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United Initiatives for Peace, Part II

May 7, 2012 / Kelly / No comments

Diesa Seidel, Founding Director of United Initiatives for Peace

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of interviewing Diesa Seidel, the founding director of United Initiatives for Peace, a global non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the lives of girls and women by promoting higher education, offering creative recreational programs, and encouraging grassroots social reform.

We talked for about an hour, so I’ve broken the interview into three posts. Part 1 describes four of her five programs, Part 2 is about the fifth program, and in Part 3 Diesa talks about what she’s learned about starting and running a non-profit organization.

Aside from removing discourse particles and some of the content, these posts are largely transcriptions of my recording of the interview.

Girls’ Reform through Artistic Creative Empowerment

KELLY: So how did you develop the curriculum for the G.R.A.C.E. program?

DIESA: It just kind of unfolded. And I think it’s constantly being revised and changing to this day. And from community to community as well.

One of the main things is having them identify issues in their communities that they want to change. And just because they’re 15 doesn’t mean they can’t make a difference. So not waiting until they’re 45 to feel like they can be a leader, understanding what they’re capable of doing now, and then three years from now, and then forever more.

So what we do is we have them identify things they want to change, and then we create an action plan for that. Okay, well what’s step one? Who’s going to be involved? Who do we need help with, what supplies do we need, how much is it going to cost? How can we raise the money?

So we have it all outlined for them as an action plan so they understand once you have an idea that’s the first step and then how do you implement that idea, that’s what makes things effective. Just so they have that understanding of how to become their own community organizer.

KELLY: So they can do it after you’re gone.

DIESA: Exactly. So that’s part of the program. And then, of course we’re there, so we’re there to be their sponsors, and also explain to them you’re not always going to have us to be your free ticket, to buy your supplies or to help you organize it, so who else can you go to with your ideas and to get it done and get it funded.

‘Cause sometimes all it takes is volunteers, you don’t need any money. Or everyone can contribute something. And just as far as getting sponsors and asking people to offer their, their professional services, whether they’re a carpenter, or they own a store that owns something you need for your project to have them be a sponsor because it’s for the community. And just, you know, how to approach people like that. So then once they identify what they want to do, how they’re going to do it, and then we actually do the service project together.

So, in Nepal, one of the groups, they wanted to paint like their playground wall. It was just like this really gray, grim brick wall. So they just painted it all different colors so it just looked beautiful. And they all pretty much agreed on that right away.

And then the other group wanted to do some beautification projects on their school grounds, so we did like a whole garbage clean-up, and planted flowers. Those were the main things. And then just understanding, like, okay that’s great. We can get volunteers and we can pick up garbage, but how can we prevent the garbage from building up? And then just being aware of their actions and how it affects the environment and their community. It’s one thing to make sure that we don’t litter, but how we can encourage others to realize the damages that litter causes, and just visually.

And then I go through the 30 human rights and how they were created and what each one means and realizing that everyone has human rights and this is what they are and what each one means. And that obviously these are for each individual girl, but it’s also our responsibility to make sure others are protected. And who do you go to if you see somebody’s rights being violated? And just letting them know it’s their right to be educated. It’s their right to choose who they marry.

And just being aware of these global laws and how they’re violated every day. And that it’s not okay just because governments in the world don’t respect them doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. And if there’s human rights violations, who to go to and what steps to take to make sure that that’s taken care of.

And then another project, game, activity that we do is Create a Nation, which is one of my favorites. So that’s a little more artistic. First they brainstorm in groups, and then we give them big construction paper and like markers and crayons, whatever they want. And basically the purpose of the project is for them to kind of erase everything that they’ve learned about society, or a country, or the world, and to create their own from whatever their imagination tells them.

So like if you had this ideal country, what would that society be like? And everything from like a political structure, you know, basic stuff, nothing like too in-depth obviously, ‘cause they’re like high school kids, but you’d be surprised how much…Um, but just like how serious they take it. Like, “This is what I would want.” And just how attuned that they are to these issues of equality and religious freedom and just what is fair.

And then how would that country sustain itself? What are your crops? What do you export, what do you import? What are your peace agreements? Do you have a military or how do you get along with others? What attracts others to your country? Do you have a tourism industry? You know, just different components of what makes up a society and a country. They can just be totally creative.

