WSU CCSR | Blog

Helping ourselves, helping each other | By Jennifer Comes

2012-01-23T11:08:00.000-06:00

Soon Medicaid providers across Kansas will receive a letter from CCSR, letting them know about the self-help group database we maintain and containing magnets with information about how to access the database. The text of the letter is below. If you are interested in hosting a presentation or in using the materials we have available, information for connecting with CCSR is included at the end of this post.

It all began when one person recognized she could make a difference in the lives of others.

Back in the 1980s, social worker Evelyn Middlestat was facilitating adoptions for the Wichita offices of Lutheran Social Service. She saw that adoptive parents she worked with struggled with many of the same issues in raising their adopted children and started a support group for them.

At the group's first meeting, Evelyn realized that a group of peers facing the same challenges could support and advise each other in ways that professionals could not. Self-help groups, she thought, could be organized around virtually any situation or issue. Evelyn's contacts in the community made her aware of many support groups that met regularly, but group leaders often complained that people who needed group support locally did not know how or where to find it. Recognizing this, Evelyn gathered her notes and her telephone at her kitchen table and made it her mission to connect individuals seeking support with the right community self-help groups.

That vital connective piece that Evelyn recognized more than 30 years ago is the same work the Center for Community Support and Research continues today. As custodian of an electronic database of more than 2,000 self-help groups, national organizations and informational websites, we link anyone in the state with the support they need, wherever they may be located. Self-help groups can be found in most Kansas counties and have organized themselves around issues as diverse as living with cancer; coping with addiction or mental illness, grief or bereavement; physical or sexual abuse; divorce and relationship issues, and learning to be a better parent.

The database may be found online and a toll-free phone number, 800 445-0116, also links individuals with information on self-help group contacts.

“Support groups and community-based groups are a great way to give yourself a jump start and get yourself going,” said Aaron Scharenberg, director of the Central Christian Counseling Center in Wichita. When individuals find themselves dealing with a difficult situation, “they provide support, accountability, and a way to connect with others.”

Please use the enclosed materials as appropriate and feel free to share them with other organizations or individuals who may be helped through this free statewide resource. At CCSR, we especially welcome the opportunity to make presentations to groups and organizations. A presentation may be strutured from 1 hour to 8 hours on a variety of topics, either face-to-face or in a webinar format, and CEU credits are available. These presentations are a free service to Kansas Medicaid providers.

Helping ourselves as we help each other: We think Evelyn would be pleased.

To learn more, to schedule a presentation or to make sure a specific self-help group is listed, please contact Angela Gaughan at the toll-free number listed above, or at angela.gaughan@wichita.edu.

On leadership and authority in the Egyptian revolution | By Amy Delamaide

2012-01-18T15:54:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, National Public Radio's Steve Inskeep interviewed Wael Ghonim about his role in the Egyptian revolution and his new memoir of the time, Revolution 2.0. Several of his comments about leadership reminded me of the distinction to be made between "leadership" and "authority." Here is a (long) segment of the interview:

GHONIM: ...And this revolution has no leader, has no face to it. And the collective effort of all the Egyptians is what mattered at the end of the day.

INSKEEP: Now, it's interesting you say that this revolution has no leader. Many people, of course, have said that. But reading your memoir here, "Revolution 2.0," I wonder if you're not giving yourself enough credit, because you describe yourself putting up Facebook pages, sending out statements, writing quite dramatically on behalf of causes, doing things that leaders do, and organizing protests, getting this revolution going.

GHONIM: I think this is not leadership. When I say a leader, it means that directs the revolution, where it should be going. Before the revolution came, what we were doing is increasing the awareness and calling people to action. What we did was calling for, you know, massive process that turns into the revolution on the 25th.

That doesn't, you know, give me the title of leadership, because at the end of the day I don't - you know, I did not - and I would have not been able to take charge and tell people what to do and negotiate on behalf of them.

The fact that there is no leader is evident on the floor. There are so many people that have done extraordinary efforts and that have sacrificed. There are so many people that have died, but there was no clear leadership that made decisions on behalf of the people.

(emphasis added)

Ghonim's interpretation of a leader is someone who we would say is in a position of authority. Someone who has power and uses it to direct the actions of others. Given what we know of life under the Mubarak regime, it makes sense that Ghonim's concept of leadership is authority-driven.

Inskeep suggests that the organizing and motivating work Ghonim did through his online activities was something "that leaders do." Ghonim's definition of leadership does not include these activities. For him, activities of leadership are directing the revolution, taking charge, telling people what to do, making decisions for people, and negotiating on behalf of the people.

Within the framework of leadership offered by the Kansas Leadership Center's competencies, Ghonim's activities clearly fall within the competencies of Energize Others and Skilfully Intervene. Through Facebook posts, he spoke from the heart and oriented others to a common purpose. He captured attention, connected people from different groups, and engaged unusual voices.

As Egyptians comes to terms with their opportunity to determine who they put in positions of authority, I hope they consider that people in authority positions can also exercise leadership like Wael Ghonim did.

Students get experience serving the nonprofit sector at CCSR

2011-12-09T17:20:00.000-06:00

Students gain real-world experience volunteering at WSU Center for Community Support and Research on a variety of projects in the fall semester.

Four students are from the Emory Lindquist Honors Program:

Victoria Eck at her desk

Victoria Eck, a junior majoring in Pre-law and Political Science/History, researched sources of resilience to help in building a model of trauma healing for CCSR’s work on Trauma-Informed Care.
Emily Lancaster, a sophomore majoring in pre-medicine, created a logo and handouts to help people with mental illness keep track of their medical information so they can advocate for their own medical treatment.
Janet Nghiem Phy, a freshman with an undeclared major, assisted leadership evaluation activities and reviewed literature related to leadership development and leadership programs.
Shahla Pourkaram, a junior majoring in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Pre-medicine, made phone calls for a survey for the Kansas Department on Aging and conducted a phone survey of daycare providers for the Riley County Early Head Start program.

About her experiences at CCSR, Shahla says, “Medical school is very competitive and to have undergraduate research experience is very beneficial. I have been able to gain skills such as survey administration and database construction at CCSR.” Pourkaram is also president of Wichita State Society of Women Engineers.

Three graduate students are expanding their career opportunities at CCSR:

Kaitlin Boger is a second year Master’s Social Work student who designed and facilitated leadership development sessions, supported a trauma-informed organizational process for a community partner in Topeka, and researched trauma-informed care models.
Jennifer Comes is in her first year of the MSW program, contributing to CCSR’s mental health consumer initiative by creating a media kit for Self-Help Group services and writing the history of consumer run organizations in Kansas.
Bailey Blair has earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Teacher’s License in English Literature and Psychology. She plans to pursue a Master’s of Social Work. Bailey is preparing a proposal to create a comprehensive network of care for transition age youth.

About her work at CCSR, Bailey says, “What I’m working on at CCSR is the same type of work as the other incredibly talented staff here. The work I’m doing now is what I plan to build my career on.” Jennifer adds, “Working at CCSR has been a terrific learning opportunity for me. Students here are encouraged to contribute in a variety of ways that I've been surprised to discover are actually closely related to our coursework. CCSR staff enjoys working with students and though most of them have advanced degrees, they seek out our opinions and consider us peers in an ongoing process of community building that we are engaged in together.”

Based in downtown Wichita, WSU Center for Community Support and Research is proud to be a place where WSU students can immerse themselves in learning about and serving the nonprofit and public sectors while building their professional contacts and career opportunities.

Sameville | Presented by Seth Bate

2011-11-23T09:00:00.000-06:00

The WSU Center for Community Support and Research has been facilitating a leadership development process for two dozen staff members of Starkey, Inc. A foundational concept for CCSR’s approach to leadership development (and one shared with our partners at the Kansas Leadership Center) is that groups have to be in a productive zone of work for significant change to occur. Getting into that productive zone can be uncomfortable and risky.

Because they care deeply about the work they do, and because the challenges they face are daunting and complex, the Starkey participants have been doing the difficult work of learning how to exercise leadership. Some of them wrote this story to illustrate what it can be like when people exercise leadership to get themselves and others into that productive zone.

Sameville

Photo courtesy of Paul Stringer

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there was a happy little town named Sameville, Kansas, where nothing ever changed. Flowers were always in bloom, the sun was always shining and the birds were always chirping. Rain only came at night, and everyone always pretended to be happy. Door to door salesmen trying to sell new ideas were always turned away.

But one day, a mean, nasty ogre crawled out from under a bridge. He captured the queen and her lady in waiting. (Oh, my!) The mean, nasty ogre overturned all of their long-held, sacred beliefs, and uncovered their unpleasant truths. The weather turned hot and dry. The flowers died. Chirping birds spontaneously combusted! Everyone in Sameville grew hot, and sweaty and smelly and cranky. They were uncomfortable and afraid.

So the uncomfortable people of Sameville brought in fans to cool things down, but the fans just blew away the covers they had thrown over their unpleasant truths. They formed a committee and plotted to kill the mean, nasty ogre, but they could not agree on a plan, because no one was in charge, there was no agenda, and no one had the power to decide. The queen and her lady in waiting were not around to chase all their problems away!

But then, one day the earth started to shake. The people of Sameville were frightened, and large cracks opened up in the ground where their sacred structures once stood - as if to swallow them. But nothing fell in! Sameville was safe because of the changes the mean, nasty ogre had made. And all of the people realized that the mean, nasty ogre was a hero. His actions had saved their little town!

And so the little town celebrated, and they changed their name to Changeville. No one was ever completely happy. The birds didn’t always chirp, and the sun didn’t always shine. But the little town of Changeville was safe forever and ever.

The end.

In the leadership development process, participants have experienced many moments an “ogre” has shaken things up in order to move the group into a productive zone of work. Sometimes the CCSR facilitators have been the ogres by doing something unexpected, using silence or asking provocative questions. Other times the Starkey participants have been pretty ogre-ish by challenging an assumption or offering a tough interpretation. Ogres might be scary, but sometimes they are exercising leadership.

For more about the productive zone of work (sometimes called the productive zone of disequilibrium) we recommend The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by Heifetz, Linsky & Grashow.

What do you think? | By Dee Hinton Turner

2011-10-25T11:43:00.000-05:00

Mystic Mountain via Wikimedia Commons

Will Meecham recently wrote a post on Mental Health Day: Should it be Spiritual Health Day?

I found this read to be quite interesting. It seems to bring to point what I personallyfeel about “Spirituality” being such a vital part of mental health recovery,substance abuse recovery and even recovery from/through life in general. What do you think?

Free workshop will help organizations plan for executive transition

2011-10-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a partnership with the United Methodist HealthMinistry Fund, CCSR has been working closely with Tom Adams of TransitionGuides in the last two years to deeply understand organizational successionplanning – and to make it useful and relevant for Kansas organizations. Formost nonprofit organizations, this is specifically about planning for the daywhen the current executive director leaves.

On October 18^th, 1-5pm, CCSR will offer a freeCompassion Kansas workshop in Wichita for nonprofit organizations on successionplanning. This workshop will provide an introduction to Succession Basics:Emergency Backup Plan and Succession Policy. Call 316-978-3843 to register.

In his book TheNonprofit Leadership Transition and Development Guide, Adams saysthere are six areas to explore when an organization wants to define what asuccessful transition would look like. These areas also illuminate how closethe organization is to being ready.

Strategy readiness
How current is our strategic and business plan?
What has changed or is changing in the environment that will influence our strategy or business plan in the next few years?
Financial readiness
Do we understand our current financial health: income, expenses, assets and liabilities?
What is the trend in our income and expenses and capacity to sustain a balanced operating budget?
Systems readiness
Do we have in place up-to-date policies and procedures to guide and protect our organization? Where are we vulnerable?
Does our technology infrastructure support the work required to achieve our mission?
Management team/staff readiness
Are there key managers or staff who are doing more than one person’s job?
Is there a culture and morale among managers or staff that results in retention, growth and ongoing advances for the organization in a capacity to achieve its mission?
Board readiness
Does the board have effective leaders as chair and treasurer and leaders of key committees?
Does the board have systems to support board regeneration and succession?
Executive readiness
Is the executive clear about her plans for departure or engaged in a personal process to become clear?
Does the executive support this planning?

This workshop will provide language and tools to begin toanswer these questions and prepare organizations for fulfilling their missionsbeyond the tenure of the current executive.

Collective Impact Follow Up | By Amy Delamaide and Seth Bate

2011-10-10T17:07:00.000-05:00

About a million years ago—or maybe just a few months—I wrote a post about an article we at CCSR are reading, “Collective Impact” by John Kania and Mark Kramer. I promised a follow-up post once we had discussed it at staff meeting.

Your wait is over. Here is that promised follow-up post.

We talked about the article at our August 10th staff meeting. In no particular order and without attribution to the staff members who contributed, here are some things we discussed:

Communication is important to keeping collective impact efforts going. When different organizations are working on the same issue, sharing what each organization is doing and the impact it is seeing would energize the other organizations and support mutually reinforcing activities.
The idea of collective impact seems rather utopian. In real-life, it was suggested, change takes much longer than the article indicated. The work is never done and practitioners are constantly revising their approach.
It is worth exploring what barriers exist that prevent us from moving towards collective impact. How do you reinvigorate organizations at a grassroots level when they are in crisis or under stress, such as many are in these economic times?
When doing research, especially participatory or action research, it is worth engaging the people doing the work as co-researchers and co-evaluators. This could result in having several “layers” of researchers—the participants in an intervention, the direct service staff delivering an intervention, and those academics observing at a distance could all contribute as researchers.
It is useful to us as an organization to continue sharing articles and periodically discussing them as a large group. This makes sense for us as a university-based center where continued learning is valued. This might be something that makes sense for your organization, too.

We’ve continued hearing “backbone support organization” and “collective impact” in meetings with partners, so the ideas from the Kania and Kramer article are definitely worth grappling with if you haven’t yet. There is also a blog where the authors and other contributors are continuing to develop their ideas: Collective Impact Blog. Check it out.

Youth as Leaders of Today--Not Just Tomorrow | By Dr. Tara Gregory

2011-09-28T09:59:00.000-05:00

“Youth are the leaders of tomorrow!” How many times have we heard--or possibly said--this as adults who are interested in promoting civic engagement and public responsibility in those who are younger?

