Dave Eggers - Once Upon a School

Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, author Dave Eggers asks the TED community to personally, creatively engage with local public schools. With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world to open



At ON THE EDGE we are always looking for inspirational people and ideas. Dave's story is a shinning example of whats possible when you have passion and purpose in the ideas you have. Enjoy and share this link, for more stories see www.ted.com

Much Love,
The OTE Crew

Save Our Space and Create Something Special

As you may already know, ON THE EDGE is an established, youth led Trust in Wellington that’s been actively committed to enabling and supporting leadership in our communities – leadership that’s strong, innovative, capable and responsive.

Our Trust recognises the significant need in Wellington for an innovative, collaborative space for like-minded people & organisations, and we have found one. It sits right at the corner of Courtenay Place and Taranaki Street. Our ON THE EDGE space isn’t just an area to push papers and host meetings – it has very quickly proved to be a powerful and motivational environment for creativity, innovation and community leadership to happen. Several Wellington groups have already made traction on their projects there. With your help, our ON THE EDGE space will increasingly be a ground-breaking hub in the heart of our city. It will provide our Trust, Wellington youth, and a range of community organisations currently without a home, with an accessible home-base for positive community change.

BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP - We have already raised $10,000 but… to keep the doors open of our new space we need to raise as close to $18000 as we possibly can, in cash or commitment pledges, by 5pm THIS MONDAY, DECEMBER 8th. We know we can get there with your help.

Please consider either:

· Making a donation of any size by using this website www.givealittle.co.nz/org/ontheedgetrust/project/saveourspace

· or sending a cheque to ON THE EDGE Trust PO Box 27463 Wellington, New Zealand 6141 (Please phone or email to let us know, so we can count it in our running total)

· or making a commitment of $20 a week for one year - or an upfront donation of $1,040. If we can find a minimum of 30 people to do this, we are there!

· Visiting our space – so you can see what we mean, and contribute as you can.

To organise a payment plan, or to visit the space or offer any further support, please call or e-mail Ben Irving, ON THE EDGE TRUST co-ordinator, at 0274156154 or ben@ontheedgetrust.com
by this MONDAY DECEMBER 8th.

Our Trust Board understands the enormity of the task at hand, and appreciates that any kind of financial support is no small ask. We’ve never done such a fundraising initiative before, but your financial support will help foster something really special, firstly within Wellington, and then within our country as a whole as our impact grows.

We look forward to sharing with you the successes and stories of the space. Supporting us means you become an active part of our space and the work ON THE EDGE trust does.

If you think of other individuals or companies who might like to be a part of this opportunity please let them know by forwarding on this email urgently, or please call us on 0274156154 (Ben Irving)

Much Love
the OTE crew

Give a Little - Change a Lot

Give a Little went live this week!

We want to congratulate Nat and her Team on an epic 18moths and say a huge thank you to the support she and the Give a Little Crew have given ON THE EDGE !

You can find them and us on their site at http://www.givealittle.co.nz/org/ontheedgetrust

Much Love,
The OTE Crew

Awesome people connecting the world

We want to welcome the AFS crew into our space for their monthly meetings... see below the awesome stuff they get up too!








An AFS experience is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will
greatly assist your development as a young adult and will provide you
with skills that will benefit you for the rest of your life. Spend 3
months, 6 months or a year in one of over 40 countries either in
school or working on community projects.

Other benefits of an AFS student exchange include:

1. Gaining a future edge in the job market
2. Discovering the real you
3. Overseas travel
4. Learning a new language
5. Becoming an insider in another culture
6. Becoming part of a new family
7. Making overseas friends and networks for life
8. Being part of something worthwhile
9. Investing wisely in your future

Harbour capital chapter assists students to go from Wellington on
exchange, supports foreign students to live in and adapt to NZ and
runs events for families, students and returnees involved in the
chapter.

For More info:
AFS national: 0800 600 300
or http://www.afs.org.nz/nzl_en/home
or afs.habourcapital@gmail.com

Also if you know anyone or any group who would like to share our space with us please feel free to contact us: 04 801 6297 or leadership@ontheedgetrust.com

"our space"

As a team we are always stoked to have people come in and share "our space". We see our office as not just a place for ourselves but for any individuals or groups who share a similar vision and passion for change in the World. We see it being a hub for collaboration a place where collective design and innovation can begin and genuine community to be built.

It was an honor and a privilege to have the Awakening the Dreamer crew in here over the labour weekend. We are excited to have then back when they are next in town.

Over the weekend a training for Facilitators of the Awakening the
Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium was held at the OTE Office. This is the second training in New Zealand in the work of bridging environmental sustainabillity, social justice and emotional and psychological fulfilment.

For more information on the Symposium, you can see a trailer at
http://awakeningthedreamer.org/content/view/115/135/



If you or anyone you know mite be interested in sharing the space with us then please share the word and be in touch at leadership@ontheedgetrust.com

Much Love,
the OTE Crew

And so it begins...

Hi everyone! Welcome to the ON THE EDGE (OTE) blog.

From now on, this fortnightly update will keep you in the loop with the latest OTE project and event info.

Our big news is that we have Ben back working full-time and things are starting to crank. We have confirmed the Trust Board for 2008/09: Kaylee Donald, Jake Hocking, Carrone Conroy, Saimon Lomaloma and Ben Irving. Best of all, we have a mean new office located above 4 Kings Bar, in the Hope Gibbons Building (see map here). We now have ample room for ideas to flow and inspiration to grow.

In terms of growth, our crew has been given a boost with several new volunteers coming on board. Also, the OTE conference is shaping up to be the biggest to date. In previous years we've kept numbers to 180 but with a bigger team and greater resources we've been able to raise this number to 300 (you can look forward to registrations in February 09).

You can now join us on Facebook (join here), so don't be strangers.

Much Love,

the OTE Crew