Ashley Cecil

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Whatever your social justice concern, you would have found educated voices speaking about it at the “Engaging Our World” conference. Paul Loeb, who researches and writes about citizen responsibility and empowerment, was a key guest speaker. Other participants included many faculty members at the University of Louisville, representatives from various nonprofits, and religious/spiritual leaders.

To squeeze in as much as possible, I brought along a friend to divvy up the workshops. Between the two of us, we heard panelists field questions on environmental issues (panelists sketched above), watched an Oxfam video presentation, learned about the cleft palate corrective surgeries that Dr. Mark Chariker performs (glad my friend was assigned to that one),

listened to representatives from “Women in Transition” explain how they help women rise above poverty (speaker and conference attendee sketched above), attended a lecture on Humanity and Sustainability, and created models of “ideal communities” with ACTIVE Living that best enable active lifestyles that fight obesity.

The conference planning committee didn’t just stop at booking knowledgeable speakers and organizing wonderful workshops. Everything was covered, down to the biodegradable, sugarcane fiber cutlery used at lunch. My friend took her knife back to Columbus to test the claim that it would decompose in her compost pile.

I left the conference feeling a mix of shock at the reality and severity of numerous looming issues while also inspired by the enthusiasm generated by the participants. Although possibly skewed since I am devoting an increasing amount of time to these issues, it still seems that many of these topics are gaining momentum and beginning to move mountains.

Technorati tags: Oxfam, Engaging Our World, social justice, Paul Loeb, University of Louisville

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