The Way to Happiness Association Helps Reform Inmates

The Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee has long helped people by spreading calm through The Way to Happiness booklet.

The American Jail Association (AJA) Convention recently wrapped up. It was a time for those who work directly with inmates to have a chance to discover the latest technology available to them. One program that pleasantly surprised most of the convention attendees was a program aimed at helping inmates learn skills so they can lead a better life on the outside. It’s called The Way to Happiness. 

"There is no person alive who cannot make a new beginning," wrote L. Ron Hubbard, author of the common sense guide to better living The Way to Happiness. Since it was first written in the early 1980s, the book has sparked a movement and has been reprinted and passed hand to hand to a wide variety of cultures and peoples.

Criminon, a program which means “no crime,” has been delivering courses and workshops to inmates and to clients and staff involved in the correctional system in the United States since 1989 and one of its key components is The Way to Happiness book.

The AJA 38^th annual conference and jail expo took place in Louisville, Kentucky this year. It is the only national event that focuses exclusively on local jails and detention facilities.

The Tennessee chapters of The Way to Happiness Association along with Criminon Tennessee were glad to make the trip to share what they had with jail representatives from across the nation.

“This is exactly what we're looking for. I need this for our inmates,” said one conference attendee from Washington State when she saw The Way to Happiness and heard what it’s all about.

“It’s important for us to share resources with those who need them,” said Rev. Brian Fesler, regional coordinator for The Way to Happiness in the Southeast Region of the United States.

In Tennessee, The Way to Happiness Association works with communities and neighborhoods to spread the booklet to as many people as possible. Organizers say that when the booklet is passed from hand to hand, it is like oil spread upon a raging sea, the calm flows outward and outward.

"This book spreads a calmness that is unparalleled by anything else. It contains common sense moral messages that anyone can agree with and apply," says Rev. Fesler.

The Way to Happiness booklet details 21 precepts predicated on the fact that one's survival depends on the survival of others. According to thewaytohappiness.org, "This code of conduct can be followed by anyone, of any race, color or creed and works to restore the bonds that unite humankind." The Way to Happiness aims at giving people back a sense of what is right and wrong in a way that is easy to understand. In the three decades since it was authored, some 80 million copies of the book passed hand to hand.

For more information, visit thewaytohappiness.org.

Youth for Human Rights Announces Summer Art Contest

Youth for Human Rights and its parent organization, Tennessee United for Human Rights, spread their message through educational tools, hard-hitting videos and inspirational messages.

Tennessee Youth for Human Rights is raising awareness this summer about equality through the arts, according to NashvilleHumanRights.org. “We want kids to understand what it means to treat one another with respect and dignity, and what better way to learn this than through their own artistic creations,” reads the website.  

So the group has launched a summer art contest for youth, ages 5-18. What kind of art?

“Poems, short stories, visual art, songs, dance, video productions, and spoken word that promote the message ‘fair treatment for all people’” is the answer. The deadline for submissions, which can be made online or by mail, is July 5, 2019 at 6:00 pm.

Full details for the art contest are available at NashvilleHumanRights.org.

The contest winners will be announced and prizes will be given out at the Nashville celebration of Mandela Day, on July 19^th at 4:00 pm in the Church of Scientology Community Hall on 8^th Avenue South.

Celebrated each year in observance of Nelson Mandela's birthday, Mandela Day was officially declared by the United Nations in November 2009, with the first UN Mandela Day held on 18 July 2010. According to MandelaDay.com, “The message behind Mandela Day is simple – everyone has the ability and the responsibility to change the world for the better. If each one of us heeds the call to simply do something good every day, we can live Nelson Mandela’s legacy and help build the country of our dreams.”

Tennessee Youth for Human Rights is the local chapter of Youth for Human Rights (YHR), an international, not-for-profit organization dedicated to implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its membership is comprised of individuals and groups throughout the world who are actively forwarding the knowledge and protection of human rights by and for all Mankind, according to humanrights.com. Its purpose is to provide human rights educational resources and activities that inform, assist and unite youth, educators, organizations and governmental bodies in the dissemination and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at every level of society.

For more information about United for Human Rights, go to www.humanrights.com.

