I am very pleased to report that I’ve struck a business alliance with a friend and colleague from Edmonton Alberta.

Mark Holmgren and I met quite a few years ago in Edmonton Alberta. I had taken on the challenge of launching and managing Edmonton’s first inner city street youth program and Mark was an Executive Director at a inner city housing project that served homeless and hard to house inner city residents.

Mark is a highly sought after consultant (Mark Holmgren Consulting – MHC) serving the non profit sector throughout Alberta and for a time in southern Florida. Over this past year, Mark and I resumed our relationship thanks to the wonders of the social web. It didn’t take us long to recognize how aligned we are in our desire to help non profit groups adopt social web strategies for strengthening their services and deepening their relationships with stakeholders.

Mark and I will focus our business alliance on helping non profit organizations develop and execute their online communications strategies to engage their supporters, donors, users and partners. Our collaborative work will include the design & development of websites, and the deployment of social media tools to engage stakeholders and meet organizational business goals.

Our first contract together is delivering a social media strategic plan to a collaborative, rural-based organization, Return to Rural.

Return to Rural is an exciting project aimed at attracting and retaining early and mid- career families to the rural remote communities of the Special Areas and MD of Acadia No.34 region (Southeastern Alberta).

The return to rural philosophy is built on the idea that by blending technology and community, it is possible to create an environment where anyone can live their dream life in a rural community.

MHC has also been contracted to deliver two learning workshops related to social media in the late summer and fall by another client.

If your organization needs help understanding social media and developing strategies to reach and engage your stakeholders, give Mark a call at 780.244.8686 or email him at mark@markholmgren.com

You can reach me by calling (905) 751-6075 or emailing me at brent at socialmediatools dot ca

I am in the final stages of designing a new web site for Social Media Tools for Work & Learning.

My blog has served me well but my new Drupal powered web site will enable me to showcase more of the work I’m doing with organizations and still offer all the benefits of a full blogging platform. Stay tuned!

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I grew up in the 60’s. The values we aspired to back then are closely aligned with the values and philosophy expressed by many social media practitioners and leaders in business, non profit, education and other sectors across the spectrum of society and around the world.

This is post originating from Louise Suarez a Knowledge Manager, Community Builder & Social Computing Evangelist in the IBM Software Group division has stirred me up like no other post. He puts forth a personal insight that others around the world have being hinting at and writing about for some  time.

Maybe it was just the way he shared his story or the fact that he connected the best of what was happening in the 60’s and 70’s with how the social web is enabling creativity and innovation in people who who care about our future.

The post is a heartfelt revelation from someone immersed in the social media world within IBM. The accompanying video interview with Alexandra Wheeler (Starbucks’ Director of Digital Strategies) on the topic of social strategy and social philosophy underscores Luis’s contention that adopting a social philosophy is an integral ingredient to any social media strategy.

We need some fresh thinking; we need to break the barriers of how business has been conducted in the last few years; we finally need to break free from that financial yoke and eventually strike for that sustainable economy that everyone keeps talking about, but that doesn’t seem to come along as quickly as we thought. It keeps slipping away from our fingers, when we know it’s just so close to us! We need to stop thinking about social strategy and push more along the lines of social philosophy.

Because, after all, who wants to live in a world like today’s, yes, like today’s (With the current financial crisis and all) in say 30 to 50 years from now? Would you be willing to make the same mistakes we have made in the recent past and go through the same painful experiences again? And again! And again!! Would you? Would you like your children to inherit such unsustainable world? I am not sure about you, but I wouldn’t, and somehow something tells me that I will be around, like most of you folks out there, to witness what it would be like. And, for sure, I would want to see a better picture than what we have today! Otherwise, why bother altogether, don’t you think?

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My colleague Mark Holmgren (Anticipate) has written an insightful post about his experience attending an Imagine Canada Forum held in Edmonton. Imagine Canada is doing a series of Provincial forums and Edmonton was their first stop.

Here  is how Imagine Canada describe it’s cross country mission.

