Leaders for Change: Innovation to Action - Reducing Poverty

The Maytree Foundation was established in 1982, and believes that there are three fundamental issues that threaten political and social stability: wealth disparities between and within nations; mass migration of people because of war, oppression and environmental disasters; and the degradation of the environment.

From the Maytree Vision:

We view society’s toleration of poverty as a fundamental threat to stability in Canada and the rest of the world. Systemic poverty is an unjustifiable burden to millions of people, which results in paralyzing costs to society. It perpetuates a vicious cycle by limiting opportunity and repressing the human spirit. The correlation between poverty and most serious social problems is a stunning indictment of society’s continuing toleration of poverty.

Maytree believes that poverty can be reduced through initiatives that create opportunities for people to break the poverty cycle. We also believe that progressive social policies play a significant role in alleviating poverty and supporting the common good.

Maytree is accepting applications to the Leaders for Change programme.

Program Overview

Leaders for Change offers leadership development for social justice activists committed to systemic change through action-based poverty reduction initiatives.

The core principles of the program are collaborative leadership and diversity of people, ideas and approaches.

The program offers leadership development through:

* Deepening participants’ understanding of self and community
* Skills development opportunities
* Peer learning and mentorship
* Tools for transforming analysis into action – individual and collaborative

Program Format

The 2007 program will take place from October 2007 to June 2008 and includes a variety of learning opportunities, including retreats, training and self-directed action projects.

Components include:

* A two-day opening retreat
* 7 full day training sessions once per month; 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
* 1-day closing retreat

Participants will be expected to undertake an action-based poverty reduction project in one of the following streams:

* An individual project contextualized within the work they are currently doing; OR
* A collaborative small group project they conceptualize and develop within the context of the program

Participants will be responsible for developing and implementing their projects with the assistance of peers, mentors and the program facilitator.

Application Deadline: Friday September 14, 2007 – 5:00 PM

For additional information contact Tina Edan, Manager, Leadership and Learning.
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Tags for information about: for:vsef, Civil Society, Nonprofit, Maytree

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Today Omidyar.net begins a reinvention

Thomas Kriese of Omidyar.net wrote today:

In Spring 2004, Omidyar Network created a set of collaborative tools to facilitate our work as an organization. We found it useful, and a few months later in July 2004, we opened up access to the tool set to anyone and everyone working toward making the world a better place.

We chose the approach of a self-managed community in the hope people would find shared interests and discover their power to make good things happen. Indeed, in the three years since we opened the omidyar.net tool for external use, thousands of members have met, posted, discussed and collaborated in the many groups and discussions and workspace pages on omidyar.net. And while the connections may have been made here, the positive impact has spread to many other online communities as well as real world communities across the globe. Through several experimental and experiential collaborative funding projects, the omidyar.net community has directed thousands of dollars to organizations making good things happen around the world.
This summer, instead of deciding where to direct funding, omidyar.net members will decide how to migrate to other community platforms.

We strongly believe in the power of community-based efforts, and we feel the best way Omidyar Network can continue facilitating the kind of work that's being done both within and through omidyar.net is to empower communities online that are more narrowly focused on specific interests and moderated in a style of their own preference.

One of the things we've learned over the last three years is that self-managed communities can work. Given the tools and the space in which to use them, the community can and will manage itself and keep things running with little to no oversight. We've also learned that communities are all about the people, not the platform, and that's informed our decision for moving forward.

The community evolving out of the aspirations of Pam and Pierre Omidyar has been remarkable on many fronts.

It's fitting to bring Omidyar.net to a close with a final collaborative exploration and a call to action.

Omidyar.net is a powerful lesson.
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Tags for information about: for:vsef, Social Economy, Nonprofit, Omidyar

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