Using video to disseminate knowledge, create awareness, stimulate action and promote prevention is a powerful way to tell your non profit story.  As you you may have noticed in many of my blog posts, I like to use video to tell stories about causes.

In one of my volunteer roles, I work with a group that is addressing how the stigma of mental illness affects young people in our community. Last week, the T.A.M.I. Coalition of York Region (Talking About Mental Illness and Addictions) hosted it’s 4th annual Stomp Out Stigma Conference.

The Stomp Out Stigma conference brings students and teachers from across our 2 Regional school boards. Our conference approach is to bring young people in as key note speakers, all of whom have lived experience of mental illness and addictions.

The speakers share their stories and break down the stereotypes and myths of mental illness. We also facilitate small group workshops and provide tool kits in which the students (and their accompanying teachers) can take back to their schools to create anti stigma events or publications.

Back to my point about amplifying your message with video.  There are many opportunities for groups to capture important events or activities that show what a valuable service your non profit is providing to the community.

Having a high definition camera is great, but a standard definition video recorder will work just fine for web viewing. When your having a function, just bring your camera along, interview some people, record the event, do some minor edits and then share it on YouTube or your own non profit web site.

Below is a video I took at our T.A.M.I. Conference and a list of links that will take you to my YouTube Channel. I wanted to make these video resources available to the youth who are planning anti stigma events or activities in their schools. I also felt that having a video record of one of our key note speakers could be very helpful for youth, care givers and counselors.

Please let me know if you would like to know more about our event or how you can use video to amplify your non profit story.

Jesse Bigelow shares his experience of living with mental illness to an attentive roomful of students. The second part of his presentation can be viewed on my Social Media Tools Channel.

You can view Patricia Preston’s opening welcome on behalf of the York Catholic District School Board here.

We were also treated to an outstanding young dance artist. Cassey Andrew’s dance expresses the anguish many youth and adults face when they struggle to share words and feelings that are painful. Cassey’s dance is called Prisoner of Words Unsaid.

Related Posts:

Stomping Out Stigma Summit 2009

Brent Uncategorized addictions, mentalhealth, mentalillness, stigma, youth

This morning, one of my online newsletters had an interesting link to an article from a magazine (online version) called US Catholics. The title was called “Bishops Urge to Use Social Media to Evangelize More Effectively”.

“I don’t think I have to remind you of what happened when the Catholic Church was slow to adapt to that new technology,” he told the bishops. “By the time we decided to seriously promote that common folk should read the Bible, the Protestant Reformation was well under way.”

This article got me thinking about why non profits need to adopt social media strategies and tools to survive. The US Catholic Church Bishops Communication Committee understand the consequence of not acting. I hope our non profit sector comes to a similar conclusion.

I have daily conversations with non profit managers about social media adoption. I often hear them say that they realize the importance of developing an online communication strategy for their organization but they are not able or ready to commit resources towards social media strategies and tools.

On several occasions I hear them say that they have staff that are tech savvy and use social media tools in their work. They do pause for a few minutes when I explain what a risk they are putting their organization in by allowing staff to use these online tools without benefit of policy, guidelines and procedures.

These kinds of conversations got me thinking about shocking non profit leaders into understanding the consequences of not using social media. I’ve decided to focus my messages on the cost of not using online tools for relationship building, collaboration, knowledge management, community development, service delivery etc.

Regardless of sector, social media is transforming how business is conducted, how people communicate, access services, connect with others and participate in social networks.

My passion is helping non profit and education sector groups develop and use social media strategies and tools. I am on this path because after 25 years designing and delivering programs I understand how challenging it is for struggling non profits to make the transition to the social web.

Over the past year, I’ve been working with many groups that decided that social media is a necessity for connecting with users and strengthening all aspects of organization. They have chosen to use social media to nurture and sustain relationships that are critical to the organizations success and Mission.

Any organization, particularly non profit has within it’s mandate a fundamental requirement to communicate effectively with their supporters, users, partners and donors. To not use current communication strategies and tools is a recipe for failure.

One of the most powerful videos that illustrate how social media is transforming the way we communicate and conduct business is called Social Media Revolution 2 – Refresh. In under 4 minutes, this video paints an accurate picture of our emerging social media culture.

I offer workshops for  organizations who are ready to broaden their understanding and adoption of social media tools and strategies. The workshop topics include the following competency areas: These competency areas are usually connected to the business goals of non profit organizations. Read more…

Brent Uncategorized competencies, nonprofits, socialmediastrategy

Coming early to a meeting was not something I’m know for. My early arrival led to an invitation from Bob Hickey, Executive Director of Catholic Community Services of York Region to tour the brand new Richmond Hill Welcome Centre.

The Catholic Community Services organization provides a diverse range of counseling and settlement services to York Region residents. Bob’s organization is the lead agency that stick handled the complex partnering and funding relationships needed to bring this much needed resource to Richmond Hill.

Bob tells me that the Richmond Hill Welcome Centre is well on its way to serving over 7,000 people over the coming 12 months.

Recent research describes York Region as the fastest growing community in North America and the immigrant – newcomer population is driving this growth. This Centre was especially needed to serve the southern area of the Region.

What’s all this to do with social media. Well my view is that social media is about supporting people, relationships, opportunities and collaborative platforms for people to learn and meet their life goals.

The Welcome Centre is a HUB service, with partner groups using the facilities to deliver specific related services to the immigrant and newcomer population. In my mind, the HUB model is well on it’s way to developing into a “networked non profit“. It will be exciting to follow its development.

At the end of my tour I was left with a strong sense that the Welcome Centre succeeded in incorporating these social media qualities in their new facility. The Welcome Centre is truly an open, welcoming and inviting place for immigrants and newcomers to Canada.

As I was introduced to front line, admin and support staff , it was clearly evident that Richmond Hill Welcome Centre (staff and partner organizations) have created an inviting and friendly environment to serve the needs of the newcomer community.

I’m in these photos because Bob insisted, despite my efforts to get him to pose. Next time Bob

Brent Uncategorized welcome yorkregion newcomers

I watched Sir Ken Robinson’s video on Education Reform and was again totally impressed by his sparkling and at times humorous analysis of education in the modern world. In a conversation later in the day I was reminded of something Sir Ken said about divergent thinking.

At kindergarten age, the ability to think along divergent lines (exploring many possible solutions or options) was measured at 90%. At 10 years, the kids were measured at 50%. At teenage years (high school) the kids were measured at 10%. The conclusion. Education kills divergent thinking.

In our strategy meeting , my colleague and I were trying to organize a discussion about how our small research mobilization committee can participate and still be effective in a larger group of non profit organizations. As we discussed various options for facilitating our discussion, it dawned on me that there are many divergent approaches we can take to move our group towards a response to a rather complex issue related to membership and strategy.

As I left this meeting, I thought about how much I’m learning from having people like Sir Ken Robinson  in my online social social media networks. For me, social media and divergent thinking are very closely entwined and are the bedrock of my own personal learning environment.

Just maybe, I’m unlearning all that industrial age education clap trap about their is only one right answer and re-discovering my divergent thinking powers..time will tell.

Brent Uncategorized