And I have like an outline, but I encourage them that that is just an outline and points that you can present but then you just run in whatever direction you want to go with. And then we’re there if they have questions or whatever but it’s really them doing everything. Then that always takes longer ‘cause then they always want to make every picture perfect and pretty, but that’s part of the fun.

And then once everyone’s done, then everyone presents it, and then the rest of the group asks questions at the end.

If you enjoyed this post, check out Part I about the other programs UIP delivers all over the world, and come back next Monday to learn about Diesa’s experiences starting and running a non-profit organization.

Follow UIP on Facebook and Twitter. Or make a donation through their website. UIP is currently raising money to deliver a G.R.A.C.E program in Trinidad this summer.

Category: Being of Service / Tags: Diesa Seidel, girls, human rights, non-profit, United Initiatives for Peace, volunteering

United Initiatives for Peace, Part I

April 30, 2012 / Kelly / 2 comments

Diesa Seidel, Founding Director of United Initiatives for Peace

Aside from removing discourse particles and some of the content, these posts are largely transcriptions of my recording of the interview.

Programs to Raise Her

DIESA: Basically we have five programs but what I want to do now is really focus on the G.R.A.C.E. program which is really at the heart of what UIP’s mission is and what we want to do more long term. So the G.R.A.C.E. program is what I want to start here in the Greater San Diego area, and then just focus on that working abroad. But of course, all the programs fall under the UIP umbrella with the mission to empower girls.

You Got Schooled, that was our college scholarship basketball tournament. And that was held for inner-city girls in Newark, New Jersey. So that was the outlet I found in that environment to promote higher education, to give the girls a safe environment to do something productive and to exercise their athletic talent.

Every year we awarded over $10,000 in scholarship funds. This is for high school girls, so they could be ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth grade. So we do like a three-point contest, a foul-shooting contest, a seven-foot dunk contest, and then we do a humanitarian essay, a community service essay, and then we do a sportsmanship award. So there’s a diverse array of how you can earn scholarship money. It’s not just the top player, the top team. So I think it’s like 14 or 15 scholarships that we award. We’ve done four You Got Schooled tournaments.

Operation Cooperation, that one I like because it’s usually just coupled with any program that I’m doing whether it’s the Bel Kan summer camp, Court Quest, G.R.A.C.E. And basically it’s just a community effort to support the local community or the international community that we’re working with.

So say I’m going to Guatemala City to do a program, and the school that I’m working with, they decide that the one thing the school needs is calculators, or calculators and new black boards. So then I’ll do an Operation Cooperation outreach to my network, friends, family, schools. I would just bring it with me.

We’ve done 22 Operation Cooperation initiatives in 14 countries donating over 3,000 pounds of supplies. And like I said, the supplies vary. Sometimes it’s sports equipment, school supplies, clothing. It varies but I like it because it’s very tangible, and they request directly what they need. And here it is. It’s getting delivered.

Because a lot of these communities they’re so rural that you can’t just mail it. That’s not an option. You know, either it’s going to get stolen at customs, it’s never gonna get delivered or it’s just physically impossible because there’s no mailing address. There’s no postal service that goes there. So the only way these communities are reached is through a concrete contact and a direct connection and someone that’s actually going there and is going to bring them the supplies that they need.

Court Quest is…You know I used to play professional basketball. When I first started UIP, I used basketball a lot as a selling point. Because it was like, “Oh, we have a professional athlete that wants to come and teach basketball.” So then it was like an easy selling point. But really my mission has always been on an internal basis to empower girls, and if I use basketball as a tool, as an avenue to do that, then fine.

And that’s how the G.R.A.C.E. program started. I used a lot of basketball as part of the segments and then we’d break and have a classroom session and we’d learn about human rights. Then we’d go out and play basketball again and then we’d learn about team-building and believing in yourself and working together. Then we’d go back to the classroom over lunch, and during lunch we’d do another activity that kinda highlighted what we learned on the court and how we apply that to our lives.

KELLY: There’s a lot of good lessons for girls in sports.

DIESA: Yes, absolutely. I’ve played like every sport possible.

So Court Quest was an initiative to build basketball courts in tiny communities where recreational facilities are limited. The first one I did was in Tanzania for a school. And it was really simple. The mission is to create a recreational area where girls and members of the community can play and use that as a foundation ‘cause I mean like the health benefits of being active but learning to play together and bringing people together in a constructive way. You know, whether it’s basketball or soccer or just fun games or whatnot. Now they have a concrete meeting area.

