Applications now open for next year's 12-Month Rites of Passage Program!

To request a pdf version of this flyer please email us at yesiamsomebody@gmail.com.

September Stories: I Am Somebody! BiMonthly Update

Please contact us at yesiamsomebody@gmail.com for the pdf version of our Monthly Update. 

We are looking for two new Board Members!

About I Am Somebody! 

I Am Somebody! uses the art of storytelling to build diverse communities committed to supporting the development of youth leaders. Its goal: to build a network of strong relationships among individuals and organizations that results in integrated solutions to young people’s needs. It does this through a Partner Exchange Program, Community Building Program, Mentorship Program and Young Adult Rites of Passage Program. It currently reaches 250 individuals, 10 young adults and 15 non-profit organizations directly.

What does being on the board entail? 

I Am Somebody!’s board plays a key role in enabling the organization to succeed in its work and Board Members are seen as part of the integrated community we are creating. The Board offers oversight of legal and financial compliance but it also serves as a hands-on support structure for the staff team implementing the vision and work. This support structure may involve volunteering, problem solving at meetings, offering access to networks and resources or providing mentorship and advice to staff. The board meets every other month with email and one on one communication in between.

Who are we looking for?

To ensure continued diversity on the board we are currently looking for two non-white male board members; however, we will consider applications from any individuals who have a passion for this work.

We are looking for an individual who brings some of the following qualities:
- Assertive, active, decisive
- Quick to act
- Courageous, Perseveres, not stopped by hearing “NO”, risk taker
- Good motivator of others
- Driver, leader, passionate, integrity and is authentic
- Experienced with detail oriented tasks and large projects
- Seen as practical, dependable and thorough in task situations
- Helpful to others by providing planning and resources
- Moves carefully and follows procedures and guidelines
- Objective, evaluator, follows up

As a bonus, we would benefit from an individual who has expertise in any of the following areas:
- Marketing
- Legal Sector
- Fund raising
- Business/Corporate Sector
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Organizational development

Application process
To apply to join the Board, please submit a letter of intention and Curriculum Vitae to yesiamsomebody@gmail.com by 1 September. 2013.

Annual Storytelling Gathering!

Wilderness experience for women - Cape Leopard Trust Opportunity

Check out this amazing opportunity offered by our Partner, Cape Leopard Trust! Contact Elizabeth Martins at elizabeth@capeleopard.org.za if you are interested in finding out more.

From one somebody to another... Bimonthly May 2013 Update!

We hope you enjoy our bimonthly update, it has been an incredible two months and we're so excited to share the news with you! If you would like to view more photos from our North Rites of Passage camp visit our facebook album by Clicking here! If you did not receive the below monthly update via email and would prefer to have a pdf copy please send an email to yesiamsomebody@gmail.com. 

March 23 & 24 Overnight Workshop Photos

During our two day workshop participants wrote statements of intention, identifying what they want to step into in their lives. They will use these statements to mark a change in their lives when doing a 24 hour nature solo at our upcoming camp.

Visit our facebook page for more photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.563267810371361.1073741831.138868472811299&type=1&l=7170fcb89f 

Monthly Online Update: March 2013

 

running with a purpose

the lone runner 
by toni giselle stuart

I am a lone runner. I run to get further away from you, to find me on the road, to find the innate rhythm between breath and beating heart, feet pounding tar. I run to find the words I’m too afraid to say, to imagine saying them to you despite my fear. I run to let go of all the unsaid words holding me back, to lose myself in the road, the trees, the passing cars, the stares from drivers, the waves from other runners. I run to know how I sit in my skin, to know why I cry and to know that if I can last 21.1km on the road there’s nothing else I can’t do. I run to know focus and determination; to spin the cobwebs from my dreaming head, shake off yesterday’s dust, last year’s pain, tomorrow’s angst, to find only today, the day before me, the one the sun has chosen to rise up on, the day that waits for me when I strip off these running shoes. I run to know my limits and to push them. I run to know what it feels like when I feel like I can’t go any further, so I can find the voice inside me that says I can. I run to know determination and perseverance on the road, in the hope it will spill over into all the other spheres of my life. I run to know me, alone, without anyone else’s nod, opinion or sanction, to know that whether or not you love me tomorrow doesn’t matter because in this moment, as my feet pound pavement, hips square, back straight, chest out, eyes looking to the horizon - I know what it feels like to fly. In this moment anything is possible but only one thing is real: me running this road. I run to know me, which, I’m starting to realise, is all any of us can ever really ask of this life… March 19, 200

