 say hello and introduce yourselves  say hello and introduce yourselves  the plaza hi everyone since this is a brand new space it can be a little confusing where to start so i thought people might want to introduce themselves so we can get to know the people behind the usernames so a bit about me i m the goodpush programs manager with skateistan and one of the admins for this forum i m really interested and excited to see how people use this space and am always open to ideas and feedback to make it more useful for you before i had this role i spent five years working with skateistan in afghanistan and cambodia mostly in fundraising and communications but also getting to do a bit of everything which i love i m originally from calgary canada where i started skateboarding in 1997 i moved from calgary to vancouver to study political science and got to be a part of one of the best skate communities in the world spending my days working at antisocial skateboard shop i did some work and volunteering at various nonprofit organizations and was super stoked when i got accepted in 2010 to be one of skateistan s first volunteers in kabul aside from skateboarding and this whole skate charity movement i m into motorbikes and books currently living in berlin and looking forward to catching up with a lot of people soon at pushing boarders in malmo rhianon thu 8082019 1202 submitted by skatebush on thu 8082019 1428 permalink hey everybody  i m niall i m the development volunteer at skateistan i ve been skating since 2004 and studying development since 2013 i m originally from dublin ireland but i ve spent a lot of time overseas since then in canada for a few years and most recently berlin i love skateboarding and the power it has to empower people to inspire creativity or simply just have fun apart from skateboarding i love surfing snowboarding hiking camping swimming and cycling and of course the environment peace submitted by talia on thu 8082019 2125 permalink nice to be here  hello i m talia i ve been working with skateistan for 7 years mainly working in programs i have a background in education and international development my major professional interests are in sport for development and the use of community spaces for education purposes i started skateboarding at 14 and i still can t kickflip but i love it anyways i m looking forward to connecting with more people doing innovative work in the skateboarding for youth development space in the past i worked as a community educator for the centre for sexuality in my hometown of calgary canada teaching health with a feminist antioppressive framework with skateistan i ve worked in cambodia afghanistan and south africa ask me anything submitted by skateistanollie on fri 8092019 1016 permalink hello from ollie nice to meet you all in the plaza first and foremost i am a skateboarder i love skateboarding and enjoy looking at the world through a skaters eyes i first got a skateboard in 1980 and i have been enjoying rolling ever since that fateful day i have an amazing job as the executive director of skateistan which i founded in afghanistan around 2008 i lived in afghanistan 20072014 and i feel very grateful to have been able to have these experiences and learn so much on the job i almost can t believe how much skateistan has grown and i am very thankful to the hundreds of people that have contributed to skateistan s success without advice encouragement and huge investments of time from people external to skateistan we wouldn t be where we are today i would love to continue this cycle of helping and pass on what i have learned so that other social skateboard projects can also grow personally travelling meeting new people and pushing my boundaries is what excites me i also enjoy reading wild camping cooking and riding motorbikes hit me up y all submitted by peter whitley on fri 8092019 1932 permalink i m peter whitley  hi everyone i m the programs director at the tony hawk foundation out of san diego california usa i don t remember ever not being a skateboarder and i love how it has introduced me to so many new experiences and opportunities i am grateful to skateboarding for a host of essential reasons i m also grateful to all of you here now and those who will be joining us it s profoundly encouraging to see so many passionate thoughtful people dedicated to advancing this great cause it s a good push for sure i absolutely love skateboarding as a design object a toy a vehicle a tool an identity a subculture a gathering point a differentiator and it is often the lens i rely on while pursuing my other passions illustration design art and architecture  https wwwinstagramcom peterwhitley   submitted by swolfe on thu 8152019 1342 permalink greetings from new jersey usa hello friends steve wolfe here from new jersey i run a small organization called solid we did our first skateboarding events back in 1999 we incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2002 and at the time our focus was simply providing a place to skate and connect through the years i reflected on my own experience as a skateboarder i saw a unique connection between skateboarding and mentoring to me there s a vital connection this has been my career since 2003 our organization has evolved in so many ways through the years and i m excited to see how we continue to grow and change to serve skateboarders in new jersey and the nyc tristate area personally i m married and have two daughters currently 11 and 9 years old aside from skateboarding i love just about anything that has to do with the outdoors and learning recently i ve been reading about wild foods foraging topics of leadership and personal growth and different world religions i m excited to be a part of this community and hope to make some new friends in the social sector of the skateboarding industry submitted by taiwanvaughan on sat 8172019 1614 permalink greetings fellow advocates  so stoked to be a member my name is vaughan smithneville i was one of a handfull of founding members of the vancouver skateboard coalition alongside cory macintire in fact kyle dion was president for a term or two before he started newline and the rest was history it was right about that time that i had the opportunity to travel to taiwan to live and teach english skateboard advocacy is in my blood so natually my desire to protect the interests of skateboarding