Category: community

business, community, social change

Inspired: Addressing Domestic Emerging Markets

Christa Avampato
From The Upshot – does this picture show domestic emerging markets in orange?

Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about domestic emerging markets—areas of the country that have potential future opportunity but only a small amount of current prosperity. Though Detroit is the primary example used in many discussions on this topic, The Upshot highlighted some of the other lesser known domestic emerging markets when it studied the hardest places in the U.S. to live based on a selection of criteria including unemployment and obesity rates along with median income, education level, disability rate, and average lifespan. They include: Eastern Kentucky along with parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, and West Virginia.

When I consider how we could make an almost immediate and sustainable impact in these areas, my mind immediately turns to job creation. People in these areas need to have ways to earn income to get themselves out of their difficult financial situations. Venture for America is an interesting experiment placing young entrepreneurs with startups in areas such as New Orleans and Detroit. The Department of Commerce is also spending a lot of time studying these areas and potential ways to remedy their long struggles with a lack of opportunity.

But what about the middle ground? Startups and government can’t do this alone. These challenges are too complicated, extensive, and pressing. I’d like to see mid-size and large companies also jump in and make investments in these areas. And maybe that’s where some of my future work lies—jumpstarting structured businesses with resources, talent, and tested know-how to set up shop in geographic areas that have potential and need our attention.

 

 

 

commitment, community, creativity, learning

Inspired: Boston, We’re With You

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Life’s ups and downs are unpredictable and difficult to understand in the moment. We’ve got to learn from our hardships and create solutions so others don’t encounter the same obstacles. Many hands (and hearts and minds) lighten the load, and goodness knows the load of life is H-E-A-V-Y. Let’s carry it together. Boston, we are with you.

art, change, community, theatre

Inspired: Casting Sing After Storms and the Impact of Community-Created Art

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Yesterday we had our first round of casting for my play Sing After Storms. I continue to be astonished by the immense talent in this city. I feel like so much of it is locked up, waiting for its turn to be seen and heard. I want to find a way to free it, to give it the space and opportunity to let it unfurl, experiment, and take risks in the pursuit of creating something that affects hearts, minds, and souls on a massive scale. It is such a privilege to see this raw truth up close and personal, to have a hand in crafting its path. We’ll find a way to scale this effort, to bring more people into the fold and give them a way to make significant contributions through the work they love to do. Sing After Storms is just the first step in a much longer journey.

Christmas, community, compassion

Beautiful: On the Second Day of Christmas, Let There Be More Compassion

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

“It is only with true love and compassion that we can begin to mend what is broken in the world.” ~ Dr. Steve Maraboli

When I posted my first day of Christmas wish (love), my friend, Lorenzo, said he wished to see more compassion in the world. On the second day of Christmas, I make this same wish. Let there be more compassion in the world. Compassion for ourselves and others, which will lead us to love, as Lorenzo so beautifully said.

Sometimes we are too quick to judge and blame others. We beat ourselves up over mistakes and mishaps – I am the queen of this. We aren’t perfect, and neither is life. It’s messy and complicated, as are we. We have only just so much information, about our experience, the experience of others, and the ways in which the world works. Compassion is a way to bridge the gap, a way to say, “I don’t understand and still I choose to be curious, to put my own opinions aside and see things from a different vantage point.”

This post is part of the “Let there be…” consecutive series of Christmas wishes. 

business, charity, community, finance, investing

Beautiful: Today I’m Live Tweeting High Water Women’s Investing for Impact Conference

Christa Avampato

Today I’ll be live tweeting High Water Women‘s Investing for Impact Conference. With an incredibly impressive line up of speakers from the investment, nonprofit, and NGO worlds, the conference will cover the triumphs and challenges of financial investing that is focused on making a positive impact on society.

High Water Women empowers women and youth in need by creating powerful volunteer opportunities that leverage the talents and aspirations of professional women. They focus their work in 3 main areas:
– Enriched education for at-risk youth
– Relieving the impact of family poverty
– Economic empowerment for women

You can follow the day via my Twitter feed, @christanyc, or through the High Water Women Twitter feed, @HighWaterWomen. The hashtag for the event is #HWW2013. I hope you’ll chime in, ask questions, and connect with others on this topic. I look forward to the conversation!

community, time

Beautiful: Entrepreneurs Must Protect Their Time

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

There is no end to the number of good causes that can benefit from your time and expertise. In the past, I’ve had a tendency to volunteer my time too freely to community-based projects. When I started my own business, I discovered the true value of my time. I am a big believer in good causes, and it took me time to realize that I must be selective and careful in how I choose to engage.