Four years later, I continue to run for these same reasons. And, I’ve decided to use my running to help other people discover their own sense of self too. On Saturday March 30, I am running the Two Oceans Half Marathon to raise R3000 to support the work of I Am Somebody!, a Cape Town-based NGO that does amazing work in youth development and community building, which I have the privilege to serve on the board of.

I Am Somebody! is a group of ordinary Somebody’s who believe that together we can begin to create an integrated, reconciled and resilient South Africa. We bring people of different classes and cultures together to listen to, support and witness the steps young adults are taking in their lives.We do this because our society is still unequal and the impact of this inequality disproportionately falls on our young people. Every person, of every skin colour, from every community, every culture and every class deserves the opportunity to pursue their dreams and to live a satisfying and fulfilling life.
Running has taught me that I Am Somebody, and I’d like to use the power of running to help other young adults realise this for themselves too.

You can help by

• sponsoring my run - to do this, please visit my fundraising page and simply click on the “Donate Now” button.
• passing this link to friends, family and colleagues and encouraging them to donate
• cheering on the team of I Am Somebody! runners at the Two Oceans events in Cape Town, South Africa, on Friday March 29 and Saturday March 30
•  

“Running has given me the courage to start, the determination to keep trying, and the childlike spirit to have fun along the way. Run often and run long, but never outrun your joy of running.” -Julie Isphording

About the author

Toni Stuart is a professional poetry writer, performer and developer based in Cape Town, South Africa. She writes and performs her own work, and develops and manages creative projects around poetry to enable people to access their own words and build community. She works with individuals, corporates and NGOs

This post was originally posted at: http://tonistuart.tumblr.com/post/45025735708/running-with-a-purpose  

What is your vision for our community?

I Am Somebody because...

On the spur of the moment, in a workshop with youth in 2011, we asked participants to complete the sentence "I Am Somebody because..." Their answers were so beautiful, and the connection this question inspired in the room so moving, that we have continued to ask this question every opportunity that we can. The question affirms how important it is to know what gives our lives meaning and how powerful it is to be witnessed for this.

People have said things like I Am Somebody because I exist. I Am Somebody because of my family. I Am Somebody because I love. I Am Somebody because I am a father. I Am Somebody because of my mother. I Am Somebody because I write. I Am Somebody because I work. I Am Somebody because I sing.. because I dance.. because I run...

One of the incredible runners, Rishita Nandagiri

It made sense, in the spirit of our work and ethos, to use this phrase as the name for our new fund raising campaign. This campaign will enable individuals from around the world to raise funds for our work doing what they love and what gives their lives meaning. The idea came from a  group of runners who wanted to run The Two Oceans Marathon to raise funds for our work.

This first group of individuals raising money is quickly growing... they now include cyclists, long distance and short distance runners. They have entered into races such as The Argus, The Milkwood Marathon, The Two Oceans Marathon and the Merrell Night run Series. In the next week you will start to see their activist pages on the GivenGain web site and on our facebook page. If you would like to join them by running or cycling, donate or read more about the initiative, visit our Given Gain Page.

We look forward to seeing what other ways people may use the phrase "I Am Somebody Because..." to seek sponsorship on our behalf and we are so grateful to the many people who regularly contribute to and support our work.

Rites of Passage Programme

Finding Gifts Workshop 

We had our first workshop of the year with the young adults in our Rites of Passage Programme. Using creative tools and a story circle process, participants in the programme worked with the challenges they have identified in their own lives. They began to search for the gifts within these challenges, the gifts they bring to the world. 