And what we did is we just flattened out a dirt area and we hired two carpenters and got two pieces of word for the pole, and then got a flat piece of wood for the backboard, and then I brought rims with me from the US, and then we attached those to the backboard and called it a basketball court. You know? And the surface was hard enough that the balls dribbled just fine. And I would always bring deflated balls and a pump and then pump them up once I got there. The total cost of that court was I think like $600, at most. Anyway, that’s Court Quest.

And the last one, Bel Kan, which means Beautiful Camp in Creole. So, I was in Haiti in January 2010 doing a G.R.A.C.E. Program, when the earthquake happened.

KELLY: Wow.

DIESA: So I was there during the earthquake, before, during, and after the earthquake, just outside of Port-au-Prince. So that was a very intense experience for me, and then I just felt compelled to do something proactive for that community. I decided to do a summer camp for girls, kind of like a safe haven and an outlet for girls to kind of reclaim their childhood. So then I worked with the school that I had first done the G.R.A.C.E. Program with, The Haitian Academy, and I used their campus as the camp site.

So we did it twice—2010 and then last year, 2011. And each year I had…I think the first year I had more volunteers, I had 14, and then last year, including myself, I had 12, I think? Each volunteer has a curriculum, not a whole curriculum, but you know a curriculum for the camp.

KELLY: A “program”.

DIESA: A program for the camp that they are in charge of. So Tricia went to teach yoga. And then another volunteer is doing dance, another volunteer is doing photography. We have different arts and crafts, creative writing, of course basketball and soccer. Then like movies at night and camp fires and then fieldtrips to the beach. You know, things like that, that really make a camp a camp. And the camp was for 100 girls, so each year we had 100 girls.

Those are kind of the programs, but they all kind of cater to women and girls and in hopes to inspire them to be active in their communities and understand their human rights as individuals and just to continue their education, understanding that that’s their foundation for their future.

Come back next Monday to read more about UIP’s G.R.A.C.E. (Girls’ Reform through Artistic Creative Empowerment) Program.

Follow UIP on Facebook and Twitter. Or make a donation through their website. UIP is currently raising money to build a basketball court in Uganda in partnership with Gulu GO!

Category: Being of Service / Tags: Diesa Seidel, girls, non-profit, United Initiatives for Peace, volunteering

Happy 100th Birthday, Girl Scouts!

March 12, 2012 / Kelly / 3 comments

Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouts in the United States. Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low founded Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia in 1912 to give girls the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, play sports, and help their communities. She was not a feminist, but thought that girls of every race, religion, and ability should have opportunities to develop self-reliance and resourcefulness. One hundred years later, Girl Scouting still “builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.”

Forever Green

Being a Girl Scout is nearly as fundamental to who I’ve become as who my parents are, where I grew up, and what our socio-economic status was. Girl Scouting provided experiences and opportunities that my family and formal education weren’t able to provide.

I want to tell you how much Girl Scouting means to me, how my experiences as a Girl Scout from first grade through high school shaped the woman I am today. I want you to feel moved by my tribute to this organization that I’m still proud to be a part of. But I am limited by my capabilities as a writer and my inability to unravel all the aspects of my person and attribute them to their sources.

I know (because I’ve tried many times) that I won’t be able to inspire the level of feeling from you that I would like. But on my honor, I will try to give you some understanding of the fundamental ways the organization shaped my life.

Confidence & Self-Esteem

In this fast-paced, technology-driven society, why do Girl Scouts even bother with camping anymore? Sure, there’s a lot about conservation and a love of nature (more on that later), but the real value of camping for me and my fellow city-dwellers was acquiring new skills, “surviving” in a foreign environment, and successfully dealing with unexpected challenges.

True self-esteem does not come from your parents constantly telling you you’re wonderful for no reason or from your coach giving you a participation medal. It comes from seeing yourself as a capable person.

Girl Scouts is big on progressively building skills so girls are prepared to face new challenges. To prepare for camping we had to learn to use a knife, build a fire, pitch a tent, and tie knots. When you’re new to camping, it feels pretty good to be dry in your tent during a rain storm or eat California Egg Crackle that you cooked yourself over a wood fire or have your dunk line withstand the weight of a dozen mess kits.

