My first document

A Toddler’s Handbook to Visionary Organizing

Written by: Samantha Toia

Illustrated by: Alifa Chowdhury

Author's Note:

I was inspired to write this book on visionary organizing for so many reasons. First being the incredible people I met in Detroit, learning about visionary organizing, and James and Grace Lee Boggs. James and Grace were such amazing activists and their philosophy has really inspired me. Seeing their ideas on community building and visionary organizing play out in real life by visiting the places we visit in this book, Freedom Dreams, Freedom Freedom Growers, Birwood House, and The Boggs School, I have created a whole new set of values for my own family about what is important and what truly matters. Jimmy and Grace shared a collective focus on growing our souls and our communities, placing much value on building connection with ourselves, each other and the earth. This was all meant to steer us away from the capitalistic society we live in and to grow ourselves and our communities at a smaller scale, focusing on more worthwhile things than material goods. Balancing their ideas with the capitalist driven society that we live in has been one of the most challenging shifts in mindset I have ever had to make. This leads me into my next inspiration for creating this book. I have two sons, a two year old named Ellis and almost one year old named Jonah. I have been wrapping my brain around the idea of explaining visionary organizing to them for the last semester of learning in Detroit I want my boys to grow up learning the value of people, connections, being kind, sharing resources, and all around creating change in the world. I want them to captivate their creativity and to do better than myself in terms of being selfish and valuing material goods over innate human connection. I want them to thrive, but I also want them to care, and the concept of visionary organizing does just that. It shows people all of the good in the world, and it teaches us that our relationship with ourselves and our community is necessary to truly thrive, and in practice it is the most beautiful way of life that I have personally seen and had the privilege to experience thus far. With all of that said, how am I supposed to engrain this in two young children consistently and reliably, when I am someone who has not perfected or even figured out fully how to start becoming a visionary organizer myself? This is where writing this book has come into play! Throughout the writing process, I read this to my two year old I asked him questions, watched to make sure he stayed engaged- I wanted to make sure this would be absorbable and that it would stick for him

-Samantha Toia

Ilustrator's Note:

I spent a lot of my life in the beautiful bustling city of Chittagong, Bangladesh I credit a lot of my successes to the people in the city and the experiences I had there. I would not be the person I am today if it were not for my time in the city. Chittagong is loud, it is vivacious and it runs on community spirit Everyone knows each other in some way or another and we all operate on the knowledge that our success does not mean anything if the person next to us cannot experience the same success. Chittagong believes that it takes a village, not just to raise a child, but to build a nation of thoughtful people. I grew up around people who preached and practiced the benefits of having a vibrant community. My experience in North America however could not be more different Individualism and capitalist definitions of success blurred the initial concepts of success I had learned in Bangladesh. However, my time in Detriot mirrors my childhood experience. Places such as Birwood House, FFG, and Freedom Dreams all emphasize the value of community and relationships between people. It was oddly refreshing to immerse myself in these communities. I felt like I was at home away from home.

I decided to work on this book with Samantha because it mattered to me that younger generations growing up in the West had the ability to understand concepts that are integral to "growing our souls." Understanding concepts such as agency, and community, and aspiring for experiences that are deeper than material ones are important to instill early on These values were instilled in me early through my experiences in Bangladesh, and along the way, I lost them. My hope with this book is to give children a way to hold on to these values and give them the opportunity to grip onto them stronger than I did.

Throughout working on this book, I've thought about the Funtumfunefu Denkyemfunefu a handful of times. The West African Adinkra symbol represents two mythical crocodiles with one shared stomach. The crocodiles share one stomach, so neither of them survives without the other. And it is a reminder that individualism is harmful to all. When contrasted with the idea of the American Dream of individual success and fame, the Funtumfunefu represents the importance of democracy in all aspects of life encouraging inclusiveness, empathy, and compromise. It allows for the shift from thinking about individual goodness and things to community survival and sustainability. I hope this book can reflect this beautiful idea. Happy Reading!