First, in its role as convener of a national dialogue on how to strengthen the collective voice of the sector and develop a common agenda for action, Imagine Canada will use this draft framework to facilitate a nation-wide conversation about what is driving change in the sector and what actions must be taken to maximize the contributions of the sector to Canada and the world over the next decade.

I haven’t being following Imagine Canada’s work but after reading Mark’s post, and the Framework for Action document, I’m going to delve deeper into their resources and cross Canada campaign.

Read more…

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Net Change Week 2010 – Robert Egger keynote from MaRS Discovery District on Vimeo.

My charity rocks, it’s a rooting tooting, awesome, knock em dead, rock and roll, sweet baby James of a charity. Maybe not his exact words, but Robert’s genuine passion, sincerity, pride, anger and commitment flowed through every word he uttered in his keynote.

I was guest blogging at the Net Change Week and was lucky enough to sit in on a speech that altered my view of the social benefit sector and has re-stocked my own passion for change in my community.

Robert Egger is the Founder and President of the DC Central Kitchen, the nation’s first “community kitchen”, where unemployed men and women learn marketable culinary skills while donated food is converted into balanced meals. Since opening in 1989, the DCCK has distributed over 20 million meals and helped 700 men and women gain full-time employment.

I think his message was a bit like the Matrix movie. Take the blue pill and continue believing that the non profit (he hates that term – as I do) sector is just fine. Take the red pill and see how the non profit sector has being convinced into believing that’s all it can be and should be, as after all, it’s the business world that really counts.

Read more…

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Beth Kanter is one incredible lady. I learn so much from her blog and her numerous social media channels. In this interview you can see her eyes sparkling and the electric energy that flows out of her with every question asked. The video is long but you can cherry pick which sections you like.

I was interested in hearing about her new book “The Networked Nonprofit“. I am using this term in my posts about social benefit groups becoming a networked organization.

Beth Kanter says, “Go Slow, But Go!” from Communications Network on Vimeo.

Running time of this episode is 27 minutes. To view selected sections, use the guide below to forward to the time indicated:

• Beth Kanter may not be human (or what 100,000 Twitter followers get you.) (00:27-3:30)
• Disciplined use of Twitter and what you can expect to get 3:30-8:00)
• Why incremental approaches make sense for your social media experiments (8:00-14:44)
• What about the skeptics in our midst? (4:44-17:04)
• How program and communications staff are partnering for greater impact (17:04-20:00)
• What does the future hold for foundations and social media? (20:00-23:50)
• What is Beth’s new book about? (23:50-2625)

Related Posts:

From the Balcony to the Dance Floor – incremental changes over time

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Here are a few snippet recollections I had from my participation in the live film streaming of the Multimedia Film Festival of York Region at Sutton District High School.

A little girl in the film made by a  grade 3 and 4 class from the Waabgon Gamig First Nation School on Georgina Island said – “Community is when we all stick to together; when you don’t stick together, your like a twig that falls broken to the ground” That line broke me up!

A young lady who spoke eloquently about how youth culture is actually saving civilization by taking control of and using technology to create, publish, solve and innovate. She said that youth culture is using technology to create while previous generations only wantonly consumed technology. Her comments contradicted the perspectives of the film makers who suggested that youth are obsessed and addicted to technology and are less for it….

Hillary Van Welter who engaged, joked, provoked, pushed and had fun with the student audience. She did a great job of connecting the schools to each other and coping with the minor streaming glitches.

The live art production that summed up the whole morning of films. It was a wonderful example of art voice in action. Their LOL and WTF acronyms were outstanding additions to the mobile art production.

The occasional cell phones going off as the discussion on teen obsession with technology was taking place.

A school board trustee who gave congratulatory props to the Family Services York Region Prevention Diversion Program for their work in schools around supporting, facilitating and celebrating youth assets and voices in the Georgina community.

Related Posts:

Michael Bowe – Chair, Multimedia Film Festival Council of York Region

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The York Region TAMI Coalition hosted the 3rd Annual Stomp out Stigma Summit last week in Aurora. The Town of Aurora gave up their Council Chambers and meeting rooms to allow over 100 students and teachers to participate in this day long workshop about reducing stigma in our schools.

