“Become who you are. Become all that you are. There is still more of you to be discovered, forgiven, and loved.” – Richard Rohr
Perspective - Aliveness
The word Aliveness caught my attention in some recent reading and it’s been on my mind every day. This extends my conviction that we should seek Purpose and Well-Being to thrive. There is an element of Nowness, being fully present in the moment with all of our senses on alert. There is an element of Oneness, feeling connected and close to God, others and all of creation. There is an element of Wholeness, embracing the whole of us and others including the “imperfections”. There is a spiritual side to the word Aliveness and it reinforces my philosophy that we should take care of ourselves heart, mind, body and soul. These are big ideas that deserve of our reflection and pursuit.
When we live with purpose we become more receptive to discovering our personal treasure. These ideas can be part of mentoring conversations. Consider asking a "powerful, open-ended question" about Aliveness. I’d love to hear from you if this captures your imagination as well.
The Greater Cincinnati Mentor Leadership Alliance is a collaboration of volunteers and service professionals in the Cincinnati/NKY area working to improve the capability of people in need. This newsletter aims to present information, ideas and tools to grow personally and to better serve others. Our target audience includes Alliance Members and Friends, mentor program leaders and new or experienced volunteer mentors and life skills instructors. We hope to touch you with knowledge and skills to allow you to “live, work and serve to your purpose, passion and potential”. Please share this with someone who might consider life skills or mentoring as a volunteer role.
Insight 30 on December 8 Our next Insight 30 is on December 8 at 12:30PM. This is an ongoing “lunch and learn” Zoom opportunity with 15-20 minutes of “presenting” and 10-15 minutes of “engaging”. Our presenter is Tarin Cook, Launch Community Engagement Coordinator at Found Village. Her topic is Creating a Community: Mentor Supports & Training. Here is a brief description:
Tarin Cook will present how a Mentor Community was created at Found Village. She will address how mentors were equipped with the support and knowledge to feel secure as a mentor, all based on evidence-based practices, which in turn increased retention rates and ended with a near 100% satisfaction rate for their services.
Click here to register for the event and see the Zoom link. Send me an e-mail if you’d like to receive a calendar invitation.
GCMLA Summit Highlights
Dr. Victor Garcia was our keynote speaker at the November 19 Summit. He addressed childhood trauma, generational poverty, violence prevention, hope, and social justice. Beyond his amazing medical career, he addresses the deep-seeded and insidious challenges we see every day in our city and in many of the people we mentor. If you missed it, click here to see his video, slides and many resources. This is anchored to our wiki page on Trauma.
GCMLA Survey Results Thanks to the many people who responded to our survey. I noticed a couple of themes where a majority of people have interest…
Have you reached out to another organization for resourcing or support in the past few months (provided help to or received help from another mentoring organization)? 73% said “yes”. This peer-to-peer sharing is a key element of our Vision and SHARE strategy.
Would you like to address Purpose deeper as an organization? 80% said “yes”. We will host the Mentor for Purpose series again in 2022 including a workshop to facilitate the writing of a personal purpose statement.I’d love to discuss this with you 1:1 for your organization.
The older I get; the faster time seems to fly. It’s difficult to believe that the year is coming to an end and that the Greater Cincinnati Mentor Leadership Alliance has been in existence for 3 years. I’ve captured some highlights for 2021 below and look forward to serving you in 2022.
Completed a 7-event Mentor for Purpose series. Thirty-six people invested in “knowing themselves deeply” and developing skills to mentor as volunteers, parents, managers and friends.
Launched Insight 30. This is a quick, monthly Zoom event where people share their passion and knowledge. Thanks to Lynn Shewmaker for guiding this initiative.
Renewed our Strategic Plan including the addition of a Communications Strategy which in turn led to the relaunch of this Newsletter. Click here.
Launched Membership Agreements. This process highlights the value proposition for being an Alliance member.
Developed a formal Sustainability Plan. Our Process Masterplan shows that most processes are working well and our system of Key Documents provides important operational structure.
Hosted 3 workshops including a new “Sharing” format, Mentor Development and Summit.
250 Words My blogs are about life, life skills, service and living to our purpose, passion and potential. I aim to write about 250 Words (the amount an average adult can read in one minute). Here is one of my favorites…
Know Your Why. Why do you do anything? I think that is a question worth examining on a regular basis. Some examples:
Why am I spending my evening watching TV?
Why is my manager asking me to work on this particular project?
Why am I a morning person?
Why do I like to spend time with ___?
These can be interesting or difficult introspection questions. Exploring the answers is how you find motivation to do things, especially the important and necessary things. It’s at the heart of knowing yourself deeply. Once known, you get to put full energy into a commitment or make adjustments on how you spend your time. Click here to read the rest.
The Life Solutions Network encourages “purpose, passion and potential” in the form of capability-building service to our community. Thank you for your friendship, partnership and service. Let me know how I can support you.
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