#active citizen

Greenpop has teamed up with climate change activist and motivational coach Robert Zipplies to offer a unique two-day course for the growing number of people who are inspired to build a better future and change their world - but don’t know how.

“There is no doubt that humanity’s response to our local and global problems is woefully inadequate: growing inequality, climate change, corruption, environmental degradation, joblessness – the list is long and getting longer,” says Zipplies. “As a result, more and more people are getting frustrated about the lack of social, political and environmental progress.”

Thankfully a wave of courageous people is rising to the challenge. They are individuals who want to lead a life of greater meaning by transforming their concern about the state of the world into passionate and positive action. They are people who want to do things differently and work towards a wiser, and more caring and inclusive society.

Paul Hawken, the author of “Blessed Unrest – How the largest movement in the world came into being”, calls this rapidly growing movement society’s immune system response to the world’s global ills.

Misha Teasdale, Greenpop’s Tree – E – O, adds “I believe that the world is shifting from wanting a life of success, to living a life of significance. People want to make meaningful changes in their own community so that we can together thrive as a global community. In order to achieve this change, we need to start with the self, and from there, spread positive awareness and action around the world. A life of significance is about living more simply and sustainably, and making it fun.”

Zipplies said that the two-day Make Life Matter course is for people whose souls are yearning to make a difference and who want to live a life that builds, rather than destroys, social and environmental value, but who need a little help with identifying their best strengths so that they can use their unique talents - at home, at work and in their community – to make a difference and not feel like they are “beating their heads against a wall”.

Zipplies and selected guest speakers will equip participants to become more effective change agents.

Dates and times:

CAPE TOWN: Weekend of 5 & 6 December 2015. From 8h30 until 16h30. Saturday evening: 16h30 until 19h00

JOHANNESBURG: Weekend of 23-24 January. From 8h30 until 16h30. Saturday evening: 16h30 until 19h00

Location: 

CAPE TOWN: The Greenpop Office, 5th Floor Jaga House, 61 Wale Street, Cape Town, 8001

JOHANNESBURG: To be announced.

Topics that will be covered in this course:

Reviewing our key societal problems and their causes.

Discovering the key principles required for building a more sustainable and just world.

Identifying and matching your areas of passion with your strengths and skills.

Developing a personal vision, ideas and plans for action.

Discovering useful psychology-of-change tools for winning over hearts and minds.

Working with yourself to enhance your capabilities as a change agent.

Improving the effectiveness of your communication efforts.

Learning from accomplished social innovators, activists and change agents.

Fees:

Standard: R2000 (Early-bird: R1800 – CpT before 20 Nov 2015; Jhb before 24 Dec 2015)

Students/scholars: R1500 (Early-bird: R1350 – CpT before 20 Nov 2015; Jhb before 24 Dec 2015)

Bursaries: A limited number are available. Please email Robert your motivation.

Basic lunch and refreshments included.

Sign up here or register your interest in a future course here.

About Robert:

Robert does not believe in the status quo, but strives for a society that boldly tackles its social and environmental injustices to create a better future for all. In addition to working as a sustainability consultant, he is an activist and advisory committee member of the Fossil Free South Africa. Previously he was a board member of the climate change NPO, Project 90 by 2030. Robert is the editor of the book, Bending the Curve – Your guide to tackling climate change in South Africa (free e-book here). In a previous incarnation, he worked in venture capital, Internet start-ups, management consulting and the steel industry. He has an MSc in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA. Check out his website here.

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ActiveCitizen, an Irish non-profit, was founded to encourage the Irish government to liberate meaningful data in useful non-proprietary machine-readable formats, to facilitate development of civil data-driven applications and to encourage citizen participation in civic and political life, so to improve governance for all.

For spring break, I went to Atlanta to volunteer with a few programs through a non-profit called Hands on Atlanta, which centers around refugee services. A couple of the programs were on the local level, so their impact on me wasn't much. However, there were two programs that still amaze me.

First, there was Books for Africa, which sorts donated books by subject and age and packs them to send to a long list of countries in Africa. I saw a million and one books I used while I was in school, mostly because Detroit Public Schools sends a lot of their old textbooks to Books for Africa. In the 4 days that my group volunteered with this program, we sorted and packed enough books to fill up 15? 20? pallets (I honestly lost count). But mind you each pallet holds either 28 or 35 boxes of books. Needless to say that's AMAZING!!!

Then, there was Global Soap Project, which cleans donated used soap and makes new soap out of it that literally saves lives all around the world from diseases and infections. In the 2 days that my group was there we made 3,000 bars of soap for people in Afghanistan and Libya. Again...that's AMAZING!!!