-Alifa Chowdhury

Well, hello there! My name is Ellis and I love all sorts of things. I love my cats, books, music, my mom, and my friends, BUT most of all- I LOVE MY COMMUNITY!

Have you ever heard of community before? No? Well, a community is a bunch of people that live, work, and play together. People who join in community spread love and kindness, and everyone gets an invitation to play. Community is also great to have when we need to solve big problems!

Let's go look at some great communities and see what they are doing!

Our first stop is a place called Freedom Dreams Here at Freedom Dream they focus on building community agency, health and wealth

Agency is when a person, or a community, is able to make decisions for the way they want to live. The health of the community is important for it to continue to grow and keep a healthy neighborhood,, and wealth is important to make sure that everyone in the community is able to buy what they need!

Freedom Dreams stands together in community against things that are hurting them! Do you want to know what else is really cool? They teach kids, just like you and me, how to build houses, garden beds, benches and even more awesome things! Oh, and they also have a garden that anyone can get food from! It is so delicious!

What would you build at Freedom Dreams?

Just like Freedom Dreams, Mama Myrtle and Baba Wayne have a really big garden that their community gets to eat from and help grow! This place is called Feedom Freedom Growers Going there feels like magic! They grow all sorts of things in their garden, like: peppers, collard greens, grapes, and even my favorite, WATERMELON!

At Feedom Freedom Growers they use their time gardening to make a difference in their community and in the world. Learning and growing their heart and soul is VERY meaningful to the work done here!

They believe that buying stuff does not help us grow, but opening our hearts, spending time with one another, and giving our bodies lots of nutrition is what helps to make us into better people

How do you grow your soul and your heart?

Birwood House is our next stop, and I REALLY love it here.

Birwood House is a place where the people in the community can laugh, have fun and create change! Sometimes people in this community go on walks together, eat together, and plan super fun events.

They also do things that would make their neighborhood stronger, like build trash bins or even talk to each other about how to make their community even better.

The Birwood House is owned by an incredible woman named Kim. Kim is an advocate for her community. An advocate is someone who fights really hard for the changes they want to see!

What is something you are an advocate for?

Alas, our final stop of the day…

We are at the Boggs School! This is a place of learning, creativity, critical thinking, and building community Critical thinking means when you are learning about something, you always want to have all of the information that you can, compare that information, and think about it with empathy and kindness Critical thinking helps us to be great problem solvers!

The Boggs school wants kids like us to grow our souls, just like Mama Myrtle wants us to do! They value our friendships with each other, our friendships with the Earth, but also our friendship with our minds and body!

What does your school value?

Wow! Those were some really cool places that we visited today. What is one thing that you noticed about all of them?

Oh, I know! They all want to grow and love their community!

Freedom Dreams stands with their community to create agency, wealth and educate kids on useful skills.

Feedom Freedom Growers stands with their community to bring yummy foods that are good for our bodies and help us to build friendships with each other and connect to the Earth.

Birwood House stands with their community to bring people together to have fun and create changes in their neighborhood.

The Boggs School stands with their community by helping kids to be creative and critical thinkers and love and strengthen their own communities

Building community and making it strong is a HUGE part of how we make a change in the world!

Change can happen through many processes, but I believe the most effective way to change the world is through Visionary Organizing.

Visionary Organizing is when people come together in community to make smaller changes in the lives around them by creating resources that are not focused on individual growth, but creating a stronger group of people that can rely on each other!

Visionary organizing may seem hard to understand! It was for me too!

All you have to do is be friendly with the people around you, and share some of the things you know or have that could help someone else!

I practice visionary organizing by sharing all of my toys, inviting everyone to play and eating pizza together. This is small, but it is big to us!

Now that you know different ways you could build your community and practice visionary organizing, what are some changes you would like to make?

Remember, this takes time, patience and a lot of love, but it creates a community full of happiness!

I hope you had fun learning about community and visionary organizing with me today! I sure did.

I can’t wait to see what awesome idea you come up with! (and maybe, you can teach your friends and family about it too!)