In the workshop participants spoke about how hard it is to identify gifts in themselves but after several processes they began to name beautiful gifts. They identified how in hard situations they have strength, persistence and care for others. For some letting go was a gift, for others it is being open to connecting with people deeply. 

While it may be easier to have other people tell you what your gifts are, finding these gifts ourselves enables us to own them and live into them more fully. As they work with their gifts more and more they will begin to work with the visions they have for their own lives.

This vulture feather was our talking piece during the story circle

Sandile adding to his ongoing storytelling project

Using free writing to explore challenges and gifts

Preparing lunch together

Time to catch up and rest after a busy morning

Board Meeting and Collective Visioning

Our positive revolution! Exploring the way forward by looking at what breathes life into .... our work, our vision, our board?

Strategic Board Meeting 27 January 2013.

Exploring our vision for the organization.

Jars for appreciating what each person brings. In honour of the mischievous two year old spirit the organization
personifies, we had to have a little candy in the jars too.

Gillian Wilton creating her vision.

Exploring our vision for the community! A community that is passion based. A community symbolized by the lotus flower, a beautiful flower that grows only in mud...

What breathes life into the board? laughter, relationship, looking forward together.

Appreciative Inquiry into I Am Somebody! Appreciative inquiry is a tool for change work that is based on the idea that knowing what we are doing right is often more important than knowing what we are doing wrong.

Celebrating!

A vision of our community from Board Member Tina Schouw "Sunflowers", she says, "are like people. They instinctively turn their faces to the sun. They mirror the possibility of the sun."

The Story Behind Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos

Nestled in Muizenberg, next to the bridge on Beach Road, is the distributor for Kawai pianos in the Cape. We've decided to tell you this story because this is no ordinary business. 

Kyle Shepherd playing a Kawai piano at our event

In September we held an event with The Kyle Shepherd Trio to celebrate the incredible individuals who pledged monthly donations to I Am Somebody!.  The day before the performance was a busy one. Our amazing sound sponsors, Eastern Acoustics Pro Audio (www.eaternacoustics.co.za) spent the whole day setting up the sound system and returned early the next day to do sound check with the artists.  At the same time, a beautiful baby grand piano with incredible sound was carried into the Novalis Ubuntu Institute venue in separate parts and reassembled on stage. Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos not only sponsored this piano, they covered delivery and pick up and spent two hours tuning the piano late on a Saturday afternoon.

We realized there has to be a good story behind a company that is willing to make such a generous donation. After the event I spent some time with Ruan Strauss Kalis, Sales & Marketing Consultant and pianist at Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos. He started by showing me around the shop.  I’m a violinist, not a pianist, but as I was walking through the shop I wished I had become one because this would have been my dream come true.

A keyboard that will be refitted to a grand piano set.

Imagine room after room with pianos. A show room, repair room, storage room, a second show room filled with renovated pianos and even a warehouse... In the many rooms there are loose parts from soundboards to strings and keys. There are more pianos than you can imagine. From brand new pianos to old pianos, tiny little pianos the size of a microwave to the original upright pianos, baby and grand pianos.  The pianos all come from two of the three best brands in the world, they are Kawai and Steinway pianos.

Of course behind such a miraculous operation are people with a passion for music. I asked Ruan how he got to working in such an interesting job. When he was ten years old his neighbor's daughter played piano and, in Ruan’s words, “I knew quickly that this was what I wanted to do with my life.” And so it was, Ruan explained, that he temporarily lost his social life in order to practice, compose and perform.

Ruan Strauss Kalis playing the piano.

A decade later, Ruan spent four years completing the Performer's Diploma in Music at UCT. Further, he spent two years studying for an honours degree in performance at UCT, which he did not complete, while also running a fine music radio show and working as a waiter.  Then, with no teaching background to rely on, he took the courageous leap of starting up a very successful High School Music department. In the following years Ruan travelled and lived overseas and then returned to South Africa to work in various forms of marketing quality goods.  

