Fw: Building a Community in Open Space

ralphsc ralphsc at earthlink.net
Sun Apr 4 06:52:12 PDT 1999


Dear Dylene,

Impressive project.  Congratulations on moving forward with it.

Can you be more specific about the kind of suggestions you are after?
I'm not sure I understand your request.  Thanks.

Ralph Copleman

>From  Mon Apr  5 10:17:10 1999
Message-Id: <MON.5.APR.1999.101710.EDT.>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 10:17:10 EDT
Reply-To: MCymraes at aol.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Dylene Cymraes <MCymraes at aol.com>
Subject: Introduction
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

To all:

My name is Dylene Cymraes--I am currently living in Maryland, but may be
relocating to central NY this summer to continue building a project I have
worked on for the last few years.

For those of you who have responded already, and those of you who have asked
for more information, I figured it was time I introduced myself.  I kind of
came in the back door on this list, thanks to the kindness of Peg Holman--so
here goes!

I am the founder of a non-profit organization called Community at the
Crossroads (CATC).  The goal of CATC is to create a Greenhouse of Dreams for
women who have survived a major life crisis--and in the crisis, have used up
most of their resources.  As we understand through OS, crisis (and chaos) are
the places at which someone or something either falls apart completely, or
re-organizes at a higher level.  It is an interesting paradox that people
tend to make life changing decisions after getting through a life
crisis--death of a spouse, divorce, career redirection--and at this
threshold, may choose to re-awaken old dreams of becoming.

The down side of the paradox is that most of their resources--material,
emotional, financial, spiritual--have been used up in the survival of the
crisis.

The ultimate goal of CATC is to provide a healing environment to help women
unleash their own human potential--using Open Space as a philosophy, a tool,
and a way of communicating.  We are working on an Open Space conference to
actually pull the pieces together to build the program and take it into
reality, instead of just an idea.  This is all coming in the wake of losing
my business partner a month ago, to breast cancer--it was her belief that her
cancer was largely due to un-healed issues in her life.  By helping women
heal and find their passions, we hope to create a dynamic model for living.

The plans for CATC include a retreat facility for Open Space events and other
training, to provide a partial revenue base for the actual CATC program.

For those interested, I will include the mission statement in a separate
post, so this one will not be so long.

I have been a trainer, facilitator, writer, career counselor and
jill-of-all-trades--I was a military spouse for 15 years (hence the patchwork
of experience).  I have experienced three open space events--and feel that I
have finally found a place for my feet with it.  In all the years of
facilitation, I have never felt so much at home as I have in Open Space.

I look forward to getting to know all of you!

Dylene
Maryland

>From  Mon Apr  5 10:19:53 1999
Message-Id: <MON.5.APR.1999.101953.EDT.>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 10:19:53 EDT
Reply-To: MCymraes at aol.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Dylene Cymraes <MCymraes at aol.com>
Subject: CATC Mission Statement
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

The mission statement follows:

Community at the Crossroads (CATC) is a residential resource community for
women of all ages, able to house 30 women and up to 30 children at a time.
Its 2-year residential mission is to create a supportive setting so women in
each stage of the life-cycle--women with young children, women at mid-life,
and women of advanced age--can come together and work toward rebuilding their
lives.  Some women may come to CATC following a major life crisis--life
threatening illness, divorce, death of a loved one, or disability.  Others
will come to heal from ongoing trauma--poverty, violence, unemployment.

A primary goal of the Community is self-sufficiency.  For some residents,
that will entail working with a support team consisting of peers and
counselors to tailor their own life-work program.  At the end of a potential
two-year residency, it is expected that these women will "graduate" having
met their objectives, ready to re-enter the extended community.  For
residents dealing with life-threatening illness, graduation may mean walking
the path toward dying.  The mission of CATC is to provide an inclusive
environment to facilitate each woman's journey, whether it be toward new
beginnings, or endings.

Our overall objective is to create a new model for living.  This new model
will be based on cooperation and interdependence.  The ultimate goal of CATC
is to provide an environment to help women unleash their own human potential.
 Residents will not only pursue their personal career objectives, but will
also contribute to the daily operation of CATC; facility maintenance, food
preparation, gardening, staffing the daycare center, running the retreat
facility, etc.  By participating in both the material operation of CATC, as
well as the decision making process, residents will acquire the skills
necessary to support the achievement of both autonomy and teamwork.

The foundation of each woman's journey will include the following:

Physical--Holistic approaches to health and healing, including diet,
exercise, health education, as well as ongoing medical care.

Material--Career and life-work planning, financial counseling, academic
advancement: GED completion, college entrance, internships and mentoring, as
desired.

Emotional--Individual and group counseling, team building, self- assessment
and exploration.

Spiritual--An openly non-denominational policy will be fostered, encouraging
individual spiritual growth using various forms of meditation, prayer and
study.
_______________________________________________________

I hope this answers some questions--let me know if you have feedback!

Thanks, and blessings to all,

Dylene
Maryland



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