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!

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?

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.

Over the past few months I’ve become more aware of the huge gulf that separates the non profit sector from the business sector in the eyes of the general public, government and media sectors.

As I read the Framework For Action paper that Imagine Canada was using to engage audience’s across Canada, I felt some optimism that Canada was taking a major step to address the misconceptions about the non profit sector.

In its draft “framework for action” Imagine Canada identifies 7 drivers of change, which are:

Driver 1: The increasing importance and influence of social innovation in Canada

Driver 2: Structural shifts in the revenue base which supports the work of charitable and nonprofit organizations

Driver 3: Shortage of talent to strengthen and lead charitable and nonprofit organizations

Driver 4: Lack of growth in the number of volunteers to govern, support and promote civic and community organizations

Driver 5: Heightened demand for transparency, accountability and communication of impact

Driver 6: Growing need for transformative partnerships among charities and nonprofits and with other sectors

Driver 7: Increased use of social media and new technologies for community engagement, outreach to youth and networking

While I recognize these Drivers are important considerations, I think that it would be a useful exercise to frame them as strategic directions for organizations (large or small)  instead of prioritized (numbered) drivers of change. Mark makes a similar point in his post and I support his notion that prioritizing these drivers in terms of their importance isn’t exactly a constructive exercise.

If each driver was framed as a strategy, here’s how these strategies would look like from my perspective.

Strategic Directions: Each organization can address any one or all of these strategies to the degree they are ready and capable.

1. Foster social innovation as a cornerstone value and practice in your organization’s programing

2. Identify potential new funding opportunities that are emerging as a result of the cultural shifts in the revenue base which supports the work of charitable and nonprofit organizations.

3. Create new incentives to recruit and retain leaders that will strengthen and lead charitable and nonprofit organizations

4. Develop new models of volunteer engagement that will address the unique expectations of the emerging cohort of people interested in contributing to social causes.

5. Use social technologies to in creative ways to respond to the heightened demand for transparency, accountability and communication of impact

6. Seek out opportunities to form transformative partnerships among charities and nonprofits and with other sectors

7. With each of the above strategies, increase use of social media and new technologies for community engagement, outreach to service users, youth and networking

I like my new list of strategies because these statements can give an organization a lens to look into the future and encourage them to plot activities that will meet these current challenges.

It’s a bit like looking at the glass and seeing it half full or half empty. Or, is your organization at risk or is it at promise.

In closing I echo Mark’s comment about the need for everyday citizens to shift their understanding of the non profit (social benefit sector).

It’s not enough that organizations undergo a shift in understanding and practice about their work. All citizen’s involved in creating the future we want are needed to do re-think the role of non profit organizations.

]]> http://www.socialmediatools.ca/2010/06/21/imagine-canada-framework-for-action-community-consultations/feed/ 0 http://www.socialmediatools.ca/2010/06/01/trust-transparancy-learning-tested-in-community-dialogue-process/ http://www.socialmediatools.ca/2010/06/01/trust-transparancy-learning-tested-in-community-dialogue-process/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:46:36 +0000 Brent http://www.socialmediatools.ca/?p=3283

One of the reasons I embrace social media is that it enables conversations to continue. Indeed, I am of the opinion that a community is a continuous conversation.

The Planning Forum for York Region sponsored the first Community – Funder Roundtable. The goal was to begin an ongoing dialogue with funder and policy makers about building our York Region community. Michael Johnny, Manager of the Knowledge Mobilization Unit at York University welcomed everyone and explained what we hoped to accomplish.

To help participants understand the challenges and envision a future where funder groups and community groups work in sync with eachother, the planning group brought in Liz Weaver from the Tamarack Vibrant Communities organization. Liz is also the lead spokesperson for the Hamilton Round-table on Poverty. The Hamilton Round-table has done incredible successful work combining support from the grass roots, government, corporate and community service sectors. The collaboration amongst stakeholders in Hamilton is a success and we (the planning group) felt that we could emulate their process or  at least learn from their experience.

We did learn a lot from Liz about the ingredients that made the Hamilton Roundtable a success and I’m sure many in the room started to imagine how those lessons might apply to York Region.

Like other participants, I thought there would be an opportunity to discuss important and emerging issues about our community. Unfortunately, the dialogue process didn’t get off the ground as a few of the funder representatives felt that it wasn’t necessary to start a new dialogue on building community as there wasn’t any tension on  these issues.

