** UPDATE: The Metta Mentors 2010 application is available now! Click here to know more… **

Dear Metta Community,

May this find you grounded in peace and gratitude as we prepare together for the transition to a new decade, one full of promise and potentiality for the continued movement toward an ever-more-nonviolent future!

We are writing today to update you on the status of our Metta Mentors Nonviolence Mentorship program for the year 2010, and to ask for your support and advice.

Metta Mentors: the 2009 Mentees!

As you may know, the Mentors program is one of Metta’s most successful and concrete projects. The feedback from our former mentees and partners affirms that participation in the program can be a life-changing experience. As one of our 2009 mentees wrote,

“I wanted to formally thank you for what was easily one of the most transformative summers of my life. …I have realized how much room there is for change within myself. I have learned to approach problems differently than I used to, and I am getting better at recognizing the needs and fears of others and responding accordingly.”

Metta Mentors is changing lives. Nevertheless, after three incredible summers, we find our program for the first time without funding for the coming year, as our previous funder has discontinued its grantmaking activities. Thus, we are now searching for creative ways to put this unique program together for summer 2010. Fortunately, what we lack in conventional currency, we have in abundance in the forms of social capital, creativity, and passionate belief in the transformative power of nonviolence education!

And as we have told a number of people recently (including a few potential participants who have already requested applications for the 2010 program), we are dedicated to putting on the program this summer, with whatever resources we have, in whatever size and shape we are able to make it, and to make it even more thoughtful and transformative than it has ever been.

Fortunately, we already know that our program expenses will be lower this year, as we have made some changes that will allow us to be more efficient with our resources. (Please see the P.S. for more information about these new developments.) But we know that you — our amazing, supportive community and network — can help us to find even more creative solutions to fill our needs, and so we are asking for your help! Below are three ways you can be of great help to us as we plan for a successful 2010 program:

Continue Reading Create a Program with Us: Metta Mentors, 2010!»