social capital

The past week was one in which there were many interesting things to read and share related to our mission at Social Capital Inc.  Each of these probably warrants its own post; but I will consolidate here in the interest of time!  Each bullet point leads off with a link to the resource summarized here.

*Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication Tip to paper authors: include SCI as a model in your paper and it will get priority mention here! This paper by Peter Levine is one of a series from the Aspen Institute that elaborates on the ideas initially proposed by the Knight Commission Informing Communities report. Peter's first recommendation is to create a national Civic Communication Corps, and includes a profile of SCI's AmeriCorps team as a model for the idea (see p. 18 for that part).  The paper opens with a good framing of the important role information plays in civic life, and some of the challenges posed by the changing media landscape. Read more

Two years ago, the SCI Board completed a strategic planning process that placed "Developing Social Capitalists" at the heart of our work.  A key underlying premise is that by providing emerging leaders skills and tools they need to engage others, they will have significant community impact over time, long after they have completed their participation with SCI.  

I would love to increase our capacity to track the long-term impact of our Social Capitalists; but meanwhile, hearing from SCI alumni about how their participation continues to influence them provides some qualitative feedback that suggests we're on the right track.  This thought was prompted by hearing from Ivan Hauck, who was our first AmeriCorps member serving in Dorchester six years ago, where he helped start the SCI Dorchester Youth Council. When reconnecting over LinkedIn recently, Ivan said, "I still keep a picture of our Dorchester Youth Council on my desk and talk about 'Bowling Alone' and the idea of social capital on a regular basis."  Read more

Wow, there was a lot happening in the social capital world this week! Granted, our mission has us interested in a wide range of subject areas; but this week seemed particularly chock-full of relevant stories and studies.  So I'm going to start early on my resolution to blog more regularly, and recap the top stories I came across this week.

Walkable Cities & Social Capital  A recent University of New Hampshire study found that more walkable cities have higher social capital--this article recaps the study nicely.  I suppose it's no big surprise that walking around one's neighborhood would build social capital--greeting familiar faces and maybe even stopping to chat. However, it's always nice to have our guesses confirmed with data! Those of us in the Boston area can thus take heart that placing high on the list of most walkable cities--it's good for our social capital and our health!  Read more

We often talk about how to cultivate your network--what about how not to cultivate your network?  What things negatively impact your social capital?  Some obvious ones would be not returning calls, not following through on something you said you would do.  Continuously being on the receiving side of a relationship would be another.

I'm also thinking of a few situations lately that bring this question to mind...making referrals, and then seeing my contact handle the situation in a way that made me feel uncomfortable that I had made that referral.  The take-away on this is that when someone makes an introduction for me, I need to keep in mind that the person is extending him or herself by making that connection.  I need to be aware that how I proceed with that contact is going to impact my relationship with the introducer.  Being insensitive to this dynamic is another way not to cultivate your network.

These are just a few additional ideas that come to mind--I would welcome thoughts from others on how not to cultivate your network!  Sometimes negative examples can be valuable for our learning.

First, the simple good news flash--we reached our year-end fundraising goal!  We wrote here on 12/30 that we still needed $1365 to reach our calendar year-end fundraising goal, and we surpassed that total by mid-morning on New Year's Eve.  Thanks to all who made a contribution to help us reach that goal!  As noted in the earlier post, this means that we will be able to maintain our current budget & program levels as we start the new year rather than needing to implement additional budget cuts.  We'll be able to keep having the kind of impact we've had over the past year.   Read more