Photo courtesy of KCYV

I understand that it’s typically meant as encouragement and is said with great hopefulness. But I always bristle when I hear this because my many years of experience working with young people (high school students, primarily) assures me that seeing youth only as leaders of the future sells them egregiously short. They’re doing incredible things today and every day that reflect exceptional passion, skill and commitment. From groups such as the Kansas Consortium for Youth Voice in Lawrence to the Mayor’s Youth Council in Wichita, there are a huge number of youth-led groups who understand that leadership isn’t a position but something that anyone can do at anytime. And there are many individual youth who stand up and do what they think is right to make life better for others. They organize charitable activities for those in need, write books about their own challenging experiences, and do many other acts of leadership and selflessness.

I want to make a clear distinction between youth involvement as volunteers and youth-led civic engagement. There are a lot of opportunities and encouragement for youth to get involved in projects that are designed to better the community. But these opportunities are frequently created and supervised by adults with little youth input or involvement in defining the issue or determining the response. There’s nothing wrong with opportunities for youth to be involved as volunteers just as it’s an important option for adults to give back to their communities. But true growth and engagement comes from the autonomy to define and determine the focus and direction of civic engagement. Truly youth-led projects, in which adults take a back seat and typically provide support but very little supervision or authority, are relatively rare – primarily because we adults have trouble getting out of the way and trusting youth to do good things. But I’ve seen time and time again, even when I’ve had my own secret doubts, that youth will come through and do stunningly selfless and effective acts of leadership when given the space. I’ve never been disappointed when I’ve let go of my hard-earned “right” as an adult to talk constantly, have all the answers, do the “important” tasks, and generally be in charge.

One specific experience I had was when I provided support to a group of high school students who decided to put on a day-long workshop for middle school students. The high school youth determined the focus (training the middle schoolers on how to take action to prevent substance abuse within their own schools), designed and presented all of the sessions, and worked individually with teams from each middle school to help them develop an action plan to enhance their school. On the day of the workshop, I overslept. I was panicked at what was probably happening because I wasn’t there to provide assistance where necessary. When I got to the workshop location about 30 minutes before the start of the event, everything was ready to go and, in addition to teasing me mercilessly about being late, the high school youth jabbed me a bit about not trusting them to have things under control. It was a lesson to me about the “adultist” attitudes I still held, even though I loved and trusted this group of youth tremendously. It was also a reminder about how much more meaningful the accomplishment was to the youth when they did it all themselves. I’ve never forgotten this day because it was a great example of what I still needed to learn and also because of how incredibly proud I was to have the honor to be associated with these exceptional young people. These youth are now adults with kids of their own. I hope they remember this day and the pride they felt as vividly as I do.

Photo courtesy of KCYV

I’ve also recently had the opportunity to use the Kansas Leadership Center concepts and principles with the Kansas Consortium for Youth Voice, a youth-led group whose mission is to empower youth voice to generate action and positive change in their communities. While I know from my own experience that these concepts are frequently challenging for adults to integrate, it seemed that the youth immediately got it. They worked through faction mapping, identifying values, and a number of other exercises that challenged them to diagnose the situation (i.e., adult resistance to youth voice), manage themselves, energize others, and intervene skillfully. There was no question of them being too young or inexperienced to understand or utilize these tools. And I know they’ve taken this information and immense skill forward in their work. Again, I hope they recognize the value and uniqueness of what they’re contributing to their community.

Youth are people who have a stake in our communities and who have valuable knowledge and skills to contribute right now. We sell youth short when we think of them as biding time until they’re old enough to be community leaders – and consequently we cheat our communities out of valuable expertise, passion and energy. Just as all adults have various experience and areas of expertise, so do youth. Just because their experiences and areas of expertise are different from ours, doesn’t mean they aren’t as valuable and interested in creating better communities if we’re willing to treat them as partners. I encourage all adults to avoid the “leaders of the future” comment. If we as adults make space for youth to contribute to civic leadership, we are all equals in creating a better Kansas.

Photos courtesy of Kansas Consortium for Youth Voice, from theleadership/service learning workshop they held for Iraqi and Central Europeanyouth through the International Visitors Council of Greater Kansas City.

Searching for a Rose Garden in Berlin | By Dr. Tara Gregory

2011-09-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

View of the valley below Neuschwanstein by Dr. Tara Gregory

I just returned from a trip to Germany and Austria where in addition to the usual sightseeing, I was privileged to attend a conference called “Searching for a Rose Garden: Fostering Real Alternatives to Psychiatry” in Berlin, sponsored by Verein zum Schutz vor Psychiatrischer Gewalt – the Association for Protection Against Psychiatric Violence. This conference was organized and primarily attended by persons who referred to themselves as survivors of psychiatry from all around Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. As far as I know there were only a few of us from the U.S. and maybe even fewer whose experience is more as a provider than a recipient or survivor of psychiatric services. Although I’m still processing everything I learned and experienced at this conference, one thing I do know is that the wisdom that was shared by persons with lived experience and from other countries changed my perspective on what psychologists or other service providers like myself think we know about mental illness. I’m just going to share a few questions, thoughts, and ideas that I’m still considering and maybe I’ll write more in the future when I’ve figured out what this all means to me.

Before I share my questions/thoughts/ponderings, I want to be up front about the fact that I don’t have much personal, lived experience with mental health services beyond working in the substance abuse prevention field for many years and now as a researcher who sometimes focuses in this area. So I wouldn’t consider myself to be much of a consumer, survivor, peer or any other designation for someone with significant lived experience. I’m also a community psychologist – not clinical – and as such, I’ve never provided direct therapeutic services to persons with mental health issues. My role has primarily been to help foster community conditions that support the health and well-being of the people within these contexts and to do research along these lines. I’m not saying these things to distance myself from the people or the issue, but to be clear that I’m a bit of an outsider and may be late to the party where some of my thoughts are concerned. So I’m proceeding cautiously knowing that what I write here is tinged with a bit of distance from – but complete respect for – lived experience in this area.

Briefly, here’s what I heard, considered, thought, or questioned based on my experience at this really illuminating and inspiring conference:

The perspective presented by many at the conference was that of psychiatric survivors, i.e. people who reject the medical model of distress and who feel that they have been seriously mistreated and harmed by typical psychiatric treatments (such as institutionalization, restraint, electroconvulsive therapy, medication) and are thus “survivors” of psychiatry. This perspective of being a survivor of services seems appreciably different than that of a “consumer,” the term that is more typically used here in the U.S. or at least in Kansas. What are the implications of being a survivor versus a consumer?
Consistent with the rejection of the medical model, several presenters indicated that the term “injury” rather than “illness” is more reflective of the foundation of mental health issues. One presenter, David Webb, suggested the word “psychache” (soul ache) as being the best descriptor of the condition that fuels such responses as suicide attempts. Additionally, in her presentation on self-harm, Clare Shaw spoke of self-injurious behaviors as an expression of the will to survive and hope while in distress rather than the typical view of them as indicators of hopelessness. She further noted that the greatest “penalty” and motivator for lethal actions was being restrained from self-injury, which takes away the person’s only option for comfort in the midst of turmoil. These ideas seem to fit well with the trauma-informed care perspective that suggests that what appears to be maladaptive behavior is actually a reasonable response in the context of traumatic situations/histories. So if there’s no true mental illness but rather mental injury or “psychache” what does that mean for how we typically view and treat mental health issues?
In Berlin, there’s an organization, which helped support this conference, called the Weglaufhaus. Literally translated, this means “runaway house.” At the Weglaufhaus, peers provide support to those in crisis so as to lessen the possibility of traumatization through interaction with typical treatments or the system itself and to encourage solidarity and self-sufficiency. While there are a few similar organizations in the U.S. (see peer-run crisis alternatives for more information), what would it take to create more options for peer run alternatives to hospitalization? Maybe more importantly, what would it take to make this “alternative” more mainstream?
Another field of inquiry that’s emerging in Germany is peer-supported medication cessation. Basically this would offer an option for those who make the decision to stop taking medication when it seems to not be helping or to be harmful (as defined by the person) to get assistance from others who understand the process and ramifications in all areas of the person’s life (e.g., physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially, etc.). The desire to create such a peer-driven service is becoming more pronounced as knowledge increases about the negative impact of psychiatric medications on health and life expectancy. While this may take a while to figure out how to implement effectively and consistently, will reliance on medication ever become the exception rather than the norm? Should it be the exception? I’m guessing that most participants at this conference would probably say yes.

Probably the most central point that was underscored time and again during the conference was the power of solidarity and support among survivors. Although not completely parallel to living with a mental health issue, I’ve been a type 1 diabetic since I was six years old. Although my diabetes is under good control, I often get “assistance” from others in managing it – sometimes invited, sometimes not. I’ll usually gladly accept it from someone who has similar experiences or who has at least shown themselves to be knowledgeable and empathetic to the range of experiences I have. However, nothing irritates me more than when someone who hasn’t lived with this or who doesn’t have the same type of diabetes tells me what I should or shouldn’t eat, when I should check my blood sugar, how much to exercise or not (as some oddly recommend), and what my limitations are or might be. For those with mental health issues, who often face more traumatic intrusion than I probably ever will, peer support is quite understandably preferable and, as research is showing, can be highly effective. And, as Clare Shaw noted, understanding a person isn’t just the first step in helping, it IS the help.

So I came back with a lot of questions after this trip -- one is why my German sounds so good in my head but doesn’t appear to be well understood by most native speakers -- and a lot to ponder -- including how many times I could eat a meal of bratwursts and pretzels before someone tells me a diabetic “shouldn’t be eating that.” More than anything, as I’m always reminded when I go to Germany, which is where I was born, there are often very different but equally valid perspectives and ways of living in cultures other than our own, whether it’s the German culture or that of survivors of psychiatry. I’m very grateful to the conference organizers and participants for sharing their perspectives and experiences in an effort to increase understanding and the growth of a more enlightened approach to mental health.

CCSR Welcomes New Volunteers | By Angela Gaughan

2011-09-12T09:00:00.014-05:00

We are excited to have seven students volunteering at CCSR on a variety of projects this semester.

Four students are from the Emory Lindquist Honors Program, two are in the Master of Social Work Program and one has earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Each volunteer is working on a specific project – one that she expressed interest in. Our hope is that the volunteers will learn more about how we build capacity for individuals, organizations and communities. We are also looking forward to seeing what they contribute as well as hearing the questions they have about our work.

The students from the Honors program are Victoria Eck, a junior majoring in Pre-law and Political Science/History; Emily Lancaster, a sophomore majoring in pre-medicine; Janet Nghiem Phy, a freshman with an undeclared major; and Shahla Pourkaram, a junior majoring in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Pre-medicine.

Kaitlin Boger is a second year master’s student and Jennifer Comes is in her first year of studying in the Master of Social Work Program. Bailey Blair has earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Teacher’s License in English Literature and Psychology. She plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology.

When I asked a couple of students what they were working on today, one said that she is gathering information for an upcoming presentation at a health fair. She is also creating a logo and handouts to help people with mental illness keep track of their medical information so they can advocate for their own medical treatment. Another student said that she is researching sources of resilience to help in building a model of trauma healing for CCSR’s work on Trauma-Informed Care.

Graduate student Kaitlin added, “Right now, I'm currently working on a Trauma-Informed Care blog post, helping design and facilitate leadership development sessions, and designing and supporting a trauma-informed organizational process for a community partner in Topeka. I have been conducting website searches to gather information on Trauma-Informed Care models and Trauma-Informed treatment. I have also been working on various teams to help design presentations in trauma-informed care.”

It has been great to get to know these students, the next generation of leaders in the work place. Please help us welcome these new volunteers!

Through the Eyes of a Professional | By Dr. Joyce Webb

2011-09-09T09:00:00.023-05:00

Photo courtesy of Grzegorz Lobinski

Despite years as a psychologist treating people with many different kinds of problems, until my divorce many years ago, I had never really given much credence to the idea of referring my clients to self-help groups for assistance. My knowledge of self-help groups was limited, and possibly tainted by the movie stereotype of smoky meeting rooms filled with addicts who didn’t really want help. Little did I know then, how incredibly ignorant I was of the power and healing nature of these groups. Nor did I know that years later, I would be in need of one myself.

During a time of pain, when I was trying to manage an unwanted separation and impending divorce, I heard about a program at my church whose sole purpose was to speak to the hearts of those like me who needed healing and help with forgiveness. I, somewhat hesitantly, showed up in a church classroom over and over for about 3 months where my small group met and talked and cried and grew. It was better than any experience I could have had in therapy. These people ‘got it.’ They were patient, they talked to me about their experiences of growth, and they helped guide my processing. They truly understood what I was going through. They challenged my soured and burned perspective, and led me from a great heaviness in my life to a journey toward a new life of freedom. Suddenly I could live again and move on.

That experience opened my eyes. Soon I began hearing of other small groups in my church, in the community, and across the state where people embarked on other journeys toward greater understanding and healing from cancer, addictions, eating disorders, and grief. I was amazed that this world had existed for so many years, and my eyes hadn’t been opened previously. Years later, I was approached as a professional to help a faith-based leadership team launch and nurture a large community-based self-help group centered on recovery. I can’t express how heart-warming it was to watch people struggle with and conquer issues that had plagued them for years. I can only hope that other professionals, like myself, will open their eyes to the vast resources that can be found in self-help groups and step up to help build and expand these healing efforts in our communities.

As one person, I can’t meet every need of every client. Neither can any other professional. Self-help groups can be a great tool for many people seeking help and professionals who believe in them can assist in their success. Access to these groups and many other useful resources can obtained through the Self-Help group online database at www.kansashealthsolution.org/selfhelpgroups. This website is easy for clients (and professionals!) to navigate and can be searched by type of group or area of Kansas. For assistance, call 1-800-445-0116.

Free workshop will help faith-based organizations manage change

2011-09-07T15:13:00.000-05:00

The popular Compassion Kansas workshop series returns this month with a new session designed specifically for faith-based organizations.

“The Missional Faith-Based Organization” will be presented from 1 to 5 p.m. Sept. 20 by the Wichita State University Center for Community Support & Research (CCSR). There is no charge for the workshop, but reservations are required and space is limited.

This workshop applies lessons from The Missional Leader, a widely used book about the missional movement in American churches, to faith-based community work and outreach. It is intended to help people who are serving their communities better understand and respond to the changes in those communities – not to mention the changes that may be underway in their own organizations.

