"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
-Senator Robert F. Kennedy
Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966
RCLA joins the nation in mourning the death of US Senator Edward M. Kennedy and celebrating his courage, hope and deep commitment to service to others.
Resilience in Tough Times: What Makes Organizations Bounce Back Stronger
Since the 1970s, researchers have focused on the unique characteristics that allow individuals to endure trials, adapt and emerge stronger while so many others get stuck. Less is known about organizational resiliency. RCLA and the Center For Applied Research have asked: What are the qualities that organizations need to endure rapidly changing market conditions, recession or catastrophe? A working session with high-performing nonprofits surfaced key attributes of resilient organizations.
» Learn More
RCLA Scholar Examines New Forms of Civil Action and the Forces that Will Test and Reshape Civil Society
Since its publication in 2004, Civil Society has become a standard reference for all those who seek to understand the role of voluntary citizen action in the contemporary world. In a thoroughly revised edition, RCLA Senior Visiting Scholar Michael Edwards adds major new material on issues such as civil society in Africa and the Middle East, global civil society, information technology and new forms of citizen organizing. He explains how in the future the pressures of state encroachment, resurgent individualism, and familiar forces of nationalism and fundamentalism in new clothes will test and reshape the practice of citizen action in both positive and negative ways.
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Trainings Offer Social Media Tools for Nonprofits
The burgeoning array of social networking tools often seems too risky or confusing for nonprofits to navigate, and organizations often don’t have the budget or time to allow for training or experimentation. In August, RCLA's Social Change Leadership Network hosted three in-depth, hands-on learning sessions for nonprofit organizations on using wikis, Twitter, RSS aggregators, Skype and a variety of other tools to enhance their social justice impact given limited time and resources.
» Learn about the trainings
» Access the social media tools
How Advocates for Day Laborers Foster Leadership from Within: New Report
A new collaborative ethnography, When Workers Take the Lead: Leadership Development at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, highlights the work of organizations that safeguard workers’ and immigrants’ rights to build leadership and critical consciousness among day laborers and organizers. Their work relies on the principles of Popular Education and the concept of “dirigente popular” - organic leadership that embraces democratic principles, especially regarding the right of those affected by decisions to participate in making those decisions.
» Access the report in English
» Access the report in Spanish
The Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Service is now accepting applications for the 2010 Class. The seven-month program provides young public service leaders with unique career planning, professional enrichment and networking opportunities. Applicants should be recent college graduates employed in public service in NYC. Apply by September 16, 2009.
» Get details and an application
RCLA Faculty Director Sonia Ospina will participate with scholars from Spain, Argentina and Brazil in the panel discussion "Approaches to Leadership in Public Organizations: Conceptual Frameworks and Empirical Research," and will present on "Relational Leadership in Social Organizations: Exploring the Collective Dimensions of Leadership by Studying the Work of Social Change Organizations" at the 14th International Congress on State and Public Administration Reform of CLAD (Latin American Center for Development Administration) in Brazil, October 27-30, 2009
RCLA Executive Director Bethany Godsoe interviews Susan R. Komives and Wendy Wagner, editors of the new book, Leadership for a Better World: Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development, for the International Leadership Association's global newsletter
With a former community organizer serving as US President, learn how different types of organizations and individuals can participate in organizing for justice at a Social Change Leadership Network learning session with Joan Minieri, co-founder of Community Voices Heard and co-author of Tools for Radical Democracy: How to Organize for Power in Your Community, October 7, 2009
» Email us for details
RCLA has partnered with IssueLab, an open access publishing forum for nonprofit research. IssueLab's mission is to help nonprofits effectively archive, distribute and promote the extensive body of work they produce. IssueLab encourages nonprofits and university-based research centers to contribute research, browse the collection, and utilize other tools and services that make knowledge sharing easy.