All posts in Personal Development

Hope  you can join us at this free event! Please spread the word to any and all graduating African American young men in the Bay Area who are heading to college in the fall. We want to celebrate their achievements! To register, click here.

Rockwood’s FELLOWSHIP FOR CALIFORNIA LEADERS OF COLOR is a multi-session leadership program for nonprofit leaders of color committed to:

1. Creating and sustaining compelling visions for their organizations
2. Inspiring and aligning others to work effectively towards common goals
3. Dealing more effectively with leadership and organizational challenges
4. Engaging with a powerful learning community of leaders of color throughout the state.

Over the course of nine months, the Fellowship is designed to teach powerful visioning, listening, speaking, presentation, coaching, team-building and feedback skills to emerging and established leaders of color working in California’s social change organizations.

FELLOWSHIP PARTICIPANT CRITERIA

Rockwood’s optimal criteria for enrollment in the Fellowship include a cohort of leaders who:

1. Are positioned in the state of California to help demonstrate new and better ways to lead and work together
2. Demonstrate personal/professional readiness to learn new leadership skills – including coaching, feedback, communication, and personal sustainability.
3. Manage and lead small to mid sized organizations (under $2 million budget)
4. Interest in and ability to partner with organizations outside their region in California
5. Are based in the following counties:  Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, and Tulare

COSTS

With the support of the Community Leadership Project, Rockwood will cover the majority of fees and room and board costs. Each participant is asked to contribute $500 for their participation in the program.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

The nomination phase for the 2011-2012 Fellowship for California Leaders of Color is now open. If you would like to nominate a leader, please email Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo at vanessaATrockwoodleadershipDOTorg. In your email, please include the name, organization, email address and a brief description of why you are nominating this person. The deadline for nomination submissions is May 5th at 5pm PST.

For more information, click HERE.
Image source: Rockwood website

Harsh rain and wild wind were not enough to stop the first annual Black & Proud to Be College Bound conference. 180-plus tenacious students and parents from across the Bay Area made the trek to San Francisco State University to take part in the conference.  The day kicked off with the world-premiere of “Rebound: Get Yours” The Justin Davis Story, an 8 minute biopic that illustrates the importance of obtaining a college degree.  The video set the tone for what the day was all about.

The morning plenary continued with words from the board of the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, Mitchell Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein, Ph. D.  They shared their sentiments on the importance of the conference and their decision to invest specifically in the area of young black males.   Conference participants then heard from Dr. Kenneth Montiero, Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, Walter Robinson, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of Admissions at University of California, Berkeley, and lastly, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, Speaker pro Tempore.  Collectively, the speakers emphasized the importance of developing self-awareness, striving for success, and building a cohort of peers that will support, encourage, and work with you to become college-ready.

The morning was followed by several engaging workshops, ranging from obtaining financial aid to the role education plays in developing and maintaining  successful career. Participants reconvened in the afternoon for a raffling of gift cards and two Flip cameras.  The event ended with the CEO of the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, Cedric Brown,  reiterating the important messages from the morning speakers and asking each young man to sign a pledge (see below) committing themselves to becoming college-ready. It was truly an epic day!

COLLEGE BOUND BROTHERHOOD PLEDGE

I am Black and proud to be college bound.
I pledge to join the 1000 other brothers on the pathway to college.
I will be focused and determined, courageous and tenacious.
I pledge to set goals that I will not only reach but surpass.
I pledge not to procrastinate when there is work to be done.
I will find and use resources that will help me to be prepared.
I will follow these values in my pursuit of higher education and
other opportunities of a lifetime.

(Written by young men from Bay Area high schools)

photo source: Derek Lassiter

The Center for Social Inclusion invites applications for the 2011 Alston Bannerman Sabbatical Fellowships from long-time organizers of color who would benefit from the opportunity to step back, reflect, and recharge.  Fellows are awarded $25,000 to take sabbaticals for three months or more. Please forward and post this announcement widely, and encourage qualified organizers of color you know to apply.

To qualify for a fellowship, an applicant must be a person of color; have more than ten years of community organizing experience; be committed to social change work in communities of color; and live in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Beyond the basic eligibility criteria, the program seeks applicants whose work: attacks root causes of inequity by organizing those affected to take collective strategic action; challenges the systems that perpetrate injustice and effects institutional and structural change;  builds community capacity for democratic participation and develops grassroots leadership; acknowledges the cultural values of the community; creates accountable participatory structures in which community members have decision-making power; and contributes to building a movement for social change by making connections between issues, developing alliances with other constituencies, and collaborating with other organizations.

Alston Bannerman Fellows use their sabbaticals to travel, study, visit with other organizers, read, write, acquire new skills, plan, evaluate, explore new interests, spend time with their families, recover their health, and restore their spirits.

For more information, click HERE.

To download an application, click HERE.

Image source: thefellowship.info

I am pleased to announce that the Kapor Foundation is partnering with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services to provide access to one-on-one consulting services and vouchers for CompassPoint one-day workshops to key partner organizations. We are also partnering with the David Brower Center to provide key partner organizations with the chance to use the Brower Center for a one-day event in 2011.

There are three CompassPoint consulting slots and 20 total workshop vouchers available.  Priority for these services will be given to organizations with budgets of $750,000 or below. Organizations interested in applying for consulting services must submit an online application by 5 p.m. on Friday, March 18, 2011. Additional information about the consulting and voucher services and a link to the online consulting application can be found on HERE.

The David Brower Center partnership will provide five key partner organizations with the chance to use the facility for a one-day event in 2011.  Space rental will be free of charge, but selected organizations will be responsible for all event production costs – including food and beverage, decor, etc.  Priority will be given to organizations with budgets of $500,000 or below who have never used the Brower Center before.