CCSR staff members Teresa Strausz and Seth Bate will be the workshop presenters. Both speakers have worked with a variety of community and nonprofit organizations around the state. Strausz is a licensed master social worker and the facilitator of CCSR’s trauma-informed care team. Bate has recently been working with congregations as part of the Leadership and Faith: Transforming Communities project, and this summer he was on a guest faculty team at St. Paul School of Theology, Kansas City.

According to Strausz, part of the session will examine the relationship among faith-based service organizations, congregations and denominations. The workshop will also challenge attendees to consider the impact of spiritual practices that support the work of their organizations.

Bate said that CCSR has a long history of assisting faith-based organizations, but the focus of this workshop still makes it distinct.

“We’re excited to offer something specifically targeted to the situations of people engaged in community ministry through nonprofit and grassroots organizations,” Bate said. “We have some ideas we want to share, and we think we have a lot to learn from the people out there who are committed to this work.”

Call 316.978.3843 or (in Kansas) 800.445.0116 with questions or to make reservations.

Future free Compassion Kansas workshops are set for Oct. 8 and Nov. 9 (PDF flier).

From Suffering to Strength: Mental Health Recovery and Wellness at Work

2011-09-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

by Lael Ewy

Courtesy National Archives

Statistics vary, but the prevalence of mental illness in America typically falls within a range of 17 to 25%. If government stats are even close, that’s about the same as the prevalence of heart disease, America’s #1 killer, and twice that of breast cancer.

With this kind of demographic saturation you would think that we’d stop considering mental illness as something that afflicts “them” and start thinking of it as something that afflicts “us.” We all suffer from emotional stress from time-to-time, and many of us can relate to extreme states of mind brought on by the vagaries of early 21^st Century American life.

But how many of us would be so bold as to place a psychiatric diagnosis on a résumé? Peer support workers in mental health are asked to do just that, but for good reason: having gone through mental health difficulties and recovered, peer support workers have deep, lived experience. With this experience, these workers help mental health care recipients identify and employ strengths to deal with difficulties and triggers, self-advocate with care providers, and find and pursue lives of their own choosing.

The positive qualities of mental health recovery have recently gotten some good press in a story by Boston’s WBUR, but they hold deep lessons for other work situations as well, from dealing with the stress of overwork to the trauma of corporate reorganization.

Still, there is stigma: we are a long way from the time when most people will feel comfortable putting their psychiatric histories on their CVs.

However, workers who have recovered from emotional difficulties and extreme mental states can be exemplars of resilience, positive role models to others in the workplace who might find themselves at the cusp of similar circumstances. Above all, those who have recovered their mental wellbeing are reminders of the “us-ness” of these all too common difficulties, and of the hope-inducing fact that those difficulties can be overcome.

How do we make a collective impact? | By Amy Delamaide

2011-07-08T15:35:00.000-05:00

For our staff meeting next week, CCSR personnel are reading an article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review by John Kania and Mark Kramer on “Collective Impact” (PDF, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011). We hope to have a productive discussion about what it means related to our philosophy and strategies for our work with organizations and coalitions.

Kania and Kramer define collective impact as “the commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem” (p. 36). These actors include funders, government officials, representatives from key agencies, individuals, and others. While the regular gathering of such a mix of people could be referred to as a coalition or collaboration, collective impact initiatives go beyond this by including “a centralized infrastructure, a dedicated staff, and a structured process that leads to a common agenda, shared measurement, continuous communication, and mutually reinforcing activities among all participants” (p. 38). What the authors argue is that, for some issues--including what the Kansas Leadership Center refers to as deep, daunting challenges--it’s not enough for one nonprofit organization to try to intervene for the better. Some issues require the engagement of nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public to create real and lasting change.

Five-level social ecological model

Scott Wituk, our Director, often refers to the social ecological model, where four embedded circles indicate the scope of potential intervention from the individual in the center to the relationship to the community to the society at large. This comes out of the Centers for Disease Control’s work to prevent intimate partner violence, which is work Scott has partnered with the CDC on.
When CCSR considers this model, we see that our work in leadership development and certified peer counselor training impacts individuals. Our work with organizations affects the institutional level of the five circle version of the model. Often when we work with coalitions or collaborative efforts we engage with many different agencies within a sector, hoping to impact society at large.

What Kania and Kramer suggest is that there is a role for an organization—perhaps one like ours? or like yours?—to become a “Backbone Support Organization.” This would be an organization that consists of at least a project manager, data manager, and a facilitator. The people in these roles manage the overall change effort.

Some questions related to this article for CCSR--and your organization!--to consider:

What is our past experience? Have any of the big projects we’ve been a part of met the key features of a collective impact initiative?
What are the issue areas we want to see progress on? For which issues are we willing to be significantly involved in managing a collective impact initiative?
How could we increase our impact at the society level of the social ecological model?

Has your organization discussed these questions? What conclusions did you come to? Let us know in the comments below.

Our organization plans to discuss this article more next week. Look for a follow up blog post with some details on our conversation.

What makes a good Executive Director? | By Amy Delamaide

2011-07-07T15:08:00.000-05:00

In the summer of 2002, I got the opportunity to volunteer full-time with two Wichita nonprofit organizations. One of those organizations was the Lord’s Diner. I served at the Lord’s Diner 3-4 evenings a week that summer and got to know Wendy Glick, who was the Volunteer Coordinator at the time. Wendy went on to become the Executive Director. I stopped volunteering my time but continued supporting the organization as a (very small) donor.

The Wichita Eagle reported last week that Wendy is stepping down as Executive Director of the Lord’s Diner in mid-July.

My experience of working with Wendy and the announcement of her impending departure made me reflect on what I learned from Wendy’s example as an Executive Director.

Sticky note with a message on it from Wendy that I keep on my bulletin board.

Keep in touch. When I stopped volunteering, Wendy kept in touch with me. I was on the Lord’s Diner mailing list and got their regular newsletter and donation appeals. About once or twice a year, I made a small contribution to the Lord’s Diner. I would get a letter in the mail thanking me for my donation and stating the amount for my tax records. Often, these letters had a quick “Hello, Amy!” from Wendy hand-written on the letter. Now, the Lord’s Diner probably sends out hundreds of thank you letters. But Wendy took the time to say hello to someone who gave just a little. And that meant a lot to me. It has been what keeps me connected to the organization and interested in its welfare—and, importantly, it has kept me contributing financially.

Know your mission. I love the way Wendy and the Lord’s Diner board members communicate the mission of the Lord’s Diner, even in a Wichita Eagle article announcing Wendy’s departure. “‘This is as pure of a mission statement you can have: Feed the hungry, no questions asked,’” said Pete Meitzner, the board chairperson. This is an organization that knows its purpose and speaks to it regularly.

Stick to your mission. I remember a decision Wendy made in late 2002 or early 2003. It was winter, and the Lord’s Diner had been donated some hats and scarves to distribute to those who needed them. The donation was appreciated, but it also caused some difficulty. The Lord’s Diner did not have a system in place for distributing hats and scarves. Its purpose is to serve meals. It has systems and procedures set up to optimize the serving of food. In fact, distributing clothing would distract its small staff and its many volunteers from their purpose of nourishing people with food. So Wendy made the tough decision not to accept donations of clothing to distribute, trusting that there were organizations in place to receive and distribute such items. She helped the organization stick to its mission.

Wherever life takes Wendy next, I wish her the best. And I wish the best for the Lord’s Diner as it transitions from Wendy to an interim director to a new Executive Director. May their next director be as people-oriented and mission-driven as Wendy.

Social Media for Nonprofits and Coalitions | By Amy Delamaide

2011-06-29T10:21:00.001-05:00

CCSR presented a Compassion Kansas workshop yesterday for nonprofits and coalitions interested in learning more about optimizing their organizations' use of social media.

We had one handout detailing our assumptions going into the workshop:

Our Assumptions

We like social media and think it is useful.
We believe that it is no longer on the cutting edge, but that it is mainstream.
We believe that social media is most useful for nonprofits when it is used with targeted purpose, rather than as a diffuse, shotgun approach. Nonprofits rarely have the time or resources for anything other than acting with purpose.
We believe that when it comes to social media, participating and consuming information is just as important as broadcasting information.
We are users of social media, not experts.
We can’t teach you everything about every social media website.
For a nonprofit organization, your online presence must be consistent with your stated charitable purpose. We assume you will use social media as one method for carrying out your mission and strategies.

We had three presenters from local nonprofits using social media well. They described their roles and responsibilities for social media in their organizations, what they do well in social media, and some of the decisions their organizations have made about why and how to use social media.

Thomas Stanley, Kansas Leadership Center
Chandra Stauffer, KMUW 89.1
Olivia Fletcher, Numana, Inc.

Then we presented a case study from a national nonprofit: "The Case of the Rogue Tweet." Sources for that case study included:

It was great to have about 30 people thinking about social media and how to use it as one method for carrying an organization's mission and strategies.

Web-based Work Platforms Support Community Collaboration | By Kevin Bomhoff

2011-06-27T11:28:00.000-05:00

I remember when community members gathered together to collaborate--flipcharts flowing in the ventilated air, the sweet scent of permanent markers in the air. Those were the days. We distributed handouts and meeting notes on paper or by email. Everyone was then free to lose the documents or, even better, claim they were never received in the first place. Participants could miss important sessions and announce that they were not notified of the meeting location or date. We could leave people out because they were not on our distribution list.

Wait a minute, that’s no way to collaborate! Especially as community challenges become more technical (requiring expertise and shared data) and adaptive (requiring stakeholder input and learning). We need a real place to meet and a virtual space to organize our work.

More and more often, this virtual space is a web based platform with ready access by community partners. These platforms come in many formats but most have the following components in common:

A place to store historical and updated documents
A calendar of past and upcoming meetings
Planning timelines
Announcements
Discussion groups
Meeting minutes and agendas
Contacts
Important links

This is a virtual shared drive for those participating in your community project. Participants are responsible for setting their own “alerts” so they can be notified of changes or participate in discussions as they wish.

Christina Holt, Associate Director for Community Tool Box Services with the KU Work Group for Community Health and Development, develops tailored online WorkStation websites for local and national initiatives. These WorkStations are based upon out-of-the-box SharePoint capabilities plus custom-developed tools to help groups meet their needs for online community collaboration.

Christina points out that “WorkStations enable users to easily share materials, make announcements, access tools, learn from others' success stories, access guidance from peer discussions, and solve needs for online collaboration. Ultimately, customized WorkStations help communities work together to meet their shared goals.”

Don’t throw your flip charts and markers away just yet. WSU Center for Community Support and Research encourages community partners to establish both real place and virtual space opportunities for organizing. We need to carefully build relationships in order to make progress on issues we care deeply about. More often than not, those relationships will be nurtured by effectively facilitated discussions and efficient ways to store and share critical information.

Listening as Ministry | By Seth Bate

2011-06-23T11:19:00.000-05:00

Kansas Windfarm by Eye of the Storm Photography

I read Lael’s post on the heels of reading The Missional Leader, by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, which views storytelling as a leadership skill. The authors propose--and I’m inclined to agree--that people must be able to articulate their own narrative but also the narrative of the community around them.

Listening to and then telling the story of the community may be the hard work, but it is critical. People and communities who cannot name the way their worlds are changing have less power with which to engage, understand or confront the change. The authors suggest that those who cannot name the deeper sources of their anxiety focus on the symbols of the change rather than what’s beneath those symbols. An example in the book is Christian parents who focus on getting Harry Potter books out of a school library when they are really worried about a much broader question: how “do we form a cohesive community of identity and belonging that shapes our children within the narrative of Christian life?” Deep attentiveness may be a way to draw out and shape these stories.

For Christians, there is also much to be learned from viewing our stories and the stories of our community through the story of Scripture. The Missional Leader makes this sound like the most natural thing in the world. After all, the Bible takes great pains to describe the ordinariness of the people chosen to God’s work.

I see this attentiveness modeled in the life of Jesus, who began with the lived experience of the people he encountered. He started where they were. As The Missional Leader puts it, “he enters those experiences weaving God’s story through their lived stories.”

After reading Lael’s post and this book, it seems to me that storytelling (and listening) may be an act of peer support. It may be an act of leadership. And it may be an act of ministry.

If you would like to explore the impact of missional leadership on your faith-based organization, join us for a free Compassion Kansas workshop "The Missional Faith-Based Organization" on September 20, 2011. Call 316-978-3843 to register.

On “Deep Attentiveness” and Narrative Power

2011-06-03T13:38:00.002-05:00

Dan Beard telling a story to a group of boys and girls in the Flatbush Library in 1913

by Lael Ewy

I probably flub a lot of job interviews because of my propensity to tell stories. Instead of giving straight answers I’ll tell a story that (to me anyway) illustrates the answer to an interview question. I recall being asked, in an interview for a teaching position, whether or not I would ever “give up on a kid.” This prompted a 20-minute tale about a student who I had encouraged to drop out of the small college where I worked, knowing that a little time off was what he needed to get back on track educationally. (He did come back--and finished!)

There’s a perception running around out there that nobody has the time for such things. This is despite the fact that stories are ubiquitous in our culture: TV shows, movies, newspaper articles—even video games and ads—follow a narrative arc. Why is narrative so common? Because it is actually an extremely efficient and effective form of communication.

Narrative can encapsulate a lot of different, and sometimes contradictory, ideas into a single form, sometimes even into a single character. We find Hamlet fascinating because he’s witty and engaging, thoughtful and immobilized, romantic and cold, wrathful and uncertain, and he’s all these things all at once. Instead of analyzing, narrative embodies.

But we’re also drawn to stories because they’re deeply personal: these complex characters are like people we know, people we are, people we’d like to be. We worry about how they’re going to resolve their problems so we can emulate that or avoid it, so we can consider it and modify it in our own lives. Stories connect because they’re about people, whether or not those people are real. Spreadsheets have their uses, but it’s hard to form a deep connection with them.

If we tell stories that involve ourselves, and if we take the time to listen, we set up a situation in which the deep truth of one’s experience can come forth. The storytelling situation also allows for what Parker Palmer calls creating responses from a place of “deep attentiveness,” a place where our usual guardedness can fall away and genuine connections can be made.

From this, you can see why we use storytelling as an integral part of training peer support workers in the mental health field, but taking the time to tell stories and to listen to them can create mutual, helping relationships wherever you are.

