Virtues Aotearoa
April 2003
Newsletter for Virtues Project New Zealand Volume 7 Issue 3
Contents
South
Pacific Mentorship Conference
Using Virtues Project concepts to change attitudes
in unemployed youth
International perspectives
Starting
Virtues Connections
Facilitator Exchange
From the desk of Virtues Project New Zealand
Videos for hire
Field work component for Facilitators
Registered
Facilitators
News from around New Zealand and the Pacific
Workshops and
Conferences
“Crystallizing
Where We Are Going”
South Pacific
Mentorship Conference
photograph of an ice crystal
formed with water that has resonated to prayer
Mentorship
this year was splendid with time for everyone to share what they have been
doing, time to discuss everyone’s needs, time to set some goals and action
steps, time for playing, dancing, walking on the beach, reflecting, listening,
and caring for each other! Through this bounty of time, we were able to
crystallize new meanings and new endeavours. Everyone went away with a plan in
hand for the coming year as well as with new friends in their hearts.
Our numbers
this year were very small—probably due to several reasons– we were in
Wellington, not Auckland, so we were lean on the Upper North Island crowd; our
dates were at the end of February and while we were hoping this might attract
more teachers, this didn’t eventuate and we found the dates were too close to
the beginning of the new business year to be comfortable even for those who
came; and some of our stalwart Mentorship participants had attended the second
Soulful Life Retreat in Christchurch in January and didn’t have enough money
budgeted for a second round of Virtues this year.
So Teachable
Moments all around. We’ve booked Vaughan Park Retreat Centre for the next two
years over Auckland Anniversary weekend (check the Workshops and Conferences
Page for details).
Eleven souls
came together for this special time and we did some great work together. We had
three people from overseas, Donna Wheatcroft from Alberta, Canada, Shidan Toloui-Wallace
from Brisbane, Australia, and Easuary Deamer from Vanuatu. Rose Cotter from
Levin, Yvonne DeMille from Lower Hutt, Sam Te Tau from Masterton, and Angevahn
from Taranaki joined the VPNZ team of Radha, Kay, Lynne, Beth and Paddy in
welcoming our overseas visitors.
We began on
Friday morning with sharing what we hoped to learn, what we brought to share and
identifying our biggest challenge in working with The Virtues Project. Then we
created our schedule for the weekend, so that everyone had a time to be able to
share an activity, an exercise, or a project. This allowed all of us to try out
new approaches and to get consultation from the group.
Radha gave
us a short presentation from UCA which included a gift of new Virtues Wallet
Cards for everyone.
Lynne Klap
shared some Universal Movement with us. These were dance movements from
different cultures; Lynne very effectively used Radha’s new Dance CD for the
music. One of the movements had us making a bird, fish and river with our
hands, reflecting the feeling of life flowing toward the Creator. All of the
movements seemed to fill us with a sense of joyfulness, and a connection with
Soul.
Donna
Wheatcroft shared an activity that she recently created for a half-hour
presentation about Virtues with parents AND children. A Virtues Pick is done
with the whole group. Then each person was given a piece of string and reflected
how the strength of the string was due to the many fibers that twisted together.
Donna pointed out that when you practice one virtue many others are strengthened
as well. She had everyone look for Virtues in each other and themselves and
then tie a knot in the piece of string. Then she encouraged everyone to take
their string home and tie another knot every time they practiced the Virtue from
their Virtues Pick. After a month (or 21 times) they would have built a new
habit of practicing that Virtue.
Kay Miller
shared several ways of doing Virtues Picks. She keeps three packs of cards
going-one at work, one in the lounge for day to day guidance and a pack in her
sacred area. Sacred Pack Pick -Take a pack that you've been using, give it a
thorough shuffle, then ask one of your children to stack the cards back into a
pack. Take the top card each day, working your way through the pack. 'I love the
way the children's stacking influences my day.' At last year's mentorship, Kay
gathered beach stones and Ted wrote Virtues on one side of them in permanent
marker. We used these as Virtues picks in a variety of ways that were creative,
beautiful and surprising throughout the conference. This year each person
gathered a shell when we were kite flying on Seatoun beach and a Virtue was
written on each one. These became a farewell Virtues Pick at the end of the
mentorship.
