We knew it would take a bit of time and research to figure out how we could take action, as we also had to consider what skills and resources we had. But we knew there was one step we could take towards action in the meantime. That step was talking to people who are currently doing so.

Thus NOW What? Dialogue was born.

In a cozy setting, we would like to bring together a gathering of people from different walks of life to have an open dialogue hosted by a group or person currently working to solve sustainability issues. Through the dialogues, we hope to pique new ideas, thoughts, and actions.

Our first Dialogue on November 10, 2011 will be hosted by Shift Urban Cargo Delivery.

Shift is the first business of its kind in Canada, replacing delivery trucks and vans with a more appropriate and efficient technology for urban distribution: zero-emissions, heavy-duty cargo trikes. It was founded by students and recent graduates of Simon Fraser University, BCIT, and the University of British Columbia. These young entrepreneurs came together with a shared vision to create empowering green jobs, and to reduce the impact of goods movement in Vancouver. As a worker co-operative, the business is owned and democratically operated by its workers.

Shift’s mission is to provide a zero-emissions, cycle-based goods distribution service; offer sustainable goods-transportation solutions to business clients; facilitate the empowerment and skills-building of our worker-members through a worker co-operative model; and promote positive cycling culture in Vancouver.

Please email Alyssa (a.kostello@now-org.com) to RSVP.

CGIU 2011 was a 3-day conference that was hosted by the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative, in La Jolla/San Diego. This is the 4^th annual CGIU conference, and brought together nearly 1200 attendees from around the world to San Diego for an intense 3 days of networking, learning, and collaborating.

CGIU strives to engage the next generation of leaders and change makers from college campuses from around the world, and bring them together to connect, learn, be inspired, and raise awareness for their efforts on an international stage. It builds upon the successful model of the Clinton Global Initiative, launched by former United States President Bill Clinton, by bringing together students, national youth organizations, experts, and celebrities to discuss solutions to issues that are part of the five focus areas of CGIU: Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, and Public Health. However, CGIU is not just another conference that discusses problems- it also acts upon them by taking real, concrete steps to create a better world through the Commitments to Action.

The NOW! Organization’s Commitment to Action focused on the areas of Education and Environment & Climate Change. We committed to raise awareness of problems and solutions to sustainability through the performing arts, and to do so through our flagship program, the Act NOW! International Performance Writing Festival.

Keep reading below for a brief trip report on what happened at CGIU 2011!

NOW! Organization members at CGIU 2011 (from left to right): Ivan Liu, Janny Ke, and Denise Chau.

Friday, April 1, 2011

By Friday, all 3 NOW! members attending had arrived at UCSD. After having some free time in the morning to explore the local area around the UCSD campus, we made our way to registration at the UCSD RIMAC Arena. Afterwards, the Student Networking Event and Dinner took place in the Price Centre Ballroom West, where Mandy Moore, an actress and Ambassador for Population Services International, gave opening words to the assembled delegates. The Opening Plenary, entitled “What’s the Big Deal? Powering Innovation on Campus and Beyond” closed off the night and kick-started the conference on a high note, with an opening address by former US President Bill Clinton, and a focus on powering innovation that was moderated by President Clinton, and had a panel of speakers that included one of the co-founders of Youtube, as well as one of the co-founders of sOccket.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

We gathered for a quick breakfast before heading off to the first event of the day, the Morning Plenary, “The Urban Planet: Solutions for a Crowded World”. Afterwards, we then attended a skills session on utilizing Social Media to engage and innovate, where we had the opportunity to hear about the success and ideas of Alexis Ohanian, one of the founders of Reddit. The lunch session was next, where boxed lunches (in sustainable packaging!) was served alongside the CGIU Exchange Fair, where we explored the many booths that introduced to us the many initiatives and ideas that fellow students and corporate institutions were putting into action. Afterwards, we headed to the Afternoon Plenary session, “Financial Aid: Innovation for Affordability”, an engaging and relevant panel discussion moderated by Chelsea Clinton. We continued our packed day with a Working Session on “Scarcity and Crisis: Food, Water, and Energy as a Right and a Conflict Driver”, which featured Mandy Moore as its opening speaker. Following that, we then headed to the Closing Plenary, “A Conversation with President Clinton”, which also featured the actor Sean Penn, who shared with us his experience living and working in Haiti after the devastating earthquake and its efforts to rebuild. After a high-spirited and lively discussion, all the CGIU attendees went to the Closing Party for some dinner and to network in a more casual setting.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

The day started out bright and early, as we boarded buses to head to the Service Project at the San Diego Food Bank. We were treated to an early-morning bout of excitement when not only President Clinton addressed us, but also Drew Barrymore, a Hollywood actress, and Irwin Jacobs, founder of Qualcomm. At the project, we assisted in doing a variety of tasks that included sorting and distributing food, as well as assisting local families in obtaining much-needed supplies. After a quick lunch, the conference was officially over as all our new friends started heading their separate ways back to their homes across the world.

—————–

Attending CGIU 2011 was a great opportunity to not only network and connect with hundreds of leaders and change-makers from around the world, but also a fantastic learning experience. We incorporated many of the inspiration and ideas that we had from CGIU into our Commitment to Action, the Act NOW! Festival. We have not only made it more innovative, but expanded our reach and scope, especially with this being our first year opening up the Festival to international submissions. In addition, we also moved further to fulfilling our Commitment to Action by holding our first community performance of the Act NOW! winning plays at the CBC Studio 700 on May 17, 2011. It was our first time doing the performances outside of a school theatre setting, and it proved a very rewarding and successful experience, as over 100 people came to see the performances, resulting in a full house!

Click on the link below for the video of the performance!

