Create Social Change

ahhhhh FINALLY the date is SET For the next “We Step Into the Light”!!!! October 18th!!!! Some of you may ask: Why so far away? Well, I have decided to go get crisis counseling certified (in july) so that we could add some new elements to support the Models in having an even greater transformative experience. What that looks like: The project will go on over a period of 3 months, during which we will have sessions every other week for models to embody and heal what comes up for them as well as weekly pod coach calls to just check in and ground. So we are looking for models and artists for this next show! And I know you are asking yourself….I want to help, but I’m not an artist and I haven’t been sexually assaulted – GREAT NEWS we found a way to get the WHOLE community involved – You can SPONSOR a model to have this experience!!!!! We are looking for 30 SPONSOR’s to directly impact a real person’s life and all you have to do is raise $250. I know right? Its a pair of shoes, or an expensive dinner and you can change someone’s life. We will have all the deets together for you in a few weeks, in the meantime if you are interested in learning more – please email ME at chimine@createsocialchange.org. Please put SPONSORSHIP in the title!

Want to see what this project does….Check out the trailer below!

Jenella – Trailer from Tiye Rose Hood on Vimeo.

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Tiye Rose Hood, filmaker of Jenella featured in Hollaback.

We over at Create Social Change are blessed to have been able to be a part of this film. You can check out the trailer on the upper right hand corner of our blog and read more about Tiye Rose Hood and this film below!

http://www.ihollaback.org/blog/2012/02/06/filmmaker-tiye-rose-hood-drives-social-change-and-randomly-bakes/

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Police released a sketch and video of the man who has been violently raping women in the mission. Please view and see if you can help in any way.

I first heard about these crimes yesterday. There had been one in November and one very recently. Initially I was just bothered, but when I came home last night and thought about it, I ended up in tears. Police state that the crimes have been getting worse.

I don’t know what that’s like. I was the last “victim” of a serial rapist in Orange County. I know traditionally they get more violent – for some reason that’s not what happened in my case. Either way, I was crying last night for these women. These are the moments in which I feel broken. It was bad enough going through what I did, but to witness so many others – it literally breaks my heart.

So what can we do? Well I am proud to live in San Francisco where a candle vigil has already been lit for the women. Officials are trimming trees to improve visibility and there is movement towards more lighting. Neighbors have donated money. These people understand – sexual assault is NOT a women’s issue – it is a community issue. So as a wider community, we can all be aware.

Ladies, be careful at night and please do not walk alone. Everyone, keep your eyes peeled for this face. I can attest to the fact that the only thing more frightening then being raped is knowing that your rapist is still out there and can come and finish the job. Help the police find this man.

Spread the video and sketch far and wide, we never know how much we can help and who may know something.

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I have been empowered in many ways during my journey and I have also heard a lot of things.  I may not always make sense, or I can be seen as all over the place sometimes. It reminds me of when I was 8 and my mom’s friend asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I said “An actress, a model and a singer.” She told me I had to choose one – I boldly disagreed with her.  Now, I don’t think there even exists an actress who isn’t also a model and has at least tried to be a singer.  The same holds true with me, if I see its connection to preventing violence or restructuring a system that perpetuates violence – I am in.  I may be taboo, I may speak, I may throw parties, I may choose to work with people with cancer to empower them, there is some buzz about the possibility of a pole dancing class, I may coach inner city youth, I may be really into academia.  What it all means is that I am committed to my cause – ENDING VIOLENCE.  Too many things are seen as separate these days, but they all connect.  If you subscribe to holistic anything (mind, body and spirit) you can relate to me as a holistic systems thinker.  IT IS ALL CONNECTED.

At “We Step Into the Light” I finally allowed all my worlds to connect: the starlight staff, PSI seminars, CIIS alumni, good friends, acquaintances, people from high school and some of my party peeps.  As they collided they created this energy, an energy that made my event a complete success.  Trying to keep them compartmentalized got me no where the last 5 years – just like I can’t be asked to be specific when doing what I do.  The non-profit was purposely named “Create Social Change” to be vague.  We didn’t want to be just sexual assault awareness – we wanted to empower everyone.

I wish I had some great fixing of a car analogy to put here – I don’t so I am going to go back to holistic thinking and the body.  Western medicine treats symptoms.  Eastern medicine treats the cause.  And the cause is usually a combination of several different imbalances occurring in the body at any point in time.

The exact same is true in our world.  You can’t look at one strand of violence and not look at everything else going on.  Is there perhaps a cause that is universal that transcends past just simply the experience of trauma?  I know there is – and it comes down to our relationships and experience with trauma.  And to be a bit more complicated, its also how we feel our relationships to other people are defined by the experiences or labels that are given to us or self identified.  Rich and Yvonne of Challenge Day put it real simple – we just want to be seen for who we are, all of us – the beautiful, the ugly, the taboo, our Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.

The point of this post is that you will see a lot of different things coming from myself and Create Social Change in the future.  I have spent the past 12 years trying to find the experience connecting people with their trauma AND coming out empowered.  Dr. Hazly, created the format – now I will be translating the format to relay that same experience of being seen to people experiencing many different types of trauma.

Some change will happen immediately, those that participated in We Step Into the Light will go out there and be more compassionate and more loving and more understanding of things they don’t understand.  But the real change will happen over several generations.  The seeds we plant now will be the trees giving out life to our great grandchildren.  Those seeds are authenticity, personal responsibility and full embodiment.

So I dare you to be taboo, be bold, have conviction (while remembering that sometimes you may have to help people meet you where you are) and most importantly STEP INTO YOUR LIGHT.  Everyone can make a difference.

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