One of the
challenges that people identified was taking the Virtues into their community,
so we agreed to use one community as an example—we chose Vanuatu– and then we
spent some time identifying what issues were involved and creating strategies to
meet this challenge. Everyone was able to extrapolate how these strategies
would work in their own situations. We worked through how to focus your
training plan around the needs of the community and discussed obtaining and
creating resources, budgeting and sustainability.
This
discussion inevitably flowed into further discussion about the Virtues Project
New Zealand Development framework, about facilitator registration and trainer
application, and building Virtues Connections. There was much discussion and
agreement about the need for people to be open to mentoring should they choose
to go on to be a facilitator.
Yvonne
DeMille taught us all how to make kites– we put Virtues on them to sail our
hopes for the world out on the wind– and then we went down to the beach and got
them up in the air! Totally delightful!
Yvonne also
guided us through a process of Goal Setting. She pointed out that Goal Setting
has the benefits of being less stressed—it helps get the ‘white noise’ out of
your head and it helps you get what you want.
The first
part was defining the objective—we all decided that our objective for this
exercise was: to Build a Virtues community—so our Goal statement was:
We are a
team of people passionate about The Virtues Project, committed to successfully
to promote, support, network and fund Virtues Project actions in our community
by August 1, 2003.
Goals need
to be Positive, Personal, Present. We need to start at the end, and work our way
to the beginning looking at places on the way that are obstacles. A stated goal
is SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable (can be done by someone), Realistic
(I can do it), and Tangible. Refer to the goal constantly. It is a touchstone
for every step along the way.
We decided
that these were the obstacles to our Goal:
Then we
looked at Action steps to overcome these obstacles:
-
look
at existing data bases of people in work
-
establish a phone tree (last person phone first for check)
-
phone
people from a scripted outline stating the job descriptions (include roles
and tasks) and ask them to bring ideas.
-
organize meeting - venue, time, purpose, leader, and agenda stating the
goals and tasks.
We did a
spirit walk on a Wellington rocky shore beach at sunset, came back and after a
suggestion from Sam Te Tau we washed our feet then gave each other a foot
massage to more delightful music from Radha’s Touch music CD.
The next
day, Beth outlined what the Virtues Action Learning Programme is and then
Angevahn shared her journey of doing projects for Virtues Action Learning. This
was a powerful presentation because it was clearly about transformation of
character—the new approaches that Angevahn learned while she was carrying out
her experiments in giving Virtues presentations. One helpful idea that Angevahn
created was a Virtues suitcase– she carefully has collected all the materials
that she may need for a presentation and has packed it into a well-organised bag
that has wheels. She developed her presentation in PowerPoint format, printed
it out and has it in clear files in a notebook. Angevahn says her experiment in
developing Orderliness led to a deeper understanding of Trust and
Trustworthiness.
Shidan
shared with everyone a project that she is working on to systematically teach
young immigrants to Australia about the knowledge and application of a few
specific virtues that contribute in positive and constructive ways to a
harmonious Australian society. The group was able to give her feedback about her
lesson plans, help to discuss how to price the proposal and to align the
objectives of the plan to the Virtues.
A poster of
our hands had been created by Yvonne during the conference and this was given to
Donna to take to the Global Mentorship conference in Victoria.
Special
thanks went to Radha for the music that she provided throughout the
conference—both on CD and live! It seemed she always had the right song at the
right time.
“MIRACLES COME FROM
A PLACE
OF TRUTH
ABOUT
ONE'S REALITY”
Angevahn
Using Virtues Project Concepts to Change Attitudes in Unemployed Youth
By Sheldon
Ramer
I am a
Counsellor at Lyttelton Health Centre. Lyttelton is the original entry in
Christchurch and, like any port town, can be a little rough. In 1999 the town
centre was controlled by a bunch of out-of-work youth, generally drunk, whose
history of growing up is best told by the Social Workers that were involved with
their families. An organisation called Work Peninsula was created, by local
industry and WINZ, to help alleviate the chronic unemployment suffered by the
young people of the town.
