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.

James Watson – Peer Research Assistant, Community Based Research from Brent MacKinnon on Vimeo.

See also:

Youth Community Mapping Program – community based action research

Non Profits Stretched to the Limit – An Economic Impact Survey

Stomping Out Stigma in York Region – Talking About Mental Illness (TAMI)

Non Profit Starvation Cycle

Mobilize This: Research Impact KM Unit @ York University

Danah Boyd – Not So Hidden Politics of Class Online

Toronto Teen Sex Survey – What Can York Region Learn

Building Resiliency with Learning Networks

“A vicious cycle is leaving nonprofits so hungry for decent infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations—let alone serve their beneficiaries. The cycle starts with funders’ unrealistic expectations about how much running a nonprofit costs, and results in nonprofits’ misrepresenting their costs while skimping on vital systems—acts that feed funders’ skewed beliefs”.

I found this article, titled “The Non Profit Starvation Cycle” – Sanford Social Innovation Review on the Ontario Non Profit Network Site.

What an eye opening and revealing paper. The research report is called, Nonprofit Overhead Cost Study, a five year research project conducted by the Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

The article provoked quite a reaction in me. I’ve worked as a senior manager in the non profit sector for quite a few years and felt those starvation pangs on a regular basis.

In my role as a consultant, I help organizations with their online communication and web site strategies. The impact of this starvation cycly phenomenon still affects me as I’m discovering that for many local non profits, finding budgets for creating an effective web site that engages their stakeholders is luxury they can’t afford.

In this U.S. based report,  I recognize many correlations to my experience in Canada. The article describes the elephant in the room. Another name for the elephant is funder expectations. The article contends that this elephant is the leading contributor to the non profit starvation cycle. The advice to grantees was especially useful as this portion of the report pointed the way out of this “low pay, make do, and do without” culture.

The non profit starvation cycle has being around so long, I think it’s become the norm. It seems to me that non profits have quietly accepted the way things work in the funding process. Their conditioned approach is to continue juggling the mix of different funders, squeezing a portion of overhead from each one and keep on organizing special funding drives or in kind donations to cover admin shortfalls. I’ve seen this year in, year out cycle wear out very talented managers, direct service staff and volunteers. It’s no wonder that it is getting more difficult each year to find candidates willing to step into the shoes of departing staff.

I would like to believe that there is a rising tide both in the non profit and funding sector that is turning this dysfunctional Titanic called “funder expectations” around. The rate of change is going much to slow for my liking. When non profit groups across the country are reporting record increases (often over 25%) in service usage (that’s food, beds, crisis services etc.). More than ever, the non profit sector is asked to meet these challenges. I feel that we can’t afford to continue perpetuating this dysfunctional practice.

The Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) is a network of networks that helps to build communication and coordination amongst nonprofit organizations working for the public benefit in Ontario. They are doing some outstanding work across Ontario. It was nice to see the Twitter tab but I couldn’t find an RSS feed anywhere.

I’m interested in hearing what my colleagues and fellow collaborators in York Region feel about this study. Did it provoke you as much as it did me.

School children all over the world are getting exposed to the film by their teachers who are fed up with the poor documentation and teaching tools for environmental studies. The New York Times has written an in depth article on the video. Here’s a brief quote “The video is a cheerful but brutal assessment of how much Americans waste, and it has its detractors. But it has been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution.”

One of my goals is to create effective videos using social media tools to illustrate, advocate and educate people about complex subjects. I am particularly interested in how social media might help disseminate important community based research. This film has set the bar high. I can see how a compelling story, told with passion and clear messages can go a long way to getting the message out.

The video I included is the full version a from YouTube. It’s a must see film… a good one for passing on to your family and friends.

Related Posts:

York Region Youth Services Collaboration Map

Extend Your Message & Include the Messengers:

Web 2.0 Explained

A University of Minnesota study reveals that the tools of social networking are truly democratizing the web, giving low-income students the same advantages as their privileged peers.

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL ( 6/19/2008 ) — In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The same study found that low-income students are in many ways just as technologically proficient as their counterparts, going against what results from previous studies have suggested.

This is so relevant to my interests in working with students and NPO staff. Her data is reinforcing my own experience working with social media (albeit in more smaller contexts). I can use this to reinforce the outcomes of using social media in business settings. It’s a motivator for managers who need to see the ROI and certainly the front line practitioners who need to understand the importance of commanding your own ongoing learning experiences.

Sept. 23
Virtual Distance

Filed Under Learning Communities, Virtual Worlds

Dr. Karen Sobel Lojeski the author of the book “Uniting The Virtual Workforce” defines Virtual Distance as the perceived distance between two or more individuals, groups, or organizations that is brought on by the use of electronic versus face-to-face communications. The greater the Virtual Distance among the members of a team, the more problems team members will experience. Among them: miscommunication, lack of clearly defined roles, and even personal and cultural conflicts. It does not matter whether team members are widely distributed or collocated; every team is potentially subject to the risks of Virtual Distance.

The results of the research in the area of virtual distance from the Virtual Distance International indicates organizations that have managed virtual distances well report:

Innovation behavior increase by 93%
Trust improves by 83%
Job satisfaction is better by 80%
Role and goal clarity rise by 62%
On-time, on-budget performance is better by 50%
Helping behaviors go up by almost 50%

By Laleh Shahidi, PhD

Kaitlin Thaney, August 1st, 2008

Donna Wentworth writes over at the Science Commons blog …

Big news: Microsoft Research has unveiled
new add-ins for some of the most popular Microsoft products to make
them more useful for the scientific community — including tools for
creating, sharing and preserving research in the formats used by
scientific publishers and digital archives. The suite of add-ins, described in detail here, includes the Creative Commons Add-in for Office 2007, which lets anyone embed a Creative Commons license directly into their documents.