GFSC connects people across cultures and borders to actively exchange ways of building resilient, self-reliant communities.

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GFSC offers networking, virtual mentoring, training, materials and other support for facilitators and other professionals in areas affected by disasters as well as for those who want to be prepared in case of future disasters. Read more about our Disaster & Crisis Intervention Workshops. Please contact us at info@globalfacilitators.org to arrange for customized training to meet your needs and the needs of your organization or community.

• Inspiration: What motivated you to get involved?
• Describe the people impacted by project
• Action: What did you do?
• Results: What's different now?

Our best wishes for a new year of positive change -
actions we can all take to make our world a better place.
We invite you to enjoy this video/recording ...

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me"

Dear Friends of GFSC,

We just received a donation to GFSC with this enclosed note:

"Contribution in lieu of Christmas gifts for our dear friends."

What a wonderful, thoughtful gesture! So many of us really do have all we need, even in these tough economic times. Making a contribution to a charitable organization doing work that makes a difference in communities around the world, and which is close to the hearts of both donor and honoree, is a great idea.

GFSC offers mentoring, and training to help people learn more effective ways to rebuild their personal and social structures after a crisis or trauma has affected their community. When a crisis strikes a small group (individual, family or neighborhood), usually community support systems can assist in the longer term recuperation after the short term and rescue efforts are completed. When a disaster strikes an entire community, all the support systems can be overburdened or severely damaged.

In these times of economic and environmental uncertainty it is important that more people understand the psychosocial effects of stress and trauma, and learn effective techniques for helping one another recover their emotional, social and psychological balance.

GFSC is known throughout the world for helping people apply culturally appropriate techniques to help their communities. We strongly believe that communities can and should rely on themselves as much as possible to build inner strength and coping skills.

Your donation helps us share these techniques.

This past year, working with limited funds and personnel, GFSC has been able to:

• mentor facilitators in China, helping their communities rebuild their social structures in the aftermath of the earthquakes there.
• offer additional materials, tips and mentoring to Californians who have participated in GFSC Disaster & Crisis Intervention (DCI) workshops, so they could better assist their communities after the recent devastating wildfires there.
• conduct a Community Recovery Process: Building Personal, Social & Community Resilience (formerly known as DCI) workshop in Austin, TX including participants from California, New Mexico, Texas. Some are now arranging for GFSC workshops in their own communities.

With your support we can do more:

• a book, based on the GFSC community recovery process will broaden the reach of our successful model, including examples of successful applications from many different parts of the world.
• webinars, to reach more people interested in learning about how they can help their communities deal with traumatic situations;
  
• workshops in communities or organizations that want to apply the GFSC process to improve community life in the face of stressful conditions.

We thank you for your past support and hope we can count on you to help us meet our goals for 2009.

"Mike & I started making donations to charitable organizations as Christmas gifts for our families some years ago. Then our families started to do the same for us in lieu of other gifts. This is really special for us."

Or mail your check to:
GFSC
11 Sequin Road
West Hartford, CT 06117

We wish you a happy, safe and peaceful holiday season.

Lenny Diamond, Tim Karpoff, Marieann Shovlin, BJ Diamond