Ground Work: Community Action (part 2 of 3)

I’ll admit it: I had a fairly bucolic childhood. I grew up in a tiny town (the horsepulling capital of the U.P!), went to a small public school with a low student-to-teacher ratio, had a lot of friends & lots of space to run around & play outside. I was fairly sheltered from the world’s ills, things like violence & drug use, bullying, abusive relationships. I was “normal,” whatever that means. I’ve had a blessed & lucky life.

Obviously, not everyone is so lucky. Children are abused every day, frequently by the people they know & trust. And my “normalcy” had nothing to do with the fact that even I was at risk for such abuse. Consider the startling statistics: one in four girls (1/4) & one in six boys (1/6) will be sexually abused by the age of 18. Only one of those children out of ten will tell anyone.

Think about it another way: nine out of ten abused children will never tell a soul.

Just pondering that makes me feel ill.

Sexual abuse is an issue that’s been, sadly, on the front pages of our newspapers in recent months. The Joe Paterno/Jerry Sandusky/Penn State fiasco has received a ton of coverage, prompting many of us to take a closer look at the world around us & perhaps keep a closer eye on the children in our lives, thinking more about what we could & should be doing to protect them. And a local Traverse City businessman was sentenced to nine years in prison last year after being convicted for criminal sexual conduct with young boys. Furthermore, I’ve been wondering lately if I even would know exactly what to do should I witness such abuse.

You likely already know about On the Ground (OTG), the nonprofit formed by Higher Grounds to work for sustainable development in global farming regions. But as I mentioned in my last blog post, OTG is just one piece of Higher Grounds’ commitment to community.

The Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center (TBCAC) is our area’s first line of defense when it comes to the physical & sexual abuse of children. Recently, Higher Grounds chose TBCAC as an outlet for the social arm of Ground Work, HG’s (newly-named!) community action program.

Here’s TBCAC’s mission:

To protect children by providing prevention & multi-disciplinary intervention in investigation, assessment & treatment of child sexual & physical abuse in an environment that is child sensitive, supportive & safe.

To break it down, TBCAC's multidisciplinary team of counselors, medical professionals, law enforcement, & Health & Human Services officials works together to provide a safe, friendly, & caring environment for children & their parents throughout the difficult investigation & trial processes.

Currently, TBCAC is running a contest for area students, challenging them to create a short film expressing their vision to spark the movement focused on Zero Tolerance for child abuse. The winner will receive a $500 Downtown Traverse City gift certificate. More details here.

Check out TBCAC’s web site and Facebook page for more information about their policies & practices, or call their staff at 231-929-4250 with any questions.

Higher Grounds, collectively, and I, personally, am proud to partner with this important organization & the great people working so hard to make our community safer for children. I have fourteen nieces & nephews. How many kids do you know?

--Jennifer

Community: It’s Greater than You (& bigger than you think)

What do you think of when I say the word community? Here’s one definition:

community |kəˈmyoōnitē|

1. a group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership : a community of nuns.

• all the people living in a particular area or place : local communities.

• a particular area or place considered together with its inhabitants : a rural community.

• the people of a district or country considered collectively, esp. in the context of social values & responsibilities; society: preparing prisoners for life back in the community.

• [as adj.] denoting a worker or resource designed to serve the people of a particular area: community health services.

I’m willing to bet the above definition is in line with what most people would think—that community is about a geographical containment of people, individuals connected by the physical space in which they live. You might think of your neighbors down the street, the other families in your subdivision, or even others you meet in the produce aisle of your local grocery store.

But there are other definitions of community as well. Consider:

2. a group of people having a religion, race, profession, or other particular characteristic in common: Rhode Island's Japanese community | the scientific community.

• a body of nations or states unified by common interests.

(I apologize to any scientists among you who object to this depiction of cartoon figures wearing glasses & lab coats. But the image illustrates my point here.)