Drug-Free Tennessee to Host Educational Workshop to Keep Our Youth Off Drugs

Drug-Free Tennessee is preparing for International Day Against Drug Abuse with educational events to help the community keep young people away from drugs.

Keeping Youth off Drugs has long been the message of Drug-Free Tennessee (DFT). The group has promoted a drug-free life with education and prevention materials for young people. According to drugfreetn.org, it has reached more than 18,000 people across Tennessee in the last five years. But now DFT is going full throttle ahead and wants to get this message out to the masses.

So throughout the month of June, the group is working with officials and the community throughout the state of Tennessee to get the most Truth About Drugs booklets distributed. These booklets enlighten all ages on the dangers of common street drugs. Then, on International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the group will be having a training workshop titled “Making Drugs A Bad Deal: How to Keep Our Youth Off Drugs.” During the free workshop, attendees will get information on exactly what to say and show to their kids to help steer them clear of a life of addiction. This is the fifth year the group has done events under the heading “Making Drugs a Bad Deal.”

The workshop takes place on June 26, International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, over breakfast at 8:00 am in the community hall of the Church of Scientology Nashville. To register, visit drugfree2019.eventbrite.com.

The International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking occurs on June 26 each year and was created by the UN General Assembly in December 1987 to encourage all sectors of society to work together to tackle drug abuse and addiction.

DFT is the local chapter for the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, an international non-profit organization aimed at providing children the truth about drugs so they are equipped with correct information and won’t become a victim to dealer’s lies. DFT has visited over 30 counties across Tennessee providing informational seminars and lectures for school children and other groups.

For more information on Drug-Free Tennessee, visit DrugFreeTN.org. 

Church of Scientology to Host Growing Nashville Environment Day Festival

The Church of Scientology in partnership with the Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee is observing World Environment Day with a festival for the environment, called Growing Nashville.

According to the Nashville Area Metro Planning Organization, “More and more transportation, and polices that guide the expansion of transportation infrastructure, are increasingly linked to a variety of environmental issues.” It’s no doubt that Nashville has been experiencing unprecedented growth, but what is happening to the natural environment as this growth occurs? That is the subject of the upcoming World Environment Day festival “Growing Nashville” taking place at the Church of Scientology, in partnership with the Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee, on June 1st. 

The festival, which begins at 1:00 pm, will have a presentation by the Metro Nashville Beautification and Environment Commission’s Horticulturist, followed by live music and information from other community initiatives to help the city.

The Way to Happiness Association, which is sponsoring the event, was formed around the book The Way To Happiness, written by humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. The book is filled with twenty-one precepts based on the fact that one’s survival depends on the survival of others. One of these precepts is “Safeguard and Improve the Environment,” which takes to heart care for the planet.

World Environment Day occurs each year on June 5th and is celebrated by the United Nations. According to unep.org, World Environment Day “…has grown to be a broad, global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated by stakeholders in over 100 countries. It also serves as the ‘people’s day’ for doing something positive for the environment, galvanizing individual actions into a collective power that generates an exponential positive impact on the planet.”

For more information on Growing Nashville or to register, visit growingnashville.eventbrite.com. 

Church of Scientology Nashville Hosts Disaster Response Conference

Churches of Scientology Disaster Response teams from seven states converged at the Church of Scientology Nashville for an annual conference on disaster response.

The Church of Scientology Nashville hosted a Disaster Response Conference in early May for its national disaster response team. Led by Sue Taylor and Joava Good, Director and Deputy Director for the National Churches of Scientology Disaster Response, the conference was an all-weekend affair to update response teams from seven states on the latest in disaster response and cover all kinds of ground.

The conference was held in anticipation of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) Conference, also held in Nashville this year. VOAD  is an “association of organizations that mitigate and alleviate the impact of disasters, provides a forum promoting cooperation, communication, coordination and collaboration; and fosters more effective delivery of services to communities affected by disaster,” according to its website. The National VOAD coalition includes more than 100 member organizations, which represent national members, State VOADs, Local/Regional VOADs and hundreds of other member organizations throughout the country.

The Churches of Scientology Disaster Response is part of National VOAD and its teams are comprised of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

Whether serving in their communities or on the other side of the world, the motto of the Scientology Volunteer Minister is “Something can be done about it.” The program, created in the mid 1970s by L. Ron Hubbard and sponsored by the Church of Scientology International as a religious social service, constitutes one of the world’s largest and most visible international independent relief forces.

