Reorganizing a Nonviolent Cities Project

What do you do when your Nonviolent Cities Project committee falls apart? 

Reassess, regroup, and reorganize! 

Just when things were moving along swimmingly with Nonviolent City Morro Bay, the bottom fell out of the project committee with the pull-out of support from the City of Morro Bay. To make things worse, a major player who ran the Morro Bay Resource Office suffered a stroke. (Fortunately, this person survived, but unfortunately, they decided to retire.) Then the director of the largest mutual aid organization had to leave that job to care for a sick husband, leaving the office unmanned and barely open. On top of all this, the monthly virtual meetings of fifteen organizations and agencies collaborating with Nonviolent City Morro Bay were discontinued due to the illness of the technical person who ran the Zoom program. It appeared that Nonviolent City Morro Bay was at an end.

Not so, said I!

After looking at the crumbling mess of the committee, it was necessary to ask the question whether we’d gone as far as we could with the Nonviolent Cities Project. With a switch to interest of supporting youth in communities across the country with the principles of nonviolence on the part of many cities in the nonviolent cities project, and with the increasing interest in youth projects in the community, I realized the answer was: No, Nonviolent City Morro Bay must continue. However, continuing exactly as before was not going to work.

There is that old saying when one door closes, another opens, and this is exactly what occurred for the Nonviolent Cities Project on the Central Coast of California.

Nothing like the Nonviolent Cities Project was taking place anywhere in the cities up and down the coastal region of California. For the eight years that Nonviolent City Morro Bay existed, it was the only thing of its kind working to curb violence and educate the residents of the area on nonviolence principles. However, concern about youth and gangs was growing among the communities along the Central Coast . . . even the young people themselves expressed worry. Out of a small social justice club that nine- and ten-year-old students at the elementary school formed, a spot opened for a collaboration with the local Rotary club, thereby introducing me to this amazing group of kids.

At the same time, the board of directors of the mutual aid organization stepped up to the plate and hit the ball out of the park by hiring a new director, a young woman who had just completed her education in nonprofit administration and was eager to put into place the things she had learned. This allowed the mutual aid organization to open their doors again on a limited basis. 

I could see the wheels of progress slowly moving. A few people called me in to reestablish the defunct Youth Task Force that had tried to be successful through the previous Nonviolent Cities committee. Now, with only five individuals joining together, this task force got off to a roaring start to begin to assess the needs for the youth of not just Morro Bay or the town south of it, but of the entire north coast towns that reside on Estero Bay.

These towns have only one incorporated city (Morro Bay) with a mayor, city manager, and city council.  Three of them are community service districts under County Board of Supervisors. Together, they are the basis of the new North Coast Estero Bay Nonviolent Cities Project.

Serving the needs of not only youth, but also the adult population makes more sense with this connection of these north coast towns that all share common social justice problems. North Coast Estero Bay Nonviolent Cities will be involved with projects serving almost 30,000 residents. The town of Los Osos (pop. 15,000) is the location of the mutual aid organization. The incorporated city of Morro Bay (pop. 10, 000) is the home of the original Nonviolent Cities Project in our area. The small town of Cayucos has a population of approximately 3000 persons. The town of Cambria (pop. 5,800) also resides along this coast but is farther away, and already has in place a social justice organization that collaborates with the Peacebuilders organization of Morro Bay. 

The joining together of these communities gives the Nonviolent Cities Project more strength and more availability for accessing assistance from a wider governmental sources, a wider population for volunteers, and a wider opportunity for successful fundraising. 

Some of the programs already in place are free community dinners on Monday evenings in Morro Bay, and on Wednesday evenings in Los Osos. Food Bank and home delivery of free nutritious food is available to all the towns in the project. The mutual aid resource office is available to people from all the towns. There is a community garden in Morro Bay and a task force to develop one in Los Osos. Projects to have youth in area schools create gardens are in the planning stage. The entire Estero Bay area is—and has been for many years—very environmentally active. Plans to develop projects and programs around environmental issues are being worked up. Close working with both city police in Morro Bay and the County Sheriff’s office already takes place. The opportunity to advance nonviolence education to new city officials in Morro Bay and County Supervisors in the other towns is the most exciting part of this unification.

The motto is Never Give Up! There is always another road to travel, another door to open for the Nonviolent Cities Project.