“Fallen Heads” Premiere Performance

Playwright: Deborah Vogt
Directed By: Chalene Scott
Cast: Sigourney McAuley, Glenn Crossley, Hannah VanVarseveld, Ryan Scramstad
Filmed By: Sustainability TV

Who: students, educators (students not currently in arts/film/creative writing will be given priority)
Where: somewhere on UBC campus (TBD)
When: two 1-hour workshops, likely on two seperate Wednesdays in January – March (TBD)
(Please RSVP here; we will find a time when most people are free!)

What is the workshop about?

- learn about the basics of screenwriting that can be applied to short Youtube videos
- write, revise, and share your work in a fun, friendly environment
- learn about ways to leverage the arts to pique ideas, connect communities, and celebrate sustainability
- connect with other cool people!

Workshop outline
Workshop 1 (1h)
- creating a story
- story structure in short screenplay
- screenplay formatting

“homework”: experiment with screenwriting/videos!

Workshop 2 (1h)
- revisions – what are the common problems in amateur screenplays?
- sharing

The  screenwriting workshop is part of the ‘SuP (sustainability playwriting) outreach program at the  Act NOW! International Performance Writing Festival.

Interested? Please RSVP here. For more information, please contact: Janny Ke at janny.ke@now-org.com.

About NOW!
NOW! inspires and empowers synergistic solutions toward social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Founded in 2006, NOW! is a grassroots non-profit organization run entirely by dedicated youth volunteers. The 2009-2010 Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition partners with organizations such as the Playwrights Guild of Canada and Engineers without Borders and involves judges such as governor-general award-winning playwright Kevin Kerr and UBC professor David Ng. Building on the past two national playwriting competitions, NOW! is expanding the impact of sustainability theatre through the 2011 Act NOW! International Performance Writing Festival.

Join us on 8 January 2010!

Sustainability Education with a splash of creativity: Act NOW!

Act(s) -> Acting -> Action! What’s your role?

Join a fun and thought-provoking workshop on interdisciplinary solution in sustainability and engaging people from many walks of life in taking action in sustainability through creative writing and theatre. You will first experience this first hand by seeing the winning play of last year’s Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition (written by Samantha Landa, a UBC student). You will then work in groups to create an interdisciplinary solution to an issue in sustainability, and showcase it through a play.

Presenters: Denise Chau, Ivan Liu, Rebecca Gu, Janny Ke

Hope to see you there!

About the Student Leadership Conference

The Student Leadership Conference (SLC) brings together more than 1000 current and budding leaders to learn, discover, connect, and take action. Please visit http://slc.ubc.ca/ for more information.

About NOW!
NOW! inspires and empowers synergistic solutions toward social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Founded in 2006, NOW! is a grassroots non-profit organization run entirely by dedicated youth volunteers. The 2009-2010 Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition partners with organizations such as the Playwrights Guild of Canada and Engineers without Borders and involves judges such as governor-general award-winning playwright Kevin Kerr and UBC professor David Ng. Building on the past two national playwriting competitions, NOW! is expanding the impact of sustainability theatre through the 2011 Act NOW! International Performance Writing Festival.

NOW!’s workshop at SLC last year:
Let’s Talk Sustainability and Global Health (NOW! at the 2010 Student Leadership Conference)

Global Health, Sustainability, and Leadership

Come to learn more about cutting edge ideas and ways to take action in sustainability and global health. This panel discussion is presented by the UBC Neglected Global Diseases Initiative (NGDI) (www.ngdi-ubc.com) and NOW! (now-org.com). Dr. Kishor Wasan, prominent professor and researcher at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and a leader in the UBC NGDI, will facilitate a panel of distinguished professors and community leaders to explore sustainability and global health in the context of leadership. The panel includes Dr. James Tansey (Executive Director, Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation) and Jason Robinson (Founder and CEO, Sustainability Television).

About the Student Leadership Conference

The Student Leadership Conference (SLC) brings together more than 1000 student delegates to learn, discover, connect, and take action. Please visit http://slc.ubc.ca/ for more information. Hope to see you there!

Please visit here for more information about the Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition.

Related links:

Results of the 2008-2009 Act NOW! Playwriting Competition!

Winning play debuts in Vancouver [debut of Olivia's play by a youth troupe]

Write away!

Sustainability Television

Check the NOW! presentation out at the UBC Learning Conference!

Presented by Michelle Fan (Programme Director, NOW! Finance Portfolio)

The University of British Columbia Annual Learning Conference: Driving Forces behind Curricular and Pedagogical Changes

Thursday, October 29, 2009
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
4th Floor, Golden Jubilee Room
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre

“The Conference is a forum for educators to explore how society-at-large, disciplines, instructors, and students drive changes in curricular design and pedagogical practice.”

The NOW! Workshop at the conference…

Title
Inspiring Holistic Innovations Toward Sustainability with a Splash of Creativity

Duration
2:15 – 3:15pm

Abstract
Founded in 2006, NOW! is a non-profit national organization run by dedicated youth volunteers. NOW! bridges people from diverse backgrounds to sculpt innovative, holistic solutions toward social, environmental, and economic sustainability. One of the grassroots programs NOW! runs is the Act NOW! Playwriting Competition, Canada’s only national playwriting competition on sustainability run by youth for youth that engages young people across the nation to learn, evaluate, innovate and act with a splash of creativity.  Student volunteers of NOW! will share what they have learned themselves as they take on the leadership role to inspire and motivate youth across the nation.  Participants in the workshop will learn about how NOW! integrates drama and sustainability, and explore how students and educators can better integrate creative, holistic global citizenship education at UBC. Participants will also have the opportunity to write and perform short plays in groups to teach something they are passionate about.

Please see http://www.tag.ubc.ca/learningconference/ for more info.

Enjoy!

Please take check out our fall play performances!