The Volunteer Minister “helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.”

A global network of Volunteer Ministers mobilizes in times of manmade and natural disasters, answering the call wherever needed. Collaborating with some 1,000 organizations and agencies, they have utilized their skill and experience in providing physical support and spiritual aid at hundreds of disaster sites. For more information, visit volunteerministers.org.

Nashville Religion Communicators Council Hears from Creative Website Marketing

The Nashville Chapter of the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) meets monthly to talk about topics of interest and hear from professionals in religious communications.  

How can paid advertising strategies help brand awareness? This was the topic of discussion for the most recent meeting of the Religion Communicators Council, a group of religious communications professionals who meet monthly.

The Religion Communicators Council (RCC) is an interfaith association of religion communicators at work in print and electronic communication, marketing and public relations. The Nashville Chapter recently heard from Debbie Hill, CEO of Creative Website Marketing, on the topic of Paid Advertising Strategies for Brand Awareness & How It Can Impact Your Organization.

The meeting took place in early May at United Methodist Communications on 12^th Avenue South in Nashville, Tenn.

Hill presented important information related to paid strategies on Google and Facebook, and how each has their own unique potential for gaining increased brand awareness. “This meeting was highly beneficial for communications professionals looking to broaden the scope of their reach,” says Julie Brinker, Communications Coordinator for the Nashville RCC and Director of Community Affairs for the Church of Scientology Nashville.

The RCC has members from every faith group and walk of life including Baha’is, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Scientologists, Sikhs, Hindus and more. The RCC, founded in 1929, is an association of communications professionals who work for and with a diverse group of faith-based organizations in the areas of communications, public relations, advertising and development. The RCC provides opportunities for communicators to learn from each other. Together, RCC members promote excellence in the communication of faith and values in the public arena. For more information about the Religion Communicators Council, visit religioncommunicators.org/nashville-chapter. 

Nashville Church of Scientology Celebrates 34th Anniversary

The Church of Scientology held its 34^th anniversary soiree celebration on April 27^th, 2019 with parishioners and friends.

At the end of April, the Nashville Church of Scientology held a celebration of thirty-four years in Nashville, and 10 in the new Ideal Church on 8^th Avenue South.  

The evening began with a look back at the opening of the new church, as well as when it was first formed in the 1980s, “It was 10 years ago -- April 25th, 2009 -- the air was warm, the streets were packed with 1200 excited Scientologists and guests, and the stage was set for expansion. But let's take a look, as we sometimes do in Scientology, to see if there was an earlier beginning... and indeed there was. The 1980s are known as a time of international expansion for the Church of Scientology.  There was a major advertising campaign around the book Dianetics, and probably some of you here tonight were among the hundreds of thousands who got interested at that time. So it was that in Nashville, a small group of Scientologists came together to study and discuss [L. Ron Hubbard’s] books,” said the Rev. Mika Allen Pierce in her opening remarks.       

Pierce went on to describe how the church was first formed in Nashville, and how it has grown significantly over the years, with major growth occurring within the last decade since the opening of the Ideal Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre Nashville on 8^th Avenue South in the historic Fall School building.

On a global scale, the Church of Scientology has enjoyed greater expansion during the past decade than in the previous 50 years combined. All the while the Church’s ever-growing humanitarian programs have positively impacted hundreds of millions of lives.

In Nashville, the Church has seen thousands of people entering its doors for the first time since moving into the grand Fall School Building ten years ago. On a humanitarian mission, the Church has participated in numerous human rights awareness events and helped create such events as Human Rights Day and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. march and convocation.  Church members, volunteering in the area of drug education, have delivered more than 230 seminars in schools in Tennessee and have distributed more than 50,000 booklets.

“Scientology is an active religion, where one seeks to know life and help people," says Rev. Brian Fesler, Church Pastor, "and we have the tools to accomplish that. We don’t ask our members to believe, we want them to act.”

To learn more about the Church of Scientology, its programs and courses, visit www.scientology.org.  

The Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee Holds Earth Day Cleanup

The Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee had a community cleanup for Earth Day this April and successfully cleaned up a Hermitage neighborhood.

