#056 - Today Chris Pearson from episode 9 re-joins us to 1) catch us up on Be Well Natural - his holistic health clinic, but 2) to really discuss his community organization, Elevated Legacy.  Elevated Legacy is a comprehensive consciousness cultivation model that teaches self mastery through physical disciplines.  The flagship program was a basketball program with the goal to take a group of kids from age 8 to 18 and steward them through the process of discovery and self-mastery.

They were so successful with the early groups that many kids outgrew the program and went on to more competitive programs that were more tapped into the college basketball pipeline.  Five of the first eight kids went on to play Division 1 college basketball on scholarship.

“So we did a really good job in that department. Over the 14 years, I think we've probably placed 10 kids in Division 1 college programs. We have a very small number. We don't run a full size run like some of the bigger programs and our priorities are really different. It's about social-emotional learning, self-mastery and athletic performance enhancement.”

Expanding beyond basketball, Elevated Legacy started and runs a few key programs:

1) FREE intergenerational workouts every Saturday 930am to 1130am at Joaquin Miller Cascades where community members come out and get paired up with somebody from a different household and different generation and then they work out AND

2) Brothers Building and Moving - Weekly Sunday sunrise hike for Black fathers

BUT in the last year he received two grants (National Parks Foundation and Justice Outside) focused on addressing health disparities and limited access to outdoor activities for BIPOC communities.  These funds allowed him to execute three different events, which were really life changing for a lot of people:

1- “We did a trip to the Muir Woods National Monument. We took about 40 people there. We did our reflect, evaluate, and focus curriculum component - what are you working on? What are you doing well, and what do you appreciate about somebody else in the space?”

2- “Our second was to Yosemite. We took 33 folks, I wanna say like eight different families. We stayed at the Tenaya Lodge. We were able to subsidize folks, stay there, provide 'em with all their meals and whatnot. And we did a couple of hikes and some workshops - understanding the three eyes through which we perceive identity: institutional, interpersonal, and internal. And how does that affect how you participate in a family dynamic?  How does who you are affect what you do and how does what you do affect who you are and that kind of conversation so that people would bring a critical analysis back to their day-to-day.”

3- “And then the final one, which in a lot of ways the icing on the cake - It wasn't the largest in terms of breadth, but we took 19 folks to the big island in Hawaii.  We did several hikes. We went through the Volcano National Park, went down into the Caldera, learned about the First Nations traditions that are there and the deep impact of colonialism and sort of shared resilience and shared understanding of being marginalized by structural violence and stuff.”

Chris is simultaneously teaching life skills to young people and giving elders opportunities to make meaningful impact in the lives of young people, which is a true win-win for everyone.  If you follow Chris on social media, you can see the real impact he’s having on real lives.

Be sure to listen until the end to hear about Chris’ relationship formula vulnerability + consistency = credibility.