It may come as no surprise that eventually Ruan found his way back to the piano. It had been years since he’d had a piano in his house, yet working for Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos he not only has access to pianos, he has been encouraged to play. These days, Ruan performs frequently. He is also composing an opera and will be performing his compositions to Antjie Krog’s poetry at Die Woordfees later this year.

We believe that the businesses that sponsor I Am Somebody! are as much a part of our community as the individuals who offer their support. These businesses are built and powered by "Somebody’s" who are following their dreams and creating lives of purpose. Thank you Ruan Kalis and the staff of Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos for your support of I Am Somebody! and for sharing this story with us. 

The mechanism of a Steinway piano, imported from Germany

A circle of grand and baby grand pianos at the store.

To learn more about Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos visit www.kawai.co.za 

Special thanks to Ruan Kalis for sharing his story, to Toni Stuart and Kent Lingevelt for the photography. 

Mentorship Storytelling Event

Last Saturday we started direct community involvement in our Mentorship Programme through exploring what experiences people in our community have had with mentoring and being mentored. This was the first step towards incorporating the interests and needs of the community in a mentorship training that will be offered early next year. The stories that people shared will inform the training we develop.

This mentorship story circle also provided a once off opportunity for the participants from different parts of our community - from participants in our Rites of Passage programme to their parents to individuals from partner organizations - to share and witness one another's stories.

Eating lunch before sharing our stories

 

After sharing stories, people spoke about components of mentorship that appeared in the experiences shared. Many felt strongly that mentors should not identify those they mentor, it is the role of the mentee to identify someone they want to grow with. In the stories shared, mentors were sometimes family members and teachers and mentorship relationships were sometimes formal and informal. Nearly every person identified that a mentor must be able to listen deeply. Mentorship, some said, is largely about self reflection and about constantly learning from our experiences and reactions. 

 

We left the event with so many more questions... What does it mean to be somebody? What role does this play in mentorship? How can we together heal and build the fabric of our community through shared ownership and shared vision? 

 

What is your story? In your opinion, what are the most important components of mentorship? If you joined the training what would you like to explore? Keep your eye out for the next mentorship storytelling event in January. You do not need to join the training to come to the story circles.

The Power of Listening

 

  











What If Listening Could Change the World?
 
Nicole Le Roux, co-founder of I Am Somebody!, is one of 20 young social entrepreneurs recently honored by YouthActionNet as 2012 Laureate Global Fellows.  This blog post was written for YouthActionNet.

I think every person has at least one family or personal silence, something that is just not spoken about. My silence is racism. I’m a 26-year-old white woman from South Africa and my family was directly and indirectly involved in upholding the system of dehumanization, segregation, and violence my people coined apartheid.

I have long been afraid that if I break the silence around my family’s experience I will hurt the people I love most. But what if our stories could change the world? What if the answer to the problems we face – the answer to violence, HIV/AIDS, poverty, war – was as simple as encouraging others to speak their truth, listening deeply to better understand, and finding our own truth in that understanding? 

I came to know the power of listening when I spent three weeks with my grandfather five years ago. I blamed him for being racist, a view I had confirmed when I found out he was a high court judge during apartheid. Right before visiting him, a friend of mine challenged me to listen to my grandfather, rather than argue. Although my grandfather said many things that I deeply disagreed with, and although I doubted my choice many times, I simply asked more questions and tried to listen harder.

During those many days of listening I found something I didn’t expect to find, I found love. I saw my grandfather as if for the first time – his soft comforting hands, the smile wrinkles around his eyes, the way he contemplated everything. I saw his fear of not being loved and how it upheld his worldview because it made it harder for him to be wrong, to be vulnerable, and to connect with other people. Every idea I had about him being different from me was shattered when I listened to his stories because I couldn’t blame him for what I also embodied. Fear had driven my own denial of how I had internalized racism and embodied my privilege. I realized that I have to confront that fear and the only way to do so is by breaking the silence.

