Letter from the Board of Directors
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Center for Sustainable Change, it is with great regret and much sadness that we inform you that Center for Sustainable Change will cease operations at the end of August 2018. We have poured heart and soul into our efforts to spread the Principles to communities across the country and the world since our founding in 2004. But as successful as we have been in spreading sustainable mental well being to individuals and communities, we have been unable to sustain ourselves financially to continue this work.
We are seeking and negotiating with other organizations to take over some of our programs and portions of our website and we will inform you of that information via email in a future communication.
We have been blessed with gifted leadership starting with our founder, Dr. Roger Mills, PhD, of San Jose, CA, who founded CSC in 2004, his daughter Ami Chen Mills-Naim who became the first Executive Director of CSC and Gabriela Maldonado-Montano who became Co-Executive Director with Ami Chen Mills-Naim after Roger passed away in 2010. Following Ami and Gabriela’s tenure, Dave Nichols of Charlotte, NC who tracked Roger to a conference in Minneapolis after reading Modello, next led the Center. Terri Alamo of Canandaigua, NY has most recently led CSC. She also owns TLC for Coaches and previously worked 7 years for Michael Neill. Terri has brought great energy, joy and new technologies to CSC. We want to express deep appreciation for the hard work, passion and love of all these leaders. We also are grateful for past and present Board Members for all their wisdom, love and commitment. We say thank you to our donors for their ongoing support and loyalty who made this work possible, and to the many Three Principles leaders and those with the understanding across the country and world that have assisted and supported us over our 14 years of operations.
We encourage all of our friends and followers to continue to share the Principles with their friends, neighbors, and colleagues and also with organizations in their communities whose clients could be transformed by this understanding. We all have the wisdom to do this and the world greatly needs the Principles.
With gratitude and love,
Sandy – Sandy K Johnson, Chair
Helena – Helena Roth, Vice Chair
Jim – James Barry, Secretary/Treasurer
on behalf of CSC Board of Directors
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven”
~ The Birds~
Letter from the Executive Director
I am grateful to Dave Nichols for seeing something in me that made him want to offer me control over something that obviously meant so much to him. I am grateful to the board and I will sincerely miss our monthly meetings. You are all fabulous human beings and it has been a true pleasure to work with you all. I am grateful for Judy Sedgeman who has given her time, advice, creativity and love to so many of us and I am hopeful that another non profit will take the many hours of dedication she has put into the Peace for Veterans Program and launch it into the world in it’s full potential. (If you wish to donate funds specifically to go to this program you can still do so at peaceforveterans.org)
I am grateful to the core team, Sandy Johnson, Charlotte Firestone, and Lynanne Lawhead. Sandy, you are one of the hardest working volunteers I have ever met and you put your heart and soul into this organization. Charlotte, you have been behind the scenes but your love was felt by everyone on every call. Lynanne, you have been both a mentor and a mother to me, keeping me grounded and helping with whatever I needed. Each of you have given your time, your love and your friendship.
I am grateful to each and every person who participated in the programs we have offered, liked a social media post. donated a coaching session, joined a call with us, raised funds for your birthday, sent in a donation, or sent me an encouraging note. All of it has meant so much to me – words cannot do justice to how much. I count each and every one of you as friends and that makes me a very lucky woman indeed.
I want to thank Roger Mills and Jack Pransky – I’ve been exposed to this understanding for a while and never really felt called to stand on a stage and teach it. When I read Modello, it inspired me. It seemed that Roger just went somewhere sat down with people and loved them and I had the insight – I can do that! That is what I have tried to do here.
Most of all I want to thank my husband Joe. When I felt called to do something that would drastically reduce our income and take a great deal of my time but meant something to me, he did not utter a single complaint. He threw his full support behind it donating many hours of his own time and creativity. Joe, your unending support is just one of the ways you love me, but it is a big one and it means the world to me. I am blessed to call you my friend and husband and I look forward to whatever comes next because it will be with you.
So with a full heart and a small tear, I say Thank you to all of you and I hope you all continue to share from your heart what you have seen about life with others, and mostly to love one another.
love,
Terri
–
Terri Alamo
Executive Director and CEO
P.S. If CSC has made a difference for you, in any way, please consider letting us know at csc@
“Whatever you are, is all you can give away…If your mind’s full of love, that’s what you can give.” ~Syd Banks~
Letter from one of our Founders
It may seem sad to hear of the CSC’s ending. During its time, the Center helped to establish legitimacy for the Principles in the foundation world—receiving large scale grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation and working with government entities and graduate students in psychology grad schools from around the San Francisco Bay Area. Most importantly, the Center had great impact in the same kinds of communities that my father was most famous for working in. It was in the remembrance of that legacy of my father that David and Chini Nichols and then Terri Alamo and her husband, Joe, continued to run the organization as a labor of love, and move it in new and enriching directions.
But times do change, and form constantly changes. So many Principles-based “institutions” have actually come and gone over the years. If I recall correctly, the lesson from Sydney Banks was always to be able to let go of form—any form at all—and see what fresh new breeze might begin to blow.
Today, I understand that many other grants have been secured by others on large scales to continue Principles-based work, and excellent community work is being done by so many people now, across the globe. So, rather than look to my father’s personhood, or even legacy (both of which are fine to do, of course), I have always encouraged people to look rather to his spirit … and that same spirit is what moves others to work in community, and other settings in ways that make sense to them. In knowing that those people now exist by the hundreds and possibly even thousands, I am heartened and inspired.
As a co-founder and former director, I want to thank Dave and Chini and the amazing, wonderful board members who have stewarded the Center with great integrity over the years, and who felt called to honor my father’s work. I want to thank all the donors—large and small—and everyone who participated in every single project we sponsored. The ripple effects of such work—who knows how they spread? So in the spirit of sailing into the unknown, I send my love and regards to all of you.
Ami Chen Mills-Naim