Atlanta      I have heard the rap several times, but each time I still have to listen hard to make sure I am hearing it right.  When Luz Vega-Marquis, President of the Marguerite Casey Foundation in Seattle talks about the mission of their foundation being to support low income people building a movement of change, it is still so unique and unusual that you just want to pinch yourself.

In Atlanta over several days Marguerite Casey had convened its southern grantees and was walking them through the paces to talk about “movement building.”  How could this be possible?  In my little group we had to draw a picture at the beginning to visualize the power of a movement and summarize the readings.  We quickly had our best artist draw a prairie fire, which promptly went up on the wall.  The other tables had lots of words; they all had circles and arrows pointing all kinds of directions, and all manner of diagrams.  We could see it clearly in our little table, while our friends were still struggling with it all.

When Luz asked for questions most people wanted to know how they could get more money or figure out a way to network.  Hopefully by the end of the sessions for the first time and perhaps the only time all of our comrades would actually listen to the one foundation in the US that might really, actually, and truly want to help them build a movement!

 September 19, 2006