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Featured Articles
White House Council Promotes Community Solutions
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The White House Council for Community Solutions was established by President Obama in December 2010 to share creative ideas and collaborative approaches for building healthy communities across America. One of its two key priorities is that, "Every American community will have the knowledge and tools at hand to create successful local "collaboratives" that are designed to catalyze large-scale change and address their most pressing community challenges."Resilience and the "New Normal" [By: Tim Brodhead]
In his 2011 year-end address U.N. Secretary - General Ban Ki -moon said "I believe we are at an inflection point in human history. All is changing. The old rules are breaking down. We do not know what new order will emerge."
Canadians, despite living in a relatively ordered and stable society, would probably agree. In the past decade we have experienced extreme weather events, public health scares, economic dislocation for workers in manufacturing industries, and of course all of this against the backdrop of global terrorist threats and an on-going financial crisis. The expectation of continuing improvements in living standards, "Freedom-55", and opportunity for all Canadians is being shaken. The need to plan for the unpredictable, to manage risk, to invest in preparedness rather than just mitigation of natural or other disasters, are becoming part of people's thinking, the "new normal."
An individual, community or society's capacity to absorb shocks and stresses without losing its essential attributes and values is called resilience, a word we hear more and more frequently. We see it being tested now as Europe grapples with its spreading sovereign debt crisis, as the Philippines and other countries deal with extreme weather, as Middle East countries struggle with political change. Do a country's economic, governance and social systems enhance its capacity to adapt and change or render it more vulnerable to disruption and breakdown?
In Canada we must ask the same question. Are our systems too rigid to adapt, our attitudes and expectations insufficiently responsive to today's challenges? How do we enhance the resilience of our communities and our society?
We have many assets - a generally high level of education, great diversity in our population, and a tradition that seeks a balance between collective responsibility and individual opportunity. However recent evidence suggests our systems are under growing stress. The middle class is shrinking. The costs of health care are ballooning. Second generation Canadians are having less success than their parents entering the mainstream, and we are far from making full use of the diverse skills brought here by new immigrants. For years our economic productivity has been stagnant.
Evidence suggests that individual resilience, or our ability to cope, is significantly affected by early childhood experience and the sense of control that we have over our lives. Communities need to build social capital, supportive relationships and a sense of belonging and contributing to the collective good, in order to decrease the isolation and vulnerability experienced by many people. Canadians need to ensure that our society is diverse but inclusive, cohesive in its embrace of common values but flexible and sensitive to the needs of the disadvantaged.
A recent document from the McConnell Family Foundation explains how its various programs cohere around the concept of resilience. Whether linking community members around poverty eradication activities, as Tamarack's Vibrant Communities program does, or developing integrated strategies to increase food security or to facilitate access to suitable employment for qualified new Canadians, the goal is to ensure that Canada faces the future prepared for the 'new normal.'
When the old rules break down we all feel the discomfort, even pain. Not everyone is equally well-equipped to deal with disruption and new demands and expectations. Some respond by clinging to what is familiar, refusing to accept that any change in the status quo is needed - at least by them. But it is increasingly clear that our high consumption lifestyle is not sustainable and that while the market generates wealth, if left to itself it also exacerbates inequality.
Governments, business, and the community sector must find new ways to collaborate to address global social and environmental problems. Each sector will be challenged to re-think its purpose and methods. In a world of change, it is not the strong who survive, but those who are most able to adapt and innovate.
A robust, resilient Canada will require that we all do our share to prepare for unpredictable, often disruptive change, the 'new normal', bearing in mind that the test of a country is not the quality of life for the best-off, but for the majority, including the most vulnerable.
Related Links:
- Download Reslience
- Read about how Vibrant Communities is helping to build resilience in Canada
- Visit Vibrant Communities Canada to find resources on cities reducing poverty
- Visit The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation website
What Are You Skating Towards in 2012? [By: Al Etmanski]
Quid Tum - What next? This question is a declaration of our faith in the future, in the power of human ingenuity. It encompasses passion, curiosity, exploration and truth seeking. It is a question that I've been pondering within my blog, which explores the power of creativity and innovation when applied to our destiny's challenge - a good life for everyone.
Through these reflections I realize that truth seekers and pursuers of justice don't stand still. They, at minimum, are in constant dialogue with themselves. Making the elusive visible may get tested and refined in their conversations but I suspect more often in their actions. By the time they get around to writing about it, they are on to the next pursuit. To peek inside the souls of explorers I admire I have assembled a set of essays fashioned after my last year's popular Becoming Visible in 2011 collection.
This year my question is: What are you skating towards in 2012?
I invited people I had profiled or referenced in my blogs throughout 2011 to write about an idea, concept, or phenomenon that is capturing their attention. I was particularly interested in what was on their horizon, not yet clear, still amorphous.
Their responses are deeply personal yet their canvas is civilization. If a theme emerged, it has been that of the citizen - citizen as being, citizen as doing. Being - anchored in the values of the heart, mystery, fallibility, joy, delicious ambiguity, empathy, love. Doing - the messy, unglamorous, tough work of constructive destruction, cooperating with opponents and strangers; and intervening to stop atrocities.
