This post by Mario Morino from Venture Philanthropy Partners raisies some important questions about our obsession with efforts to implement outcomes thinking. Do we risk failing to keep our eyes fixed on the ends we are trying to advance? I share his belief that our dialogue on outcomes should be 95% about mission and 5% about metrics.

"The main reason the dialogue on social outcomes is off track is because we have failed to keep our eyes fixed on the ends we are trying to advance. Every ounce...

Interesting post from John Brothers in the Stanford Social Innovation Review:

When my colleagues discuss nonprofit organizations, often they use a variety of analogies and comparisons. Sometimes an analogy is made between a nonprofit and a hospital, often discussing the nonprofits challenges with words relating to "surgery" or at times "life support." Sometimes they are compared to a car, comparing the…

When I looked at these characteristics I began thinking about the earlier classroom analogy...

I think a lot of opportunities for collaboration within organizations are missed because not enough time is available and/or dedicated to discussing what we are working on and thinking about. After infrequent opportunites to hear about the work of others, Its common to hear statements like: "wow, I had no idea that was what your team was doing, thanks. There are probably ways we can work together on this." So how do organizations (and inter-organizational collaborations or coaltiions for that...

Author Claudia Shifton writes about empowerment in the Community Development Journal and her main points are summarized in the Human Rights Reader. She offers a rough taxonomy of what to look for in the well established community development approaches of Service Delivery, Capacity Building, Advocacy and Social Mobilization when assessing the degree to which they (can) really empower people. Here's an exerpt of her take on empowerment in "service delivery":

"Service delivery can be characterised...

News Release, American Association for Cancer Research, Dec 8, 2009

HOUSTON - Regardless of an individual's dietary and lifestyle risk factors, living in a poorer or more socioeconomically deprived neighborhood may increase a person's risk for death, according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held Dec. 6-9, 2009.

Researchers conducted the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study and found that people living in poorer...

Empowering change

Several members of local community nonprofit groups participated in the School of Education's Second Annual SPEC Conference last Monday on the University of Miami's Coral Gables campus. School of Education Dean Isaac Prilleltensky addressed the group during a morning session, at which five nonprofits that are participating in the SPEC project discussed future strategies to improve their organizations from within. SPEC is a model that attempts to promote strength-based,...

Interesting article with frustrating research findings: 16% of Republicans feel that social factors affect health while a not much better 32% of democrats feel social factors affect health. Clearly much work to be done.

Gollust, Ubel and colleagues designed an Internet study and asked more than 2,400 people a series of questions based on diabetes -- an example of a public health problem that may need both political and medical solutions.

People describing themselves as Republican or conservative...

I've been reading "Critical Community Practice" by Butcher, Banks, Henderson, & Robertson and thinking that the concepts presented in the book have utility for our SPEC thinking and practice. The authors define critical community practice as:

Action based on critical theorizing, reflection, and a clear commitment to working for social justice through empowering and transformative practice.

Now that certainly aligns with SPEC in my eyes. What is particularly useful here is their practice model...

From the Human Rights Reader 224 by Claudio Schuftan is a freelance public health consultant in Ho Chi Minh City and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of International Health of the Tulane School of Public Health, USA

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THE DILEMMA IN HUMAN RIGHTS WORK: WHEN ARE SERVICE DELIVERY, CAPACITY BUILDING, ADVOCACY AND SOCIAL MOBILIZATION REALLY EMPOWERING?

Disclaimer:
i) The empowerment of some entails the dis-empowerment of others --usually the current holders of power.
ii)...

So I included a question about Neoliberalism on my class quiz today. I've been making the point in class that the current dominant ideology in the US, neoliberalism, has an impact on human services, communities, and social problems. Imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this fun little video that helps explain the concept and its effect on society -  especially on as related to the current economic mess. Enjoy!

Neoliberalism As Water Balloon from Tim McCaskell on Vimeo.