This is
where I come in – armed with Virtues Project material and unbridled enthusiasm.
Amanda, the Manager of Work Peninsula and I devised a plan by which I would be
the “change agent” and, by changing their vision of themselves, these young
people would be ready to seek work – which the Manager would then arrange.
Ten
participants were selected for the course, which lasted a week – four days with
me, and the last day with Amanda learning about CVs and interviews. We began
the first day by breaking down communication barriers and creating a sense of
‘team’ –
Amanda,
myself and them – all looking for the same outcome. The next step was to
introduce the concept of virtues and how they experience virtues in every phase
of their lives, including the ‘bad’ ones. Various exercises were then
introduced
including Interactive Introductions, Shaming to Naming and, most importantly,
the Virtues Picks. The final phase was to discuss, in the light of their newly
discovered personal core virtues, the possibilities of doing something
meaningful with their lives. (My favourite was Jimmi, the potential Mafia hit
man who decided to join the SAS and save the country!)
Once their
‘meaning’ was established, the next step was to discuss the possibility of
getting a job in the meantime. This would give them independence, a way to
practice their newly-found virtue of being excellent and, most importantly, it
was only the first step toward their goal. Previ-ously, getting a menial job
defined them as inferior and, if they failed, it would be the ‘end of the
road’. Now, they had no fear of attempting to find work because the job did not
define them. If they did not succeed, they were not ‘failures’. They could try
again.
Nine out of
ten were employed by the end of the course – the tenth needed personal
counselling to go further. In addition, one of them ran for the local Community
Board and got elected! The others banded together to form a local youth club,
so that there was a place other than the street to hang out.
I know that
using the material and philosophy of The Virtues Project made this happen.
After all, others have attempted to reach and motivate these kids, but with
little success.
With this
unusually successful result, I took the programme to WINZ and, since then I have
run three week-long workshops for their Christchurch youth division, known as
ActionWorks.
I
n t e r n a t I o n a l P e r s p e c t i v e s
Starting Virtues Connections
The
continuing growth and development of The Virtues Project throughout the world is
dependent on the efforts of YOU– the Virtues enthusiasts of whatever locality
you represent. VPI is encouraging people to form Virtues Connections
everywhere. Virtues Connections can take lots of different forms and do lots of
different things. They can be mainly support groups with people meeting to do
Virtues Picks, to share their efforts and stories about using Virtues in the
home. They can also be groups who are interested in promoting Virtues to
schools and communities. They can be groups of facilitators who want to work
together and support each others’ efforts. Or they can become regional bodies
working with facilitators, trainers, and other enthusiasts to provide promotion
of The Virtues Project, networking, support, translations, and development of
new materials useful for your specific region. No matter which sort of
Connection you would like to start, the first thing you need to find is a group
of committed people. Here in New Zealand VPNZ can try to provide you with a
list of people who at one time or another have contacted The Virtues Project and
might like to be involved in a Connection. VPI may be able to assist in this
way for other places in the world.
The next
thing that needs to happen is inviting people to a meeting, talking about the
benefits of The Virtues Project and discussing what sort of needs people have
and what sorts of things they would like to see happening with Virtues and then
what sort of commitment people would like to make towards creating a Virtues
Connection.
If you do
form a Virtues Connection, be sure to let VPNZ know so we can advertise your
contact details as well as any events or workshops that you might sponsor!
Outside of NZ, VPI is also interested to know about you –let them know by
contacting– info@virtuesproject.com
Facilitator Exchange
Did you know
that you can participate in interesting dialogue with other Virtues facilitators
around the world? Get advice about different approaches to different groups?
Share helpful activities and ideas?
If you have
taken facilitator training, you can join the exchange by registering with vpf@incentre.net.
Just tell them that you would like to subscribe and be part of the Virtues
Facilitator Exchange.
Then
everything that is sent to the exchange will appear in your email inbox and you
can respond to it if you wish, and be part of the dialogue.
