RCLA Faculty and Staff Share Their Perspectives on What Makes RCLA Unique
In a new series of videos, RCLA faculty and staff share their perspectives on the importance of creating collaborative learning environments, bridging theory and practice, and conducting research with impact.
» Watch the videos
RCLA and Accenture Executive Briefing Series to Focus on Using Technology to Improve Government Services
New York City's Health and Human Services, Police Department and Building Departments are utilizing technology as a tool to achieve increased communication, integration and integrity, as well as to improve service delivery. The next event in RCLA's Leading Large Scale Change briefing series for senior government officials will focus on the ways these various agencies use and manage technology to achieve their respective missions.
The panel will include: Commissioner Paul Cosgrave, Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications; Kamal Bherwani, Chief Information Officer of Health and Human Services and Executive Director of HHS-Connect; Inspector Ken Makeel, Commanding Officer NYPD RTCC; and Deputy Commissioner Marilyn King Festa, Department of Buildings, October 13, 2009. A summary of this private event will be posted online.
» Email us for information
» See videos about the series
Social Change Leadership Network to Hold Trainings on Community Organizing, Connecting across Cultures, and Collaborating
This fall, RCLA's Social Change Leadership Network will host a series of workshops to help social change leaders reflect critically on their work, obtain new skills and learn from other dynamic grassroots leaders.
“Community Organizing Basics,” on October 7, will give participants the opportunity to consider how different types of organizations and practitioners can best participate in organizing for justice.
» Join the waiting list
“Connecting Across Differences: Cross-Race and Cross-Cultural Dialogues for Social Change” on October 27 and November 2, will provide the tools for developing the one-on-one relationships across racial and cultural differences that undergird larger social justice networks.
» RSVP now
“Collaborations That Work,” on December 2, will give participants a chance to explore the elements of effective coalitions and organizational alliances and to learn practices and techniques for forming collaborations that allow organizations to accomplish together what they can't achieve alone.
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» See videos about the Network
RCLA Senior Fellow Co-authors Report Calling for Work-Life Balance at Community Organizations
In “Better Work, Better Life: Policies and Practices in Jewish Organizations,” RCLA Senior Fellow Shifra Bronznick and co-authors Didi Goldenhar and Rachael Ellison find that while women make up almost three-quarters of the Jewish communal work force, few Jewish organizations have policies that guarantee paid maternity leave and flexible work arrangements.
The survey of more than 200 Jewish communal employers finds that 90 percent of responding organizations offer “informal” flexibility to some employees, but less than a third have formal, written policies. In addition, 65 percent of responding organizations offer no paid maternity leave, and only a third have formal paternity leave policies. The report marks the start of a campaign to improve work-life policies and organizational effectiveness at Jewish organizations, which can then lead the way for the nonprofit arena.
» Read the report
In a New York Times book review, RCLA Scholar Irshad Manji explores the new book by Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof and author Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The authors assert that the killing of girls simply because they're girls has taken more lives in any given decade than all the genocides of the 20th century and deem the global struggle for women's equality "the paramount moral challenge" of our era.
RCLA affilitated faculty member David Elcott has authored a chapter in the new book, Criteria of Discernment in Interreligious Dialogue, which John Borelli from Georgetown University describes as “serious and careful work, a rich collection yielding honest and provocative lessons by religious scholars." In it, leaders from various traditions identify the criteria for critical judgments they use to address different understandings within and across religions.
RCLA Research Associate Jennifer Dodge has helped organize a new special issue of the journal Policy & Society on deliberative democracy and power. Her article, “Environmental Justice and Deliberative Democracy: How Social Change Organizations Respond to Power in the Deliberative System,” is a study of how the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice addresses power while trying to convince government agencies to consider their ideas about racial justice in environmental decision making.
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RCLA faculty member Erica Foldy will present “Color Minimization in Front-Line Public Service: The Diversity Perspectives of Child Welfare Workers” at the Public Management Research Asspociation Conference in Columbus, Ohio, October 1-3, 2009
The Women of Color Policy Network, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the New York Women's Foundation, Third Wave Foundation, and the Astraea Foundation will host "Leadership Development and Beyond: Building the Power of Young Women and Trans Leaders of Color," a two-day conference on building the pipeline of leaders of colors, emerging research, and opportunities to lead in a time of change. The Network will also release its latest publication, Leading at the Intersections: An Intersectional Approach Model for Policy and Social Change, NYU Wagner, October 5-6, 2009
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The Women of Color Policy Network is co-sponsoring the screening of the documentary “La Americana” with Director Nick Bruckman. The film traces an undocumented immigrant's journey from Bolivia to New York and back as she struggles to save the life of her ailing daughter, October 6, 2009
» Watch the movie trailer
RCLA Faculty Director Sonia Ospina will present at the Latin American Center for Development Administration's 14th International Congress on State and Public Administration Reform, held in Brazil, October 27-30, 2009
At a recent conference for the Haitian diaspora, RCLA affiliated faculty member David Elcott joined former president Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis in encouraging members of the diaspora, especially young people, to volunteer in Haiti as part of a broader call to public service, which can help forge meaningful ties with culture and community.
» Read the Miami Herald article
As part of an ongoing partnership, the Annie E. Casey Children and Family Fellowship program and RCLA are undertaking an evaluation with the aim of understanding how fellows are applying their learning one year after completing the program.