social change | SCI Social Capital Inc.

Lead with Equity: 2 Important Themes for Social Change Agents

Submitted by Candice McLaughlin on Mon, 12/03/2012 - 10:56am

Recently, I attended Day 1 of a two day Action for Regional Equity forum on November 30, 2012 and was so impressed by the event that I thought I would share a few take home points with you.

First, Action for Regional Equity was founded in 2002, as part of a national effort to promote policies to create an equitable agenda. It is made up of various community organizations that work together in a coalition. Equity is an often misunderstood word, so at the forum they began by explaining what exactly the term meant. Equity is just and fair inclusion. An equitable society is one in which all can participate and prosper.

The first take home point that I left the forum with is to: Lead with Equity. Many of the problems we face as a society intersect and can seem daunting to tackle, but if we first consider who is benefitting from a proposed policy change and who is it harming, we will know how to make the right decision.Read more

New Technology Tools Help Communities Reach Their Goals

Submitted by Candice McLaughlin on Thu, 11/29/2012 - 6:46pm

Numerous research institutions and organizations in the Boston area have the resources to amass large quantities of data that can be used to inform the public on various issues in communities such as public safety, public health, the economy, civic health, and education to name a few examples. This data has the potential to drive social change by influencing public policy officials. However, what do community organizations or residents do if they are unable to easily access these important sources of data?

The Boston Foundation recognizes how important it is to democratize access to high quality data and information as well as make that data easy to visualize for the general public. On Tuesday, November 27, they unveiled their new website, BostonIndicators.org, at the Boston Hub of Innovation Forum. The website takes complicated data from ten key sectors and six cross-cutting topics and makes it accessible to the public through it's easy to navigate website and visualizations of data.Read more

Can Civic Engagement End Poverty in America?

Submitted by Candice McLaughlin on Sat, 11/03/2012 - 1:02pm

Recently, I attended a symposium on poverty in America since the Great Society at Brandeis University on November 1, 2012. The day was spent discussing how poverty in the U.S. has changed since 50 years ago when well-known author Michael Harrington first published "The Other America," taking an in-depth look at the poverty crisis in the country at that time.

There were a number of intriguing guest speakers like Robert Kuttner (co-editor of the American Prospect), Bob Herbert (award-winning journalist and Op-Ed columnist for the NY Times), Jules Bernstein (well-known worker's rights advocate), distinguished Professors at the Heller School of Social Policy, and a Heller School student involved with youth organizing, to name a few examples. Read more

Civic Engagement & Social Change Events This Week

Submitted by David B. Crowley on Mon, 05/04/2009 - 3:59pm

I'm doing a workshop on Wednesday with Dave Weed of Healthy City Fall River at the Southeastern Mass. Civic Engagement Summit, a regional event at UMass Dartmouth, inspired in part by the statewide Civic Engagement Summit SCI and many other groups put together during the fall of 2007. Now that http://myfallriver.org, one of our new network community websites is up in running, we find ourselves in Southeastern Mass. quite a bit. You can learn more about the event here: http://www.umassd.edu/engage/cce/summit.cfm

Thursday evening, I'll be joining a panel & community dialogue session on Social Change hosted by the New Prosperity Initiative at the Boston Public Library. Should be an interesting conversation, feel free to join us! Details in the attached press release.