Matching Campaign Donation

Dear Village,

 

As the first year of i am We Global Village closes out, we have much to reflect on and truly be grateful for. What’s top of mind for me is the human beings with whom we are privileged to partner, share healing spaces, experience community, and make meaning in order to make change. Our core belief that all people are worthy and interrelated continues to prove itself. 

 

Many of you joined us in the Matching Campaign for the Traveling Arts Toolkit, that youth can use in their art form. The heart-felt sharing and dreaming that surfaced through this work speak to the healing power of creative expression when supported in community.

 

One heavy, but increasingly hopeful example showed up this Fall, when I met a brilliant young person in the Juvenile Detention Center. During our work together, she revealed her depth of awareness, wisdom, and overall giftedness as a songwriter and artist. 

 

This young girl’s story also left my heart broken in new places. She’s a survivor of sex trafficking–a traumatic experience that started at 14 years old and happened in the aftermath of an already deeply painful childhood. It’s still frustratingly hard for me to understand how and why she’s incarcerated instead of supported in a more restorative environment. Her story has become woven into the responsive scope of our Global Village work. 

 

Her music and other artistic expressions play a therapeutic role in her life and in the lives of others. The JRC teaching staff and Global Village supported her in preparing for and entering a national writing contest last month. She submitted a powerfully poignant song for which she not only created the beat/instrumentation, but also wrote and recorded the lyrics. We joined her excitement as she advanced at each stage of the competition and eventually took 3rd place. The announcement came within a week of her release, and she returned to her community with a different sense of self. She was overjoyed. We all were.

 

As we prepare to move into 2023, we ask you to consider an end-of-year gift to i am We Global Village to support us in continuing this important work. A generous donor will match our first $20,000 in donations. We believe in the collective spirit and power of people and what’s possible through compassion, love, and unity. i am We. 

 

In Gratitude and Community, 

 

Rudy

Rudy Bankston, Executive Director

 

If you prefer to mail a check, please make it out to and address to:

 

Center for Community Stewardship - i am We Global Village

116 N. Few Street, Suite 3

Madison, WI 53703

 

Thank you!

 

i am We Global Village - The Center for Community Stewardship
608.235.9393

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