Photo credit: New York Public Library

Social Media for Nonprofits and Coalitions | By Amy Delamaide

2011-06-02T11:06:00.000-05:00

Coming up in about three and a half weeks is our next Compassion Kansas workshop--Social Media for Nonprofits and Coalitions. Seth Bate and Amy Delamaide will moderate a panel of three people using social media effectively in their organizations. Each panelist will share a little bit about what works well for them and how they integrate social media into their existing strategies. Participants will have opportunities to ask them questions. We'll also consider a national case study of a "tweet gone wrong" and what the organization did in response.

The workshop is on June 28, 2011, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Wichita, Kansas.

If you're interested in attending this workshop, call CCSR at 316-978-3843 or email angela.gaughan@wichita.edu to register.

How well adapted are we? By Teresa Strausz

2011-05-31T21:00:00.001-05:00

So what in the world does this video have to do with organizations or organization development? As we work with and in organizations, asking the question “How will the chicks fare here?” as the narrator does in this video, can help us open up to what ways we might adapt to an ever-changing organizational landscape. How are our organizational dynamics and resources faring in the face of new landscapes? Are we adapting our structures or are we hanging onto our old way of nest-building as the tried and true way of surviving?

The need for adaptation in our organizational and leadership lives is in direct relationship to the degree we are or are not “matched to a new set of circumstances.” How are you currently matched to your circumstances? How are your chicks faring?

Finishing and Using a Strategic Plan | By Seth Bate

2011-05-27T09:00:00.002-05:00

Plan of the Royal Hotel, Carlton 1916, Courtesy of State Records NSW

You had a great planning retreat! Most of the board members were there, staff were involved, everyone ate cookies and drank iced tea. A week later, all the notes are typed up into a document with a pretty cover that says “strategic plan.”

Now what?

In most cases, a planning retreat is done in a work session setting to create a draft document. To make it official, it is necessary to add a little detail and have the board of directors vote to accept it. These steps may be useful:

Review the draft plan and adjust language and dates to reflect any progress or decision made since the planning session.
Review all people assigned and target dates for projects to see if they are appropriate and realistic. In some cases, these are recommendations from an outside facilitator. Adjust as necessary.
Present the adjusted plan to the board of directors for feedback. Using the board’s ideas, re-write and re-submit for approval. This process may take 2-3 meetings depending on the feedback received.

How the strategic plan is used might be even more important than what it says. Think about these suggestions:

Use a portion of each meeting to update progress on the plan. Actually make the changes electronically on the document as you go, deleting items as they are accomplished and adding new objectives and associated actions as they are determined.
Consider using progress on the strategic plan as one of the ways board and staff are evaluated.
If your organization follows its strategic plan to the letter, there may be an absence of creativity and responsiveness.
If the plan gets completely overhauled, you may be lacking focus and discipline.
If the plan gets put away and never looked at, the planning process is a waste of resources and a disservice to the organization’s board and all the people who support it.

CCSR can help you create a strategic planning process that is right for your organization--and help you ensure it remains useful.

Authority, leadership and the Little Napoleon | By Seth Bate

2011-05-24T09:51:00.000-05:00


John McGraw and Christy Mathewson, New York Giants, 1911 World Series		,	Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library

John McGraw was the umpire-shredding manager of the New York Giants from 1902 to 1932. I recently read a biography of him; to my surprise, he has been on my mind as I have taught, discussed and tried to practice leadership in the last few weeks.

At the WSU Center for Community Support & Research and the Kansas Leadership Center, we define leadership as the activity of mobilizing people to do difficult work on complex issues. We think of authority as a position—such as manager of a baseball team—and we believe that people who hold authority are expected to provide protection, order and direction. Authority is sometimes useful in exercising leadership, but it is not the same as leadership.

John McGraw had and used authority. The press dubbed him (somewhat redundantly, as his biographer Charles Alexander points out) the Little Napoleon for his strategic prowess and bellicose manner on the field. He often called every pitch and play in a game. One of McGraw’s innovations was to teach players sign language so when they missed a conventional sign from him, he had a second way to give instructions.

In a spring training interview, McGraw once explained that he told his players to execute what he told them, and if something went wrong, he would take the heat. It seems to me that this is what many of us look to in our authorities; tell us what to do, and shoulder the risk for us.

In baseball, relying solely on authority can be enormously effective. It worked for McGraw. He is second on the all-time list of wins for major league managers. There is some evidence, however, that there was an issue McGraw cared about for which authority was insufficient to make progress.

In the Ken Burns documentary Baseball, it’s said that when McGraw died, a list of African-American players he wanted to recruit into the segregated major leagues was found in his papers. I’m speculating, of course, but one interpretation is that McGraw couldn’t do more than make a wish list because he only knew how to use authority. To tackle a daunting civic issue like integrating baseball he would have needed to use leadership competencies.

The Little Napoleon’s baseball record makes me think he had some capacity to intervene. He demonstrated some elements of the KLC Competencies for Civic Leadership

Hold relentlessly to purpose. McGraw doggedly pursued winning. On the field, every close play at the plate was worth a profane argument with an ump. Off the field, every political maneuver at the league level was suspect and could result in a blistering letter. What if he had recognized that the pool of black players could serve his purpose of winning and pursued that as fiercely?

Give the work back. It might seem uncharacteristic, but McGraw had a soft spot for players who had washed out of the majors because of their drinking or womanizing habits. In a few instances, McGraw gave second and even third chances. Still, he didn’t take on responsibility for the player’s rehabilitation; he provided the space to play, but the work of getting back into playing form was the player’s. What if he took the same approach to a few pioneering minority players and created a level playing field on which they could succeed or fail?

Act experimentally. McGraw was one of the innovators of “scientific baseball,” a style based on smart baserunning and small tactical advantages. He disparaged the new offensive style of baseball that came into vogue in the 1920s with Babe Ruth. In his final years, though, he risked ridicule and began actively recruiting sluggers, even landing the great Rogers Hornsby for a short time. If McGraw didn’t completely abandon his position, he at least experimented with another approach. What if McGraw had risked even wider ridicule and recruited African-American players?

Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa—who has a bit of Little Napoleon in him—is on pace to pass McGraw on the all-time wins list in 2012. When that happens, I hope McGraw gets his due. He was a fascinating character and a brilliant manager — and his story might still have something to teach us about the authority and leadership.

This article was also posted on the Kansas Leadership Center blog, a great resource for reflections on leadership and information about KLC programs.

Assessing Impacts, Discovering Values | By Lael Ewy

2011-05-09T11:20:00.001-05:00

A problem-solving tool we teach in the Certified Peer Specialist 5-Day Basic Training involves, among other things, looking how a person is negatively impacting his own problem, asking how one’s actions or beliefs may be exacerbating that problem or preventing it from being solved. This is an aspect of problem-solving we tend to shy away from or ignore.

I suspect that’s because doing so brings us into contact with all sorts of things we don’t want to hear. Brainstorming practical solutions makes us feel effective; looking at our own role in causing a problem can make us feel uncomfortable. Coming up with solutions might change the way we act in the short term, until the immediate effects of the problem seem to be alleviated. But examining how we’re contributing to a problem may force us to change who we are and what we believe—and that has implications for the long term.

Indeed, fostering long-term solutions is exactly why we examine what we are doing to create and perpetuate problems. How many “solutions” have been implemented, their effects measured, and congratulations extended to those involved, only to have the effects reversed by a new set of problems or another bout of the same old thing? We see examples of this everywhere, from weight loss programs that fail to address our basic attitudes about exercise and food to military “victories” that precede the chaos of a failed state. To admit to how we are negatively impacting a problem is to admit that we are flawed. But to do so is also to take responsibility for a problem, or at least for that part of the problem that is under our control.

For individuals, this might mean measuring our espoused values against the beliefs we express through our actions: I may agree that the local coffee shop wastes an appalling number of paper cups, but my own vanity may prevent me from bringing my battered travel mug in for a refill.

For an organization, taking stock of what it’s doing that contributes to a problem could force an accounting of institutional values for the first time—and that might reveal how incoherent or contradictory those values really are. For instance (and to keep a theme alive), the desire to stock the office break room with pricey fair trade coffee might go against the value of keeping operating costs low.

But this also reveals the power of reviewing our own negative impacts: the organization might decide that the value of doing right by the grower of the coffee beans outweighs the value of cost-effectiveness in this case. Confronted with the values underlying the impacts, a person or organization is empowered to act intentionally. And sometimes, through reviewing how we negatively impact a problem, we may realize that it’s not actually a problem, and that the proper solution is no action at all.

Parallel Universe | By Joyce Webb

2011-04-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of familymwr

Carol is a hard-working woman. She’s accomplished, passionate, has strong values, and desires to live out a deeply held sense of purpose in her life. We started our coaching relationship when she attended a week-long intensive class at the Kansas Leadership Center. I don’t think either of us knew what we were in for.

The idea of living with an experimental mindset seemed to resonate well with her, so she immediately, perhaps too zealously, dove into the deep, murky waters of uncertainty that comes with practicing new acts of leadership. Within three sessions, she was barely coming up for air. She was in violation of a key competency of survival—one must manage oneself in order to be effective.

It was a critical moment, as a coach, to recognize that I, too, was now dog-paddling with her. The more anxious she felt about her possible failures in experimentation and about the reactions others were offering, the more anxious I felt. The more she questioned if the pain of change was really worth it, the more I doubted my own fidelity to the teachings. It’s a precarious line that is easy to cross; when the client’s work drifts over into my space and I lose my ability to hold steady.

One of the fundamental aspects that dictates the success of the coaching relationship is personal boundaries. When my boundaries are strong, it welcomes a sense of safety for the client. With safety comes a space to explore and grow. Clients not only need that space, they deserve it. That space is sacred and without it, effective coaching cannot happen. Perhaps I just wanted to believe that I really cared about Carol’s success and growth. What I learned is that I have to manage myself well and hold to a purpose I deeply believe in—that some of the greatest growth happens through some of the greatest discomfort and experimentation. What a privilege to hold that space steady for my clients.

Joyce Webb, Ph.D., is a leadership development coach at the Kansas Leadership Center and WSU CCSR.

Executive Director Evaluation | By Heather Perkins

2011-03-28T17:11:00.000-05:00

The phone rings.

Photo courtesy of kthypryn

The executive director of a local non-profit organization answers and discovers that the call is from a client who was recently assisted by the organization. The client has called to express his gratitude for the services he received and the hope that he has for the future as a result. Although short, the call is upbeat and encouraging.

An hour later, a staff member comes into the director’s office with a letter of resignation. Although she has enjoyed her position and has performed her job well, she has been offered more money and better benefits at a for-profit business. Her loss to the organization will be significant.

Over lunch, the director meets with a member of his board who is very unhappy with the state of organization and is causing significant dissention within the board.

How does the director process and assimilate these various interactions? Is he being an effective leader? How does he know?

Providing constructive feedback to the executive director is one of the most significant roles of a board of directors, but also one of the most uncomfortable. As a result, the task is frequently avoided and the director is left to try to assess his performance based upon often conflicting feedback coming from numerous different sources. In addition, any weaknesses in performance are left unaddressed and continue to impact the organization.

Regardless of the context, performance reviews are a challenging undertaking. However, the personal and organizational growth that can occur as the result of healthy review processes should not be underestimated. Performance reviews are a gift that every nonprofit board should give to their executive director.

A free online resource for conducting nonprofit director performance reviews that may be helpful is the Evaluating Your Executive Director (pdf) workbook from The Enterprise Foundation in Maryland. And BoardSource has several resources available (at different price points) for nonprofits evaluating their executive.

Dynamic performance review processes provide the focus and support so desperately needed by many nonprofit leaders. In addition, they facilitate the process of engaging in healthy, growth-oriented conversations. And finally, they allow the director to answer with even more confidence the next time the phone rings.

Personal Medicine, Empowering People | By Lael Ewy

2011-03-25T11:16:00.002-05:00

When you hear the word “medicine,” you probably think of a bottle full of pills. This is the experience for most of us when we have a physical ailment, and it is often the experience when we have a psychiatric ailment as well. Whatever your views on the “medicalization” of psychiatric diagnoses, pills don’t treat the whole person. And since we’re all different, a whole person approach must be unique to the individual, a “personal” medicine.

One promoter of personal medicine is Pat Deegan, a mental health consumer and psychologist, who developed a workshop of video presentations and workbook activities called Common Ground to help get mental health consumers in touch with their own personal medicine and to help them personalize their medication experience.

Nancy Jensen, a Certified Peer Specialist and member of the CPS training team at the Center for Community Support and Research, is both a user of and tireless advocate for the Common Ground curriculum. Nancy came across Common Ground after joining CCSR. “I found myself not wanting to go back to where I was before,” she says, but initially dismissed Common Ground as “just another workbook.” What she discovered was a program for empowering mental health consumers.

Nancy had been an “aggressive” consumer, one who insisted the provider “had to do it my way.” She says an empowered consumer, on the other hand, allows the provider to have expertise but not to take away the consumer’s control over her own life and medication. Common Ground, Nancy explains, puts forward that there are two experts in the room: the provider and the consumer.

Key to this is the “power statement,” a statement the consumer uses to express to her provider what she wants out of treatment, what parts of her life she won’t let treatment interfere with. The power statement is formed around personal medicine: the things in life that make one feel good, and feel good about life. For Nancy at that time, that was working and taking care of her cat.

Another important part of Common Ground that Nancy finds powerful is the idea that emotions are not symptoms. Often, those with psychiatric diagnoses (and sometimes their doctors and loved ones) are so used to seeing what they feel as aspects of illness that they lose sight of the fact that emotions are a natural part of life, genuine reactions to one’s life and the direction it’s going.

These tools not only help people recover, they help people avoid the “medication trap,” where the side effects of a medication keep one from pursuing personal medicine, but the lack of medication exacerbates symptoms, also preventing one from pursuing personal medicine. Common Ground advocates "trade-offs” between personal and pill medicine, and the use of power statements to help providers understand the need to help people do those things that make their lives worthwhile.

Nancy points out that not just pill medication can lead one into the medication trap; therapy can too. She also stresses that the ideas of personal medicine and power statements can be useful for anybody, not just those with psychiatric diagnoses.

Connecting with SAMHSA online | By Amy Delamaide

2011-03-21T17:06:00.000-05:00

CCSR Peer Educator Christine Young recently received an e-newsletter from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which is the national government's behavioral health administration, that promoted its online outreach work.

Increasing Outreach, Feedback, and Virtual Communities

Facebook. YouTube. Twitter. Blogs. In response to President Obama's request for Open Government, SAMHSA has developed a robust “digital engagement” program with established presences on four major social media channels. At the center of it all, SAMHSA's blog serves as the hub for these behavioral-health-focused efforts and expands SAMHSA's connections across the Nation.

