Learning how to work more effectively across sectors and building new skills is an ongoing requirement for professionals. As a community and youth worker (and now a social media consultant) I believe people want to be feel connected, they want to belong, they want to feel valued and competent, contributing to their own development and the development of those close to them. Using social media tools help me feel this way and I recognize the same benefits coming to others who publish online and use web 2.0 tools in their work.

I am very committed to communities of practice and networking initiatives as a means to create new solutions, improve skills and increase the sharing of knowledge across sectors. Over the last 3 yeas I’ve been working as Manager, Canadian Programs, Street Kids International and supporting a “learning community” in York Region.

My project, called Streetjibe, brought youth workers together to learn from each other, build skills and create better networks so youth at risk have access to relevant services and skilled staff. The Streetjibe blog is our online learning community that contains the learnings and tools used in the 25 workshops conducted over the past 2 years and of course introduces social media tools such as blogging, wikis, videos, podcasts as way to build community and engage in conversations with the youth service community.

Networking, collaborations and partnerships are essential practices in non profit service communities. With some of the networks I belong to, I’ve been introducing online tools such as the Ning network platform, wikis, VoiceThread software and collaboration mapping tools such as Mindmeister. While these tools complement face to face meetings, they can also be used to enhance service delivery and engage clients and stakeholders in conversations within your organization.

I am a member of Ning networks in Britain and Ireland. There is also keen interest by many within the educational sector in using these simple and relevant (most often free) learning and sharing tools. Here are the links to the UK groups and a link to a post written by Dean Shareski who writes about teachers who have opened up their classrooms to the world. I’ve also included links to several online learning conferences that I’ve participated in over the past 6 months.

Teachers Who Share Dean Shareski – Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Work Literacy – Web 2.0 for Learning Professionals

Corporate Learning Trends & Innovations 2008 – Hook up with fellow innovative thinkers and international visionaries to gain insight into what’s going on, swap opinions, and shape the future of learning.

Youth Work Online – Youth Work Online is an evolving network of practitioners sharing their learning, their questions, their visions and their ideas about the future of youth work and the web.

Youth Work Northern Ireland Youth Workers discussing the development of their youth work in Northern Ireland

You can’t start the Voice Thread in this post as Word Press does not support this tool. You can click here to view the results of the community engagement tool. I think you will be impressed in how easy it is to use and the quality of the comments demonstrate the impact the photo exhibit had on visitors to the exhibit. Since then, the engagement tool was used at the Poverty Day event held at the Newmarket Municipal offices and we will continue using this tool as the exhibit moves around the Region.

The PhotoVoice Project is a project of the York Region Alliance to End Homelessness and the Krasman Centre. PhotoVoice is a participant action research method that puts cameras in the hands of those with lived experience to document their voices n efforts for social change. Hidden in Plain Sight is the Exhibit of photographs and narratives that the PhotoVoice Project put together over 18 months. The United Way of York Region and the Region of York provided much needed resources to launch the exhibit at the Varley Gallery in Unionville.

The PhotoVoice Project was launched at a wonderful opening night session on Friday, Oct. 3rd. On the following Monday the Exhibit was used to highlight the release of the Region of York Community Plan to End Homelessness.

You can click on this link to take you to the Hidden in Plain Sight community engagement tool that the planning committee used to gather comments and feedback from Exhibit visitors. Once you are on that page you can view all the comments made by those who viewed the pictures and listened to the presentations. You can also add your voice to the exhibit by following the simple instructions on the page. You can create your own identity or use the window blinds picture as a generic identity..