and grow it never left me i lived there for about 9 years and in that time myself and a small group of likeminded local skaters started the governmentrecognized taichung skateboarders association the tsa while we constantly lobbied whoever would listen to stop building these nonskater enormously expensivebutjanky steel frame parks we also set up a skate school which saw about 1000 kids graduate before we could no longer maintain the mobile courses at one point we even held a contest in the middle of an indoor shopping mall and built one of our halfpipes inside a dance club i wish i could show the photos on here in the last decade since then i ve been laying low to raise my two boys now aged 9 and 11 and have since moved back to vancouver however recent developments surrounding new opportunities to build parks in taiwan and the region have resparked a huge flame in me and my old asian team a decade has gone by and things have really matured both our connections and our professionalism i feel like this round will be like no other and we will be much more successful this time in finally bringing real skateparks and plazas to taiwan and the rest of asia wish us luck submitted by keegan g on wed 8212019 2031 permalink excited to contribute  hi everyone my name s keegan guizard and i founded the college skateboarding educational foundation csef with two others in 2017 we give college scholarships to skateboarders in the us we just awarded our second round of scholarships this summer and collaborated with an architecture school in san diego to award scholarships to three students there as well i m honored to be in this group of socially responsible and hard working people especially sharing time and ideas with some of you in copenhagen at this week s goodpush alliance meeting i have experience working with kids through skateboarding of course in america and abroad and am interested in doing more of that as well so please consider me someone who s here to help for any of your orgs or personally i m from north carolina and am currently living in los angeles so that clues you in to my usual time zone i look forward to spending more time here and hearing about the great work everyone is doing cheers keegan submitted by nanjavanrijsse on mon 8262019 1229 permalink hi all  so cool to have a forum now i m nanja van rijsse and i corun women skate the world our goal is to inspire empower and engage girls through skateboarding i cofounded wstw together with amber who runs our first women s program and works together with freemovementsb in athens my work other than general organisational things focusses on amsterdam where i will be launching our first program in september besides hosting programs for girls we re happy to help out others when it comes to womxn skateboarding volunteering and teaching we re always available to give some input or advice on topics or help out women volunteers who want to travel somewhere sharing our experiences i started skateboarding two years ago and got addicted to it when it helped me deal with reallife problems ever since i ve been super excited to be part of this community and to spread the word about skateboarding other than skateboarding i m passionate about politics learning new things reading books visiting panel talks and so on in the future i hope to study political science but for now i work a parttime sidejob in a liquor store while volunteering my way around amsterdam i just applied for a volunteer training program with an environmental organisation and had my first motorbike lesson last week haha maybe we can visit each other s projects on bikes submitted by troy cjf on mon 8262019 1426 permalink let s keep the board rolling  hi everyone my name is troy bjorkman and i work as the development director for concrete jungle foundation cjf we re a ukregistered nonprofit organisation that uses skateboarding as a tool to stimulate positive personal and community development for underprivileged youth around the world more directly we work with local partners to build skateparks and implement skateboardingbased programmes for marginalised communities around the global south we ve had projects in peru and angola and have a third one in jamaica currently in the works the programme in angola is run independently by our local partner organisation but in peru we re constantly looking for volunteers to help out so reach out if you re keen a bit about myself i am finnish by nationality but was lucky enough to move around quite a bit as a child and young adult i completed by bachelors in political science development studies in montreal canada in 2017 since then i ve been working in the government nonprofit sector while building up cjf parttime with three others i just moved to copenhagen to pursue by masters at copenhagen business school while continuing to work on cjf parttime i m interested to learn more about how to use market mechanisms eg ebusiness commercial partnerships collaborations to fund social skateboarding projects as well as to support marginalised skateboarding communities more generally do feel free to reach out regarding anything and everything i m always down for a skype chat and let me know if you ever make your way up to the nordics you can find my contact details at concretejunglefoundationorg troy submitted by tcb on mon 8262019 2157 permalink hello  hello hello my name is thomas barker i live in encinitas california and i don t remember a time that skateboarding wasn t a part of my life i am one of the cofounders of csef collegeskateboardingcom and have been working in the skateboard industry for over 20 years most recently as the executive director of the international association of skateboard companies after working in roles at clive backpacks and black box distribution i went back to school when the recession hit in 2008 sensing that nonprofits would play a larger role in the future of skateboarding and wanting to give back to skateboarding as much as it has given to me i got my professional degrees in nonprofit business management and fundraising development from ucsd extension i have two main advocacy focuses first is on people who already consider themselves skateboarders using the marketing tactics i learned in the skateboard industry to reach skateboarders and influence them to take a more positive direction in their life my second focus is helping