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Civic and Community Engagement Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Civic and Community Engagement
Challenges For Nonprofit Organizations. Introduction: A Theoretical Framework. Civil Society And Challenges Faced By Nonprofits, Amnon Reichman
Challenges For Nonprofit Organizations. Introduction: A Theoretical Framework. Civil Society And Challenges Faced By Nonprofits, Amnon Reichman
New England Journal of Public Policy
This introduction will tackle two issues. The first is theoretical: a framework will be proposed with which to approach the activity of nonprofit organizations within civil society in modern democracies. Whereas the traditional approach posits three sectors in a triangular setting (the top corner occupied by the government, the bottom-right corner occupied by the market, and the bottom left corner by the “third sector”), a better conceptualization defines civil society as a social space between the state (located above) and the individual or the private sphere (located below). This space is where for-profit organizations (usually clustered in one side of …
Kayan–Feminist Organization: Sustainable Grassroots Community Activism, Rula Deeb
Kayan–Feminist Organization: Sustainable Grassroots Community Activism, Rula Deeb
New England Journal of Public Policy
This article describes the process by which Kayan (Being) created the model for the Women’s Leadership Development and Sustainable Community Activism Program. The organizational model presented here was developed as a result of activities that began in 1998, during which Kayan worked with approximately 180 Arab women’s groups, with over 3,000 women from around fifty villages and towns across Israel. The model changed and solidified, through repeated evaluations and testing of the program’s goals in general, and through the program’s ongoing feedback specifically with groups of women involved. Evaluations were gathered from women participating in the groups and also through …
Concluding Synthesis: Lessons Learned. A Complex Web: A Collective Process To Advance Social Justice, Donna Haig Friedman, Jennifer Cohen, Amnon Reichman, James Morgan
Concluding Synthesis: Lessons Learned. A Complex Web: A Collective Process To Advance Social Justice, Donna Haig Friedman, Jennifer Cohen, Amnon Reichman, James Morgan
New England Journal of Public Policy
In Blessed Unrest, referenced by the opening quotation and several essay authors, Paul Hawken uses the metaphor of the immune system to describe the connectivity of organizations and activists across the world fiercely working to realize local and global social, economic, political, and environmental justice. Just as the invisible but interconnected parts of the body’s immune system jump into concerted action to restore health to an ill body, this social-change movement is organizing from the bottom up and emerging as an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s unstoppable need to reimagine their relationships to the environment and to one another. …
The Power Of Peer Learning, Fannette Modek
The Power Of Peer Learning, Fannette Modek
New England Journal of Public Policy
My contact with the Boston–Haifa Project started at about the same time that the Seniors Lobby–Haifa saw the light of day. I was fortunate to have participated in the very first Seminar for NGOs in Haifa, held in January 2005. Several representatives of Haifa’s NGOs joined a group of leaders of Boston NGOs for a three-day seminar that put social-change issues on the table: Leadership, Organization, the Social Sector, Advocacy, and Conflict Management. The Power of Vision closing session generated a statement that by 2015, fifteen groups of U.S. social workers and gerontologists would visit Israel to study community-based services …
Global Learning Partnerships, Margaret Leonard
Global Learning Partnerships, Margaret Leonard
New England Journal of Public Policy
The title of this section is profoundly significant to those of us who have experienced global partnerships. Our experience has revealed to us that there is a profound organic integrity to these five words, Transnational, Social Change, Learning, Networks, and together they are revelatory of an emerging future we are stretching to envision and realize in the twenty-first century. In this brief essay I would like to share with you five core experiences of global learning partnerships that I have had over the past half decade. From these experiences I have learned volumes about the organic relationships of these five …
We Make A Difference: Balancing Advocacy And Service, Marina Zamsky
We Make A Difference: Balancing Advocacy And Service, Marina Zamsky
New England Journal of Public Policy
The present essay deals with the problem of balancing community service provision and social-change advocacy, as well as other strategies, from various aspects: efficacy in achieving short-term and long-term goals, necessary resources, the benefits for society as well as for individuals, empowerment, and empowerment deficit.
Speaking Up And Taking Charge, Urban Teens, Claudio Martinez
Speaking Up And Taking Charge, Urban Teens, Claudio Martinez
New England Journal of Public Policy
The beginning of this article will describe an authentic youth-led organizing effort is a model of social change that has developed at the Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF) over the past decade in our work with urban youth. We believe that members of this segment of the population are critical change agents, those with the potential to have a major impact on the future cultural and political development of our society.
Joining Forces In Boston: Community Development Corporations, Carl Nagy-Koechlin
Joining Forces In Boston: Community Development Corporations, Carl Nagy-Koechlin
New England Journal of Public Policy
In 2005, the Jewish Community Relations Council organized a Learning Exchange in which a group of Boston antipoverty leaders traveled to Israel with the goal of fostering cross-fertilization between the Boston delegation and their counterparts in Haifa. The Exchange achieved that goal remarkably. At the time, I was the director of a Boston-based community development corporation (CDC) that faced challenges related to rapid neighborhood change, and my experience spurred me to seek out opportunities for cross-fertilization and collaboration within greater Boston of the type we experienced in Haifa. Specifically, I brought colleagues together to share our experiences leading CDCs in …
Adaptive Capacity And Social Change. Introduction: A Conceptual Framework. Organizational Learning And Long-Term Stability, Nancy Strichman, Fathi Marshood
Adaptive Capacity And Social Change. Introduction: A Conceptual Framework. Organizational Learning And Long-Term Stability, Nancy Strichman, Fathi Marshood
New England Journal of Public Policy
If there is one kind of certainty for social-change nonprofits such as those participating in the Haifa–Boston Learning Exchange, it is that they will continually be challenged to cope with periods of instability and possible crises. The ability to adapt to changing environments, learn from experience, and perform in conditions of uncertainty are considered critical tools for organizations in order to ensure sustainability. Developing this “adaptive capacity” is a particular challenge for nonprofits at the start-up or growth phase of their organizational development, as are many of the Haifa–Boston Learning Exchange participants. This discussion presents a conceptual framework for adaptive …