As a member of the planning group, I was very frustrated  by the position taken by a few of the funders. On a personal note, I was disappointed that I didn’t have a chance to talk about how the funding sector can help non profits invest in social web 2.0 strategies and tools.

Liz Weaver
Liz Weaver gave a very inspirational presentation. Despite not be able to engage funders on a new conversation about our York Region community, her talk got us going in the right direction. It’s about 9 minutes long but well worth it. Here is a quick bio taken from her Linkedin site

From 2006-2009, Liz Weaver was the Director for the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction a cross-sectoral community initiative with a strategic focus on poverty reduction and the aspiration of Making Hamilton the Best Place to Raise a Child. Liz brings a wealth of community based experience, knowledge and leadership to this position. In June 2009, the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction was recognized by the Canadian Urban Institute with the David Crombie Leadership award.

Dennis Bailey
Dennis Bailey, Executive Director of the Community Legal Clinic of York Region gave a very timely and important talk about community collaborations. He talked on many other important topics however this video only covers his perspective on collaboration amongst community groups.

Well that is my quick synopsis of our first community – funder roundtable. I’m looking forward to hearing from others who where present.

How did you feel when the dialogue process came to a standstill. Where you disappointed or upset with the objecting funder representatives or with the planning group? Did the speakers, Liz, Joanna and Dennis add to your understanding of the current realities faced by service users and social benefit groups in York Region?

I’m interested in hearing from others who were part of our Community – Funder Roundtable.

Will Davies reflects on Social Capital and Digital Inclusion from Tim Davies on Vimeo.

In 2010 I will be hosting workshops for organizations that are re-tooling or aligning their online communication strategy to enhance responsiveness, trust and relevance to their stakeholders.

My goal is to initiate a bottoms up, learning and discovery process that will help organizations identify their best starting points for establishing their online communication strategy.

I believe that non profit organizations can increase their resilience, capacity and sustainability in the face of rapid change and ever decreasing resources by utilizing well thought out online strategies.

It’s a simple fact that consumers and supporters expect more from organizations via online tools and online access to resources. Non profits need to go where their constituents are and that is increasingly online.

My starting point is that caring relationships, opportunities for meaningful participation and genuine communication with supporters, consumers and donors fuels an organization’s resilience. These dimensions need to be examined internally by key staff and then the findings can be organized into an online strategy that is delivered through the organization’s web site.

In the workshop, staff will be engaged in a discussion and a shared learning process in which an online strategy can begin to take shape. This bottoms up approach taps into the organizations creativity and wisdom. Once the online strategy is in place and the most appropriate social media tools are implemented the organization begins a process of listening, learning and adapting to the new culture and environment they are inhabiting.

Supporting this transition to a strategic online communication strategy is the demise of high cost web sites that do little to further relationships with supporters, donors and consumers. Furthermore, organizations are spending huge amounts of money to pay outside contractors to make the simplest of content changes on their site.

Today, affordable open source web platforms that allow staff to upload content are putting the ownership and controls back into the hands of organization. The days of static, one way brochure web sites, controlled by expensive outside contractors are coming to a close.

What follows is a list of preliminary outcomes that I envision flowing from the workshop.

• More dynamic and trusting relationships with consumers, supporters and staff;
• Enhanced innovation, collaboration and creativity amongst staff ;
• Increased responsiveness and decision making in a climate of rapid change & diminishing resources;
• Greater alignment of your online communications with the core values and services of your organization

Please stay tuned for more news about this workshop opportunity in the new year. If you have any questions about booking a workshop now rather than waiting for my formal workshop flyer, I would be pleased to have a conversation with you.

Related Posts:

Building Better Relationships in Your Non Profit – Canadian Data Released

21st Century Media Literacies

Cooking up a Collaboration Web Site with Drupal and Open Atrium

Social Web Platforms for Non Profits – Our Approach

My colleague Mark living in Edmonton Alberta (Mark Holmgren Consulting) forwarded me this press release from the Calgary Chamber of Volunteer Organizations (CCVOV). My sense is that the findings are very in line with what non profit groups are experiencing in York Region and across the GTA. I think the non profit community, funders and donors will gain insight and possible strategies after a full read of the Report, its findings and recommendations.

