Resurgence Magazine: Read Rupert Sheldrake's interview with Charlie Murphy for Resurgence magazine below.

THE POWER OF HOPE

Charlie Murphy is the co-founder of a remarkable youth programme called The Power of Hope, which has been running summer camps for teenagers in the Northwestern United States and in British Columbia for the last 12 years. This programme is now coming to Britain, with the name LIFEbeat; the first camps are scheduled for August 2008. Charlie’s work has been recognized internationally through his election to an Ashoka Fellowship, making him part of a world-wide association of leading social entrepreneurs. Here he talks to Rupert Sheldrake, whose teenage sons have attended the Power of Hope camps in Canada for several summers.

Rupert: What is the Power of Hope?

Charlie: Power of Hope is an empowerment programme for teenagers aged 14-18 from all walks of life. It’s based on the belief that young people have huge gifts to give to the world in terms of energy, insight, imagination, and vision. When their gifts are recognized and received, they gain a sense of self that holds them in good stead as they move into adulthood. The
program also provides an opportunity for forward-thinking adults to share their wisdom and passion for life with young people.

Rupert: What is unique about the camps?

Charlie: The first thing is the diversity of participants. A typical camp in North America includes 50 youth: African Americans, Native Americans, Caucasians, and Latinos; Christians, Moslems, Buddhists, pagans, and agnostics; youth from wealthy families as well as those who don’t know where their next meal will come from; homeless youth, foster youth, and teens from stable families. Given the world situation, we believe the ability to move fluidly across cultural and religious divides is a critical leadership skill for this upcoming generation. Where else can a homeless youth
discuss the impact of his first experience with meditation with a youth who gave up their trip to Paris in order to come to camp?

Second is the number and quality of adults on the staff. For a camp with 50 youth we have a largely volunteer, culturally diverse staff of 25 adults including artists, social change agents, innovators, nature educators, people practised in the healing arts and youth workers. I’ve worked in the social change movement my entire adult life and I noticed that many people with the most passion for making this a better world, don’t share their wisdom with the youth. Over and over again at Power of Hope, we find the youth are hungry for new, hopeful ideas. And when they learn about things like the sustainability movement, for example, they say, “Why hasn’t anyone ever told us about this?” For the adults the exposure to new ideas andexperiences is equally powerful. I love that a middle age white professional has the opportunity to join a hip hop improv circle, rapping for the first time.

Third is the structure and purpose of the week itself.
The youth and adults together build what we call a
heart-centered, creative community: a place where you can feel safe enough to take creative risks, to say what you feel, and to explore new ideas. The goals for the week include finding one’s voice through the creative arts, learning from difference, exploring one’s inner life, learning from nature, and finding ways to make a difference in the world.

Rupert: Can you give us a picture of what actually happens?

Charlie: Sure, each morning starts with a whole group empowerment session on a theme. It might be about your relationship to yourself and others; learning from difference; creating a life plan; or exploring an issue such as poverty, racism, or gender issues. We use experiential learning activities that give youth the chance to look at their lives and relationships in new ways. Over the course of the day the youth also take two or three smaller workshops on themes ranging from creative arts (drumming, dance, theatre, hip hop, or spoken word), inner skills like centering meditation and martial arts; nature exploration; and world issues, activism, and leadership. In the evenings we have whole group creative activities like theatre improv night, music and dance night and open mic. The challenge to the youth and adults at the start of the week is to spend our time becoming creators of culture rather than passive consumers. The emphasis in all of the workshops is improvisation, collaboration, fun, and depth.

Rupert: How do you prepare the staff?

Charlie: Our basic idea is that young people thrive in the company of adults who themselves are awakened to their own calling, who are in touch with their creativity, and who are able to communicate authentically. So adult trainings are not about how to fix or help young people; they’re about how to connect with your own creativity and authenticity so that young people can grow in your company.

Rupert: You’ve been doing this for 12 years, so can you say something about the actual effects of the programme?

Charlie: Young people tell us they come away with more understanding and compassion for why people are the way they are. By building an atmosphere that communicates real safety, the issues that are important for young people rise to the surface and they have the support to deal with them.

Young people also take more ownership of their educational process, and we often see them do better at school. I often hear from parents that their son or daughter has never been more open about who they are and what they’re interested in doing.

We don’t have a list of things that young people should do. The point is to find a creative response to what you care about. We notice that they make powerful choices, with a deeper level of engagement in their community or school. Often we see young people getting involved in environmental or social justice work.

Rupert: And for the adults?

Charlie: We always have more adult volunteers than we can handle – for
two reasons. The adults are invited to enter an atmosphere of creative risk taking, so they are on their own learning edge right along with the youth.
If they are not giving a workshop, for example, they take a workshop so they come away with all kinds of new ideas and practices they can use.
The young people become so open to learning and so respectful of each other and the staff, that the adults get to see youth in a whole new light – it’s like being let into their world. Over and over again adults leave the program saying they have a deeper sense of hope for the future.

Rupert: So far these camps have mainly been in the United States and Canada. Can they work in other contexts?

Charlie: A couple of years ago we had the opportunity to work with youth organisations in Uganda, and so we brought our basic model there,
including the adult training. The work that we’ve done to date has been with teenagers living with HIV and AIDS. The impact has been very similar to the US in terms of this deep feeling of safety and sense of belonging to this creative community. One of the crying problems in Uganda is the effect of stigma, which is the biggest stumbling block to addressing problems such as AIDS. Our training brought a way for Ugandans who work with youth to apply what we call social emotional learning, or psycho-social support.

Rupert: How did you get involved in this work?

Charlie: As a young person I went to a camp where the adults had a high level of training in experiential education in working with groups. I developed a real passion for facilitation and what it means to create a vibrant learning experience within a group. I also spent 17 years as a poet and singer, so I have an arts background. So this worked has joined together these two streams of my life, creativity and artistic expression and a passion for working with groups.

Lifebeat camp will be held at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire and Charlie Murphy will be leading two weekend training programmes for adults in the spring. For details, email info@lifebeat.co.uk.