Los Amigos Call for Action With Pancakes, Passion, and Patience
By: Jennifer Delson | Source: AARP Segunda Juventud | October, 2009
Photo by: Carol Von Sumwalt. Click on image to view slideshow.
To create a group like Los Amigos—
- Meet regularly at a convenient place and time.
- Start with an easy goal, such as organizing one event.
- Bring in people who want to see change in their community.Let one person consistently serve as a moderator.
- Have the moderator and participants treat all attendees with respect.
- Take the time to learn more about attendees than just their names, so they feel that they belong to a group that cares about them.
- Have the moderator accept—though not necessary agree with—all viewpoints.Study issues in depth.Invite community stakeholders to meetings.
- Establish communication with elected officials.Encourage the group to be passionate about issues while maintaining a respectful, tempered stance, so that it can continue to work with the community on other concerns.
- Follow the Los Amigos credo: "If you plead it, you lead it."
- That means the participant who suggests an action leads the effort and engages the group.
En Español
To read this and other articles in Spanish, visit AARP Segunda Juventud.
Amin David, 76, has spent at least one morning a week for 27 years with his amigos. But these Hispanics—Los Amigos, as the group has become known—are more than friends; they are partners in a mission to tend to important issues in the Latino community in Orange County, California.
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