I’ve being a member of the TAMI Coalition  from it’s inception over 3 years ago. At that time, my project, called Streetjibe (sponsored by Street Kids International), the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation and the Talking About Mental Illness Coalition came together as a Youth Mental Health Committee under the umbrella of the Planning Forum for Children, Youth and Families in York Region.

Over the past 3 years we met regularly to plan our respective projects and support each other. Now that I’m operating independently as a private consultant, I am continuing to contribute my expertise and experience towards this very important cause.

Jesse Bigelow was one of 3 keynote speakers at the TAMI Conference. He shares his story and experiences of living with schizophrenia and his road of recovery. Jesse is a Peer Support Worker with the HOPE Program, Canadian Mental Health Association.

Jesse shares a personal and powerful story with the students and teachers participating in the conference. This is the first of 3 videos featuring Jesse. The first 2 videos are his story and in the last video he answers questions from the audience.

Click here to view Part 2 and here to view the questions and answer segment.

Read on for a list of participating organizations and a background document on the York Region TAMI Coalition. I will be posting a video of one of the young people who was a key note speaker at the Conference.  Jesse is a young man who shares his story of living with schizophrenia and his road of recovery.

Read more…

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When Tanya Shute, Executive Director of the Krasman Centre told me just how important and integral the Intentional Peer Support (IPS) framework was to Krasman programming for mental health consumer survivors, I was intrigued. Tanya explained that the Krasman Centre was hosting a special week long training on IPS and people were coming from across Ontario to participate.

As a volunteer with the Krasman Centre, I saw an opportunity to add a record of this event for the Krasman video library as well as my own video channel on my web site.  It was also a chance to demonstrate how using social media is an effective way to disseminate knowledge and practice to a wide audience of people interested in social issues and change.

Without hesitation, I offered to do a video interview with Shery Mead, the consultant hired to conduct the training.

What follows are 3 video’s. The first one is with Shery Mead and the last 2 are with Ann Thompson, a Recovery Educator and participant in the training program. I think you will find them very enlightening in respect to the emerging field of mental health prevention and wellness programming.

I’ll start by providing a short introduction of Intentional Peer Support (from Shery’s web site).

What is Intentional Peer Support?

Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about purposeful relationships. It is a process where people (or a group of people) use the relationship to look at things from new angles, develop greater awareness of personal and relational patterns, and to support and challenge each other as we try new things. IPS has been used in crisis respite (alternatives to psychiatric hospitalization), by peers, mental health professionals, families, friends and community-based organizations.

Shery offers a broad range of training based on individual needs. These may include training in intentional trauma-informed peer support, warmline skills, peer run crisis alternatives, co-supervision, Facilitator training and training for professionals in recovery-based practice.

Ann Thompson – Recovery Educator – next page

Read more…

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Nancy White is one of many outspoken and knowledgeable bloggers who writes about building and supporting online communities. In this video which I discovered via Robin Good, another outstanding participant/contributor to the social web, Nancy talks about the economic model used to run conferences and the “passive mind set” of so many of the people who attends these events.

I think she is right on with her comments about conference attendees who sit passively and lazily at conferences, unwilling to contribute to important conversations, more content to get their monies worth from the expert on the stage.

Nancy challenges people to participate more in conferences and place demand on conference organizers to build more opportunities for participation by attendees. The current model that keeps the expert on the podium and the uninformed in their seats is just not in step with the participatory values of the social web or conference participant’s wish for space to join the conversation.

It’s a great little video that invites us to unpack some of the conditioning we take into conferences. What thoughts did her message provoke in you?

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I’m involved with the Harm Reduction Coalition of York Region. I became involved when I was a Program Manager with Street Kids International and managed the Streetjibe – addressing youth poverty in York Region program. I’m staying involved as an independent business representative that cares deeply about the kind of community I live in.

Harm reduction is a big word covering a lot of ground. For me it’s about seeing and being with the person, not the harm. It’s also about fostering a compassionate, caring, inclusive community were we don’t lock up people or stigmatize people for their struggles as a human being. Read more…

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