As part of our 2015 Seed Grant Initiative, Kosmos has selected five additional projects that demonstrate special promise and align with our mission. We will follow these projects closely in the year ahead, offering editorial and other forms of support.

The Five 2015 Projects of Promise are:

Lots of Love Mobile Tool Lending Library – Detroit, MI(image)

Lots of Love is a volunteer-powered, city-wide organization in Detroit, Michigan. Co-founded by two seasoned community organizers, Lots of Love builds capacity for Detroit residents by offering a free, mobile tool lending library via a mobile tool truck. They promote resident engagement and community care in Detroit neighborhoods through the tactical transformation of vacant lots into productive community spaces. Every investment in Lots of Love has a rippling effect across the City of Detroit, as the program builds capacity for tens of dozens of community organizations each year. They purchase quality tools and equipment that can handle wear from vacant lots and can be used time and time again. Find out more about them and lend a hand here.    http://www.loldetroit.org/

(image) ReGeneration – A Global Citizenship Curriculum – Oakland, CA

Generation Waking Up (GenUp) is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California whose purpose is to ignite a generation of young people to bring forth a thriving, just, and sustainable world. Through their core programs – WakeUp, Thrive, and Synergize – they are helping the Millennial Generation realize its fullest potential and impact.

The ReGeneration Curriculum will provide high school students with a big picture understanding of today’s global challenges and opportunities. They will learn to see the interrelatedness of issues through a multidisciplinary framework that connects science, social studies, and humanities with taking action in the world. It will give students tools and resources to identify solutions and to find their role in transforming their schools, community, and our global society. Learn more and support them here. Links: http://www.generationwakingup.org/regeneration-curriculum; https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/regeneration-a-global-citizenship-curriculum

 

(image) Port of Havana, January 2015. Photo by Daniel R. Smith.

The Seattle-Havana-Tehran Poster Show

The Seattle-Havana-Tehran Poster Show builds on two firsts: the first U.S.-Cuba, inter-city design exchange since their 1959 revolution (The Seattle-Havana Poster Show, 2007), and the first U.S. exhibition of contemporary Iranian posters since their 1979 revolution (The Seattle-Tehran Poster Show, 2008). The responsible curators, Daniel R. Smith (Seattle), Iman Raad (Tehran) and Pepe Menéndez (Havana), are currently collaborating on a three city “super” project. It will premiere in Seattle this September before traveling to Iran and Cuba in 2016. Featuring up to 60 arts-related posters, the show will be a lively exchange of each country’s contemporary design and popular culture. Links: www.seattlehavana.com; www.seattletehran.com

(image) EmerGENcies Protocol – mapping ecovillages

The natural disasters triggered by climate chaos are responsible for 150,000 deaths every year and cause millions of people to seek refuge elsewhere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts 50 million “environmental refugees” by 2010, and 150 million by 2050.It is in this backdrop of increasing displacement due to conflict and climate change around the world, the EmerGENcies Protocol is an emerging initiative developed by the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) mapping ecovillage, permaculture, and sustainable led responses to crisis. GEN is a volunteer led international NGO that connects ecovillages and communities around the world.

Through an inclusive process honoring local knowledge, culture, wisdom, and best practice, we hope to empower partner communities of participating ecovillages in co-designing the modules and technologies that will emerge. Learn more about the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN)  http://gen.ecovillage.org/

The Embodied Cosmology Project(image)

The Embodied Cosmology Project has two branches; an educational performance called; “Cosmogenesis: The Story of Us. A Story of the Cosmos, Deep Ecology and Human Choice” and a fifteen-part, non-formal, movement and arts-based science curriculum. Both branches of the work take people of all ages through the 13.8 billion-year, evidence-based, scientific story of Universe and Earth.

Cosmogenesis powerfully activates the creative instinct within people that responds to and commits to protecting life’s delicate beauty. The project addresses the loss of human creativity and the myth of separation: which contribute to war, conflict, climate change, habitat loss, and species extinction. Find out more at www.embodiedcosmology.org