I’m not too big on mixing my professional life into this space, but I had a good time writing the letter below, and for that reason alone it’s worth the post. For the millions of my readers out there, know that I am deeply grateful to the nation-wide team at City Year that made City Year Louisiana happen.
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Dear Friends,
As you listen to the deluge of media coverage on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, note the superlatives: the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history…the largest evacuation of an American city…the fastest storm winds ever measured… Clearly, merely fathoming a cataclysm like Hurricane Katrina was nothing more than an unthinkable nightmare just over a year ago; we simply had never experienced anything like it before.
Also just over a year ago, building City Year’s sixteenth domestic site in FY06 was similarly unthinkable, though not nearly as surreal or terrible a concept. Even more unthinkable was that the sixteenth site would, in fact, be here in Louisiana. A long-held aspiration of our beloved Board Chair and City Year Co-Founder Jennifer Eplett Reilly, City Year Louisiana was supposed to show up a few years from now, as our 19th or 20-something-eth site. But the 16th site? Now?!
Stranger things have happened.
You all know what has transpired in the intervening year since August 29, 2006. You have read the newspaper, watched television, spoken to loved ones, come to visit (the lucky ones stayed at furniture-free Casa de Flood), been on start-up conference calls, produced a new recruitment video, received our friendly monthly bulletins, written and rewritten proposals, read emails from some of our finest alumni over Memorial Day weekend, and wondered why I haven’t faxed you forms for __________ yet.
You were all to some extent involved in one of the most remarkable start-ups at City Year. As Jennie says, City Year Louisiana has been a “dream come true in the wake of a nightmare.” Each of you should feel proud that you have been a part of the solution to one of the worst national disasters in living memory and know that this site and the people of Louisiana are forever in your debt. Thank you.
As always, our efforts are not done yet, and this year we renew our efforts to “found it right” while also having tons of fun! Please take a moment to review three propositions below from City Year Louisiana: one commitment, one challenge, and one crazy idea! Your feedback is always welcome. We look forward to seeing you all soon and serving together as we build one network, one movement, and one beloved community together.
Yours in Service,
Chris Flood & Sheila Barfield
Co-Executive Directors
City Year Louisiana
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Three Minor Propositions from City Year Louisiana
As City Year Louisiana enters into its first full year of service, we take a moment to remind ourselves that one of the many miracles in the founding of this site was the visionary commitment and generosity of our supporters and champions. Without them, we would not have been able to sustaining a full site long-term and would have been forced to close our doors by now, nothing more than a short-term emergency response to a calamity that will sadly affect this region and our country for decades to come. As the seventeenth site in the network, City Year Louisiana has three minor propositions: one commitment, one challenge, and one crazy idea, relayed (not necessarily in that order) below.
One Network: Seven Generations
City Year Louisiana is proud to be the seventeenth City Year site and part of one organization, one network, one family. However, every family has generations, and we always strive to consider the impact of our actions upon those who come at least seven generations from now. As we construe our five-year strategic plan, construct amazing new programs for Civic Leadership and Whole School Whole Child, and watch our own children enter into City Year’s ever-evolving Heroes Continuum, we must ask ourselves: when will City Year’s second generation arrive? We at City Year Louisiana believe we have the answer.
Eighteen years separated the original Star Trek from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Is it merely a coincidence that eighteen years separate the founding of City Year and City Year Louisiana’s first full year of service? Is City Year Louisiana’s space-age telephony technology from Cisco Systems just a one-time gift to disaster-affected state or a sign of great things to come for our whole organization? Is it happenstance that Kyle Wedberg possesses an uncanny resemblance to Commander Riker?
Of course not! We of the bayou country commit ourselves to City Year: The Next Generation by being on the cutting edge of City Year’s innovations—Civic Leadership, Whole School Whole Child, Heroes Continuum—and are more than willing to experiment with and pilot ideas for the network before they are fully SAILed. We have already engaged Michelle Regan, Rob Gordon, Jessica Greenfield, and others in starting this conversation, and we request that you keep us in mind as we standardize, align, integrate, and leverage everything we do.
One Movement: Resolution on the Concept of National Service
Each year, every high school student involved in policy debate under the auspices of the National Forensics League engages in ten months of lively debate, intense spewing forth of a vast array arguments over a universal “resolution” selected for that year. This year, that resolution is as follows:
“The United States federal government should establish a policy substantially increasing the number of persons serving in one or more of the following national service programs: AmeriCorps, Citizen Corps, Senior Corps, Peace Corps, Learn and Serve America, Armed Forces.”
In order to fully engage these thoughtful youngsters, leverage the opportunity this year’s resolution presents, and steal back some sense of diminishing youth, Kyle Wedberg and Chris Flood challenge the winners of Policy Debate at the 2007 NFL National Tournament to a debate on the topic of national service at cyzygy in June. City Year Louisiana has challenged its board to come up with the funding for this showdown, and we hope that we as an organization can commit to incorporating it into the cyzygy calendar so we can submit this challenge to the NFL as soon as possible.
One Beloved Community: Joining Our Brothers & Sisters from South Africa at cyzygy ‘07
Little has been more inspiring for us in Louisiana than interacting with our brothers and sisters from South Africa at cyzygy ‘06 in New York City. We only wished we had been able to meet more of them.
However, City Year is where we aspire to make wishes come true, so it was not long before we were coming up with ways to make this vision a reality. In Louisiana, we will be challenging our corps and our board to each raise the funding to send one Service Leader each from South Africa to cyzygy ’07. What would it look like if the whole network did this?
- 32 South Africans would be fully funded to join the rest of us in New Hampshire, a place no native of Johannesburg should ever miss!
- Each domestic site could forge a relationship with a sister team in South Africa, creating a sense of year-long integration and brotherhood.
- Every board would be invested in having a face to attach to the vision of preparing for international expansion over the next five years.
Would it be so crazy for every site’s corps and board to find the funding for Service Leaders from South Africa to make the trip to cyzygy ‘07? We don’t think so, though we think Gnarls Barkley will probably still be playing the theme song for this idea when it comes to fruition.
We welcome your thoughts on these propositions, and we are so proud to be a part of this network, movement, and beloved community.