My grandfather taught me that the cost of our fears is great. Fear maintains the status quo, drives crowd mentality, stifles creativity, upholds war, increases class disparity, and enables gender inequality that perpetuates the spread of HIV/AIDS. Fear defends privilege and silences the underprivileged. My grandfather also taught me that we are not our fear. Through seeing him, I realized that we are more beautiful, vast, complex, and valuable than we could ever dream.  

Several years after this experience, I co-founded I Am Somebody!, an organization that seeks to build a reconciled South Africa whose people have learned from and transformed their history.  We use storytelling and youth development to build resilient, reconciled, and integrated communities. Through several interconnected long-term programs, we create the space for diverse young people, their families, mentors, and friends to confront their challenges, to speak their stories, and to be witnessed.

Through telling stories about the challenges they face, participants in our programs and members of our community are able to see themselves more clearly and support one another. They do this across cultures and classes and the lines of division apartheid created based on skin color.

One example is a female participant in our Young Adult Rites of Passage Program, who dropped out of school to become a caregiver in her family while she was still a child herself. Many of her internal and external challenges stem from inequalities created by apartheid. She says that sharing her story has been like looking into a mirror and seeing herself and her situation from new angles. The reflection in that mirror has helped her to make important life changes and take ownership of her future.

Another one of our participants had been engaged in programs in other organizations but never felt safe enough to speak. For months in our program, he also avoided sharing openly but then something changed. He drew a picture of abuse and chose to tell his story. As he did so, he allowed himself to cry. Through that moment of speaking he began to confront his fear and to build the relationships he wanted in his life.

Individuals confronting their fears together can build reconciled communities. I am grateful to my grandfather for sharing himself with me and for teaching me about the beautiful and hard parts of myself. By listening deeply to others we can find more than compassion for them, we can find the gifts within our own silences. And if we then choose to speak, we can change the world.

 

   

Photos from October

Join our second Personal Sustainability Weekend!

Where: "Off-grid" Eco-friendly Forest Camp, Platbos Forest (click here & visit their site for photos)

Dates: 17-18 November 2012 

Time: Departing CT around 2pm on Friday and arriving back at 4pm on Sunday 

"Our vision for the weekend is to create the opportunity for people, particularly those 

working in the non profit sector, to continue to strengthen their personal sustainability 

through exchange with one another, building relationships, room for personal reflection, 

wilderness reconnection and rest."
 

Please RSVP to: 

nicci.leroux@gmail.com 

no later than Friday 9 Nov 2012

Here are some photos from our last sustainability weekend: 

What is your mentorship story? DATE & TIME CHANGE!

Please note that the date and time has been changed. 

The new date is:

Date: Saturday 24 November, 2012
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Novalis Ubuntu Institute 
39 Rosmead Avenue, Wyneberg 

We'd like to invite you to an evening of storytelling, delicious food and incredible people! The evening will also give you a chance to find out more about our mentorship rites of passage programme and how to get involved.

Please RSVP by 16 November to yesiamsomebody@gmail.com to book your spot.

Nicole le Roux, Co-Founder of I Am Somebody!, Honored as 2012 Laureate Global Fellow

Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA – Nicole le Roux, the co-founder and acting Director of I Am Somebody!, which uses storytelling and youth development to build integrated, reconciled and resilient communities, was among 20 outstanding young leaders from 16 countries honored as 2012 Laureate Global Fellows. The Fellowship is made possible through a partnership between the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation and the International Youth Foundation through its YouthActionNet® program.

Nicole le Roux was recognized on October 10 at a special ceremony held on the campus of Istanbul Bilgi University, a member of the Laureate International Universities network.

“We are delighted to welcome the 2012 Laureate Global Fellows into the YouthActionNet® community,” said IYF President and CEO William S. Reese. “We recognize that together these young social entrepreneurs can achieve far more than they ever could alone. The Sylvan/Laureate Foundation is playing an invaluable role in equipping young leaders—at the global and national level—with the knowledge, skills, and connections to each other that are so vital to achieve lasting change in their communities.