From the Desk of Virtues
Project New Zealand
Videos for Hire
We now own
the entire set of the Family Series and the Teen Series of Virtues Project
Videos from Canada. Those who are involved at the Field work level can hire
them for only the cost of shipment: $5 to send and $5 return. Otherwise they
may be hired at a cost of $20 per video or $30 for three. You may keep the
videos for two weeks to view them. The fee helps us to maintain the videos in
good order and helps pay for them to be replaced as necessary. Each video costs
us about $100 to replace. If you wish to hire them, please contact Kay Miller:
kay.miller@publictrust.
Field Work Component for
Facilitators
In order to
more purposefully support the development of new facilitators, Virtues Project
NZ is recommending that new facilitators complete a certain number of hours of
field work under the mentorship of VPNZ. This involves the new facilitator
informing VPNZ about workshops they are running, how they resulted, successes
and problem areas. VPNZ provides mentoring advice by phone or email. Evaluation
sheets are sent to VPNZ. This also provides VPNZ with a measurable way to
recommend and refer new facilitators. Contact Beth Lew to get your field work
report forms and more information about the programme.
Registered Facilitators
Those who
have registered already are: Angevahn, Marion Bower, Joanne Connor, Rose
Cotter, Larnie Crompton, Sharlene Davis, Yvonne DeMille, Janet Dixon, Nancy
Fulford, Angela Hamilton, Denise Hobo-Tuck, Lynne Klap, Rosanne Kuiti, Lindi
Pelkowitz, Ted Proffitt, Ellen and Sheldon Ramer, Sonja Simpson, Ngaire Shorter,
Donna Smith, Sam Te Tau, and Jennifer Wright. Licensed Trainers in New Zealand
are Beth Lew and Gilbert Paki.
Help us
create a database of our active facilitators. Send us some information about
your interests and areas of experience so we can match you up with organisations
that are interested in training. Also let us know what your time constraints
are and how available you are for travelling outside your area.
News from around New
Zealand and the Pacific
Wellington– Recently Beth Lew developed a parenting
programme for refugees for the Multicultural Centre. Called Parenting
Adolescents the programme is focused on bi-cultural needs and issues. Beth
worked with 11 leaders from several refugee communities who were comfortable
working in English. These leaders will deliver the workshop to their own
communities in their own language and will be paid for this work by the
Multicultural Centre. From many countries in Africa and the Middle East and
representing Muslim and Christian Faiths, the leaders delighted in sharing
traditional foods during the breaks and sharing quotes from their scriptures and
traditional stories and allegories from their own cultures that illustrated the
principals of The Virtues Project. They were well-versed in the issues facing
refugee parents– teens who are rejecting the values, the language, and the
customs of the home country, who are struggling to get an education, to learn
English, to be accepted by their peers, and they challenged Beth to show them
how Virtues could make a difference with their children. Beth used lots of
role-plays and companioning to demonstrate how this difference could happen.
The
programme offers six sessions called: The Power of Positive Language; Adolescent
Development/ Identifying the Signs of Trauma; Parenting a Bi-Cultural Youth;
Parenting Styles; Teaching Responsibility; Building Strong Relationships. The
strategies of The Virtues Project are incorporated within each of the sessions.