If these essays are any indication, we may be witnessing a reclaiming of our narrative as citizen. One fused from personal and shared values, at the intersection of voice and agency and forged out of necessity and commonality.
I released the first essay on New Year's Day, January 1st, 2012. You can access them here or in the What are you Skating Towards category on the right -hand side of my blog page. The full collection will be published shortly. To whet your appetite here is a list of this year's contributors.
Adam Kahane, Alex Fox, Allyson Hewitt, Arthur Wood, Brad Johnston, Cairine Macdonald, Caroline Casey, Colleen McCormick, Cormac Russell, David Roche, Donna Thomson, Faye Porter, Gordon Atherley, Gordon Hogg, Gord Tulloch, Gregor Wolbring, Ian Curtin, Jacques Dufresne, Jacques Pelletier, Jim Fletcher, Jim Schwier, Joe Coughlin, John McKnight, John Mighton, John Stapleton, Kathy Bromley, Linda Couture, Linda Perry, Lindsay Cant, Maggie Vilvang, Marcel Lauzière, Mark Anielski, Mark Kingwell, Molly Harrington, Patrick O'Neil, Paul Born, Paul Pholeros, Peter Block, Peter Deitz, Richard Bridge, Richard Faucher, Richard Steckel, Sam Sullivan, Sean Moore, Shari Graydon, Shawn Smith, Sherri Torjman, Stefan Lorimer, Stephen Owen, Steve Sunderland, Ted Jackson, Ted Kuntz, Vickie Cammack and a few more...
May 2012 bring you a long river to skate away on.
Related Links
- Read Al's Blog at www.aletmanski.com
- Listen to this podcast with Al and Paul Born about the What Are You Skating Towards project
- Register to join the January 26th, 12 tele-learning Innovating Together with Al Etmanski
- Read Paul Born's contribution to the What Are You Skating Towards? Project
- Read the What Are You Skating Towards Essays that have already been published
Ideas We're Following...
Join the Dark Horse Conversation [By: Colette Murphy]
If there is one new resource to add to your 2012 reading list about leadership I would recommend, The Dark Horse Conversation: Nonprofit Leaders Talk about Vocational, Organization and Civic Renewal, the second of two papers by Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellow Pat Thompson.
This paper continues Pat's exploration of the concept of renewal and the role of vocation in sustaining the vitality of nonprofit leaders. The paper illuminates the crucial role that reflective conversations can play in uncorking creativity and inoculating us from workplace stress. More than 150 leaders in the arts, environment, and community sectors responded to the invitation Pat extended in her first paper to talk about the sense of purpose that inspires and sustains their work. She has chronicled these conversations and reflected on what they reveal about the challenges and opportunities of vocational, organizational, and civic renewal.
This lyrical new paper takes the form of a letter to colleagues and invites further reflection on what these times are asking of nonprofit leaders and their organizations. It unpacks learnings on such varied themes as: how we define leaders; what makes work meaningful; the power of emotion in shaping organizational culture and driving change; challenging conventional thinking related to layoffs or terminations; and, how architecture and physical space shape the nonprofit sector and its work.
Through her new website, onealphaavenue.org, Pat will continue and extend the conversation. The site is also a repository of resources and provides opportunities to connect with others on themes related to discovering, renewing, and sustaining work that makes a positive difference in the world. She is co-hosting this site with Kay Dyson Tam, a second-year University of Toronto student. They look forward to facilitating a multi-dimensional conversation on the issues, events, and people that help us see the connection between work and vocation.
Engaged and inspired leaders are in the best position to step forward imaginatively and effectively to advance the common good. Tending to one's own professional vitality and its link to organizational and civic renewal is well worth the investment in 2012.
Related links:
- Download The Dark Horse Conversation paper
- Visit onealphaavenue.org Pat Thompson's website
- Visit the Metcalf Foundation website
- Find more resources on community innovation
Circles of Change [By: Sylvia Cheuy]
Stories move in circles. They don't go in straight lines. So it helps if you listen in circles. - From A Traveling Jewish Theatre, Coming From A Great Distance
In Circles of Change, author Tracy Thompson explores the power and effectiveness of one of civilization's oldest organizational forms: the circle. Whether it is "lending circles" that encourage micro-finance in India, organizationally-based quality circles in industry, or study circles developed to support adult learning programs and citizen-action initiatives, circle technology has proven remarkably successful in fostering enhanced well-being, development and autonomy in both individuals and groups within a wide variety of contexts.
Citing examples from a vast array of cultures and situations, this paper which was published in the Fall 2011 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, concludes that circles are "one of the oldest, most widespread, and effective tools for creating personal and social change." There are many variations to how circles are established and sustained, however four core characteristics distinguish the form from more typical triangle-like, hierarchical social structures. The four characteristics of circle are:
- Egalitarian Participation - Sitting in circle, as equals, encourages participants to engage in conversations as peers and fosters respectful group dialogue. Practices such as "listening without judgement" and passing a "talking stick" create a sense of safety and encourage members to contribute their thoughts and ideas to the whole.