According to Nashville.gov, $11 million in taxpayer dollars are spent picking up the trash that Tennesseans throw on the ground. To help keep Nashville beautiful, The Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee (TWTH-TN) had a neighborhood cleanup event for Earth Day. The cleanup was dubbed “Green It Up,” as part of an ongoing campaign by the organization to make the city of Nashville greener with less litter.

Volunteers took to a street in Hermitage that has seen better days. They were able to collect several trash bags of litter including many alcoholic bottles, among other odds and ends.

The Way To Happiness book was written by humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard and has a total of twenty-one precepts based on the fact that one’s survival depends on the survival of others. One such precept is “Safeguard and Improve Your Environment,” and it is with this at heart that volunteers took to the street to help pick up litter. The chapter states, in part: “There are many things one can do to help take care of the planet. They begin with the idea that one should.”

Earth Day began on April 22, 1970, when millions of people took to the streets to protest the negative impacts of 150 years of industrial development. The day is now celebrated each year with events to commemorate care for the environment.

For more information on “Green It Up,” or if you would like to participate in future events, visit twthtn.org. 

The Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee Calms Troubled Neighborhoods

The Way to Happiness Association of Tennessee has long helped people by spreading calm through The Way to Happiness booklet.

"True joy and happiness are valuable," begins the common sense guide, The Way to Happiness, written by humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1980s. Since then, the book has sparked a movement and has been reprinted and passed hand to hand to a wide variety of cultures and peoples.

In Tennessee, The Way to Happiness Association works with communities and neighborhoods to spread the booklet to as many people as possible. Organizers say that when the booklet is passed from hand to hand, it is like oil spread upon a raging sea, the calm flows outward and outward.

The Tennessee Association launched its campaign to distribute the booklet in 2009. Since that time, the group has visited local health fairs, festivals and community gatherings. It is currently planning for events throughout the summer. Recently, the organization has distributed hundreds of booklets at a neighborhood event hosted by the police at Midtown Hills in Nashville. Coming up this weekend is the Peace Festival hosted by Unity Church, where people of various races, ethnicities and religions will gather to form a human made peace symbol. This is the third year in a row that TWTH-TN has participated at this event.

"This book spreads a calmness that is unparalleled by anything else. It contains common sense moral messages that anyone can agree with and apply," says Rev. Brian Fesler, the regional coordinator for the program.

The Way to Happiness booklet details 21 precepts predicated on the fact that one's survival depends on the survival of others. According to thewaytohappiness.org, "This code of conduct can be followed by anyone, of any race, color or creed and works to restore the bonds that unite humankind." The Way to Happiness aims at giving people back a sense of what is right and wrong in a way that is easy to understand. In the three decades since it was authored, some 80 million copies of the book passed hand to hand.

For more information, visit thewaytohappiness.org.

Church of Scientology Nashville Recognizes Top Volunteers

Volunteer Recognition Day at the Church of Scientology Nashville acknowledged volunteers and inspired others to take action, exemplifying the spirit of the day.

The Church of Scientology Nashville held an open house for International Volunteer Recognition Day in April to acknowledge volunteers, while also lifting up others to help people in times of need. “Helping others is an incredible virtue, and one that should be recognized more often,” says Rev. Brian Fesler, pastor of the Nashville Church.

Volunteers recognized for their work over the past year included those who have shown exemplary volunteer spirit and those who contributed to volunteer work in other ways.

The Church of Scientology’s Volunteer Minister program is a religious social service created in the mid 1970s by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard who said, "The Volunteer Minister helps 'on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.'"

To make this technology broadly available, the Church has a Volunteer Minister tent that is set up at fairs and other community events to offer help freely to anyone. The Church also provides free online training at the Volunteer Ministers website. Anyone of any culture or creed may train as a Volunteer Minister and use these tools to help their families and communities.

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The Volunteer Minister program was expressly intended for use by Scientologists and non- Scientologists alike. Transcending all ethnic, cultural and religious boundaries, the Volunteer Ministers program is there for anyone in need of help. Volunteer Minister training is available free of charge through the Scientology Volunteer Minister website to anyone who wishes to help others, at www.volunteerministers.org.