Mobilizing Baby Boomers for Public and Social Service
Civic Ventures and RCLA have embarked on a collaborative research effort to explore how best to mobilize Baby Boomers to engage in public and social sector service, especially those considering post-retirement careers or volunteerism. RCLA affiliate faculty member David Elcott brought together experts from across the country to examine Baby Boomers' civic engage-ment patterns and aspirations as well as to discuss new possibilities for national team-based research.
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» Learn about the 2009 Encore Opportunity Awards for nonprofits & public agencies tapping the talents of people over 50
Creating Tools for Doing Good: Ford Foundation's Grantcraft and RCLA Pilot a Product Design Lab
In April, Jan Jaffe, the project leader of Ford Foundation's GrantCraft, and RCLA Executive Director Bethany Godsoe hosted the inaugural meeting of nonprofit professionals at the leading edge of creating tools for learning and development. The event was an opportunity for the group of innovators to share "works in progress" and get in-depth consultation on how to tackle design challenges for each tool.
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RCLA Faculty Director to Head International Conference of Schools of Public Administration
RCLA Faculty Director Sonia Ospina will preside over the annual conference of the Inter-American Network of Public Administration Education, INPAE, in Bogota, Colombia from May 6-8. Professor Ospina, the president of INPAE, has been active in the network since its creation in 2003 by a group of academic institutions generating constructive North-South and South-South dialogue among member schools. INPAE membership now includes 54 academic undergraduate and graduate programs in public affairs, and members from 17 countries will attend the conference.
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Honoring Legacies and Supporting Innovation: The Multi-Generational Landscape of Leadership
The latest RCLA Social Change Leadership Network Learning Session drew together Baby Boomers, Gen X-ers, and Millenials working for social change to explore multi-generational leadership in the nonprofit sector. Participants discussed generational values, the importance of building trust across generations - particularly in times of transition, and how organizational structures may need to shift to better tap the expertise of different age groups. The session was filled with surprises, laughter and new insights as social change leaders explored generational identities and hurdles that sometimes make it hard for nonprofit leaders of different ages to work together for common causes.
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» View Word Art from the Event
As part of an RCLA effort to foster breakthroughs in how scholars and practitioners produce and use knowledge, RCLA Faculty Director Sonia Ospina and NYU Steinhardt Professor Gary Anderson hosted a meeting of action research scholars and community-based practitioners in the New York metropolitan area to learn from each other and explore the potential benefits of forming a peer support network.
Action research aims to break down the barrier in traditional research between "researchers" (academics) and "subjects of research" (nonprofits or the people they serve). Participants shared stories of their work and discussed the challenges of meeting academic research standards
while ensuring that research doesn't just extract information from communities, but also benefits them.
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» Read a recent interview with RCLA Senior Fellow Andrew Mott by the Global University Network for Innovation on how participatory research builds relationships between universities and communities
At the Social Change Leadership Network's Essential Tools for Essential Organizing: Training for Trainers, grassroots nonprofit leaders can explore how people learn concepts and skills differently, learn techniques for designing truly participatory trainings, and bring their own experiences to practice the fundamentals of creating effective workshops and trainings, May 12, 2009
NYC Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein will kick off an RCLA and NYU Steinhardt leadership program for charter school boards on building sustainable and high-performing schools, May 28, 2009
In a new Huffington Post article, C. Nicole Mason, executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network, evaluates how President Obama's policies and picks for top positions in his first 100 days have made historical strides on women's issues
