Recently at the Tides Center in San Francisco, Alix Johnson and Asiyah Abdul-Mu’min shared their stories of how, as young women working with The Body Positive, they began to transform their own isolation into self-acceptance.  Both young women now live in harmony with their bodies, free to pursue their passions and goals.

The Body Positive has become a presence at the University of California, Berkeley, among other universities across the country where students are becoming Body Positive leaders on campus. The organization conducts workshops to teach the four competencies of its Intuitive Health Model, which leads individuals to creating more positive and healthy relationships with their bodies. The ultimate goal is to support young women in overcoming the body hatred endemic in our culture so they can fully pursue their dreams and goals, and this can only be achieved through the promotion of programs such as The Body Positive.

Since 1996, The Body Positive has directly trained hundreds of high school and college women as leaders, to enhance their own body esteem and self-acceptance, and to support their peers. Further, they have provided education to thousands of parents to assist them in raising children with healthy body images, and distributed their BodyTalk video series for viewing by more than a million youth worldwide.

Photo Credit: larrydyer.com

From left to right:

Taira Jordan, Meredith Beam, Carmen Sobczak, Connie Sobczak, Dan Beam, Uma Teesdale, Elizabeth Scott, Alix Johnson, Jacquie Moore, Asiyah Abdul-Mu’min, Kath Delaney, and Nancy Tripathi

The event also served as a “send-off” for Assemblywoman Skinner as she heads to Copenhagen, Denmark this week for the 2009 United Nations Convention on Climate Change. This conference brings together 192 countries and 100 heads of state or government in negotiations to deal with the growing threats posed by global warming. Assemblywoman Skinner will represent California alongside State Senator Fran Pavely and other state leaders, and will speak about her energy efficiency legislation and California policies. She will also interact with the University of California delegation that is attending the conference to provide expert testimony through panel discussions.

Recognized as the California Assembly’s 2009 Rookie of the Year, Nancy authored landmark legislation this past year, including bills that will give foster youth better access to college housing, (AB 1393), make AC Transit buses more bike friendly (AB 652), and bring thousands of energy efficient jobs to California (AB758).

The Madera Group congratulates Assemblywoman Skinner for all of her achievements in 2009, and wishes her a victorious 2010!

Photo: CPUC Commissioner Dian Gruenich, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, and Janice Lin from Stratgen Consulting
Photo Credit: Erik Johnson

Sitting down to read the San Francisco Chronicle one April morning, an article caught his attention.  According to an international commission base in the Netherlands, after years of delay and obfuscation, German insurance companies would be releasing the names of 363,232 German Jews who had bought insurance policies before or during the Hitler era.

Although Gil and his immediate family left Germany for the United States in 1936, the wider family, those that escaped the Holocaust, were scattered all over the globe.  Now, 67 years later, Gil decided to check for family members on the commission’s web site.  Discovering the names of three of his four grandparents, he unloaded the lengthy claims application forms. Before filing the forms, however, Gil spent weeks drawing family trees and researching the names and addresses of his still-living his relatives, many of whom he had never met but were potential heirs.

Still, Gil had some hesitation about pursuing the matter.  “I had put Germany behind me long ago,” he says.  “I didn’t want to have anything to do with them.  I didn’t want their money, but I didn’t want the thieves to get away with robbing the corpses of my relatives.”

Several months later, a German insurance firm informed him that his father had taken out a life insurance policy in 1930 and, in due time, thousands of dollars arrived for Gil to share with his sister.  Then, the commission sent Gil $1,000 to thank him for his efforts.  It didn’t stop there.  By 2005, thousands more arrived after another insurance company discovered a policy his father had taken out in 1927.

Yet, something didn’t feel right.  Gil realized that he’d started on this path because the process seemed like a chance to find closure.  “There are at least two new generations of Germans,” he says, “and most of them have made a sincere effort to deal with the sins of their fathers.”  Despite this understanding, he couldn’t ignore knowing that extreme suffering still exists throughout the world.  “Maybe I could have found closure if it hadn’t been for Cambodia…and Rwanda, Bosnia and now Darfur…Purgatory will not end in the near future.  We’re a flawed species.”

Rather than keep the German money, Gil gave it to the American Civil Liberties Foundation, an organization protecting human rights. In addition, he added the tax benefit he would have received in income tax reductions to his donation as well.

Gil says that his motivation to give comes from the realization that, long after his personal experience of the Nazi era, genocide and war still plague the world, not to mention hunger and pandemics.  It is that understanding that compels Gil to keep giving each year.  Last year, he made donations to over 20 charitable organizations and political campaigns.  Gil’s actions remind us that, whether large or small, there’s value in all of our giving this season.

DHF fosters a supportive environment where people touched by diabetes can connect with each other, hold informed discussions and share their experiences. As a result, their members find comfort in not feeling alone and together they promote a better understanding of life with diabetes. Since 2007, they have launched two social networks: TuDiabetes.com (in English) and EsTuDiabetes.com (in Spanish). Through their online communities, they’ve developed diabetes awareness initiatives such as Word In Your Hand, Drawing Diabetes, Diabetes Supplies Art, No-Sugar Added Poetry and the 14,000 People With Diabetes Test-in.

Click here to learn more about The Diabetes Hands Foundation and to make a donation to support this important initiative.

