Global Leaders

By Melanie Blow, CPS Partnership Community It’s been twenty years since the Centers for Disease Control discovered that childhood trauma, like abuse or neglect, dramatically increased survivors chances of dying of 7 of America’s 10 leading causes of death. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study demonstrated that children who survive any type of abuse (physical, emotional, sexual), experience neglect (physical or emotional), witness domestic violence, depend on an addicted or severely mentally ill caregiver, experience a parent’s incarceration, or endure parental divorce, abandonment or death are more likely to experience impaired mental health, physical…continue reading →

By Gaylen Curtis, CPS Partnership Community As a divorce attorney, I have a front row view into broken marriages. And unlike our own relationships, being inside of someone else's relationship lends itself toward an objective perspective. From this perspective, for me, it is clear what brings marriages to an end and informs about what works in marriage and what doesn't. It would seem obvious that before a person creates a business, or before a city becomes a city or a state becomes a state, some organizing agreement or principle would be put into…continue reading →

By Marianne Poncelet, CPS Global Partnership Community I had the great honour to meet Yehudi Menuhin in 1991 through one of my fairy tales, for which he kindly wrote a preface (« Romuar, a child from the earth and from the sky »). Together we created the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Brussels, Belgium, to contribute actively to intercultural dialogue and societal inclusion through the creative arts, by enabling co-creation and exchange of emerging musicians and artists, including from lesser-known minorities and by promoting and implementing the use of the creative arts to educate children…continue reading →

December 2018 By Terrie Lupberger, CPS Partnership Community Power. It’s a word that conjures up lots of mixed feelings – confusion, anger, desire, fear, misunderstanding, etc. In my work with women leaders, I find it’s a concept that continues to trip us up. The confusion is understandable. Up until now, we’ve primarily had masculine role models of leadership to emulate and aspire to.  We’ve pursued goals and accomplishments based mostly on external measures of success and in a win-lose paradigm. We’ve had to hide parts of ourselves to play the game and get…continue reading →

December, 2018 by Sandy Oestreich, CPS Partnership Community Did you know that the Equal Rights Amendment is not yet fully a part of the U.S. Constitution? The National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance and hundreds other ERA organizations nationwide are and have been for almost 100 years at fairly steady work to amend the U.S. Constitution since the ERA was first written in 1923 to guarantee that women and girls are treated equally with men and boys in the U.S.A.  It's important — now more than ever — for the U.S. government to state…continue reading →

December, 2018 By Regina Marian, CPS Partnership Community One sublime summer afternoon relaxing with my daughter at her home in Alma, Colorado (side fact: at 10,578 ‘ Alma is the highest incorporated town in North America, which for some reason my older brother Skip loves to mention to folks after visiting us - funny), we sat outside watching her 3 year old Milo, my grandson, playing in the front yard. Front yards in the mountains are not what you see in sitcoms of suburbia. Instead of an expanse of Kentucky bluegrass with shrubs and azaleas,…continue reading →

December, 2018 By Rayona Sharpnack, CPS Partnership Community No one is born with bias. Male and female, we each come into the world with flailing little limbs and open little minds. Then the cultural conditioning starts. It's inevitable. No matter which institutions are promoting their stereotypes – our family, religion, school, the media, or "tradition" – we get conditioned to think the way they do. Many men have been conditioned to regard women as less important, less intelligent, less ambitious, and less serious-minded. The thing we often forget is that this conditioning affects…continue reading →

December, 2018 by Penny Vos, CPS Partnership Community Penny Vos, in Cooma, regional New South Wales, Australia, is the Vice President of the international partnership organization Solidareca Bonvolo. Her initiative Mama Wimbi supports women artisans, students, and their communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She visited Goma, DRC this year with her daughter: “We visited every home and every school associated with our Solidareca Bonvolo work in Goma, and we opened the school library that I built in honor of my parents.” Constructive Change in the Congo “Mama” honors the role…continue reading →