the skateboarding nonprofit social movement mature and professionalize i am happy to share my knowledge experience and tools to help your organizations it was amazing to meet everyone at the good push event last week even though i ve been in the skateboarding industry community for so long it was not until pushing boarders and the good push events that i felt like i found the part of the skateboard community i could just be myself in if i didn t meet you last week nice to emeet you here thank you to everyone at the good push for creating this space talk soon tcb submitted by rattray on tue 8272019 1322 permalink hello my name is john  hi all my name is john rattray i started out in aberdeen scotland where i saw skateboarding for the first time when i was nine i was walking along rosemount viaduct next to union terrace gardens holding hands with my mum because i was nine and two bigger boys in flannel shirts and jeans went tearing across the street ollied up onto the median acid dropped onto the other carriageway and kept on pushing one of them was even wearing a biker s leather jacket it was the raddest thing i d seen in person at that point aberdeen had been a town designed in greyscale and school uniforms up until then i remember my eyes going wide my mouth opening as i pointed they didn t have to stop the kerb had no effect on them it was like kerbs with all their authority could save it the safe boundary kerbs were supposed to delineate was no more my world view had drastically changed a lot has changed since then along the way i went to university studied maths and physics had a decent career as a proskater raveled a lot forgot a lot of the maths and physics worked at a couple of companies who make skate shoes got married studied some more stuff had a kid had a couple of nervous breakdowns lost family and friends to unnecessary tragedy now i work at nike skateboarding and in my free time i tend to ride bikes read as much as i can about as much as i can sharpen my negotiation skills by debating sugary treats and video games with ivor our sixyearold i also try to raise funds and awareness around the subject of emotional or mental health currently through a project called why so sad i d like to learn more so that i can try to simplify and share more and hopefully help more people i am really happy to see this community of likeminded people connected by skateboarding taking off and i m excited to see what we can do as a collective thank you for starting this submitted by susiebska on sun 9012019 322 permalink nice to meet you all  hi everyone it s really cool to be here in this space with such rad people who are doing similar work all over the world i m susie halsell from california usa founder of bangladesh street kids aid bska i ve been skating since i was 12 was the only girlskater in my town but the boy crew i skated with just treated me like one of the guys ever since i started skating i thought it would be a great way to empower impoverished youth i imagined myself teaching shoeless kids on concrete slabs surrounded by greenery very much what i actually ended up doing in 2007 my first trip to bangladesh as just a 21 year old skater surfer blew my mind i saw the kids walking the street collecting recyclables sleeping on piles of trash huffing glue cuts all over their forearms all that gnarly stuff ever since i have wanted to create a safehaven for the children of bangladesh who call the streets their home the reaction of the youth in bangladesh to skateboarding was outofcontrol they were so excited to try my skateboard wherever i went that i hardly got to skate the first few years i was in bangladesh trying to figure everything out learn the language find land etc through all my experiences over the past 12 years making trips back and forth between the us and bangladesh i realized that a lack of education was the root cause of a lot of the socioeconomic barriers that street children and other marginalized groups in bangladesh face it was obvious that skateboarding was a great way to boost their confidence but i realized that combining skate and creative arts opportunities with a quality education would launch them into a much more hopeful future i ended up pursuing my own higher education studied anthropoloy at brac university and the bangla language in bangladesh and took a liberal arts degree with a concentration in business and entrepreneurship from antioch university santa barbara i m one of those lifelong learners and am currently studying social business at california state university channel islands just before the beginning of this summer i was feeling pretty down about my project in bangladesh even though things always seemed to be moving forward i d invested a lot of my own time and money for so long but felt like no one believed in what bska is doing like i did after getting the goodpush partnership i finally feel like i found the support system i needed to just go for it full force i am very grateful for this platform and can t wait to see the collaboration and knowledge sharing that goes on once we all get to know each other a bit better i was looking forward to skating with a lot of you at the upcoming goodpush summit in south africa but i broke my tibia and fibula on my left ankle earlier this month during a ledge session i ll still be giving a presentation on bksa s current programs for street youth in bangladesh and our plans to open a skate park offthegrid boarding school and permaculture farm on the land we were graciously donated i ll be the one with the crutches or hopefully cane by then much love peace and all that good stoke submitted by talia on thu 9052019 748 permalink welcome  welcome everyone it s great to see so many faces signing up for the forum both new and familiar ones what do you all hope this community can become i m excited for the new topic thread we just added  skatepark design urban planning for my part i hope this provides a space to build new connections and share resources to lighten the work make us more effective and create new exciting projects talia submitted by timwardsas on wed 10022019 2141 permalink hello  hello friends i m tim and i am part of the organization skate after school in arizona usa i cofounded the organization and currently run the day to day programs of organization it s fun i started working with youth and skateboarding