Success in social marketing and fundraising means making our clients visible in a crowded online marketplace. Our agency works with clients to develop a strategy that not only uses social networks, but also persuades others to pass the word on. That means creating inspiring and thoughtful messages that work for both email inboxes and social networking sites. It means telling a story that communicates the meaning of the work we are describing, and showing the results that come from it.

The desired goal is to have the public, or the media, pick up a story and carry it even further — a bonus that is the reward for hard work and creative thinking.

Even better, is when an agency partners with a once-in-a-lifetime client who needs no introduction to the social marketplace — in our case, President Bill Clinton and his foundation, the William J. Clinton Foundation. On August 19th, President Clinton celebrated his 63rd birthday. To celebrate, The Madera Group collaborated with his foundation staff to launch an online birthday card fundraising campaign with the culminating message sent by his beloved friend Nelson Mandela.

By the way, it is not too late to send President Clinton a birthday wish and make a donation.

Happy Birthday President Clinton! We thank you and your foundation for all that you are doing around the world to fight climate change, eliminate childhood obesity, and give access to HIV/AIDS medicines to millions of people. Your work is an inspiration to us all.

Last month, President Barack Obama spoke to people of Ghana about opportunity, responsibility, and the important role each of them has in determining their country’s future. His message was clear: “The world will be what you make of it.” Obama’s words challenged and encouraged the people of Ghana to take control of their own destiny – Africans have already shown their capacity and commitment to making change, and now is the time for them to use those tools to create new opportunities for themselves, he said.

Since 2003, Dana Dakin has been helping to bring opportunities to life for Ghanaian women. Dakin is the founder of Womens Trust, a nonprofit group that works to empower women and girls in Africa through microenterprise, education and healthcare, and that has helped over 1,000 underprivileged women secure microloans and rise above unstable living wages. The organization’s U.S. team works closely with an on-the-ground staff in Pokuase, Ghana. The staff is responsible for loan administration and management of Womens Trust’s education and healthcare programs.

Madera Group is working with Women Trust to increase their online presence and visibility in the social media world. We recently helped launch a new Womens Trust Facebook page to promote future fundraising and social events this fall. Please visit the Women’s Trust fan page to learn more about their work and ways to get involved with the organization.

Photo: Founder Dana Dakin with Gertrude Ankrah, Program Development Director of WomensTrust in Pokuase, Ghana (photo by Suki Hill)

The Madera Group supports United4Iran.org’s global day of solidarity on Saturday, July 25th. Untited4Iran is a non-partisian group of individuals working to end the widespread and systematic violations of the people of Iran’s human and civil rights. In just three weeks United4Iran participation has grown to over 110 cities worldwide.

The Madera Group has been assisting United4Iran.org with website strategy, social networking and video production and coordination.

Nobel Peace Laureates, prominent Iranian poets & artists, and many others support the global day of action including: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shirin Ebadi, Sean Penn, Dariush, Jody Williams, Betty Williams, Mairead Maguire, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Simin Behbahani, and Ismael Khoii.

Please watch this excellent video, produced by a participant in Amsterdam to support the event.

This month, the Madera Group continues our work with Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, launching a new “campaign within a campaign” to help increase enrollment in their program, Make Mine a Million $ Business. Founded by social entrepreneur and author Nell Merlino (who created “Take your Daughter to Work Day”), Count Me In helps women entrepreneurs grow their businesses by providing (for free or at very low cost) a suite of online tools, webinars, national and regional events, and access to business development experts.
More than 60,000 women have joined the online community, and another 1,500 have paid a small fee to join a more focused “fast track” to business growth, the “Make Mine a Million $ Business Race” known as the M3 Race.

With a goal of registering 3,000 women by July 31st, we have launched the Race to 3,000, a special e-mail messaging campaign that aims to double the number of racers this summer. Every M3 community member will receive special attention in the next four weeks, through targeted multi-media messages that frame the values of the program using data gleaned from feedback the organization has received from past events. In addition, M3 members are invited to participate in CMI’s free on-line webinars each Wednesday, which teach a variety of business practices, strategies and tools, as well as offer helpful hints and ideas from featured entrepreneur experts.

This week’s webinar, What’s New in the M3 Race, will show participants how to navigate through their personal business resource tools, as well as help them discover new resources and discounts from Count Me In’s partners that are exclusive to M3 Racers. Count Me In’s Program Department will also be on hand to answer questions about how to tailor and personalize M3 RACE tools for specific businesses.  And that’s not all! On Monday, July 13th, M3 members are invited to hear Nell Merlino speak at a special Meet-Up event, the Girls Inc panel discussion: “Corporate Camp for Entrepreneurs” in New York City.

In her blog a few months ago, Nell Merlino wrote about bringing back the buddy system, reminding us that while self-sufficiency is important, the power of companionship and collaboration cannot be forgotten, especially when working toward a goal. Nearly everyone can identify with the experience of forming a supportive network of friends that help encourage one another to succeed, and that’s what the M3 community is all about. Count Me In brings together a national team of experts and allies, introduces them to one another, and connects them to thousands of potential clients and customers.  Amid a lagging economy, it’s vital that women business owners can come together, share their ideas and talk about how they are steering their way through these challenging times. The Make Mine a Million $ Business Race gives women the chance to move forward and accomplish their goals even faster. We encourage you to join the race by July 31st! Visit www.makemineamilion.org/race.