Seth Godin has a new book called Linchpins. I heard that it is outstanding. When I viewed this video I could understand why the book will be another bestseller. I think linchpin people are popping up all over as more and more workers are breaking out of the compliance mind set and getting creative. Here is what Josh Bernoff from Forester Research/the Groundswell says about Seth’s new book. “You need to read Seth Godin’s Linchpin. Or be a cog in the machine. Your choice.”
An interview with Will Davis on Social Capital and Digital Inclusion I have looked at and read many accounts of the UK online learning centres. In Britain, they are so far ahead of Canada in terms of understanding the importance of digital literacy for everyone, especially those that are disenfranchised, without family supports, the unemployed or those experiencing poverty and homelessness (or at risk of). We can learn from their experience.
York Region community organizations and those with a keen interest in solving long standing systemic issues are beginning a process of discussion on “engagement”. The York Region District School Board, concerned about school – community engagement, is a key public organization in the planning for a roundtable discussion event to held in February 2010. The roundtable planning group is comprised of members from a diverse collection of social benefit organizations and local planning networks.
In an environment where cynicism prevails, the challenge of tapping into new and creative actions seems daunting at best. To me, the driving questions at this point revolves around “how do we create a stronger sense of belonging, marked by authentic engagement (in its many forms), in our community”.
When we talk about community, belonging, engagement, systemic barriers, authentic dialogue, inclusive processes etc.. we are talking complexity. How do we have a meaningful and sense making discussion when we are constantly wearing our silo centred, agency representative hat? It’s a bit like seeing the fairy dancing on the head of the pin. You know that fairy is there but you just have to hold the pin in the right way to see him/her.
I think that one of the ways to see that fairy is to somehow suspend or put on the shelf for the moment our agency representation hat and just wear our community citizen hat. When we do that, we can engage with each other and talk about what community means, where does belonging fit into community and what might our community look like if we waved our magic wand and on and on. I think there would be wonderful lessons in that discussion that we can build on and potentially influence policy makers in our organizations. Even more importantly, those lessons can impact us on individual (personal) levels as community citizens, potentially creating a ripple effect in our relationships within our spheres of belonging.
This video by Mark Schenk from Anecdote expands the explanation of the Cynefin model. I like this model as a tool that can help us understand what we are getting into with our community roundtable planning discussions. I think there are some great tips in the Cynefin framework that we can incorporate in our planning for of the roundtable. I especially like the simplicity of the Cynefin framework and how it points to the importance of looking at patterns and building on patterns that show promise.
James Watson, Peer Research Assistant and Dr. Sean Rourke gave a wonderful presentation on their research project at the World Aids Day event sponsored by the Aids Committee of York Region.
I recorded Jame’s presentation as I was very interested in hearing from a person with lived experience speak about their participation in a community based research project. A few years ago, I co-managed a community based research project. We had 46 youth take on the role of youth researchers, examining youth poverty in York Region from a young persons perspective. Since then I continue to seek out learning opportunities related to community based research. If you are interested in learning more about community based research, the Wellesley Institute in Toronto offers in-depth training and workshops.
Jame’s talk was outstanding. He spoke so genuinely, honestly and expertly about his work and the special talents that he brought to the research project. I especially appreciated, as did other in attendance, his account of how taking on the role of Peer Research Assistant transformed his life, his sense of purpose and career direction.
Dr. Sean Rourke spoke very succinctly about community based research from his perspective. There is no doubt this report is a benchmark example of the potency of Community Based Research.
The full report can be accessed through the Positive Spaces, Healthy Places web site. This report is a great example of the benefits of community based research as a means to bring about change on the policy, service, practitioner and consumer levels.
Howard Rheingold is a famous man. His CV is long and deep. Those that are interested can see his many accomplishments at his About page on his web site. Trust, me has quite a story to tell.
Howard’s interview with J.D. Lasika (Socialmedia.biz) at Kings College, London England really got my attention because I’m interested in helping groups and people bridge the digital divide. Specifically, this interview helped me understand how I can better assist non profits, communities or individuals engage in developing their skills and personal learning via the social web.
I’m involved with several local education focused committees that are interested in addressing students learning needs by utilizing online technologies and social web tools. With so many students leaving school before graduation, creating more opportunities for youth to apply their creativity online and become more engaged in civic life via the social web just makes sense.