Vanuatu–
Easuary Deamer has been making presentations to community groups. In March she
met with 13 members of the Vanuatu Handicap Society, the Disabled Peoples
Association and The Vandy Sports (for disabled peoples) and gave a one and a
half hour presentation. The group enjoyed the presentation and is discussing
having regular workshops. Easuary then did a 45 minute presentation in April
for Vanuatu Association for Women Graduates. The participants were thrilled
with the presentation, each took home the Virtues Card they picked, and are
hoping to have workshops for themselves and family members
Workshops and Conferences
Mark your Calendars
Mentorship
Conference 2004
January 23-25
Vaughan Park Retreat Centre
Long
Bay, Auckland
Register through Lynne Klap at lynne@sportsimpact.co.nz
For those
who have attended a Virtues Project two or three day Intensive
Intensive Trainings 2003
IN WELLINGTON
|
May 9-11, 2003
(Fri/Sat/Sun)
|
Deepening the Virtues
Within-3
day intensive (Required training to become facilitator of
Virtues Project
workshops) $250
Licensed Trainer: Beth
Lew |
|
June 20-23 2003
(Fri/Sat/Sun)
|
Virtues Action Learning
Programme,
Riverslea Lodge in Otaki
$250
Facilitator: Beth Lew |
|
August 8-10, 2003
(Fri/Sat/Sun)
|
Facilitator Skills
Explore facilitation
skills with Virtues, discuss promotion, development, practice
presentation and spiritual
companioning $160
Facilitator: Beth Lew
|
|
October 10-11
(Fri/Sat) |
Awakening the Virtues
Within
2 day introductory
intensive
prerequisite for
facilitator training $160
Facilitator: Beth Lew |
|
Nov 1-3, 2002
(Fri/Sat/Sun)
|
Deepening the Virtues
Within-3
day intensive, (Required training to become facilitator of
Virtues Project
workshops) $250
Licensed Trainer: Beth
Lew |
Canterbury Virtues Trust
Events for 2003
|
MAY 7
(Wednesday) |
Staff Training at Discovery School, Christchurch |
|
MAY 12
(Monday) |
Staff Training at Mayfield Primary School,
Ashburton |
|
MAY 13
(Tuesday) |
Mayfield Parents Workshop |
|
MAY 19
(Monday) |
Staff Training at St Michael’s Primary School,
Christchurch |
|
MAY 27
(Tuesday) |
Karanga Mai Young Parents Workshop,
Kaiapoi |
|
JULY 17/18
(Thurs/Fri) |
Simple Ways to Create a Culture of Character in our Schools
– Two-day
intensive educators’ workshop facilitated by Beth Lew, Virtues Project
Facilitator,
Trainer and teacher from the Wellington area. $160 – venue to be
announced |
|
AUG 29-31
(Fri/Sat/Sun) |
Spiritual Companioning, Couples Retreat
in beautiful Purau Bay.
This is a convenient get-away with time to relax in your own private
holiday home. Workshops include life-changing, virtue-inspired
relationship skills. Limited to 4 couples at $345 per couple. Send a
deposit of $50 to hold a space. |
|
SEPT 5-7
(Fri/Sat/Sun) |
Ka Taoka Tapu a o Matua Tipuna
(The Sacred Treasures of
our Ancestors) at Rapaki Marae in Lyttelton Harbour, facilitated by
Sheldon Ramer and Tahu Stirling. This special event begins
with dinner at 6 PM on the 5th and ends after lunch on the 7th.
$295 per person, all meals included |
|
OCT 11/12
(Sat/Sun) |
Awakening the Virtues Within,
a workshop for
parents, teachers, care-givers, and community workers, in
Christchurch. An overview of Virtues Project applications, including
personal development. A great “refresher” course, and prerequisite for
facilitator training - $195. |
|
NOV 15
(Saturday) |
Canterbury Virtues Trust Peer Mentoring
– Here’s something for
everyone who has participated in at least one full day of Virtues
training. At Purau Bay (hoping for a fine day), bring the family along,
come for morning tea and then a shared lunch. Lots of
Virtues activity. (Please register your interest on this, so we can
plan ahead for a day full of joyfulness and creativity!) |
|
JAN 3-5 2004
(Fri/Sat/Sun) |
A
Soul Full Life Retreat
with Virtues Project Founders, Linda and Dan Popov. Venue to be
announced. Experiential in nature, these three days present an overview
of Soul Centred Development and its implications in our lives. A real
treat! |
Unless otherwise specified,
all Canterbury Virtues Trust workshops are facilitated by Ellen & Sheldon Ramer.
If you would like to
arrange a special event for your group, or receive a brochure or more
information regarding any of the above programmes ring Ellen at 03 329 4380 or
email
virtues@xtra.co.nz
Please
let us know if you would like your workshops advertised in this space!
Contact Details:
Virtues NZ
Beth Lew
89 Wellington
Road, Paekakariki
04-905-8190
FAX:04-905-8150
virtues@paradise.net.nz
Or
Lynne Klap
226 Evans Bay
Parade
Wellington
04-386-4992
Lynne@sportsimpact.nz