“The fellowship has better equipped me to work for our communities. I learned so much about myself, my style of leading, but also how to deepen my strengths in order to give even more to the work I feel so passionately about. It was incredible to spend time with young leaders who have followed their dreams and come up with inspiring solutions in different contexts, to share ideas, to develop collaborations and to make inspiring friends. The fellowship has already been an incredible opportunity for me to share some of the story of South Africa with people from around the world, the story of our challenges but also of our solutions.”

Founded in 2010 by Nicole le Roux and Toni Stuart, I Am Somebody! has started a network of 15 organizations that exchange resources, is running an 18-month Rites of Passage programme with 10 young adults from diverse communities, and has begun to build a network of support for these 10 young adults through storytelling events and workshops with over 400 individuals a year. Our work, while reaching many people, is not about the numbers but about the depth. We believe that listening can change the world. If people are witnessed for who they are, and supported to grow with people from diverse backgrounds, we can create the reconciled communities we dream of.

The Laureate Fellowship is open to young leaders, ages 18 to 29, who have founded or co-founded a social enterprise that has been in operation for a year or more. Fellows are selected by a panel of experts representing the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, along with the previous year’s winners. They benefit from leadership training, networking, advocacy, and funding opportunities and join a thriving global network of more than 650 young social entrepreneurs in 70+ countries.

To learn more about the 2012 Laureate Global Fellows, please visit: www.youthactionnet.org.

# # #

About I Am Somebody!
“I Am Somebody!,” uses the art of storytelling to build diverse communities committed to supporting the development of youth leaders. Its goal: to build a network of strong relationships among individuals and organizations that results in integrated solutions to young people’s needs. Through its Partner Exchange Program, I Am Somebody! facilitates the exchange of valuable resources and expertise among youth-serving nonprofit organizations. Its Community Building program consists of storytelling events and individual relationship building, while its Mentorship program provides critical training. These programs offer a network of support for young adults, ages 18-25, participating in its 18-month Rites of Passage program, a personal development initiative that encourages youth to address issues related to integration that affect their ability to achieve their goals.

To learn more, visit: www.iamsomebody.co.za
 

About YouthActionNet®

A program of the International Youth Foundation, YouthActionNet pursues a bold mission: to strengthen and scale up the impact of youth-led social ventures around the world. Through its local and global fellowship initiatives, YouthActionNet provides training, funding, advocacy, and networking opportunities to social entrepreneurs, ages 18 to 29, who have pioneered solutions to urgent global challenges. Joining us are universities, foundations, corporations, government agencies, and individuals – all united in their support young leaders whose innovations are changing the world – one community at a time. 

To learn more, visit: www.youthactionnet.org.

About the International Youth Foundation (IYF)

The International Youth Foundation (IYF) invests in the extraordinary potential of young people. Founded in 1990, IYF builds and maintains a worldwide community of businesses, governments, and civil-society organizations committed to empowering youth to be healthy, productive, and engaged citizens. IYF programs are catalysts of change that help young people obtain a quality education, gain employability skills, make healthy choices, and improve their communities.

To learn more, visit: www.iyfnet.org. 

About the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation
The Sylvan/Laureate Foundation is the company foundation of Laureate Education, Inc. Since 1997, the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation has provided more than $13 million in grants to 100 non-profit organizations. Its mission is to support best practices in training and education worldwide.

A member of the YouthActionNet® community, the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation sponsors the Laureate Global Fellows and is co-sponsor of YouthActionNet® programs at Laureate International Universities – the world’s largest network of private universities, comprised of more than 60 institutions of higher education in 29 countries and 740,000 students. YouthActionNet® programs are currently operating at Universidade Anhembi Morumbi (Brazil), Universidade Potiguar (Brazil), Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile), Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (Peru), Universidad Latina (Costa Rica), Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (Honduras), Universidad del Valle de México (Mexico), Universidad Europea de Madrid (Spain), and Istanbul Bilgi University (Turkey).

To learn more, visit: http://laureate.net.