The Alabama Project is a martial arts convention, with a twist:

We meet in a little town in the rural south where there's no tourism. We hook up with some amazing people - and we build a house in 4 days. We also train, offer classes and workshops, and spend enough time together to make some very, very fine friends. 

Started in 2004 by Team’s 1 and 2 of The Ultimate Black Belt Test, The Alabama Project now consists of interested members (and their friends) from almost all of Tom Callos’ projects, including The New Way Network and, this year, Everything Self-Defense. 

There's no cost for this convention and everyone works for free. You can, however, help us raise the funds we need for building supplies and FOOD.

From now until the event, our goal is to get you and your students, lots of them, involved in some very low-key fundraising. With all of our contacts, if everyone we know donated just $10 over the course of the coming year, we'd roll into Greensboro with a budget big enough to fund several projects. We're shooting for $100,000. 

Here's the official website and donation center for the Alabama Project.

Some more quick details: You dont' need rooms here, just bring a decent air-mattress and a sleeping bag, as a local church loans us their facility, with lots of room for sleeping and a big commercial kitchen. Local high schools open their showers for us  - and frankly, that's all we need. 

This is the "we don't need ANYTHING," "We don't complain," and "Isn't this the coolest thing we've done all year?" convention. To get an idea of what it all looks like, check out the great photo archive that UBBT member and Alabama Project veteran Bill Whitworth has produced, here.

This is a short film about Pam, produced for the Hallmark Channel by UBBT Alumna Nancy Walzog (an Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker). The workers building in the background of the video are UBBT team members.

Building a home for a family in need is, by itself, a worthwhile investment of time, however, The Alabama Project is something more than a building project. 

This work represents a revolution of ideology and methodology in the martial arts community and "industry." In a nutshell, The Ultimate Black Belt Test is leading a movement in the martial arts community to move away from a management and promotion culture predominantly driven by sales and sales training, to one fueled by community activism and social consciousness.

See a video featuring images from the 2008 Alabama project here:

Members of the current UBBT, along with UBBT alumni (plus students & friends) travel from all over down to Greensboro, Alabama to participate in the 4 day build project.