many years ago at a few indoor skateparks teaching skate classes and lessons then at woodward west as the skateboard director from 20082015 and for the past five or so years skate after school has been my full time job it was great meeting many of you at pushing boarders and for anyone else who wants to get in touch with me please reach out  tim skateafterschoolorg  looking forward to reading more from you all submitted by maedae on thu 1022020 10 permalink hi there  hi wonderful people i m mae she they and i ve been a quad skater and roller derby player since 2014 i have worked in youth services and community development since 2012 and received my masters in youth work and community development with a focus on creative expression to heal from trauma in 2018 a large portion of my work has been with systems impacted youth homeless youth and lgbtq youth roller derby has made such an impact on my life and empowered me to take ownership of my body and voice in and out of sport it has been an inspirational space to empower women and gender nonconforming people within aggressive sport and has continued to grow since it s creation in the early 2000s in 2017 i founded derby without borders to address the various barriers to entry for roller derby in regions of the world where skates equipment and coaching are increasingly difficult to access in 2 years i have been able to collect and distribute equipment to teams in cairo egypt johannesburg south africa beijing and shanghai in china hong kong bangkok thailand bali and jakarta in indonesia kyoto japan quito ecuador and two teams in buenos aires argentina and in 2019 i facilitated 3 international coaching bootcamps with high level volunteer coaches in hong kong bangkok and bali while derby without borders is unique in it s focus on roller derby specific programming i think there s so much cross over amongst other social skating projects and i m really happy to learn from everyone here if anyone wants to reach out to me directly please feel free  maedae skatingoutofboundscom  mae submitted by lewisshields on sat 1112020 1419 permalink hey  hey everyone so nice to read everybody s introductions seems like there s a lot of amazing people on this forum doing some really inspiring work stoked to be sharing this space with you guys i ve been skateboarding for nearly 14 years and it s given me so much to be thankful for i got involved with the social skate scene earlier this year in athens where i volunteered with free movement skateboarding it was a really amazing experience and taught me a lot about this wonderful movement i m currently based in the uk originally from leicester in the midlands but have spent the last five years in brighton where i studied music outside of skateboarding i spend my time making music reading and climbing in february i m moving to berlin to work as the goodpush alliance volunteer for skateistan so i m really looking forward to getting to know you guys a bit more and see how these amazing projects develop really excited to be a part of this community speak soon lewis submitted by laura skate on mon 1272020 2249 permalink hello everyone i just read  hello everyone i just read all of your comments you put stars in my eyes for my part i am 19 years old i live in france i have been skating for 4 years i created a collective of skaters in my city i organize competitions and initiations but my dream would be to go abroad and develop women s skateboarding if you have contacts or sought volunteers i am yours the only problem is that i don t speak very good english here is if you have contacts or offers of volunteers you can contact me by mail laurahocquellet2000 outlookcom thank you all you are inspiring good ride submitted by ebyanrezgui on tue 2042020 1524 permalink hello  hey everybody i m ebyan a germantunisian photographer and musician i finished my degree in materials science in london in june and i ve just moved back to berlin after a couple of months back home in the uk i spent a week in august volunteering at pushing boarders which is where i started getting more exposed involved in the world of skate ngos seeing so many people in one place interested in talking and thinking about skating and its wider effects uses in a critical way was something i really enjoyed and definitely want to do more of looking forward to following everyone s posts on these forums ebyan submitted by francisco on sat 9262020 1834 permalink hi everyone i am francisco vinho skater from mozambique who foundered maputo skate organization that is doing a lot to develop skateboard on this part of africa skateboard is my life and i am thankful to be part of this wonderful team my email is francisco maputoskateorg let s change some ideas about skateboard fire submitted by atxukarro on wed 3032021 934 permalink hey folks great to  hey folks great to connect on here and hope i can be of use and join the conversations and add value i was a founding director of skateboard gb and am a lead coach for them coaching skateboard coaches across the uk i ve been running a local authority skateboarding programme here in brighton and hove uk over the past ten years which delivers free tuition to less advantaged young people in schools and communities with a small team of coaches volunteers and a mobile skate park also helped champion brighton she shredders female skateboarding and go skate project mental wellbeing programme both of which have had real success go skate is now moving on site to secondary schools this year as a method of intervention and evaluation with primary mental health workers lots of experience funding designing and building of free skateparks and indoor projects all along with competition and jam running and more i m a bit of all all rounder when it comes to skateboarding projects so happy to offer support and chat cheers ricardo submitted by rhianon on wed 3032021 944 permalink hi atxukarro welcome to the  hi atxukarro  welcome to the goodpush forum your experience sounds really interesting especially the go skate mental wellbeing programme i d be very interested to learn more about what that programme looks like we are currently running a mental health and mindfulness curriculum at skateistan south africa and planning to share it via the goodpush community in an ecourse and online events so we re very curious to know what other initiatives are out there  