Christine notes, "This opens access to so many more people. There need to be responsible concerns about security and having personal information out there, but I think services that are being provided need to evolve with the times."

Lael Ewy adds, "As a way of hitting people where they are, SAMHSA is doing the right thing. The interactive blog is a great idea as well: open government becomes responsive government in that case, and that’s really what we want it to be, especially when the issues and policies are complex."

CCSR looks forward to following and liking SAMHSA.

To connect with SAMHSA, check out their social media page.

See and Be Seen | By Seth Bate

2011-03-14T14:04:00.000-05:00

Where does your non-profit organization or coalition go to be noticed?

I attended the February meeting of the Kansas Human Relations Association and ran into a familiar face. Gordon Criswell, human relations director for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., was there. He said the Human Relations Commission he facilitates was meeting soon to choose what community activities it would participate in this year.

Gordon’s timing seems right on to me. With spring fast approaching, this is the time to grab a community calendar and look for some opportunities to see and be seen.

These three questions may help guide your plans:

At what community activities should we have an on-ground presence? Think about the audience size, the tone of the event and the opportunity for visibility. Are red-carpet and society page events where you should focus, perhaps because of the opportunity to interact with key decision-makers? Where is the best photo op? In your community, do people show up for the afternoon parade or the nighttime ball game?

Who should be there? Is it the kind of event for which you want two dozen volunteers? Would it be more effective to identify a small cadre of staff, board members and donors? Is an unattended booth or a page in the program enough?

How does the plan further your mission? Promotional activities are too costly in time and dollars to engage in lightly. What part of your strategic or marketing plan does this activity address? Are there ways that your participation can also reinforce your mission? For example, if your organization promotes early childhood learning, could you sponsor an activity for families with young children at your community picnic?

Please comment below to share your experiences with representing your organization at community events. Or catch me at the fair – I’ll be the one in line at the roasted corn stand.

Photo courtesy of ms.margie

Deliberative Processes as Egalitarian Space: Breaking Barriers to Communication Through the Common Task

2011-03-07T08:31:00.000-06:00

by Lael Ewy

I had the opportunity recently to do some executive-level eavesdropping. But it was okay: I was invited to listen in on a conference call (having been asked to set it up) involving a team of which I was not a part. The team is the Certified Peer Specialist Programs and Practices group, which hashes out policy and best practices for peer support workers in the mental health field in Kansas.

Members of the team come from a variety of different roles—from mental health service consumer liaisons to researchers to trainers to those who supervise peer support teams. My eavesdropping allowed me a certain analytical distance, and as I listened to people from very different perspectives come together to perform a common task, I heard something extraordinary.

People listened.

So often, our roles dictate how we interact with others. When we work on tasks outside our normal assignments, our roles shift, power differentials fall away, and we become more willing to listen and more likely be listened to. And so a conference call about policy became also an open conversation about the impacts of policy on the various stakeholders involved.

A study headed by Estela Mara Bensimon from 2004 shows how this can work on a large scale. The study, called the Diversity Scorecard, ostensibly set about to study barriers to minority success on a number of college and university campuses in Southern California. But there was a twist: instead of parachuting in and conducting the study themselves, the researchers called upon faculty, staff, and administrators to be actively involved in making the study happen. In the process, people at these campuses became directly aware of the problems minority students face in higher education, and an honest discussion about race and ethnicity ensued.

This suggests a salve for hidebound organizational processes, lack of communication, and poor accounting of the perspectives of others: find a task that brings people out of their normal roles—a task force on emergency procedures, perhaps, or starting a company-wide recycling porgram. Or seek ways to be involved with common tasks within your field but outside your organization, such as creating a delegation to be part of a professional association. In this space you might just find yourself being heard and, above all, hearing what others genuinely think and feel.

Spirituality in Recovery | By Dee Hinton-Turner

2011-03-04T15:52:00.001-06:00

Spirituality in Recovery is a thought or vision I received many years ago, and still use today. I had no idea that I would now be taking on the awesome task of putting Spirituality to pen, paper, and/or computer to teach and share with many others as a Certified Peer Specialist (CPS)/Peer Educator here at WSU Center for Community Support & Research.

Picture courtesy of Sasha Wolff

A CPS/Peer Educator is someone who has a desire, mission and purpose to help others through many of life’s experiences towards recovery by sharing, showing and teaching. I’m one of 4 who are on staff at CCSR. We all have different experiences that we bring to our work.

For me, this journey has been enlightening, challenging and awesome all at the same time. I have found a wealth of information via the internet websites, i.e., colleges, organizations, professors, doctors and other individuals who simply had a thought or opinion and shared with the world. An example is David Lukoff, PhD, a founder and instructor offering an online continuing education course and quiz about Spirituality & Recovery from Mental Disorder on the Spiritual Competency Resource Center website.

Hopefully, with what I have learned and put to paper will “help somebody”--my life’s purpose. Glory!

The Cave of Evil: How Star Wars is like Case-in-Point | By Seth Bate

2011-02-25T08:45:00.003-06:00

Increasingly, the CCSR Leadership Initiatives team and the Kansas Leadership Center faculty team use a teaching approach called “Case-in-Point.” It was developed by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky but I’m guessing it doesn’t always resemble exactly what they had in mind.

As Chris Green, project director of case studies describes it, Case-in-Point rests on a simple yet provocative idea: “Leadership, although difficult to teach, can be learned in a dynamic classroom setting when participants experience, in the moment, some of the very conditions that make exercising leadership so challenging and dangerous in the public sphere.” Chris wrote a brief guide for participants; I’d like to explore what Case-in-Point requires from the front of the room.

Preparing to walk in front of a roomful of people for a Case-in-Point conversation reminds me of the scene in the movie, The Empire Strikes Back in which Jedi Master Yoda instructs his trainee, Luke Skywalker, that it is time for Luke to enter a dark and scary place. True Star Wars geeks know that, in later books, this spot earned the name, “The Cave of Evil.”

Luke asks, “What’s in there?” “Only what you take with you,” Yoda replies.

On my best days, the Case-in-Point discussions I introduce create space for many ideas, observations and interpretations to enter the room. Some of them I start; many I hear and challenge; and others I just listen to. I follow Yoda’s advice to “keep your concentration here and now where it belongs.” I fulfill my role, which calls for me to be curious, unrattled and sometimes challenging, even in long moments of silent ambiguity.

If you know Empire, however, you know that Luke’s trip into the Cave of Evil was a terrifying failure. He grabs a blaster and a light saber. “Your weapons, you will not need them,” Yoda warns. Luke ignores him. He ends up blindly striking at the ominous figure he finds inside, using the weapons he has come to rely on.

Some days I give in to the ambiguity. I take the group’s discomfort personally. My selfish need to fulfill expectations gets in the way of my role.

Those days, my Case-in-Point relies on a utility belt full of gimmicks. I look for moments when I can soundly make a point, perhaps earning some respect for my expertise or reassuring the group that they are getting something out of our interaction. I rely on my weapons instead of trusting in the participants, the approach and the process.

Leadership development and Jedi training require more effectively managing self. This includes distinguishing your role from your self. Doing this may prove most difficult when fulfilling your role may scare you and the people around you.

“Decide you must,” Yoda said, “how to serve them best.”

One resource for learning more about Case-in-Point teaching and other approaches to leadership development is Leadership Can Be Taught by Sharon Daloz Parks.

This article was also posted today on the Kansas Leadership Center blog.

Managing Volunteers by Amy Delamaide: Part Two

2011-02-15T08:35:00.000-06:00

Picture courtesy of Sanberdoo

Organizations responsible for managing volunteers should think about the experience from the volunteer’s perspective. These are questions I have before volunteering for an event or organization for the first time:

Where should I go? At what time should I be there?
What will I be doing?
Who will give me instructions about what I am doing?
Who do I call if I can’t be there?
What information are event participants receiving? Will I have a copy of that same information?
What do I need to bring with me?
Will there be food and drink available if my shift is over a meal time?
What should I wear? Do I need to bring or have any special materials, clothing, or equipment?

Preparing a volunteer packet with the answers to these questions inside, along with the information that event participants receive, will help your organization have well-prepared volunteers who contribute to the success of your event.

What else does your organization do to prepare volunteers for service? We’re interested in your thoughts.

Elements of Executive Transition Planning

2011-02-11T13:53:00.001-06:00

Tom Adams, president of TransitionGuides™, is impressed with the work and mindset of nonprofit organizations in Kansas.

“I think Kansas is sweet. The nonprofit leaders I’ve met care passionately about their work and their community – just kind of a no-nonsense, let’s-get-it-done approach to things,” Adams says. “I think there are many areas in which Kansas has led the region and the country in attention to leadership development.”

Adams has been a valuable voice as CCSR has developed a multi-pronged approach to helping nonprofit organizations plan for the transition of long-time or founding executives:

CCSR will provide subsidized succession and executive transition services to identified nonprofits. This will include:

Succession Basics: Emergency Backup Plan and Succession Policy
The purpose of an Emergency Backup Plan is to define and clarify short- and long-term unplanned executive absences, clarify who decides such an absence is occurring, and to state who assumes the functions and roles of the executive during the absence. The service will be provided as a stand-alone capacity building activity provided to individual organizations or incorporated into some if not all strategic planning packages. Succession policy supports this plan, institutionalizing best practices and insuring succession plans are regularly reviewed and updated.

Departure Defined Succession Planning
Departure Defined Succession Planning includes assessment of strategy, financial, systems, management/staff, board and executive readiness. Work in these “readiness” areas involves preparation for the transition, an organizational review and subsequent succession plan development, and plan implementation support.

Executive Transition Management
The goal of executive transition management is to hire an executive who meets the current and future leadership needs of the organization. In addition, the organization’s board and staff should be well-prepared to work with the new executive.

Leadership Development and Talent Management
This area includes activities designed to align resources and practices to support leader development; strengthen the capacity to manage leader development and talent management; make leader development a central part of annual operational and strategic planning; and create “bench strength” by expanding development and training opportunities for existing and emerging leaders. CCSR will support these efforts with Kansas Leadership Center principles, competencies, and concepts. CCSR will provide leadership training to address adaptive challenges faced by agencies. CCSR will facilitate a planning process to help agencies meet the technical or management related challenges. One important adaptive challenge to be addressed by organizations will be the intentional development of individuals of diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

Leadership Transition Coaching
CCSR will provide coaching specifically tied to executive transitions as a stand-alone service or as part of Departure Defined and Leadership Development/Talent Management proposals. The current approach (Kansas Leadership Center Coach Training, 2010) used by CCSR will apply to this service context.

As with other organizational planning, the biggest mistake organizations can make regarding transition planning is putting it off too long because of daily deadlines.

“Transition planning has great potential,” Adams says. “I think the challenge always for the no-nonsense leaders that we desperately need is to not overlook the important but not urgent work.”

To begin a no-nonsense sustainability review and examine your own organization’s need for transition planning, contact Amy Delamaide at CCSR, 316.978.6773.

National expert on transition planning consulting with CCSR

2011-02-09T16:01:00.000-06:00

Does the executive director (ED) of your favorite nonprofit organization remember The Beatles on Ed Sullivan?

Tom Adams visiting with Scott Wituk

That’s a wonderful memory, but it also might be a sign that he or she is considering retirement.

“A lot of people have a lot of investment in the work of a particular nonprofit organization. They’ve co-created something that’s very meaningful to them and the community,” says Tom Adams, president of TransitionGuides™. “Unless attended to … there is the risk of it not going forward or not going forward successfully.”

For several years, the Wichita State University Center for Community Support & Research (CCSR) has helped nonprofits plan for and manage transitions of their executive staff. These transitions sometimes happen in unplanned scenarios – deaths or dismissals. Other transitions are planned, as the ED moves on to something else. Increasingly, these departure-defined transitions happen as EDs retire.

Thanks to a partnership with the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, Adams has visited CCSR three times in the last few months to share his expertise in executive transition planning. This is helping CCSR expand and refine its abilities to respond to this key issue for nonprofits.

Adams says, in light of the beginning retirement of the Baby Boomers who remember growing up in front of the Ed Sullivan show, this is a particularly important time for non-profit executives and board members to be aware of this issue. It will not be a one-size-fits-all solution, especially because economic conditions are an incentive for some EDs to keep working longer than they planned.

“[The economy] is leading to more creativity about more gradual transitions and phased retirement and in some cases creative continuation of a role that’s clearly defined and not a threat to the incoming executive,” Adams says. “I think we’ll see more and more creativity as the economy continues to improve.”

Intentional planning by the board and staff members of organizations allows these creative ideas to take shape intentionally, before the pressure of an announced (or unexpected) transition.

“There are a lot of long-term executives and founders,” Adams says. “I find that succession planning is getting deeper and deeper roots each year … and that smart organizations are planning ahead for transitions.”

In addition to planning for the transition of the executive role, Adams feels strongly that to remain successful, organizations must increasingly fill key professional and volunteer positions with younger, more diverse talent. It might help to remember that Ed Sullivan populated his show with all kinds of performers, including the brash young working-class moptops.

“There is a wonderful opportunity over the next 5 years to make some significant change if people come together around that,” Adams says.

To learn more about executive transition planning, look for Tom’s new book, The Nonprofit Leadership Transition and Development Guide. To begin a sustainability review and examine your own organization’s need for transition planning, contact Amy Delamaide at CCSR, 316.978.6773. We want to hold your hand!

Sustainability in Succession Planning

2011-02-04T09:05:00.000-06:00

"The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, said in a 2007 letter to shareholders that he has long had three internal candidates to succeed him as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, and had identified four potential candidates for the investment side of his job.

Last year, the company announced that it had hired Todd Anthony Combs, a young former hedge fund manager who may turn out to be the heir apparent on the investment side of the business.

Buffett, now 80, announced details of his succession plan in his typical folksy style, writing in the 2007 letter to shareholders: “I’ve reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death — abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term ‘thinking outside the box.' - Going somewhere? Some CEO exit strategies"

Most of us can appreciate an investor with a sense of humor… or perhaps not.

This quote does elevate a major concern for organizations as baby boomers reach an age of transition from work as they have known it to the next stage of their lives.

CCSR is doing a bit of thinking “outside the box” in response to the “silver tsunami” among nonprofit and governmental founders and executives. We are reframing our strategic planning emphasis to introduce the idea of sustainability in a framework of succession planning and executive transition support.

