List of events 3.12 for Do Happy Today/Intern. Day of Happiness 2017

Do ‘happy’ in March

Series of Do Happy Today events held during March

The third annual Do Happy Today series of events will be held during March and culminate with Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild signing a proclamation at noon on March 20 at Café 54. March 20 is the International Day of Happiness.

Do Happy Today is an all-volunteer collaborative community effort dedicated to encouraging personal and community happiness and well-being, as well as engaging southern Arizona communities in positive change. DHT is coordinated by Community Renaissance, a locally owned community development business.  This year Do Happy Today is partnering with two national efforts: Happiness Alliance www.happycounts.org and Live Happy Magazine’s #happyacts and Happy Walls. The Happy Walls are popups, and content shared will be collected and thematically summarized by Community Renaissance and share via social media.

Do Happy Today Partners Weekend, March 18 and 19

·       7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., March 18: Tucson Habitat for Humanity Do Happy Today “Rainbow Build” at Copper Vista II, 5761 S. Copper Plate Drive. To volunteer, contact Joseph Howell at 520.260.9959 or joseph@habitattucson.org

·       10 a.m. to 3 p.m., March 18: DHT at Rillito Bend Neighborhood and Tucson Valley of the Moon Home/Garden Art Tour and Live Happy Wall, 2544 E. Allen Road. Bring your Walkabout Talkabout Book. Free download at www.communityrenaissance.biz .

·       March 18-20: 10:30 a.m., March 18: Storytime on Happiness at Himmel Park Branch, Pima County Public Library, 1035 N. Treat Ave. March 18-20: People can fill out a blank flower-shaped paper available at the library’s information desk and answer “What makes me happy?” or “How do I share happiness?” (520.594.5305 or www.library.pima.gov/himmel)

·       10 a.m.-2:00 p.m., March 18: Celebrate Historic South Park Community at Park Ave. Between 27th Street and 31st Street. Family activities, food, music and more. Contact Glenn Davis (520) 870-8109.

·       4 to 6 p.m., March 19: Limberlost Neighborhood Association Community Fair, Limberlost Park, 4255 N 4th Ave.  Café 54 Food Truck (invited), Live Happy Wall, Architectural Design Display for City of Tucson first feng shui well-being path, Limberlost Little Free Library and info from various community groups. Bring your Walkabout Talkabout Book. Free download at www.communityrenaissance.biz/happyu. City of Tucson’s Do Happy Today Proclamation will be featured at the event.

March 20: Official International Day of Happiness

·       Noon to 2 p.m., March 20: Café 54, 54 E. Pennington St., DHT and TENWEST – Live Happy Wall available to share personal happy thoughts; featuring Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild reading Proclamation at Noon. (www.cafe54.org or 520.622.1907)

·       March 20: DHT Flowers – Southwest Fair Housing Council to deliver to participating partners

·       March 20 to March 25: Bentley’s House of Coffee & Tea, 1730 E. Speedway: Live Happy Wall available to share personal happy thoughts. (www.bentleyscoffeehouse.com)

·       March 20 to 24: Happy Wall at Connect Coworking

·       March 20 to March 24: Make Way for Books, 700 N. Stone, Happy Wall; story time on March 24 at 10 a.m. will focus on happiness (www.makewayforbooks.org)

·       March 20, noon-3 p.m.: Himmel Branch Library, 1035 N. Treat Ave. – Mah Jong, Healthy Brain and Happiness; 5 p.m. – UA Master Gardener Presentation on Warm Season Vegetable Gardening/Eat Healthy and Happiness

·       March 20, 4-6 p.m.: Girl Scout Resource Center, 4300 E. Broadway Blvd.: Girl Scouts Troop 1934 “Science of Happiness” Merit Badge Activities, including Happiness Survey, Making a Happiness Journal, Gratitude Cards and Bliss/Happy Bags

·       March 20: Live Happy Wall for Tucson Medical Center staff and visitors only

·       March 20: Tucson Downtown Partnership will host an outdoor Live Happy Wall, time and location to be announced.

·       March 20: Woods Memorial Library, 3455 N. 1^st Ave., will host a Tree of Gratitude. Patrons can add their thoughts about what makes them happy www.pima.library.gov/woods .

·       March 20: Joel D. Valdez Library, 101 N. Stone Ave., will host a Live Happy Wall in the lobby.