- Shared Leadership - Unlike triangle-like models for social interaction that tend to place leadership and authority with one person, circles view leadership as a set of functions that is divided and shared amongst all participants.
- Group-Determined Purposes & Processes - A basic assumption underlying the circle is that all members have the capability to contribute to the group's purpose in meaningful ways. All members are also involved in determining - and fulfilling - the group's stated purpose and goals.
- Voluntary Membership - Circle members join because of their own interests and desires, not because they are obligated or "forced" to join by an authority figure.
Circle is effective in creating and sustaining individual and social change because its structure offers individuals the support they need to change while also generating the group's collective capacity for effective action. Research shows that individuals are more likely to learn and change when "they experience an environment that feeds three basic and universal human needs: relatedness (being connected to and experience caring for others); autonomy (voluntary, motivated action towards a desired outcome with a sense of efficacy); and, competence (being effective dealing with one's environment)." Circle's capability of meeting these three needs explains its effectiveness in fostering both the motivation and ability for individuals to learn and change.
The challenges of helping others to help themselves and the tendency to unconsciously revert back to hierarchical, triangle-like structures that are more typical in human interactions can make circles difficult to introduce and sustain. Skilled facilitation, training and careful attention to group process and dynamics are all key ingredients to circle success and sustainability.
Circle's emphasis on respectful peer dialogue is instrumental in establishing strong social connections between participants. The strong, trusting ties that develop between members enable them to share the resources, knowledge and effort needed to take action on social issues. In this way, social capital is built and the collective power of the group is enhanced. This is why circles have proven to be so effective at enabling social change within the broader community.Related links:
- Download Circles of Change from the Stanford Social Innovation Review
- Read Circle: Step by Step an excerpt from Circle: A Leader in Every Chair by Christina Baldwin & Ann Linnea
- Download basic circle guidelines from the authors of Circle: A Leader in Every Chair
- Download Everyday Democracy's Organizing Study Circles with Young People
Five Themes to Build a More Prosperous Canada
[By: Sherri Torjman]
Canada 2020: Canada's Progressive Centre is a non-partisan organization whose goal is to create an environment of social and economic prosperity for Canadians. In November 2011, the organization published The Canada We Want in 2020, a series of essays that explores five themes:
- Increasing Innovation and Productivity;
- Rising to Meet the Asia Challenge;
- Squaring the Carbon Circle;
- Reducing Income Disparities and Polarization; and
- Securing our Health System for the Future
The purpose of the publication and Canada 2020 itself are to influence the development of the federal government as "a force for significant and positive change."
Caledon Institute's contribution - written by President Ken Battle and myself - was an essay entitled "Inequality Is Not Inevitable." It considers the economic and social factors that contribute to high poverty and rising inequality, and discusses the negative consequences to both individuals and the broader society. The paper's main focus is the crucial redistributive role of the federal government through income security programs and a progressive income tax system. The Working Income Tax Benefit and Canada Child Tax Benefit are two levers that are currently in place. We argue for a substantial boost to these programs as a way to land a solid punch on poverty and inequality - now.
Related links:
- Download Inequality is Not Inevitable by Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman
- Read The Canada We Want in 2020
- Visit the Canada 2020 website here
- Find case studies & community stories about poverty reduction in action
Maximizing Online Learning & Training [By: Joanne Kaattari]
"Venturing into e-learning has allowed us to provide high quality training to our member organizations and support them in ways we - and they - never dreamed possible even just a few years ago." - Key Informant quote
Community Literacy of Ontario (CLO) is a provincial literacy network of 105 community-based literacy agencies located in rural and urban communities across Ontario. As a small organization with a large mandate and many members located across a wide geographic area, CLO has been an early adopter of digital learning technologies. In fact, we have been delivering online workshops since the internet was in its infancy!
Because of this experience, we are continually asked for information about effective methods for providing online training. CLO is a strong believer in knowledge transfer, and with the field of online learning growing in leaps and bounds, we also wanted to learn more about how other organizations and sectors were making use of online learning opportunities and tools. And so, thanks to funding from the Employment Ontario Network Development Fund, CLO conducted comprehensive research into technologies for providing online staff training. The result is CLO's recently published Guide to Effective Technologies for Providing Online Staff Training.
As part of the development of this resource, CLO conducted 49 interviews with diverse organizations and explored well over a hundred websites to review online learning technologies. The guide synthesizes this research by offering overviews of 14 different types of technologies used for digital learning. Each overview contains a user-friendly summary, real-life examples, and steps to getting started using these technologies. The technologies covered include: blogs, e-books, slide sharing, videos, podcasts, social networking, webinars, wikis and more. The guide also contains a summary of the benefits and challenges of delivering online training to staff. If you are wondering how to maximize the possibilities of digital learning technologies for your own organization, this is a resource you won't want to miss.
Related links:
- Download the Guide to Effective Technologies for Providing Online Staff Training
- Learn more about purchasing a printed copy of the guide and other CLO resources
- Access the Community Literacy of Ontario website
Highlights From
Tamarack's Learning Communities
www.vibrantcanada.ca ♦ www.tamarackcci.ca ♦ www.seekingcommunity.ca
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