MEDIA RELEASE

Stretched to the Limit: An Economic Impact Survey
With little relief in sight, nonprofits and charities are bracing for the worst

CALGARY, AB – November 30, 2009 – Results of an economic impact survey conducted by the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (CCVO) in October indicate Alberta’s nonprofit organizations and charities have been adapting to the recession, but they are stretched to the limit with little capacity to adjust to increased demand or reduced funding.

Despite predictions that economic conditions will improve in 2010, the real financial impact of the recession is expected to hit the voluntary sector next year. Although organizations reported reductions in 2009, the major impact of government cuts and decreased revenues is expected to hit in 2010.

Many organizations reported reducing costs and said they were operating as lean as possible, trying to preserve programs and services. More than 30 per cent of those surveyed, however, had to make cuts in services. If economic predictions are correct and 2010 presents the greatest challenges nonprofits and charities have faced in this recession, even more programs and services will be on the chopping block.

“Alberta’s nonprofits and charities play a role in everyone’s daily lives, from local soccer leagues to services for seniors and low-income families,” says CCVO President and CEO Katherine van Kooy. “The financial vulnerability of the voluntary sector affects not only those Albertans on the margins, but also the health and vibrancy of all Alberta communities and citizens.”

Key Findings:

• The real force of the economic recession will hit the voluntary sector in 2010. Charities and nonprofits will be grappling with deepening challenges at the same time as other parts of the economy are recovering.
• Alberta’s voluntary sector is experiencing continued erosion from all revenue streams.
• More than 60 per cent of organizations reported increased service demand and operating costs.
• Nonprofits and charities are resilient and resourceful, but further funding reductions will result in reduced programs and services for families and communities.

Recommendations: In light of these findings, and based on years of research and observation of the voluntary sector, CCVO urges governments to recognize the negative impact of further funding reductions on the sector. The organization also urges individual donors to recognize the importance of their gifts, and corporations to continue their support of the communities in which they operate. Lastly, CCVO urges all funders to review their funding practices to provide maximum flexibility and stability to voluntary organizations.

About the Survey: CCVO has been monitoring the economic impact on the voluntary sector through a series of surveys since November 2008. The surveys asked nonprofits and charities about their revenues, operating costs, demand for services and programs, as well as changes in operations as a result of the economic downturn.

Of the 472 respondents, 41 per cent were from Calgary, 41 per cent from Edmonton, and 18 per cent from smaller centres and rural areas. Registered charities accounted for 75 per cent of all respondents.

Media Spokesperson for CCVO:
Katherine van Kooy, President and CEO
Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations

To arrange an interview with Katherine van Kooy or to connect with a CCVO member organization that participated in the survey, please contact:

Karen Taylor-Binnie, Communications Advisor
Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations
Phone: (403) 261–6655 ext 222

E–mail: ktaylor-binnie@calgarycvo.org

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.

York Region T.A.M.I. Coalition Membership:

Canadian Mental Health Association; York Region District School Board; Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences; York Catholic District School Board; Centre for Addiction & Mental Health; Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation; JerichoYouth Services; COMPASS (Community Partners with Schools), Kinark Child & Family Services, York Region Public Health Department, Addiction Services for York Region, Social Media Tools for Work and Learning;

York Region T.A.M.I. Coalition expresses sincere thanks to Kinark Child & Family Services for its sponsorship & the Town of Aurora for its generous support of this dynamic event.

Stomping Out Stigma in York Region

Recent statistics have shown that over 20% of youth will experience some type of emotional trauma/mental illness that would normally require intervention.  More disturbing however, is the reality that of those, over 80% will not seek help due to the negative stigma and stereotypes associated with mental illness – thereby allowing the problems to worsen and become a much larger and less manageable problem for the person, and society, as they enter adulthood.

For the past 6 years, the Adolescent Department at Ontario Shores for Mental Health Sciences (formally Whitby Mental Health Centre) has been leading a coalition of community partners in Durham to make a change in this phenomenon by coordinating the delivery of an exciting educational program for local high schools.  The program is entitled Talking About Mental Illness (TAMI) and is based upon a ground-breaking program set-up by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

In 2003, the coalition developed a model called the “Stomping Out Stigma” Summit Conference.  In this model, student ambassadors and a staff member from local high schools get together for a day of learning not only more about mental illness, but also about the stigma associated with mental illness.  In order to do this, the students have an opportunity to listen to trained speakers tell their stories of living with a mental illness and they also work in break out rooms and explore such themes as current stressors, stigma and attitudes towards those living with mental illness.  As well, all schools who attend will be provided with a “tool box” containing ideas on activities that all schools can implement in order to maintain the awareness in all students about how stigma affects those who need to reach out for help.