Pam Slim, one of my mentors and inspirations in building a freelance life, cautions her readers about this in her book Escape from Cubicle Nation. As ambitious, driven people, we know how much of an impact we can make, especially when it comes to good causes in our communities. It’s important to feel connected to missions that make us feel alive. It’s equally important to make sure that we have the reserves to give ourselves to the ideas that matter most to us. To do that, we need to treat our time as irreplaceable. After all, it is.

community, strengths

Beautiful: We’re Stronger Together

Christa Avampato

The strong path is built by many hands and hearts. I’m all for independence – goodness knows I’m the poster child for carving an individual path! – though I almost always have help and support from someone or something. Sometimes a friend or teacher, other times my own yoga and meditation practice, and still other times from inspiring stories I’ve read and heard. To say I’ve ever done anything solely on my own would be a lie. There was always a union of some kind, every step of the way.

At SXSW V2V, I listened to Steve Case’s keynote (I’ll be writing more about that shortly) and he recited an African proverb that has informed much of his career – “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” My intent is to go far – to see more, experience more, be more, do more. And I can’t do that alone. It’s got to be a group effort.

Want to join my tribe and go far? Sign up to receive my inspiring monthly newsletter by clicking here.

choices, community, courage, imagination, opportunity

Beautiful: Be an Opener of Doors

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“Be an opener of doors.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love to open doors, for myself and others. It’s what I do in my teaching, writing, and consulting. I work hard to help others find new opportunities within themselves and in the world around them. Every day I tunnel into my imagination and discover new ways of seeing, new ways of doing, and new ways of being. Sharing these insights with others is a great honor.

I’m a firm believer in opening the doors that scare us most. What lies behind them are circumstances that will become our greatest teachers. As we open doors, we open our hearts. And as we open our hearts, we find that we are more full of compassion, understanding, and kindness than we ever thought possible. Once we open up to the world within, we can be in communion with the world around us.

Let’s plug in to what really matters. Let’s get connected.

community, meditation

Beautiful: Meditate for a Better World

Christa Avampato

I am certain that if every person on the planet learned to meditate and practiced daily for 5 minutes, we’d have a better world in no time. We’d have more joy, peace, and compassion. We’d have less fear, violence, and instability. If we could all sit and tap in, we’d find that we are so much more connected than we ever realized.

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community, creativity, social change, society, technology

Beautiful: Robots Set to Become Important Members of Our Communities

Christa Avampato
Say hello to NAO

Last week I watched the movie Robot & Frank. The movie follows the story of Frank, an aging, slightly-reformed thief who is facing dementia-like symptoms. Divorced with adult children who have busy lives of their own, Frank (portrayed brilliantly and powerfully by actor Frank Langella) fights against being moved to a nursing facility. Though the movie takes place in the not-too-distant future, several significant leaps in technology have been made. One of these leaps involves creating robots who serve as caretakers to the aging. Frank’s son buys him one of these skilled-care robots and so begins Frank’s sweet, bizarre, and tangled friendship with his robot who records Frank’s every move, including his return to crime.

Think it’s far-fetched for robots to play the critical role of senior caretaker? Think again.

Earlier this week, Fast Company ran an article about the NAO humanoid robot. Though invented about 5 years ago, it is now available commercially and helps autistic children in schools. Why has a robot proven effective with autistic children? Interaction with other people is a key challenge for many people, adults and children, who have autism. Because robots have predictable behaviors (after all, we program them and they can only do what we tell them to do) and offer far less stimuli during interactions than humans, people with autism can relate well to them.

The days of personal robots are quickly moving from the dreams of science fiction writers to members of our society. With the collaborative vision and determination of programmers, designers, and product developers, they may well be the  critical component to solving some of the greatest social challenges in our society. To take a peek at videos of the NAO humanoid robot at work, click here.