“Say Something. Do Something.” And Other Lessons I Re-Learned Last Week!

By Suzanne Braun Levine

This is past weekend I experienced a powerful antidote to the gloom and doom that seem to have settled over current events: the company of inspiring and determined social entrepreneurs, who had gathered in Philadelphia (appropriately, given the reminders everywhere of the idealism and perseverance that it took to invent our Constitution) to share information and give fellow pioneers moral support.

Humans are social creatures…

First, was the National Village Gathering (“Your Voice. Your Vision. Your Village.”) where I spoke about the similarities between the movement to combat ageism and capture the talents and spirit of people over fifty, which has engaged my energies these days, and the women’s movement, which changed my life back then. Village to Village Network is a support and information exchange for groups who are developing innovative ways to enable people to “age in place” by coordinating community services and one another’s time and expertise in the their neighborhood.

We Want and Need to be of use to each other…

I loved the grassroots nature of this people-helping-people effort. Each “village” takes its shape from the needs and interests of the community; one focuses on developing a clearing house of vetted services that all members can call upon (sometimes at a discount). Another coordinates an exchange of capabilities and expertise – creating a reading group or a dispatch service of volunteer drivers who take their neighbors to and from important appointments. Still another is built around a local health care facility that offers integrated (including preventative) care. The driving vision behind all of these models is that humans are social creatures; we want and need to be of use to each other.

See Something. Do Something…

Two days later I attended the Civic Ventures Summit for this year’s Purpose Prize Winners. Civic Ventures is an organization devoted to changing the perception of people over fifty and helping those of us in that group to engage in worthy work. I am proud to be on the Board.

If you ever want to feel really good about what a single person can do to change the world, go to their website and read about the five years’ worth of winners. I got to meet several of the current and past winners at the Summit. The message from every one was an activist version of the Homeland Security admonition in the New York Subway: “If you see something, say something.” And then Do something.

It’s About Giving Back…

Inez Killingsworth looked around her Cleveland neighborhood and saw one house after another being boarded up in foreclosure. Her response, as she told us when she accepted her award, was simple: “It just isn’t right,” she said to herself and then to anyone who would listen and then to banks and lenders, some of whom she bullied to take a bus tour of the deserted neighborhoods their practices had created. In one year alone 8,000 Ohio families got better mortgage rates and were able to stay in their homes.

At breakfast the next day, I sat with David Campbell, founder of All Hands Volunteers and a past winner, who galvanized the whole table with his enthusiastic account of the wide-ranging relief efforts his group has organized. They began in New Orleans; now they are in Haiti.

“Everyone sleeps in a dorm; everyone does whatever work they are suited for; everyone stays as long as they can,” he told us. “No one gets paid – just room and board.” His team organizes the work assignments, coordinates the skills and needs, and trains the volunteers. Listening to him, I was humbled by his joyful optimism about the work and the human spirit and his stick-to-it-iveness in the face of unrelenting bad news.

How, I had to ask myself, could I let myself be discouraged by the nightly news? Spending time with people like David Campbell and Inez Killingsworth reminds me that social justice movements are not only about fighting back, but also about giving back.