But what if you pitch your tent in the dark on top of an ant hill or animals sneak into your trash bag over night or the fire starters get wet? Even better! Being resourceful and overcoming adversity are great ways to build confidence….and lasting memories.

Leadership

A few years ago, I attended a lunch where the CEO of Girl Scouts talked about their recently completed research on leadership. The organization came to realize that its value proposition was leadership training for girls, that Girl Scouts should leverage its legacy as the “premier leadership experience for girls.” When I heard this, it wasn’t so much an “ah ha” moment as it was a “duh” moment. Until she said that, I hadn’t given it much thought (and apparently, I wasn’t the only one), but what Girl Scouts provided me that no other experience could have, was the opportunity to discover and develop my leadership skills.

Wearing my Junior uniform for the first time

I wasn’t a particularly outgoing child, but through scouting I was able to explore leadership in a safe and supportive environment. When I was a fourth grader I was elected “patrol leader” for the first time. To be chosen by my peers—many of them older than me—to lead a team was an amazing feeling. They recognized something in me that I had yet to see in myself.

Girl Scouts afforded me the opportunity to practice leadership again and again after that first small group in my Junior troop. At 14, I led a small group of girls to independently plan and execute every aspect of a Brownie Fun Day for 50 girls. The summer I turned 16 I was a Counselor-in-Training at camp. There are countless other formal and informal examples of how Girl Scouting helped me develop leadership skills.

Conservation

One of the Girl Scout Laws (my favorite) is “use resources wisely.” Scouting has a strong history of developing an appreciation for nature and the outdoors and of teaching girls that it is their responsibility to be stewards of our natural resources. I directly attribute valuing eco-friendly living to my years as a scout.

Being green is in vogue again, but when I was a girl, my only exposure to those ideas were water conservation programs in school (San Diego is a desert after all), and the crying Indian and Woodsy Owl commercials on TV. Outdoor adventures gave me an appreciation of the beauty of the natural world and taught me about humanity’s impact on it.

We were taught trail etiquette, left places cleaner than we found them, and repurposed countless things for crafts and camping gear. We might use paper plates and plastic forks at home, but that stuff was not allowed on Girl Scout outings! We earned “Alternate Transportation” patches, planted trees, and recycled aluminum cans to raise money for environmental causes.

Service

Community service is a founding principle of Girl Scouts, one that continues to be a strong programmatic emphasis today. For most girls, every adult they encounter during their Girl Scout careers will be volunteers. The girls see a commitment to volunteerism exemplified by their troop leaders, cookie moms, and day camp counselors.

Many of the badges and patches we worked on had service components, and Girl Scouts has a number of awards specifically related to service, including the Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting (like the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Scout). Whether it was a beach clean-up, caroling at senior homes, mentoring younger scouts, or making quilts for women’s shelters, the message was loud and clear. There were things to be done and people to be helped, and it was my duty and my honor to do what I could to make a difference. And I still believe that today.

I could go on about the friendships I made, the places I traveled, the memories of a lifetime. It’s hard for me to imagine who I would be today if I hadn’t been a Girl Scout for nearly my entire childhood. Someone I’m sure I wouldn’t recognize.

Were you a Girl Scout? How did it impact your life?

NOTE: Links may contain Amazon affiliate code.

Category: Being of Service, Eco-Friendly, Spirit / Tags: American culture, camping, confidence, conservation, Girl Scouts, green, leadership, self-esteem, volunteering

Take My Money, Please – Part Two

January 30, 2012 / Kelly / Comments Off

This is the second part of a three-part series about the money to which people say, “No, thank you.” You’d never say no to money, right? Keep reading and see.

Dependent Care Spending Account

Remember the scenario in which people turned down a 20-30% discount on childcare? Or said no to making $1,000 – $1,500 for six hours of work? This is what people are doing that don’t take advantage of their company’s dependent care spending account.

I can’t tell you the number of people that have told me they won’t sign up for their company’s dependent care flexible spending account because they don’t want to complete the paperwork to get their reimbursements. They would rather pay an extra $1,000 to $1,500 in taxes to our government than do some paperwork.

