The Get Honest: Our Youth Matter Conference was held last Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at the Howard Johnson Hotel in Aurora. The York Region Alliance to End Homelessness organized the day long workshop with support from Street Kids International. The conference was both a project ending event and an invitation to York Region groups to continue with the collaboration and skills building approach to capacity building that the Streetjibe project piloted for the past 3 years.

I had the privilege of managing this pilot project since it’s launch in 2006. Street Kids International initiated the project, building on it’s poverty work in the Region over the past 6 years.  Streetjibe’s founder members were eleven practitioners from nine community non profit organizations. These staff and their respective agencies agreed to form a learning community that sought to build new skills and form collaborative relationships so young people have improved access to relevant services. In the second year we expanded our learning community to include any interested member of the community or agencies serving youth. The whole Streetjibe story can be found on our blog where we shared our collaborative work and encouraged the use of social media tools to foster learning.

One of the most exciting and inspiring stories came from Jenny Vengris from the Hamilton Social Planning & Research Council. Read more…

Brent Learning Community, Presentation, Services, networks

An interview with Dave Goff, performer in the Stand Up For Mental Health Comedy Troupe.

Over 350 people attended the National Mental Health Week – On the Road of Recovery event at the Newmarket Theatre on April 8th, 2009. From my perspective, the event was a resounding success . I think what made the event so successful was the careful planning and collaboration of the sponsoring organizations and the representation throughout the day of the rich and genuine voices of consumer survivors. Read more…

Brent Business, Learning Community, Services, purpose

Alex Giancola is a cast member in a play called The Recovering. This interview is an excerpt from the film that Social Media Tools for Work & Learning did of the play.

This play was entirely created and directed by consumer/survivors of the mental health system. I was very pleased when Tanya Shute Exective Director of the Krasman Centre, a mental health drop in centre located in Richmond Hill Ontario agreed to my offer of filming the play at their 2009 AGM celebrations. The Krasman Centre and the Richmond Hill United Church where key supporters of the play from the beginning. Read more…

Brent Learning Community, Presentation, Services, purpose drama, mentalhealth, play

I love this book “The Groundswell” , winning in a world transformed by social technologies written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.  Here is how they introduce their approach to writing the book. We have taken “a broader view of this phenomenon(social networks, media, tools, web 2.0 etc), one that encompasses not just today’s technologies but the fundamental change in behaviour now happening online. The groundswell is: A social trend in which people use technologies to get things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. (non profits corporations as well).

This book has rounded out my thinking and made clear why it’s so important for non profit organizations and businesses to learn how to survive and thrive in the groundswell.  The next excerpt from the Groundswell book is a bit long, but for me it so accurately captures the the depth, breadth and permanence of the seachange in how we relate and do business with each other in our neighbourhoods, countries and world. Read more…

Brent Learning Community, Research, purpose groundswell, online, seachange, strategy