I think this interview is especially insightful for educators who are looking ahead and seeing the need to shape the school system around 21st century media skills. Here’s a quote from Howard’s interview.
“Increasingly I think the digital divide is less about access to technology and more about the difference between those who know how and those who don’t know how. The ability to know has suddenly become the ability to search and the ability to sift and discern.”
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.
My hot off the press newsletter, MacKinnons Cloud, is now launched. I sent it out to over 400 people and so far, I’m getting some pretty positive responses. Now that it’s out in the wild, I’m making it available here on my website.
The content below is the cover letter I used to introduce my newsletter to readers. I created a newsletter because I wanted to provide useful resources and share more about what I do as a social media consultant for non profits.
I am connected to many networks and service providers in York Region that are looking to the social web to strengthen their organization and the communities they are a part of. I will do my best to make MacKinnon’s Cloud a useful guidepost for those people and organizations embarking on a social web journey.
The cloud metaphor comes from a presentation given by Mark Pesce gave at the ConnectingUp Australia conference where he suggested that non-profits need to look more like clouds than towers. Beth Kanter and others have written extensively on his suggestion. Here is Beth’s post titled “Can Non-Profit Organizations Work More Like Clouds? How?
A special thanks goes to Alain from iAutomate (web partner) who helped me with learning how to use the free php List software.
Throughout my career I have sought out opportunities to design and manage innovative initiatives that address complex social issues affecting children, youth and families.
I attended the ChangeCamp Canada tel/conference meeting on July 21st, 2009. Instead of dialing in to the meeting I chose to participate with a group of people at the Social Innovations Centre in downtown Toronto. I was wanting as much face to face time with the discussion as I could get, as this was my first experience participating in ChangeCamp. It was a planning meeting to look at the road ahead and how to build on the successful ChangeCamp events held in cities across Canada last winter.
My interest in ChangeCamp grew when Mark Kuznicki, one of the ChangeCamp stewards gave a signal online that he was interested in exploring how the work of Peter Block, author of Community – The Structure of Belonging could apply to ChangeCamp Canada.
Peter Block’s work centres on the theme of restoring communities. I’ve read all I can find (without buying the book – yet) on Blocks work. Upon reading these documents and watching a few videos, I felt that his approach/framework fit so closely with my own thinking and growth as a community worker. For me reading about the community restoration framework leaves me feeling like I’ve transcended into new territory on a practical and theoretical (consciousness) level.
Here is how Mark introduced his position to ChangeCamp Canada participants.
This post features a short video of Etienne Wenger who answers questions about low participation rates in a community of practice. Etienne Wenger is a world renowned theoretician – practitioner on communities of practice.
I sit on a number of committees that address pressing community concerns. My view is that committees are close cousins to communities of practice and we can learn from our cousins.
From poverty & homelessness to engaging youth at risk, these committees are attempting to bring about positive social change in my community. As long as I’ve been sitting on committees, usually coordinated by a lead non profit agency or a network of non profit organizations, I continually hear the wish that more “service users” be at the table to help determine the results of our planning.
I’m working with local organizations on strengthening the community in York Region, through social media strategies and user controlled web platforms. The Cynefin Framework is making a lot of sense to me. I first learned about this model through the Anecdote web site in a post written by Shawn Callahan.
I’ve being looking at community change through the complexity lens or through “complex adaptive systems” for some time. This is a simple video that gives a clear picture of what the Cynefin Framework is and how it can be applied to understand issues (for me community and organizational issues).
I’m going to integrate this model into my work with organizations because it give a clear picture for understanding the different relationships and activities that are taking place within a community. It is especially useful for considering how best to use social media strategies to engage stakeholders so that communities are strengthened.
When an organization or network wishes to engage stakeholders by using online community building tools, this model will help understand the different levels of involvement and the dynamic conversations that can bring about meaningful community improvements.
My focus is working with organizations to develop their online communication strategies then utilizing appropriate social media tools. Complementing my expertise, I partner with great web designers and developers to deliver a full range of web 2.0 services. Let us help you be better at what you do, using the power of the social web.
Social Media – a definition
Social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, podcast, forum, wiki or video hosting site. More broadly, social media refers to any online technology that lets people publish, converse and share content online. (via Socialbrite)
This post features a short video of 
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