormity of this national crisis and the toxic assault continues. Published by Random House in August 2008, the book also offers guidance to parents (including pregnant women and pregnancy planning couples) about protecting their children and to all readers as citizens about how to bring about change. It describes where to go for more advice including websites, books, organizations and scientists ready to answer parents’ specific questions.

To learn more: www.poisonedprofits.com

Calm Down and Pay Attention: Cultivating Emotional Intelligence for Kids.

2008-09-17T23:22:00.003-04:00

The scene: a first-grade classroom in a Manhattan school. Not just any classroom, this one has lots of Special Ed students, who are very hyperactive. So the room is whirlpool of activity, some a bit frenzied. The teacher tells the kids that they’re going to listen to a CD. The kids quiet down a bit. Then they get pretty still as the CD starts, and a man’s voice tells them to listen to some sounds.

The voice asks them not to say the name of what they hear out loud, but just to themselves. But as they listen to the sounds, they don’t just lie there quietly, like other kids. These hyperactive kids listen with their whole body: when there’s the cry of a bird, they move their arms like a bird. But through it all they manage to calm down and stay focused through the entire six minutes.

The voice on the CD is mine, though the words are those of Linda Lantieri, an old friend and colleague. Linda has pioneered programs in social and emotional learning in the New York
City public schools that have been adopted worldwide. Her newest program adds mindfulness for kids to the emotional intelligence tool kit, in one version to enhance focusing and attention, in another to help kids learn to calm themselves better. Linda’s book and CD Cultivating Emotional Intelligence has instructions adapted to kids’ ages – one for five to seven, another eight to eleven, then 12 and up. And she explains how teachers or parents can best introduce these to kids.

Linda’s CD exemplifies the ways we can take advantage of neuroplasticity to help children master the abilities that are crucial for emotional intelligence. As Richard Davidson, founder of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin explained in a conversation we had, the kind of training Linda offers kids strengthens their neural circuitry for self-awareness, self-mastery, and empathy (to hear Davidson’s explanation, listen to the CD
Training the Brain: Cultivating Emotional Skills).

It was gratifying to hear the reactions of Jon and Myla Kabat-Zinn to Linda’s program; Jon has pioneered using mindfulness in health care, and with his wife Myla wrote a pioneering book on parenting, Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting. They visited an elementary school in Manhattan that uses Linda’s program and watched kids go through the exercises. They were pleasantly surprised to see hyperactive kids calm down and listen attentively during the calming and focusing instructions.

In Richard Davidson’s view, this kind of instruction takes advantage of a natural neural window of opportunity during childhood. The neural circuitry that allows us to pay attention, calm ourselves, and attune to others’ feelings all takes shape in the first two decades of life. If we leave that shaping to chance, kids can grow up with a range of deficiencies in these key life skills that can trouble them throughout life, in their relationships and at work. But if we offer
them a systematic education in these abilities, they can take these skills with them through life.

Perhaps most important for the mission of schools, learning, when kids learn to pay attention and calm down, they learn better. In some of the Manhattan schools teachers play the CDs for the kids right before tests, to help them get in the best brain state for learning and remembering. Linda has created a great assistant for teachers, a way to help kids be better students – not just learning better, but behaving better, too.

Parents and teachers tell kids countless times to “calm down” or “pay attention.” But the natural course of a child’s development means that the brain’s circuitry for calming and focusing is a work in progress – those neural systems are still growing. They will be shaped by the experiences kids have, so the lessons Linda offers are invaluable. We can help by giving children systematic lessons that will strengthen those budding capacities. That’s what Linda has done in her state-of-the-art curriculum – and what any family of classroom can offer kids now.

We are moving!

2008-08-20T02:55:00.007-04:00

We are sad to leave our wonderful home at Umass Dartmouth, although Umass Dartmouth will remain a Partner of Bioneers by the Bay and a great friend and ally in the community.

Our new home will be the City of New Bedford, in particular the Zeiterion Theatre and the Historic Downtown. We are very excited to embark on this new adventure, with the City of New Bedford as a Partner of Bioneers by the Bay. Bioneers by the Bay will support the work of the many amazing citizens, organizations and businesses in the city, all working to create deep and positive change in the community. If you have any suggestions please contact us or blog right here.

Hard to believe that it is nearly June already.

2008-05-25T03:16:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe that it is nearly June alread but the sun is out, everything is green, and the working bees of the Marion Institute are hard at work breathing life into the 4th Annual Bioneers by the Bay: Connecting for Change gathering. There are many exciting things happening – we are making a new home in downtown New Bedford, we have some of the world’s most influential speakers lined up, a dynamic Youth Planning Committee, and endless possibilities for creating a space where we can come together to find innovative solutions.

This blog is a space for you to share your ideas.

2008-05-24T03:17:00.000-04:00

This blog is a space for you to share your ideas, seek advice, learn new things, connect with one another, find rides and places to stay, and keep up with other Bioneers by the Bay happenings. Although the conference itself may only last 3 days, our intention is that the spirit of Bioneers be much bigger – in our eyes, it has already started and will never end. Please help us build this community and contribute to our efforts to cross pollinate and think outside the box by adding your thoughts, questions and dreams to this blog.

CONNECT with each other CONNECT with us.

2008-05-23T03:00:00.000-04:00

We hope that this website and to a greater extent this blog will act as a catalyst for. We are always open to any comments, suggestions, or feedback, so please reach out to us.