Stone Soup and an Impoverished Mexican Village
In a session at the Opportunity Collaboration, stories were shared on the power and importance of community decision-making.
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Yearning to Breathe Free: No Immigration Reform Hurts Opportunity for All
The anti-immigrant trend line is deeply damaging to social innovation, social justice, and civil society.
If the Meek Shall Inherit the Earth, They Have a Head Start in Cambodia
Read an inspiring story of social innovation in Cambodia, as the author discovers a restaurant that trains former street youth for jobs in the hospitality industry.
Exploring Failure
PopTech, the vaunted thought-fest that annually gathers some of the nation's leading social innovators in the coastal hamlet of Camden, Maine, kicked off its 2010 conference two weeks ago with a strongly resonant theme in this year of economic uncertainty and political dysfunction: failure and its upside.
"There's something really remarkably accidental about so many of the discoveries that we make," conference curator and PopTech Executive Director Andrew Zolli said during the conference, called Brilliant Accidents, Necessary Failures and Improbable Breakthroughs. "...But what happens when we don't let failure happen, when we keep systems that are minimally functional in place? What has to die so the right things can live? How do we kill it?"
To underscore the importance of answering those questions in social innovation, Zolli shared the story of a massive failure... (continue reading this blog post)
The Agency of African Girls and Women
Africa is being described as a new economic frontier, according to recent reports from McKinsey Global Institute and the Africa Progress Panel. The former assesses opportunities for business investment in Africa’s future growth trajectory, while the latter highlights social and developmental issues that need to be addressed to fuel progress. Both reports converge on a central question—what will sustain such growth? The African Progress Panel underscores one driver often missed by economists, governments, and policy makers: the central role of women in the economy.
In spite of shouldering a disproportionate burden of the continent’s poverty and facing barriers to education, financial services, resources and property rights... (continue reading blog post)
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New Florida Legislation Is a Slap in the Face to Nonprofit Diversity Advocates Everywhere
Let’s get one thing straight. I don’t really spend a lot of time worrying about those that have already made it clear that they don’t care about diversity in nonprofits. But I do have beef with those in the nonprofit world who profess to care about diversity, yet refuse to do anything about it. Actions speak louder than words. Outcomes matter much more than intentions. Which is why everyone in the nonprofit sector... (continue reading this blog post)
Youth Voices in the Global Economy
I had the opportunity to participate in two recent events leading up to the G-20 Summit in Toronto, which engaged youth on the global stage—the G(irls) 20 Summit and MY SUMMIT. These delegates demonstrated an intuitive understanding of today’s global challenges and offered solutions to governments. The G(irls) Summit urged leaders to take specific actions to expand the access of girls and women to education, healthcare and economic opportunities... (continue reading this blog post)
The New Digital Divide
Call it the New Digital Divide. In the early days of the Web, social innovation leaders predicted it would spawn a more open and democratic society. Today, though, that hope is being strongly challenged.
According to Eli Pariser, a cofounder and former Executive Director of MoveOn.org, data aggregators like Google have started using increasingly sophisticated filters to decide what information we consume online -- and these new levels of data-filtering, along with the growth of social networks that aggregate like-minded souls -- are threatening civic engagement. The filtering, he told people attending this week's Personal Democracy Forum in Manhattan, is starting to keep us from being exposed to a fast-growing amount of information and ideas.. (continue reading this blog post)
Giving Girls a Real Start
When I was in Dakar, Senegal a year ago, I met several teenage girls. They were confident and energetic. I loved Fatimah’s clothes. Bright bold colors with a modern twist to traditional Senegalese dress. She was wearing her passion for design and sewing... (continue reading this blog post)
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