Our research has shown that students are coming away from a Summit with a 35% increase in knowledge and a 16% increase in improved attitudes towards those living with a mental illness. This model recently won the Minister’s Award for Innovation in Health Promotion and the IBM Ontario Hospital Association Award for Leading Practices at this year’s Health Achieve Expo.

This program has the objectives of:

• Fostering a more positive attitude towards mental illness
• Providing teachers and students with practical, ready-to-use information on mental illness to assist with curriculum-based education
• Offering teachers and students an opportunity to meet and interact with people who have experienced mental illness first-hand
• Providing links to community resources and support for further information and professional help
• Providing opportunities for people living with mental health issues to participate in an anti-stigma awareness campaign

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.”

21st century media literacies from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Preparing a feast is a great metaphor for building a dynamic web site and integrating a client’s social media strategy into the site building process. My partner Alain (from iAutomate) and I have prepared for our roles as head chefs by accumulating collectively over 40 years of experience in the IT and social benefit sector. Our business focuses on supporting non profits in using collaborative web platforms and online communication strategies to engage their audiences.

We clearly heard from our client that a combination of solid informative content, membership opportunities plus collaboration options were needed for this web site. All of us, client team, my partner and I put the broad brush strokes to a plan that would achieve these outcomes. Essentially we were aiming to marry the web site architecture with the social media strategy and mix in the right content to present to the public for viewing and participation.

The feast would not be possible without the right equipment. Think of our kitchen as the Drupal web platform and Open Atrium as our preparation room. In the Drupal kitchen we are able to put all our ingredients togerther in readiness for the grand opening. Open Atrium, our prep room is where master chef Alain and Brent collaborate with the sou chefs, our clients, on what the feast will look like and achieve.

Drupal is a free open source content management system (CMS) and contains core features that can be further extended by developers. Open Atrium is a Drupal extension that has become very popular in the web site development community, particularly as a means for collaboration as the site is constructed and also as a space were clients can learn how to manage their content management system. Open Atrium is demonstrating itself to be a great platform in its own right for groups of people or organizations to collaborate on issues or projects.

We have two main chefs. There is Alain who handles all the design and development requirements. Brent deals with merging and implementing the web communication strategy with the web site architecture. Then we have the client team of three dedicated staff (sous chefs) who tell us what they want their meal (content) to look and taste like. Their role is very critical as they know their audience best. They want their feast to appeal to their visitors taste, not their own. Furthermore, they want the feast to be so appealing, their users and supporters will come back for seconds and even start cooking their own dishes (collaborating). These 3 sous chefs taste the dishes as they are cooking and make suggestions to improve the final production.

So, the feast preparations are at a midway point. Before we call everyone to the table, we need to organize the content that will go in the site. To organize the contents and all the dishes, Alain and I have created a site content map that will lay out the key topic areas (dishes) that the sou chef staff have identified as the most important elements in the feast. With this site map, the content items including the most important documents, stories, calendars, and anything the sou chefs decides to be in the feast will be organized and put in their appropriate place.

This feast preparations are at a midway point. The social media strategy that will guide the communication and invitations to the guests and visitors is becoming more clear. Soon we will have agreement on the web site design. Special custom features will be created to give the site it’s unique identity. The planning and collaboration activities stored within Open Atrium are finnaly coming to fruition.

In a few weeks Alain and I will share with our readers more about how the feast is coming together. I’ve heard from other web site and social media strategists that launching a new web site is akin to a death march. We don’t like that metaphor because we believe the key to cooking great dishes and creating great web sites that work, is the positive energy that is poured into the creation and collaboration process. No doubt, mistakes will be made. Adapting and learning from these mistakes will make our feast even better. How we work through these mistakes as a collaborative team will help the sou chefs carry on after our role is complete.

In our next post we will show you our fancy cutlery, table cloth, invitation cards and some of those custom features that we expect will make our feast memorable for our clients and all their stakeholders.

Stay tuned for the next chapter of Cooking up a Collaboration Web Site with Drupal and Open Atrium in a few weeks time.