·       March 21, 6-7 p.m.: Tucson Tuesday Laughter Yoga, Friends Meeting House, 931 N. 4^th Ave., (520.449.0213 or http://laughteryoga.org)

·       March 21, 4-7 p.m.: University of Arizona Village Farm, U-Pick, 4210 N. Campbell Ave., (https://tucsonvillagefarm.arizona.edu)

More information about Do Happy Today is available at www.dohappytoday.com, www.facebook.com/dohappytoday or   www.communityrenaissance.biz .

Tour of Zappos and more

Last week, as part of my continuing research on happiness and well-being (part of #dohappytoday), I was in Las Vegas (my hubby was attending a motorcycle auction).  We scheduled a tour of the fulfillment center, Zappos, (http://tours.zappos.com) and met with a Happiness Alliance colleague (www.happycounts.org) about the work she is doing through Lift Up Las Vegas.  I learned a lot from both the Zappos experience and the conversation with Alice Edwards.  Here's my quick summary:

From Zappos--where the WOW! culture is working to deliver happiness via a happy workplace.  I think many of these elements could be implemented in any workplace!!

• Inspirational quotes from diverse thought leaders are on walls and elevator doors.  NOTE:  Zappos is located on an eight acre campus that was formerly the Las Vegas City Hall and jail.
• The jail has been transformed into a 24/7 work out/fitness center with "mother care" rooms nearby where new moms have access to free breast pumps.  Child care is not provided, but kids and pets (pets are vetted through a work team) are welcome.
• Three full-time Life Coaches offer paid for 6 week life coaching classes for all employees.
• Walls are splattered with plexiglass work design boards, book covers (recommended as part of their company university.  See www.deliveringhappiness.com/zappos-core-values
• "Funengineers" help plan "dream experiences" for employee teams.
• Customer Loyalty Teams (CLT, i.e. call center employees) are encouraged to have unlimited customer call time and promote "personal emotional connections."  Based on the customer call, an employee can send Zappos gift cards, various freebies, even arrange a Zappos party for the customer if the employee feels the customer needs some extra happiness in his/her life.
• Compared to the average one year term for call center employees, Zappos CLTs average five years.
• It can take up to 84 days to "hire" employees; they complete a 5 1/2 week training course (IT folks also learn how to be a part of a CLT) and, upon graduation, new employees are greeted into the company with a "parade" hosted by other employees.
• All employees are full-time.  Hourly earnings are $10.00/hour during training; $14.00/hour after graduation and pay increases are decided by the teams/circles as part of their management approach:  holacracy www.holacracy.org
• Benefits include complete medical, dental, workforce housing benefits, health management and wellness education and training.
• There are multiple ways to earn Zappos dollars, purchase prizes for doing WOW, giving coworkers monthly WOW bonuses.
• Free snacks, free ebook downloads (for participation in the company university).
• Lunch areas have free or less than $5.00 healthy menu choices with ping-pong, miniature golf, and bikes to check out (with helmets provided) to do meals in the city.
• Self-management and peer-training are the tools for team-building.
• Work cubicles are decorated per each individual and employees are identified by Zappos-styled "license plates" that mark years of employment.
• Work areas have designated local charity donation boxes that are determined monthly by circle teams.  Teams get bonus points for volunteering in the community.

From my conversation about LiftUp Vegas:

• Though the Vegas survey (via the Happiness Alliance) has been promoted since November, few have responded.  I suggested the "donation" button may be suggesting a donation is needed to do the survey--which it isn't.
• Although the survey produces a happiness profile (I have done it twice), and offers links to PPT slides on how to increase one's happiness, there may need to be a quicker "gift" in response to doing the survey--maybe an emoji sticker.
• Alice is hoping Las Vegas can become a Blue Zone City.  This was the biggest "aha" for me--I think Tucson, our region, other parts of Arizona can become part of the Gallup-Healthways Blue Zone Project www.bluezonesproject.com 
• Alice has a strong technical background and is familiar with the holacracy software.
• Her ideas include setting up a platform for a web-based "white labeled" well-being and happiness app.  While much of this info is beyond my understanding, I wonder if folks at StartupTucson  might be interested in this www.startuptucson.org
• NEXT STEPS for LiftUp Vegas--build up the current survey, expand well-being classes, increase online technology, partner with other happiness and well-being groups.

So, yes, there is more to do, see, and learn about in Vegas than poker, fancy food, or expensive celebrity shows!!

Better for Us--Why is This Important?

