Phase One:
Campaign Overview - Description of Activities

» Mystery of Love Screening (December 11, 2006)
»The Day of Love Kickoff Event (January 22, 2007)
»The Day of Forgiveness (April 23, 2007)
»The Evening of Happiness (June 21, 2007)

»Spread the Love Grantees

Mystery of Love Screening
The public events associated with the campaign successfully reflected the theme of love and forgiveness through the spirit and eagerness of the participants. The first event was The Mystery of Love screening on December 11, 2006. Guests included over 65 representatives from local organizations, educators, service providers, and MPT staff and board management. Throughout the evening, guests enjoyed dinner and screened excerpts from The Mystery of Love broadcast. Campaign partners also talked about their involvement in the campaign and the transformation they believed the campaign could bring to the community.

The Day of Love Kickoff Event
The Day of Love was a kickoff event on January 22, 2007 for the local community groups who wanted to be a part of sharing the message of love and forgiveness. The program was designed to gather and energize the groups through a series of workshop sessions facilitated by local presenters. The goals of the event were to gather the potential participants to encourage and inspire them to spread what they have learned to their specific corners of the community. The event also wanted to equip participants with new resources and connections to foster open communication and aid them in their individual love and forgiveness programs.

The Day of Forgiveness
Another public event that was held to further the goals of the campaign was The Day of Forgiveness on April 23, 2007. This was a screening and discussion event which was intended to maintain the momentum from the Day of Love. Guests viewed excerpts from the upcoming broadcast of Power of Forgiveness, followed by an interactive panel discussion and audience Q&A. The event sought to provide public dialogue about the importance of forgiveness and encourage people to spread the idea of forgiveness throughout their communities.

The Evening of Happiness
A final event for Year 1 of the Campaign for Love and Forgiveness was the Evening of Happiness on June 21, 2007. This even culminated the activities of the Spread the Love grantees who have taken what they know about love and forgiveness and encouraged its implementation throughout the community. This event included dinner and dancing, as well as a video presentation of the grant projects in action.

 

Spread the Love Grantees

Part of the campaign’s goal was to utilize local groups dedicated to spreading the message of love and forgiveness through Spread the Love mini-grants. Awards were granted to six local organizations to take what they know about love and forgiveness and share it in various ways throughout the community. MPT documented many of the grant projects, and a video package synthesizing the activities was screened at the Evening of Happiness celebration on June 21st.

Fusion Partnerships, Inc is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to provide programs that help to foster social change. Fusion’s mini-grant was used to facilitate a series of conversations among program coordinators, staff, and supporters working in communities impacted by violence, poverty and racism. The goal of the conversations was to build skills and learn how to bring more love and forgiveness into the work of the participants. The participants met for four sessions to discuss topics ranging from applying love and forgiveness to professional endeavors to spiritual and self-love. The group incorporated music and journal writing into their conversations and reflections on love and forgiveness. The conversation sessions ended with a celebration and plans for expanding the series into the future with even more participants.

Quest: arts for everyone is a nonprofit company that seeks to promote understanding among all people using the arts. Quest conducted a one-week program at Chinquapin Middle School in Baltimore City. The participants were 18 deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing teenagers. The program sought to enhance understanding and communication between the deaf and hearing students. The students engaged in various activities and talked about real problems at school to apply what they were learning about love and forgiveness to those problems. The program had the students engage in creative thinking to not only solve the problems, but to also communicate with one another through their hearing differences. The students used their new knowledge and group collaboration to develop and perform visual theatre interpretations of the school problems and their creative solutions.

Saint Frances Academy is an independent Catholic high school located in inner-city Baltimore. The goals of the program were to help the students find alternatives to the violent culture that often surrounds them. Students were divided by gender to meet with community activist presenters. The male students met with Selwyn Ray, community activist and director of Recruitment & Partnerships at the Maryland Mentoring Partnership. Female students met with presenter Maria Broom, a local activist, actor, dancer, and director. Students were then broken down into small groups of about 10. The groups met for three sessions to discuss current issues of violence and how their solutions could be found by way of love and forgiveness. The project's closing activity was the Chain of Forgiveness. The massive chain, which was presented to the school on May 11, 2007, was created using strips of vinyl on which students, faculty, staff, and community members wrote messages of forgiveness pertinent in their own lives. Overall, program coordinators described the effort toward love and forgiveness as “a bright light during times of stress and chaos.”

Nyame Nti Cultural Healing Arts Therapy, Inc. organized a program at the Baltimore City Detention Center for Women. The program consisted of four meetings in four consecutive weeks. Activities ranged from song and dance, to conversation and poetry writing. Facilitators reported a great response to this program, stating how they were pleasantly surprised by the women’s overwhelmingly positive response to the program. At the close of the program, participants were issued certificates of participation and discussed ways they could apply their discussions to their everyday lives.

Academy of Success created a Spread the Love program at Violetville Elementary/Middle School, where conversations were conducted with both student and teacher participants. Conversations and activities focused on personal applications for love and forgiveness, especially in the relationship between students and teachers. Participants discussed classroom problems and possible solutions to make the school environment more positive for all involved. Students and teachers were able to engage in open dialogue about conflicts and apologize for anything they felt they had done wrong. The final session was an opportunity for students and teachers to have lunch together and celebrate their progress. Academy of Success plans to continue similar conversation projects with other groups in the future.

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