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As cool breezes displace sweltering summer days, this Mississippian could not be happier. The weather gets so nice that I consider running on purpose—and not just because I’m late to catch a flight. It feels important to cherish the days of gentle forecasts. This month, Louisiana and much of the east coast were hit with serious hurricanes, and as is often the case, low-income disadvantaged communities suffered the most. I recently finished reading Stephen Markley’s Deluge (thanks, Sam), an analysis of community responses to fighting climate change that reads like what I imagine drinking water from a firehose feels like. Strong recommend. Markley’s writing re-centered for me how important local, community-based organizing is to brave the worst of crises. It’s what we’re working toward at Riverside, and I’m so excited to share what we’ve been up to this month.
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Cooperative entrepreneurship program
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We hosted two extremely good student entrepreneurship meetings this month. We’ve gotten into the habit of starting our sessions with improv exercises. It gets our students moving, talking, and comfortable speaking to a group of their peers. It’s a good way to feel less self-conscious or embarrassed because of our emphasis on creating a supportive, cooperative atmosphere. For our first class, students did an “on-the-spot shark tank” activity, recapped the role of power in our lives, talked about how to compellingly share Riverside’s story, and worked together to make a public “pitch” for Riverside. For the last activity, the students asked if they could all work together instead of in small groups. It went terribly. People were frustrated, not everyone was participating, and the final pitch was hastily put together. It was an important experience—working as a team is a learned skill.
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For our next session, we began with an explicit conversation about what it takes to work cooperatively. I asked students four questions: what do other people do in groups that frustrate you? What do you do in groups that frustrate other people? What structures can we put in place to avoid these frustrations? How do we hold each other accountable? The students were honest and introspective in an incredibly productive way. Afterward, we worked through some conflict-resolution problems via acting scenarios and did some independent work that involved filming videos and sharing stories about Riverside. We finished by creating an outreach plan and relevant media for our upcoming community meeting! Our student entrepreneurs are truly the best.
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Someone pinch me. Could it be? Does the Riverside building once again… have power? A huge thank you to Lori for being relentless for the past three months to get us reconnected. Now that we can comfortably host people in the space, we’re excited to announce we’ll be having a community meeting on November 2nd from 10am-noon at 3510 Terry Road! We’ll be showcasing the mural, have students speak, and get community feedback about how to make the space feel like a home away from home. Stay tuned for more updates 😊
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As always, thank you for being a part of our journey. We’re so glad you’re here. See you next month :)
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