Project H Defined

This Project, Defined

This is a multi-faceted project, with the following objectives:

Helping Local Youth
Project H (the name of this year’s Alabama project; “H” is for HOUSE) is about having a place to conduct events, classes, workshops, and seminars that benefit children living in one of the poorest regions in the United States.

After the building renovation, members of the UBBT and the 100, Pam Dorr and her associates, and John Bielenberg of PROJECT M, along with his students, will be using this facility to conduct various workshops, events, and “happenings” for local children.

We plan on songwriting workshops, art classes, martial arts seminars, filmmaking classes, and photography workshops, classes on architecture, design, sustainability, and building. We hope to see many more subjects covered –and so our plan is to first, renovate a space for this purpose…and we know once we do that “they will come.”

Project H will not only serve as a meeting and educational center, but it will also provide temporary housing for various “artist in residence” programs.

Helping Pam Dorr and The Hale County Housing Resource Center
Project H will give Pam Dorr and her associates a place to temporarily house people coming to volunteer or otherwise help them with various projects. By having a place for volunteers to base from, we hope to see an increase in the amount of people assisting Pam in her endeavors.

Management, defined, means “getting things done through the efforts of others”; Project H allows members of the UBBT and The 100 to have a hand in managing more progress in Greensboro, which is fast becoming our “campus” for creative community activism and “master instructor” education.

Which lead me to:

Development of The Master Teacher’s Campus
Ok, I confess: this is my dream, a vision, a possibility…

I see Greensboro, Alabama as a potential site for a “Master Teacher’s Educational Campus” –and what this means is that we could create a place where we (Master Teacher’s of the Martial Arts) meet to learn, grow, and evolve.

Because of the cost effectiveness of investing in this region, because of its proximity to The Rural Studio, Pam Dorr, and now PROJECT M, because of the team-building potential of our activities there, as well as the open and gracious acceptance of our teams by the community in general, Project H could very well become the center for a movement in NEW THINKING and education for the martial arts community.

The very fact that Greensboro is not a tourist Mecca, that it not Las Vegas, or a beach resort, and that there are not an abundance of hotels, motels or convention facilities –the fact that this is a region in decline --and one that needs help and revitalization –all of this is exactly why it’s the perfect place for us to meet.

With Project H as our base, with community activism as our conference room, and with the backdrop of The Civil Rights Museum (in nearby Birmingham), the legacy of Martin Luther King, of Rosa Parks, and Samuel Mockbee (three of my heroes), we have a destination that is as unconventional as our approach to the martial arts, to life, and to our careers. We have a chance to help build a center for social activism, for unconventional thinking, for sustainable business practices, environmentalism, and peace education.

In Alabama our dollars go farther. In Greensboro we are witnessing –and becoming a part of –a center for something extraordinary, something organic and community-based. There is a wisdom and intelligence in the region –there is something there we can take back to our own communities, to our lives –and at the same time, it’s place where we can learn to organize, construct, and implement our new approach.

I am committing myself to see this vision become a reality.

When we meet, we have to go somewhere, why not Greensboro? If we are to become the forward-thinking, dynamic, martial arts activists that I envision, then why not, from the very beginning, set our sights on doing something remarkable? Let’s put Greensboro on the map –let’s participate in the revitalization of this amazing area –while we revitalize our own thinking, our approach, and our careers!

We have our homes. We have our own towns. We have our schools and other endeavors. Project H gives us a place we convene –a place we gather –a sacred place where we purposely put aside our schedules, our duties, our responsibilities…and come together to learn, grow, and change.

It’s not a place to take a holiday. It’s a place where we go to fill our spiritual cups –where we serve in honor of great men and women. It’s a place where we break the current mold of the “martial arts industry” –and re-craft an approach more indicative of our values and intentions.

A New Home for Project M
John Bielenberg is a maverick teacher–a revolutionary in his industry. Project H (the name obviously borrowed from Bielenberg’s “Project M”) is to become the new home, for a few months out of every year, for Project M.

Project M models Samuel Mockbee’s social agenda –and brings to Greensboro all sorts of wonderfully talented people seeking to make a difference in the world.

We are so lucky, so fortunate to have the chance to be involved with Project M –and to have a hand, albeit a small one, in bringing this amazing program to Greensboro.