Six Weeks of @CWPFairfield Work and I'm Still a Champion for Hope: Love, Integrity, Kindness, and Good

We are now three days beyond the summer work - the 8 hour days, the buses, the teachers, the planning, the books, the writing, the supplies, the lunches, and the financing to make it all possible.  Yes, it is 6 weeks, but the rest of the year makes the 30 days possible: recruiting, grant-writing, presenting, advertising and hiring.

This morning, I came across a piece a few of the kids in Ubuntu Academy wrote for CWP - an acrostic to say thank you for their participation in the summer program. This is the literacy lab for English language learners, immigrant and refugee-background youth looking for every possibility they can to build their language skills and opportunities in the United States.

Having the belief that there will always be light at the end of the tunnel for our diverse community,

Opening our minds to the possibility that we can overcome daily challenges, 

Persevering through the pain and learning from our pasts so we can make a better future...

Everyone has a story and their own beliefs. How we choose to make our dreams turn into reality is what fully allows us to embody HOPE. 

I'm a strong believer that actions speak louder than words. My dissertation, my publications, my grant-writing and my programming, I hope, are testimony to my core belief systems. I'm not a pious man, but I've read the religious texts at the core of most world religions and continue to come back to the shared beliefs between them all. That is, and will always be, a respect for fellow human beings, no matter the boundaries, lines, and limitations that some build to stand in the way.

I stand for children and their hopes. I believe in their vision for their futures and how they want to work hard to make their families and their communities proud.

I stand for the teachers who read voraciously, work tirelessly, and view inevitably the destructive voices of so many who detest all they do.

It's a Thursday and I have a day of meetings, but this morning I'm fueled by the beauty of these kids and all they accomplished this summer....youth from over 15 nations who have overcome tremendous obstacles that most of us will never know. They are my hope. They are what I believe in.