Better for Us:  Why is this important?—Because it takes a village to make one

  
Years ago, I met Richard Harwood of the Harwood Institute.  Richard is a nationally recognized expert on the what is going on in the hearts of Americans.  In one of his books, Hope Unraveled (and cited in his 2007 book, Make Hope Real), he cites four reasons for the divisions we have in our nation, states, communities, and neighborhoods.  Richard calls them “broken covenants”:

·       Lost Faith in the American Dream

·       Free-for-all on basic values

·       Materialism and consumerism run amuck

·       Breakdown in community  www.theharwoodinstitute.org/sharehope

These broken covenants are tearing at the fabric of our public lives. As a result, many of us don’t even know our neighbors, have a very thin safety net of people we can rely on, and are isolated behind our electronic devices and security-locked doors. 

In my own neighborhood in central Tucson 30% of the residents are rentals and I almost daily see moving vans move on the street.  At a recent annual meeting of a nearby neighborhood, the only neighbors attending were the association officers, minus one.  Another neighborhood leader in Tucson admitted to me that “the only thing that gets people to our meetings is a crisis and it has to be a pretty scary one at that.”  So focusing on crime, speeding, zoning, and potholes are the topics of the day at local cafés, generating toxic attitudes that spill into public meetings.

Not too long ago I was hired to moderate a contentious gathering of engineers, consultants, neighborhoods and elected officials.  The first words spoken by a public member was an obscenity—and young children were present.  This escalated into shouting and arm waving members approaching the “front of the room” (mostly men) cowering against the wall.  Fortunately, the location was at a university building where a security officer took me aside telling me that he detected liquor and the lingering odor of marijuana.  So I called for city police backup, wrote up public conversation ground rules (which I had requested to be posted but weren’t), and offered the belligerent members a separate conversation room where I would be moderating.  The offenders left, the police stayed, and the conversation took place.

But I cried about this experience for three days and wouldn’t talk with the other team members for a week.  They had let me down and even I didn’t feel safe in a public space.  Fortunately, my career with another professional team continued for a few years.  But that experience was a turning point in the direction of my work.

Recognizing that what Richard Harwood said about broken covenants was true, but trying, as he has in his work, to find a better way, I discovered hope:  there was a global movement improving happiness and well-being of  nations, states and communities.  www.actionforhappiness.org

My next post will tell you more about this better for us direction—toward hope, happiness and well-being.

 

Focused Fact:

 

 

 

In a New York Times Editorial 11/5/15, the author states that the national voter turnout of 36.3 % was the lowest in seventy-two  years.  The key factors were voter apathy, anger and frustration at mainly negative campaigns. 

Conclusion: negativity is bad for democracy.

 

 

BetterforUs Table of Contents

Draft of Contents for Better for Us BlogtoBook

Intro Post 1:  Why trust me on this?—

·        40+ years of paid experience in community development and education with local and national government, state and national foundations, private sector

·        Academic background: B.A. English, M.Ed., Adult Education, PhD. Education and Rhetoric

·        Training and certification from NeighborWorks, The Kettering Foundation, U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development

·        Published writer (fiction and nonfiction)

·        Executive Director of a local nonprofit

·        Community Volunteer with entrepreneurial, educational, literacy, and social justice organizations

Post 2:  Why is this information important?—

·        Communities currently face economic and cultural divides, mirroring national and global divisions

o   Cite local example(s)

·        Negative, fear-based approaches to community development continue to deepen the divisions and limit productive, growth and well-being. 

o   Cite local example(s)

·        Globally a movement has started to measure and implement happiness, health and well-being tools in communities, states and nations.

o   Cite global and local (Santa Monica) examples

Posts 3-5: Focus on Happiness

·        Global rankings and indicators of change

·        Example of localized/global and national efforts:  Action for Change, Kindspring, Happiness Sprinkling, Live Happy and Do Happy Today

·        Focus Facts (repeat image)

Posts 6-8:  Focus on Health/Well-being

·        Global rankings and indicators of change

·        Example of local efforts: Healthy Pima (many partners), research at UA and ASU

·        Focus Facts

Posts 9-11: Focus on Creative Class

·        Data on culture of entrepreneurs and importance of the Creative Class (Richard Florida)

·        Example of local efforts:  LocalFirstAz, Startup Tucson, Tucson Young Professionals, Innovate Arizona

·        Focus Facts

Post 12:  Biblio/Easy Read