In a nutshell, a dependent care flexible spending account allows you to elect to have money taken out of your paycheck on a pretax basis that you can then use to reimburse yourself for your eligible childcare expenses. Because the money is taken out before payroll and income taxes are calculated, it lowers how much you pay in taxes. I won’t delight you with an illustration that will require a disclaimer, I’ll just say wouldn’t it be nice to not have to pay taxes on up to $5,000 of your income?

Every reimbursement cycle (usually coinciding with payday), you would need to submit proof that you paid for childcare, and then you would be reimbursed (up to the amount you had taken from your check). I know a lot of people worry about having it taken out of their pay AND paying for childcare, but beyond the very first deduction, if you are timely about submitting receipts, it’s more or less an in-and-out.

Unlike your healthcare expenses, you have a much better idea of what your childcare expenses will be throughout the year, and it’s not inconceivable that your expenses will exceed the maximum $5,000 annual election. Why not save a few bucks? Surely you can make better investment choices for your money than the US government!

Disclaimer

Okay, I guess there’s going to be a disclaimer after all.

This is not intended to be a comprehensive explanation of flexible spending accounts. The IRS doesn’t give you something for nothing; there are a number of rules about eligible dependents and eligible expenses, family status changes, and the like. Talk to the benefits representative at your company, your personal financial advisor, or your tax preparer to make sure you understand the plan.

Charitable Donations

I think most people that itemize deductions on their tax returns are probably saving receipts/letters when they make a monetary donation to a charitable organization. That’s pretty straight-forward. But what about donations of used clothing and other household items? What about charitable mileage? Granted, the recording-keeping for non-cash donations can be tedious, and the deduction for charitable mileage is pretty small, but I don’t want to pay more in taxes than I have to, so I take the time.

Even though it doesn’t feel like we buy a lot of “stuff” relative to other people, with a family of seven, we’ve managed to fill dozens and dozens of trash bags with clothes to donate to local charity-run thrift stores. By tracking these donations we’ve saved hundreds of dollars on taxes. The trick, of course, is to have records of what was donated and to establish what the fair market value of those items is. I won’t say that’s not time-consuming, because it is. I use It’s Deductible by Intuit, but you can track things yourself. Keep a list of all the items you donated, and what the fair market value of each item is. Salvation Army and Goodwill both have guides to help you determine what the value of your donated items are.

If you don’t want to spend the time tracking this stuff yourself, why not have your teenagers do it themselves? Chances are most of the items in those bags is stuff they didn’t want to put away the last time they cleaned their room any way. Or have a garage sale and donate the proceeds to your favorite charity.

You probably know that you cannot claim the value of your time when you volunteer for a non-profit organization, but did you know that you can claim “charitable mileage”? The standard rate is only 14 cents/mile, but if you volunteer on a regular basis, why not take a minute and note your mileage? If you’re driving for a Boy Scout field trip, or you’re regularly meeting your “Little Sister” several miles from your home, it could add up. If you really like a challenge, you can track your actual expenses, but that would take a lot more effort.

The folks at Volunteer Spot are campaigning to get the charitable mileage deduction increased. Use POPVOX to let your congressional representatives know you support H.R. 387 to increase the charitable mileage deduction.

Shameless Plug

Since it’s Girl Scout cookie time, I thought I would include a little bit about the deductability of Girl Scout cookie purchases.

First I feel compelled to remind my dear readers that when they buy those delicious mint cookies, they are supporting an organization that “builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.” In San Diego, Girl Scout cookies are now $4/box, and if you think of your donation as merely purchasing a box of delicious cookies, then it will seem a bit exorbitant. Instead, you should understand that less than half that is the actual cost of the cookies and the rest supports Girl Scouting in your area.

If you take the cookies home with you and enjoy them, the purchase price is not considered a charitable donation. But if you buy cookies to support a community project, then it is a charitable donation. Here in San Diego, for example, girls collect donations for Operation Thin Mint®. We have huge Naval and Marine bases here, so there’s a lot of community support for sending cookies to service men and women overseas. When I buy boxes to support that project, that is considered a charitable donation. The girls have receipts for those kinds of donations, so be sure to ask for one.

Another Disclaimer

I am not a CPA or tax advisor. IRS Publication 526 is a good resource for information on charitable donations, as is your tax advisor or financial planner.

Category: Personal Finance / Tags: charitable giving, dependent care, FSA, Girl Scouts, taxes, volunteering