For more information about how to access the David Brower Center service, please click HERE.

Please contact me at 415-946-3021 or at tpriceATmkfDOTorg if you have any questions about these new services or other opportunities available through the Assistance & Advising Program.

image source: stanford.edu

Throughout my career in the nonprofit and foundation sectors, I’ve constantly been annoyed by the notion that we’re second-tier workers doing lesser priority work, compared to our corporate/for-profit/”real job” counterparts. We give too much credence to the formula of nonprofit = charity = hand-me-down = second-class. I even had to correct a visitor whom I overhead saying that the Kapor Center “isn’t a real nonprofit because this office is too nice.” Baloney, to put it mildly.

I was happy to come across this recent post in the Chronicle of Philanthropy by David Greco of the Nonprofit Finance Fund. The point that resonated most with me suggests switching up the rules by which we view nonprofit viability:

One step is to change the language nonprofits use. We should never view ourselves as second-class citizens begging for scraps. Nonprofits are corporations that produce jobs, stimulate the economy, and promote more sustainable and vibrant communities. Nonprofits are businesses that exist to fill voids that cannot or should not be filled by for-profit corporations or government.

I am pleased to see that change is happening. Nonprofit leaders are talking more about their capacity to carry out their missions and less about overhead. More and more grant makers recognize the need for nonprofits to have a surplus and build reserves. Donors and boards recognize that growth isn’t always good, and buying that building isn’t always such a great idea after all.

As a fan of the nonprofit sector, I also recognize that nonprofit and for-profit work doesn’t have to be oppositional.  I’m curious to watch emerging trends in the nonprofit sector as social ventures continue to blur the formerly-distinct lines between mission and profit.  And let’s remember who keeps the “civil” in civil society!

[Climbs off soapbox.]

More grist for the mill:  Job Crunch Sends More Young People to Nonprofit Work

Soon after college, I was taught and trained in a model of community organizing that had five core elements: base-building, campaigns, organizational development, alliance-building, and leadership development.  This last element, leadership development, has since been an area of work within the social justice field where I’ve found that I can both be incredibly inspired, but also incredibly frustrated.

So I was glad last Friday to attend Urban Habitat’s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI)’s information session in Oakland. [Read more about BCLI here.]  From the beginning of the presentation, it felt like leadership development done right. Many of the reasons why are evident in BCLI’s materials and on their website. I thought, though, that I would highlight two reasons that I hear us talk less about when looking at leadership development.

First, BCLI answers the question of exactly when and where their graduates will be able to practice the skills and use the knowledge learned through their program. It almost feels silly to credit them for this, as it’s why they exist at all, but I just don’t see that link too often. Groups that I’ve worked with have dozens of youth and adults go through their leadership development programs, but, and not to their fault, it wasn’t always clear where these members would then be able to all assume leadership roles.  Certainly the organizations themselves, with few resources and limited capacity, didn’t have enough open staff positions or even member leader roles available. Given this, BCLI not only points to the places where their leadership development program graduates can use newly acquired skills and knowledge, but also where all graduates of social justice leadership development programs throughout the Bay can now, if interested, play leadership roles and be supported in doing so.

Second, BCLI starts with the recognition of its participants, particularly poor and low-income communities of color, as being leaders in the room whose contributions and experiences will benefit their community, given the opportunity. This quality is one that has stuck with me from working with immigrant youth. It’s what I’ve understood to be the role model versus gang approach. While the former can provide a glimpse of a new reality for an audience, it could still also feel foreign and far off if their isn’t a deep connection with the speaker. The latter’s approach, on the other hand, proved instructive once we came to understand the appeal of gangs to Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee youth in the Northwest Bronx.  Rather than preparing youth to be leaders at some unknown time in the future, gangs, albeit tragically, offered responsibility and recognition almost immediately, allowing a place for them to apply and be recognized for the knowledge and maturity they had acquired growing up as the bilingual bicultural advocates of their community. Good leadership programs shouldn’t be gangs, of course, but I do think that they should include an approach that begins with recognition of existing leadership experiences and a trust to fulfill responsibilities based on this.

As someone new to the Bay area and to BCLI, I’m looking forward to learning more and seeing all that directly and indirectly comes out of this work.

* Title inspired by Paula Gidding’s book, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America.

Are you dissatisfied with the government policies being made in your local community? Would you like to help make sure voices like yours gets heard in local policy meetings? Would you like to have a cohort of progressive leaders with the same leadership training available to support your efforts to make change in your community?

If so, you should learn more about Urban Habitat‘s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute at their upcoming information session!

Urban Habitat’s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI) identifies, supports, trains, and places low-income people and people of color in priority boards and commissions seats around the Bay Area. The BCLI prioritizes seats that influence equity in the areas of transportation, equitable development, housing, jobs, and climate change. Graduates form a network of progressive leaders who are technically and politically prepared and supported to make decisions that reflect the needs and interests of low-income communities and communities of color. Graduates have the capacity and community support to advance a regional agenda for economic, environmental, and social justice and serve as the next generation of progressive officials who are representative of and accountable to the region’s most burdened populations.

Come hear how the BCLI has empowered and supported the next generation of advocates working for and representing the needs of low-income communities and communities of color, and learn about the nomination, interview, and selection process. You will also be able to meet Alumni who will be available to answer questions and share their experiences.

Logistics:

Date: February 18th, 2011
Time: 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Location: East Bay Community Foundation, 200 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland

RSVP to Riana Shaw Robinson at riana(AT)urbanhabitat(DOT)org!

Image Source: Urban Habitat, 2009 BCLI Graduates