What does that look like?

To start with, WSU CCSR is conducting a study of current nonprofit leadership demographics and transition service needs among Kansas nonprofits. The study will employ electronic surveys, key informant interviews and focus groups sessions. This study will be conducted to better understand transition related trends in Kansas, to understand the extent of succession planning needs among nonprofits, and to determine the types of specific supports required to respond to trends.

Based on what we learn we plan to offer regional “cohort” workshops for agreed upon nonprofits which may include funders (of this proposal) and their grantees about succession planning in general and emergency back-up plan and policy development specifically. Following cohort sessions, CCSR and TransitionGuides will offer follow-up assistance, where appropriate and requested, to individual nonprofits that are interested in follow-up assistance.

Managing Volunteers by Amy Delamaide: Part One

2011-01-18T15:09:00.000-06:00

A Tale of Two Volunteer Opportunities…

In October, I volunteered for two different community events. The people running these events had several things in common: both organizations depended on a few staff people and hundreds of volunteers to make a large, annual event possible. They had a few differences: one had seven years’ experience gathering and organizing the volunteers they relied on; the other was running its inaugural event and learning for the first time how to manage volunteers.

Nonprofits thinking about how to manage volunteers can learn from what both organizations did well.

The two organizations both did several things well:

They held a pre-event informational meeting for volunteers.
They assigned volunteers to particular staff person for supervision of the volunteers’ activities during the event.
They held “thank you” parties for the volunteers, with food, drinks, and celebration of the volunteers’ contributions to the event.

The organization with years of experience in managing volunteers did a few more things well:

They respected my time – The informational meeting in advance of the event wasn’t too long, there was food available, I met and got to know other volunteers, and I met the volunteer coordinator and the staff person to whom I was assigned.
They had several points of contact - They built “supervisory redundancy” into their system of volunteer oversight. There was one primary volunteer coordinator. Then each different type of volunteer reported to the staff person who oversaw that function. If I had a question, there were at least two people I could call for help.
They had a central Volunteer Spot – During the event, the volunteer coordinator was available at a central location. I could access information about the event, instructions on how to help, and food or drink at that location.
They had info available - Printed information about the event was available to all volunteers at several locations. This helped me feel equipped to answer the questions of event-goers.
They gave me meaningful work - The activities I volunteered to do were clearly vital to making sure the event went well. I felt that my service was necessary—if I hadn’t been there, the event would not have gone as well.

What does your organization do well in its management of volunteers? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Picture courtesy of Mike Baird

"If I Can Help Somebody" | Introducing Dee Hinton-Turner

2011-01-05T12:39:00.000-06:00

“Glory!” is one of the first words you’re likely to hear Dorthene “Dee” Hinton-Turner say. It’s not just an expression but a way Dee sees the world. Dee is inspired with a sense of mission and purpose. It’s this that drives her to help others, first as a Certified Peer Specialist, and now as a Peer Educator training CPSs at CCSR.

But Dee’s desire to help is not new; it goes back to her childhood, to singing Mahalia Jackson’s classic “If I Can Help Somebody” in church:

If I can help somebody
As I travel along
If I can help somebody
With a word or song
If I can help somebody
From doing wrong
My living shall not be in vain.

Dee was not sure what shape that help would take until she began a relationship with Southwest Boulevard Family Healthcare in Kansas City, Kansas. Here, Dee discovered the power of peer support in her own life, and knew that, as she says “This is it!” The spirit had led her on a path to become a CPS and help others as she had been helped.

Dee set her professional sights on two targets, Rainbow Mental Health Center or KU Medical Center in Kansas City, persisting in her attempts to land a job as a CPS at these organizations. When she finally got in at Rainbow, “Oh my goodness!” she found the healing power of helping others works both ways: “Being a CPS is personal medicine for me,” according to Dee. “There wasn’t a lot of leadership or instruction” at Rainbow, she notes, so Dee could use her peers’ own needs to help empower them. This in turn helped foster in Dee a sense of her own independence and personal power. At the end of a day at Rainbow, Dee was “thoroughly exhausted,” but felt rewarded and fulfilled.

In the words of “If I Can Help Somebody,”

My living shall not be in vain
My living shall not be in vain
If I can help somebody
While I'm singing this song
My living shall not be in vain.

Dee’s experiences as a CPS were not in vain. Some days, she went into work “uncertain if a discussion topic [she selected] would work,” but when it did, the negative self-talk common to psychiatric diagnosis dissolved, uplifting both the peer seeking services and peer support worker alike. In small, profound ways, her work was made up of many acts of faith.

That faith’s solid foundation and the role of spirituality in her life make Dee think of herself as “The Spiritual CPS,” and her goals as a Peer Educator include exploring the relationship between spirituality and recovery from psychiatric diagnosis. “My being at WSU is not by chance,” she says, but an opportunity to learn and develop even more helping skills, part of her vision to “strike out and know more.”

And in that there is the glory of empowering others to live lives that are not in vain.

For more about becoming a Certified Peer Specialist, visit trainingteams.org.

An Act of Slacktivism - by Seth Bate

2010-12-14T08:06:00.001-06:00

I was going to write a blog post about “slacktivism,” but I couldn’t be bothered.

The word “slacktivism” has entered the mainstream news recently. It’s a term that’s been applied to folks who participate in acts of support for a cause or organization that require minimal effort – often online. Changing a profile picture on Facebook or affixing a magnetic ribbon to your car might be acts of slacktivism.

I find the slacktivist label needlessly demeaning. Paying lip service to a higher purpose is not a bad thing, and it seems to me that people who participate in these efforts mean well. With some education and encouragement they might move from well-meaning activities to meaningful action.

For non-profits and coalitions, think of slacktivists as people who are already predisposed to support your work:
•    Start where they are. What are they likely to know about you or your cause? What are the common misconceptions?
•    Discover connecting interests. What made them care enough to take even modest action online? What might inspire them to higher levels of engagement?
•    Speak from the heart. What made you care about your cause? What inspires you to keep going when progress is difficult?

For individuals, if you cared enough about an online plea to respond, consider other ways you could help – without expending that much more effort. Can you provide referrals? Can you make a brief testimony video? Can you learn the policy priorities of an organization that works on that cause? And of course, can you write a check (or make a PayPal transfer)?

I believe Kansas is full of people who care and who can be inspired to take meaningful action. If you agree with me, please share this blog link with all your Facebook friends.

Picture courtesy of Randy

The Everyday Transformation of Recovery | By Lael Ewy

2010-11-19T16:37:00.000-06:00

In Back Of The Real
railroad yard in San Jose
     I wandered desolate
in front of a tank factory
     and sat on a bench
near the switchman's shack.

A flower lay on the hay on
     the asphalt highway
--the dread hay flower
     I thought--It had a
brittle black stem and
     corolla of yellowish dirty
spikes like Jesus' inchlong
     crown, and a soiled
dry center cotton tuft
     like a used shaving brush
that's been lying under
     the garage for a year.

Yellow, yellow flower, and
     flower of industry,
tough spiky ugly flower,
     flower nonetheless,
with the form of the great yellow
     Rose in your brain!
This is the flower of the World.

--Allen Ginsberg

What has me thinking about this poem right now is the delight and terror, the cosmic meaning Ginsberg finds in a homely, even horrid, little object: a foreboding, ugly flower in a forgotten scrap of land, a flower that just about nobody else but the desolate wanderer speaking the lines would happen to find. This poem exemplifies one of the most powerful and compelling traits of creative work: finding deep meaning in the mundane. Art is at its best when it’s heavily laced with the everyday.

This is both an artistic standpoint for me and a coping mechanism. In recovering from a major depressive episode nearly 20 years ago, I found myself drawn to those small moments and images that tied me to the world: a tree blazing orange on a crisp, fall day; the bruised gray-blue of a Kansas thundercloud; the pitch and roll of my old Mustang when she cleared a curve, the V8 pushing me back as we sped away.

If we get entirely too caught up in purity and perfection, we set ourselves up for continual disappointment and eternal frustration. The more “pure” a poem is, the more it trends toward a glossy sort of dullness. We know that Anne-Sophie Mutter has suffered as we have by the rough edge she puts on an otherwise sweet Brahms violin concerto.

An oyster without an irritant will yield no pearl.

Unless we are able to abide with the small, inglorious steps we need to take to reach our goals, we’re unlikely to even begin, whether that goal is finishing the great American novel or merely getting out of bed in the morning. At my lowest, I made my goal taking a walk every day, rain or shine, snow or ripping prairie wind. Walking, I found gnarled hedge-apple trees and the scent of their decaying fruit. I found the tickle of the night’s cobwebs as their spiders ambitiously blocked my path. I found in the sandpiper’s cry the courage to keep on going.

The power of peer support is to have another who is there with you and has been where you are, reminding you that this glorious, ugly moment leads to another and another, and in those, too, there will be flowers, tough and spiky, resilient and industrious—and ready to be rediscovered in the moment after. I found a supportive peer in Ginsberg. Now, I’m helping others be supporting peers in the flesh.

And recovery, then, is an art, one that takes place moment-to-moment—an art that looks a lot like life.

Photo courtesy of Francesco Pappalardo

Social Change, Songwriters and Ipods

2010-10-08T13:04:00.000-05:00

On an unbearably hot August night, I recently went to see one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Jackson Browne in concert at an outdoor amphitheater in Kansas City. One of the best moments of the night, or at least as far as my heat-singed brain could remember, was when he did a song entitled "Looking East" that's a statement of his concerns and hopes about this country as he sees it from his home in California. The line that always catches me, and one of the reasons I love this song, is "these times are a famine for the soul but for the senses they're a feast." He goes on with lyrics about the "hunger" underneath our social problems and the power that exists to change things.

This song, as do many of Jackson Browne's songs, make me think of conversations I've had with a number of organizations regarding how to create social change. I usually use an example such as this: Social change comes about because someone, just one person frequently, stands up and points out the issue and offers an option to the way things are currently. That person, and maybe a few others who have the same revolutionary perspective, offer a vision of how things should be...and some ideas about how to get there. These people are the innovators. Think of Steve Jobs (or whomever created the Ipod or Ipad) as a technological innovator. If the innovators are loud and passionate enough, early adopters jump on. Those are the people who had an Ipod while the rest of us were still carting around bulky CD players...or cassette Walkmans. Eventually, when enough of the early adopters join in and start telling others about how great this new thing is, the early majority gets on board. Those are the people who got an Ipod in about the 3rd generation (while their kids probably had at least a 2nd generation Ipod). The early majority represents a critical mass or a tipping point where it's more normal to do the new thing than not. But there are still some who stand back and view the new thing with suspicion or skepticism...at least until they see evidence that the new thing really works...or doesn't cost too much or isn't a fad. These are the late adopters. They'd be the people who only recently got an Ipod...or are still mulling over the idea and worrying that something will come along and make the Ipod obsolete. Finally, there are the laggards. Really, the laggards are the people who finally give in because they don't have many other options. They're probably the people who argued with their car dealer about why they have to have a CD player when a cassette player or radio would be just fine.

This example illustrates the Diffusion of Innovations model by Everett Rogers. It's one of my favorite models because I think it perfectly illustrates how things actually happen. We can think of all kinds of examples that are much more relevant than the revolution of the Ipod. This same process has happened with such major social issues as recycling/environmental consciousness, smoking, civil rights...just to name a few really powerful examples.

So why did I reference this particular Jackson Browne song in the beginning. Honestly, I want everyone to go out and buy his music because I like him so much. But more importantly, his songs always reference the power of the individual to create change. To quote my good friend Jackson once again "...long ago I heard someone say something about Everyman." In this song, called "For Everyman," he refers to the power and responsibility of all of us to care for others. So it's up to individuals to be the voice for change. Eventually, if you're passionate and have an idea of how to make things better, others join in...and then they bring others...until it's normal to do the healthy, caring thing.

So these times may be a feast for the senses (thanks in part to the Ipod...or Ipad)...but they don't have to be a famine in so many ways. It doesn't take a program or even a specific activity. It just takes one person to start a movement that leads to social change. And that person can be anyone. As Jackson says "...power in the song being sung alone" (from "Looking East" again).

Just one last thing: If anyone has a chance to talk to Jackson Browne, please thank him for being an innovator who inspires others to create change. And also tell him that regardless of how great he was onstage, it's never, ever a good idea to wear a funky retro polyester shirt in Kansas in August. I'm just saying...

Written by Tara Gregory, Research and Evaluation Coordinator & Rock Goddess

Social Network Evaluation in Analysis

2010-09-29T10:32:00.000-05:00

Note: This blog post is a reposting from AEA 365. Check them out for more great tips to guide your evaluation processes.

My name is Oliwier Dziadkowiec and I am a fourth-year doctoral student in Community Psychology at Wichita State University (WSU) in Wichita, Kansas. My colleague, Trish Peaster, and I recently conducted a Social Network Analysis (SNA) through our work at WSU’s Center for Community Support and Research. The client requesting the SNA was a coalition composed of 139 members across 10 counties. We were hired to determine the following:

Network density of coalition members within and between employment sector
Key coalition members within each employment sector
Current and emerging leaders, mentors, and innovators across the network
Opportunities for enhancing the network

While there are a number of popular software packages for SNA including UCINET , Pajek, and Net Miner, we decided to try Network Genie to collect our data and InFlow 3.1 to analyze the data.

Hot Tip: We had a good experience using Network Genie for collecting social network data. It is administered online and is easy for participants to indicate who they know by simply double clicking on their name. Follow-up questions such as “how often do you communicate with this person” and “how many projects have you worked on with this person” are then asked only for those whom the participant knows. This feature makes answering follow-up questions much easier, especially for large networks. Network Genie is not free, but it is easy to learn and has excellent customer support. Alternative data collection methods can be found in Social Network Analysis (Knoke, D. & Yang, S., 2008).

Hot Tip: InFlow is not as easy to learn, but has several nice features. For instance, data collected from Network Genie can be directly downloaded into Inflow for analysis. These are not sold as a package, however. Inflow also has nice graphical features and good documentation of all the commands needed for analysis. The program has an easy to use “point and click” menu, but the range and flexibility of operations that you can perform are fewer than with other SNA software packages.

Hot Tip: Have a good theory. In order to evaluate the network (size, clusters, key players), we found it useful to use the framework developed by Valdis Krebs and June Holley Building Smart Communities through Network Weaving (pdf). This theory allowed us to objectively judge the strength of the network and make recommendations for enhancing it.