In this case, people can belong to a community with others they might never actually meet face to face, people who simply share similar beliefs or interests. You and I, for example, are part of a community centered on coffee. I may never see you in person. I may never even hear your name. Yet we have at least one thing in common: our love for, & interest in, the humble coffee bean.

And try this one:

3. a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, & goals:  the sense of community that organized religion can provide.

• a similarity or identity: writers who shared a community of interests.

• joint ownership or liability: a commitment to the community of goods.

The common interest that you & I share not only places us in a shared “body” of sorts, but it also evokes certain results, as definition #3 states. There is a sense of community between us. We care about many of the same things. On a basic level, we care about having a positive, high-quality coffee experience, whether at home or in a coffee bar. Taking that sense of community further, you & I share attitudes & goals that translate into action: investing our personal time & often our money into Higher Grounds, a business with a mission we believe in.

What is that mission? Well, you know a little about it (hopefully!) already, having read all about our stance on fair trade. But our mission is manifest all throughout our definition of community, which extends not beyond our immediate surroundings of TC & northern Michigan but throughout them, reaching others who care about & are connected to coffee all over the world.

That last sentence is kind of complicated. But the idea is this:

Higher Grounds’ mission is to engage with & support people doing important work in three major realms: social, environmental, & international. You’ve likely heard the most about the international arm of that mission, On the Ground—which tends to get the most press due to its sometimes-exotic-sounding projects (namely Run Across Ethiopia & Run Across Palestine). Over the next few weeks, I’ll fill you in on the other arms & describe our relationship with two essential Traverse City area organizations, the Michigan Land Use Institute & the Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center. 

In addition to MLUI, TBCAC, & OTG, here are some more organizations we’ve supported in the past year, by donating money & coffee & hosting benefit concerts in our roastery:

Advent Lutheran Church

Bioneers

Child & Family Services

Disability Network

Fishtown Preservation Society

Food Rescue

Maya Vinic Farmers

MyWhat

Tart Trails

Third Level Crisis Center

Traverse City Film Festival

Traverse City Fire Fighters

Women’s Resource Center

As part of the Higher Grounds community, you should know about our commitment to supporting projects taking place all throughout the HG world, not just far but close to home as well.

--Jennifer

Maya Vinic, Here We Come!

If you read the series on fair trade that wrapped up a few weeks back, you’ll remember that I mentioned the annual delegations HG sends to the cooperatives where our coffee is grown. Tomorrow, the first trip of 2012 commences: Chris Treter (owner), Phil Hamburg (sales guru), & Karin Thompson (new head roaster) fly to Mexico to visit the Maya Vinic Cooperative, birthplace of HG’s flagship coffee. And if you’ve been a loyal HG blog reader for even longer, you may recall Chris’ report of his trip there back in September.

Chris, Phil & Karin will participate in meetings with Cooperative Coffees, our importing coffee co-op, but even more exciting (yes, more exciting than meetings!) is their delivery of coffee brewing equipment for Maya Vinic’s new café in San Cristobal de las Casas—a grand opening made possible in part by the direct social premium HG pays per pound of Maya Vinic beans. In 2011, that premium adds up to more than $5000: perhaps not a whole lot by the standards of America’s 1%, but a sum that goes a long way for our friends in Mexico. Their café will be a sustainable means of promoting Maya Vinic’s coffee in their own region as well as a way to help supplement the farmers’ income during the rest of the year (since the coffee-growing season only lasts about four months).

HG’s current crop of Maya Vinic coffee marks the 10^th anniversary harvest we’ve purchased from that same co-op. Much celebration will take place among friends in the spirit of long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. This trip combines business & pleasure in the best of ways.

What’s more, On the Ground just finished the water project that is supplying Acteal—Maya Vinic’s headquarters—with water for all houses & public spaces. The cohort from HG will be stopping in to check in on that progress as well.

Yes, I've already used this picture on the blog (back in September). But it's just so gorgeous. Maybe someday I'll get to be part of an HG delegation too.

Stay tuned for a report of the trip next week!

--Jennifer