Hot Tip: SNA packages have a variety of measures to evaluate networks. Be sure that you understand the meaning of each measure or have a consultant nearby who does. This is key to making your findings valid and meaningful to your client.

Want to learn more from Oliwier and Trish? They will be presenting as part of the Evaluation 2010 Conference Program, November 10-13 in San Antonio, Texas.

Wichita Survey Takers Wanted

2010-09-15T09:50:00.000-05:00

Hey ICT people-

One of our researchers – Emily Grant – needs your help! She’s working on her dissertation about the beliefs/attitudes that Wichita residents have about the environment and needs 1000 ICT residents to fill out her survey.

This survey is purely to gather information; there are no right or wrong answers.

So help her out by donating 15 minutes of your time! http://wichita.kumc.edu/care/

Photo courtesy of Sean McGrath

5 Questions About Visioneering Wichita (And how CCSR was involved)

2010-08-09T16:21:00.002-05:00

As some of you reading this blog may already know, Visioneering Wichita has been selected to receive the 2010 Alliance for Regional Stewardship (ARS) Organizational Champion Award presented by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE).

What some of you may not know, is that back in 2005, when the Center for Community Support and Research was known as the Self-Help Network, we were helping shape and develop the fledgling initiative. So in honor of our partners over at Visioneering Wichita, and their well-deserved award, we present “5 Questions about Visioneering Wichita”

Q1: What exactly is Visioneering Wichita?
VW is a 20 year strategic plan that started in 2004 designed to improve the quality of life, foster economic development, and promote civic leadership in the city of Wichita. This plan was based on input from over 16,000 Wichita residents.

Q2: What are the goals of Visioneering Wichita?

To promote job growth
Stop the decline of Wichita per capita income
Provide for a skilled workforce
Increase the number of post-secondary students by 3% per year
Develop the downtown area to promote economic development and to expand the arts/culture of Wichita
Promote racial diversity, opportunity and harmony
And more.

Q3: How was CCSR involved in Visioneering Wichita?
CCSR provided a series of leadership development classes for the Visions Partners – promoting civic engagement and community collaboration. As a result of these classes, participants were able to:

Better understand the elements of a successful community collaboration
Identify strengths and challenges in collaboration
Learn how to use their newfound leadership skills within their local organizations, networks and coalitions
Develop and action plan for organizing and bringing together groups to assess collaborative strengths and challenges.
Grow in ability and willingness to participate in future strategic alliances and other community leadership roles.

Q4: Will Visioneering Wichita really work?
The plan is solid, but we need the support of the Wichita citizens, businesses and government. If we all work together and focus our efforts, we can drastically improve our quality of life and meet the VW benchmarks.

Q5: How do I find out more about Visioneering Wichita?
Good place to start – The Plan. Available to download as a pdf from Visioneering Wichita.
Or just contact info@visioneeringwichita.org.

Congrats again to Visioneering Wichita in receiving this national award!

Photo Courtesy of AnyJazz65

Thoughts on Our Nowegian Visitor

2010-06-30T12:53:00.001-05:00

Senior researcher Johan Barstad of the Patient Education Research Center in Moere Og Romsdal, Norway, recently visited the Wichita State University Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR) on Thursday and Friday, June 24-25. Barstad is interested in CCSR due to its 25+ year experience in promoting and researching self-help groups.

Barstad met with CCSR to discuss previous methods of research, methods of assisting self-help groups and how to integrate self-help groups into professional services. More specifically, Barstad was gaining input on Norway’s national initiative to incorporate self-help groups into health and human services. Barstad is a part of a research team in Norway who is trying to better understand the diversity of self-help groups in the country and the relation between self-help services and professional services.

His two days included meetings with CCSR Director Scott Wituk, the CCSR Research & Evaluation Team and the CCSR Mental Health Consumer Initiatives Team. Additionally, Barstad met with self-help group researchers and experts: Greg Meissen and Lou Medvene from Wichita State University. Finally, he visited with three Kansas self-help organizations: Project Independence, Good Grief of Kansas and Victory in the Valley.

Scott Wituk commented on the recent visit. “What Johan and others in Norway are doing is phenomenal. They are attempting to bring together the very informal, grassroots self-help groups with the professional helping systems to create new forms of sustained, effective, and low-cost care. They are attempting to create empowered patients who actively participate in their health care. Self-help groups can play a role in that. In many ways, the challenges in the U.S. health care system are not too different. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit and learned a great deal. I hope to be working with Johan in the future on a few international self-help projects.”

Photo courtesy of ElBosco

Spotlight on an Initiative: Compassion Kansas

2010-06-03T10:26:00.003-05:00

What is Compassion Kansas?

CCSR is in the last year of its Compassion Kansas initiative, a 3-year, federally funded project designed to enhance Faith-based and Community-based Organizations through grants, workshops and one-on-one capacity building assistance.

Capaci-what now?

Community nonprofits, groups, and coalitions can typically be very effective in targeting the specific needs of their local communities. But these smaller organizations frequently lack the organization needed to thrive.

These organizations are far more successful when they operate with adequate funds, thoughtful planning, a well-trained staff, effective boards, and the ability to respond to challenges.

That’s essentially what capacity-building is – giving organizations the tools to do what they do, better.

Okay, so what capacity-building services does Compassion Kansas offer?

In addition to the financial awards, Compassion Kansas provides:
•    Assistance in developing stronger grant applications
•    Strategic Planning
•    Plans for diversifying funding sources
•    Board development and leadership
•    Staff and volunteer management
•    Networking opportunities
•    Statewide attention to the work of these organizations

These services are provided through workshops, and one-on-one mentoring with a CCSR staff member.

What’s in store for the future of Compassion Kansas?

Compassion is undergoing some changes, but the Center for Community Support & Research is committed to continuing capacity-building efforts across Kansas.

So, dear Kansans in community coalitions, alliances, fledgling nonprofits – what would you like to see in the future as far as capacity building efforts go?

Step Away from the Can of Doing: What a Home Depot Commercial Teaches About Evaluation | Dr. Tara Gregory

2010-05-17T13:54:00.001-05:00

I've been mesmerized lately—in that kind of love-hate way—by Home Depot commercials wherein a manly man announcer urges people to shop at Home Depot with statements like "turn your doing dial up to 11" and "set your savings swagger on full tilt" and, most nonsensically, "open up a can of doing." I may not be quoting these perfectly except for the "open up a can of doing" phrase. Open up a can of doing? I'm not even sure what this means. But these commercials irritate me quite a bit—mainly because they fill me with an overwhelming urge to run to Home Depot. For what, I don't know.

And that's where my issue lies. Indiscriminate and unplanned opening of a Can of Doing can be wasteful of time and resources. Owning a house that's over 100 years old, as I do, there probably isn't a big enough Can of Doing to cover what needs to be done. If I really thought through what it would take to make my house what I want it to be and made a plan, my trip to Home Depot might be valuable. But I have to admit that my savings swagger will undoubtedly propel me toward superfluous and relatively easy tasks versus those that might actually make my house more solid and valuable.

So what does this have to do with evaluation? I've been involved in a number of evaluation projects where it seems that people have opened up a can of doing without really knowing why. More specifically, organizations often say they want to do an evaluation, but frequently lack a clear idea of what they want to know.

Evaluation is simply a way of answering the big questions about an organization: "What should we be doing? What do people think of our services? Are we making a difference for those we serve?"

But organizations can get too focused on just doing something, even when it comes to evaluation. I've had multiple experiences where organizations have a list of questions they want to ask, but no real idea of what it is they want to KNOW. There's a big difference here—questions with a capital Q and questions with a small q. Big Q questions represent your evaluation goal—what you want or need to know. In reality, there aren't that many big Q questions. They're basically about whether your program is needed, how well it's implemented, and what difference it makes. That's pretty much it. But there are a huge number of possible small q questions for each of these big Q questions. And if you don't identify the big Q first, your small q's can go down unnecessary or misleading paths.

If you open the can of doing before really knowing what needs to be done—if you ask the small q questions before identifying the big Q question—at best you'll waste time and energy. At worst, you'll be led astray by information that doesn't really tell you what you need to know.

What nonprofit organizations really need to hear is: Before you get your evaluation swagger on and open up a can of assessment doing, ask yourself what one or two things you really need to know. And step away from that can of doing unless you've finished this task!

For more on evaluation basics, come to the next Compassion Kansas workshop on May 20 (1 - 5 p.m.) called "Does Your Program Work? How to Use Simple Evaluation Techniques and Tools to Answer this Question." Contact Angela Gaughan at 316-978-3843 or angela.gaughan@wichita.edu to register. (Registration is still open, even if the website says otherwise)

Photo courtesy of J. Stephen Conn

Foundation giving down 8.4% in 2009, Foundation Center reports

2010-05-06T09:33:00.000-05:00

“Challenged by a prolonged economic downturn, the nation's grant-making foundations cut their giving by an estimated 8.4 percent in 2009, a new report from the Foundation Center finds. The decline is the steepest since the center began tracking the data in 1975.”

According to the Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates report released by the Foundation Center on April 16, 2010, foundation giving was down approximately 8.4% in 2009. This represents a record decline since the Center began tracking information in 1975, yet it is a significantly lower decrease than one would expect, given the estimated 17% loss in foundation assets in 2009.

Facilitators at CCSR often hear from people who want to start nonprofits that they will “get grants” to fund their operations. While grants certainly can be a part of an organization’s revenue, CCSR often reminds enthusiastic founders that grants should only make up about 20% of their nonprofit’s revenue. The rest should come from members’ support and donations, corporate giving, events and fundraisers, and revenue generated from activities that support the organization’s charitable purpose.

It is also helpful to understand how grant-making organizations work. So here are two pieces of information that will help you understand a little bit more about foundation giving. Let’s call it “Intro to Foundation Funding.”

1. Foundations follow a formula to figure out how much they have available to give. The formula can vary by foundation and is the responsibility of the organization’s board to determine. The formula is usually a percent of an average of a foundation’s revenue over a three- to five-year span. For example, the funds available for grant-making in 2010 could be [x] percent of the average of a fund’s average market value for 2007, 2008, and 2009, which will vary based on earnings in that time. A foundation might have several funds. The [x] is usually a small enough number to ensure that the fund will endure perpetually, such as 5%.This is called asset-averaging. What does that mean? Gains or losses in the value of a foundation’s funds are mitigated by the averaging process. But the 17% loss in assets from 2009 will lower the amount of money foundations are able to give for two to four more years.

2. Most foundations cannot give grants from a fund if the value of that fund has dropped below its historic gift value. Say Betty the Community Supporter gave $100,000 to her Local Community Foundation in 1997. Over time, through wise investing, the Local Community Foundation was able to grow the amount in that fund. But in 2009, the value of this fund dropped to $90,000. Most foundations have rules in place that prevent them from using that $90,000 to give grants. They must wait till the value of the fund returns to $100,000. This will affect the Local Community Foundation’s ability to make grants in 2010.

The Foundation Center reports that several factors lessened the decrease in giving: many grantmakers cut their operating expenses, a few key big grantmakers committed to giving more, and community supporters like Betty continued giving to foundations. This is good. But nonprofits should be aware that foundations may have fewer dollars available in 2010 and over the next couple of years. Communities should be aware that their arts promotion, social service, and youth-supporting nonprofits—among others—may be struggling to secure grants for even 20% of their budget, which may impact their ability to provide services.

With that in mind, individual donors should think about giving a little more to their favorite charitable organization this year, if they can.

Authors: Amy Delamaide, Sarah Jolley, and Seth Bate

Photo courtesy of Chet Thomas

Nonprofit Blogs I Read (and you should too!) | Amy Delamaide

2010-04-13T10:49:00.003-05:00

Blogs I read

One of the reasons CCSR started blogging is because several of us on staff are readers of blogs. We thought CCSR could add to online content in our areas of expertise. We also admired the Kansas Leadership Center's efforts to blog and contribute to online content.

In an effort to share with readers of the CCSR blog which blogs we go to for ideas and new thinking, here is the first of posts about blogs we read. Mine are in alphabetical order, because that's how I have them organized in my Google reader.

Blogs on NP things I follow:

Bridgespan (all RSS feeds)
The Bridgespan Group is a nonprofit consulting firm out of Boston, New York, and San Francisco. The most recent article from them that I read was on Growing Global NGOs Effectively. They have a number of articles and case studies available, some for free and some for purchase.

Center for Nonprofit Management
This Center is based in Bucks County, PA, north of Philadelphia. A recent post from them on the differences between hiring a consultant and hiring a facilitator for your planning work makes an interesting distinction, one we often debate at the CCSR. We tend more towards facilitating processes than providing consultation. From a client's perspective, defining which kind of support the organization needs or wants is crucial in finding the right person to support your planning efforts.

Don Griesmann's Nonprofit Blog
I started following this blog on the recommendation of my co-worker Sarah Jolley. His posts tend to be long and informative, with quite a few links in each posts for further reading.

Linksy on Leadership
Through work with the Kansas Leadership Center, I've had the opportunity to learn from Marty Linksy. He shared with me at a training session that he, as a Harvard man, was very familiar with the route from Cambridge to Wellesley College, where I went as an undergrad. His blog on leadership takes concepts developed in his books and applies them to current events.

The Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ)
The quarterly publication of ARNOVA (The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action) is a treasure trove of scholarly articles on the NP sector. I subscribe to the RSS feed, but it's possible this is only available to me because of my university access. But go here and see if you can get it too. I usually read the abstracts, then click on the link and download the article to read later.

The Nonprofit QuarterlyNot to be confused with the NVSQ, the Nonprofit Quarterly is a Boston-based publication that actually prints on paper. From what I can tell, most of the articles are available online. It looks like they might have some political biases I should be aware of. I haven't explored this blog/magazine very much.

Philantopic
I haven't explored this blog too much, because I just started following it. But it looks like it will provide articles and content from the Philanthropy News Digest, which could be useful.

Rosetta Thurman
Written by a young, DC-based African-American woman, this blog presents a perspective of a young professional who benefitted from the work of nonprofits as she was growing up in Cleveland and who now consults with nonprofits seeking social change. This post considers how young professionals in nonprofit jobs can build the brand recognition of both their organization and themselves.

TNT: The Network Thinker
Valdis Krebs does interesting research on and mapping of social networks. This blog doesn't get updated very often, but if you like infographics and find social networks interesting, this is worth a read.

Transformative Concepts
Written by Maaskelah Thomas, a leader in the Wichita community and former CCSR facilitator, this blog has a couple of thoughtful posts on what organizations should look for. This one on whether an organization should hire a grant-writer or a fund development coach makes some good points.

White Courtesy Telephone: News, Opinion and Commentary from Inside the Third Sector I don't have much information about the origins of this blog. I think I started following it on the recommendation of a co-worker. Looks like it has at least 6 contributing writers. This post on "Messing with the Poor" has some good food for thought about nonprofits and poverty prevention or alleviation.

Young Professionals of Wichita
Because I am young, a professional, and from Wichita, I follow the Young Professionals of Wichita. Are you a YP? Does your local YP group blog? Follow it.

Blogs on the arts and NPs:

Nonprofits that support or promote the arts are a particular kind of NP. I have an interest in working with arts organizations, so I follow a few blogs dedicated to these NPs.

The Kansas Arts Commission
The KAC started blogging pretty recently (their archives go back to September 2009). Their posts are useful to find out about arts-related programming, grants, and capacity-building in Kansas.

Michael Kaiser
On November 19, 2009, I attended a session on the "Arts in Crisis" with Michael Kaiser. He is currently the President of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and he has written about his experience turning around major arts organizations. I follow the blog he writes for the Huffington Post: and the one he writes for Artsmanager. There is a bit of overlap between the two, and I could probably cull one of these. But they are written for slightly different audiences and sometimes that difference adds something to one stream or the other.

What blogs do you read to get the latest on the nonprofit sector? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo Courtesy of Moriza

"So what is it that you DO exactly?" | Amy Delamaide

2010-03-19T10:56:00.002-05:00

The task of describing to others the work that CCSR does can be daunting.

My co-worker Kevin Bomhoff tells a story about the time his son asked him what he did. He wanted to be able to tell his friends that his dad was a lawyer, or a doctor, or an engineer. After hearing Kevin's lengthy explanation, his son said, "I think it would be easier if I just tell them you work for the CIA."

When I first started working at CCSR three years ago, it took me about five minutes to describe my job. I would have to include examples. "Well, I work with organizations. They could be coalitions, or nonprofits, or government entities, or something else. It could also be a combination of those things. And I help them figure out what they want to do and where to go. Right now, I’m working with a group of people creating a comprehensive early childhood plan for their community. And I’m also working with a nonprofit run by and for people with mental illness to improve their services."

If I talked to someone with a background in business, I could tell them that what I do is like management consulting, but for nonprofit organizations or government bodies.

If I talked to someone with a background in psychology, I could tell them that what I do is like being a shrink for an organization. I try to ask a series of questions that help the organization come to the own best solutions for their situation.

After a few months of working at CCSR, I realized that my job is to help organizations better serve the mission or people they are designed to serve. This means I work with organizations in a variety of fields--public health, education, social services, and more. While each of these settings is different, I can bring the same set of skills, tools, and questions to bear in each one. I have expertise in the process of getting a group from point A to point B.

CCSR’s Special Projects Assistant is working on materials to describe all the different services CCSR offers. Be on the lookout for these materials soon.

How do you describe the work of CCSR? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Photo Courtesy of Erik Charlton

State of the Solutions | Seth Bate

2010-02-25T11:34:00.002-06:00

I admit to only half-listening to the coverage leading up to and following the State of the Union address on January 28, 2010. It’s just a speech, right?

Even so, a quote from Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell got my attention when I heard it on the radio – enough so that I went to his website to find it in an official press release.

“Americans aren’t happy with the administration’s approach,” McConnell said. “They want a step-by-step approach to our problems, not grand government experiments and schemes.”

What I heard was, “Americans want technical solutions, not adaptive responses.” And I have to agree with the Senator. That’s exactly what we want. Unfortunately, it’s not what the situation requires.

Over the last few years I have learned and in turn taught about the difference between technical and adaptive challenges. My first exposure was an article written by Ron Heifetz that a colleague shared with me, and it’s a concept that is central to the work of our partners at The Kansas Leadership Center.

McConnell’s statement points at a key distinction between the two kinds of challenges.

Technical challenges may be difficult and complicated, but they can be tackled with expertise that currently exists. If you get the right combination of brains, resources and influence, there may well be a step-by-step approach to these kinds of problems. Finding that approach is reassuring; if the administration could find it, Americans would likely be happier.

Adaptive challenges are also difficult and complicated, not to mention persistent. And there is no single entity with enough brains, resources or influence to fix them. As we’re reminded in the evolving Kansas Leadership Center Field Guide, these challenges “require learning to understand what is going on. The solutions also require learning to develop new tools, methodologies and practices.”

Job creation, health care and energy ― among other topics in the president’s speech and the Republican response – are adaptive challenges.

The only way to move forward on these enormous issues is to experiment, because no one yet knows what the answers are. Of course, we may disagree on the choice and scope of the experiments. Still, if we are ever to make progress, we have to give up our reliance on step-by-step approaches and embrace innovation, learning as we go.

Learn more about the properties of an adaptive challenge here (pgs. 19-22):

Photo courtesy of Philo Nordlund

Important Questions to Ask When Marketing Your Nonprofit | Robin Fertner

2010-02-16T10:56:00.002-06:00

The word marketing usually conjures up images of over-worked advertising gurus poring over focus group data to create an award-winning campaign that will convince consumers once and for all that Coca-Cola is the superior beverage. Marketing may not seem like something a nonprofit should be worried about, but it is a crucial part of ensuring that your vision and mission are met to the best of your ability.

So, after lots of sweat, tears and IRS forms, you have your nonprofit up and running smoothly. You’ve developed your image, created a logo, and you’ve set up your website. So where do you go from here? How do you start the daunting task of marketing?

This all may seem obvious, but these three important questions can easily be forgotten in the excitement of starting a campaign.

1.    WHY?
Why are you marketing your organization? What is your goal? Do you need more funds (well, of course you do – but are you actively looking to start a fundraising campaign)? Are you planning to expand your services? Do you just want the general public to know you exist?

Figure out what your organization needs most at this particular moment, and focus exclusively on that. If your goal is solid, your message will be on target as well. You can always start a new campaign later on as your organization’s needs change.

2.    WHO?
Okay, before you blow your entire printing budget sending out postcards across the city/state/universe – take a moment to think about who your target audience is. Who’s going to be most interested in what you have to say? Who is going to be most likely to give donations? Who has supported your organization in the past? Who do you want to support your organization in the future?

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t target a broad audience – if that will best accomplish your goal. Social media offers a free/inexpensive way to reach the general populous. Whether or not your entire state will care about what you have to say is up to you to decide.

3.    HOW?
Now that you know who you’re trying to reach, how are you planning to connect with them? This goes back a bit to the WHO question and knowing your target audience. If you’re looking to target seniors about your upcoming services, you may want to leave the Twitter out of this campaign. If you’re looking to get support from the local art community, clip art and rainbow fonts aren’t going to cut it.

Think hard about who your target audience is, and what you want to convey to them. Figure out where they get their information, and what sources they find most trustworthy. Most importantly, keep track of your results – you may discover a better method for future endeavors.

Photo courtesy of Simple Insomnia

Staying on Top of Change: The Value of Research and Evaluation Part Three | Tara Gregory

2010-02-05T10:42:00.001-06:00

My last post considered why it is important to measure if your program has made a difference. The second issue is the importance of evaluation in being accountable during times when funds are tight.

It may seem like a luxury to implement an evaluation when people are in need of services. But implementing an inappropriate, ineffective or damaging program is clearly not a good use of funds. A common problem for organizations is not tying their programs to clear needs or intended outcomes.

A formative evaluation (i.e., needs or asset assessment) for example can help an organization identify what issues need to be addressed, the population most affected, or the potential for change. This is always a crucial step but even more so when social conditions, and funding attached to such issues, are particularly unstable.

A summative evaluation (i.e., outcome evaluation) can provide evidence that the program—and the funding that supported it—made a difference in the lives of recipients and/or the community. Again, in times of economic and social uncertainty, an organization that can point to evidence of need and effectiveness has an advantage in making the case that these programs are sound investments.

In the last few posts, I’ve tried to make the case that organizations can help sustain themselves in the face of societal and economic shifts by evaluating the needs and outcomes of their service population. I recognize that, as the Research and Evaluation Coordinator, I might be a bit biased toward my area of interest and expertise. But change is inevitable, both societally and in the lives of those served by non-profit, faith and community-based organizations. Making evaluation part of any program helps ensure that change isn’t an unexpected obstacle or trauma…but evidence of good, well-informed work.

Photo courtesy of David M. Goehring

Staying on Top of Change: The Value of Research and Evaluation Part Two | Tara Gregory

2010-02-03T13:11:00.002-06:00

Evaluation is directly connected to organizational effectiveness.

There are two issues that are particularly salient here – especially when there are larger societal changes swirling around organizations. First, just because an organization implements a program or activities doesn’t mean it has made a difference. Social services aren’t just about numbers i.e., the number of people served, the number of sessions held, the number of resources provided. Those things are easy to count, and some organizations look at these numbers as evidence of doing “a good job.”

But without true evaluation—which looks at the actual impact on recipients and the resulting changes created in their lives—there’s no real measure as to whether those served are gaining anything of value. If changes DO take place, and there’s been no evaluation, it’s hard to tell if the program contributed.   What’s worse? Not knowing if it’s done something harmful.

Providing services without knowing their impact on recipients is like a doctor doing a procedure without paying attention to whether it helped or hurt the patient. Just like diagnostic or follow-up exams, program evaluations help outline and document:

•    the need for and purpose of the program (needs assessment and outcomes identification):
•    How it was implemented (fidelity measures)
•    How recipients responded (process measures)
•    How they were changed (outcome measures)

All of these evaluation elements help increase the likelihood that programs stay true to their intended purpose, do no harm, and are changed appropriately when they’re off target.

My next post will look at the second issue that is important to consider when planning your research and evaluation.

Photo courtesy of Yasser

Staying on Top of Change: The Value of Evaluation Part One | Tara Gregory

2010-02-01T08:56:00.001-06:00

Like most people, I don’t really love change…especially when it comes at me unexpectedly. But for our Research and Evaluation team at CCSR, change is the currency of what we do. Whether we’re looking for change in individuals, settings, organizations, or communities, it’s an indicator that something is “working.” I use the term working because changes can be positive or negative, but either way implies that an action has had an effect.

Right now, nonprofits and agencies who work with CCSR are thinking about changes related to the effects of the economy on organizational stability and conditions for those they serve. In changing economic times, many organizations batten down the hatches by cutting activities that may seem superfluous or not of direct benefit to service recipients—evaluation activities are often the first to go.

However, evaluation that documents change, whether for individuals, the organization or community, is key to maintaining effectiveness and in proving an organization’s worth.

Photo courtesy of Mike Baird

Change Part 2 | Kevin Bomhoff

2010-01-22T08:51:00.002-06:00

Last post, I shared the story of the startling change my daughter experienced in starting first grade. I also introduced the “Productive Zone of Disequilibrium,” the term Ron Heifetz uses for the zone that promotes learning and progress in systems.

When the “temperature” or level of discomfort is too great, the organism can explode or implode. When the temperature is too low, the organism stops learning and adapting. The activity does not result in the organism “blowing up” nor does it “blow off” what needs to be done.

Reading the temperature of an organization requires a certain amount of data gathering and experimentation.   Based on observations, what are all the possible interpretations to be made? We need input from internal and external stakeholders.

CCSR is in the midst a deliberate process our director, Dr. Scott Wituk, has deemed “Listen, Think, Act.”

Listen
We have visited over 35 partners asking probing questions about their needs and experience with our services.

Think
Using this data, staff members are now adding their own reflections.   The information will be used to develop as many interpretations as possible about our current and future activities.

Act
We will design experiments – perhaps new approaches or different processes based on what we have learned.   These “Acts” will inevitably turn up the temperature as we experiment with new ways to define our organization and help our customers.

Sometimes, of course, the temperature needs to be turned down -- while avoiding complacency. This is its own challenge. When an intervention works, system functioning improves and the temperature lowers. When an intervention does not produce the desired outcome, it is critical that data is readily available to inform a timely “course correction” before serious damage occurs.

Adapting in a timely manner using formative data reduces the temperature as new, more productive interventions replace those that did not work.    Beginning with research and using “evidenced-based practices” can give the system a great head start but does not guarantee success.   Our assumptions about the application of such practices in new settings and our ability to accomplish fidelity to proven models must be tested.

What’s all this got to do with a six-year-old kid who’s already had it with “systems change” on her first day of first grade?   Well, later that night the ice did thaw a bit, and her nasty observations were interpreted though her own eyes with a little input from stakeholders (mom and dad).   Some of these rules worked for her.   Some seem to be made for other kids who appeared to be “out of control.”   That could help her too – indirectly. Some rules clearly needed to change and probably would as the year unfolded. It was, after all, just the first day. The first day of the rest of her life - observing, interpreting and intervening as part of one system after another.


“Productive Zone of Disequilibrium,” courtesy of the Kansas Leadership Center   |    Photo courtesy of Couchlearner

Change Part 1 | by Kevin Bomhoff

2010-01-19T14:36:00.001-06:00

When my daughter (now grown and managing pension funds for hospitals and medical clinics) was six years old, I remember picking her up after her first day of first grade.   She had loved kindergarten and all available data confirmed our suspicions that she was indeed a genius.

The new first grader walked slowly to the car and climbed in without a word. We belted in and I waited for a report.   More silence. She peered straight ahead; I could see a small simmering hole forming in the dashboard.   “So, how’s first grade?” I asked.   The silence broke as she announced, “Dad, there are a lot of rules.”

Despite my efforts empathetically strike up a conversation, she sank back into reflective silence.   I tried to comprehend the enormity of her dreadful discovery: The joy of kindergarten had been systematically destroyed by some uniformed autocrat.   Not only did the system impose unnecessary constraints, the length of the day had been doubled. Twice as much fun - not a problem.   Double the tyranny – unacceptable.

Change. Ronald Heifetz talks about the “Pathway of Adaptive Change” using terms such as the “Productive Zone of Disequilibrium” and “managing the heat.”

Change is life’s (and work’s) crucible.   Much energy is spent managing, avoiding or complaining about change.   At CCSR, we often get called when organizations are on the precipice of change:

•    Increased demand for services
•    Reduced resources
•    Seeking to collaborate with others to address a common concern
•    Need to prepare for what’s next

The lesson from Heifetz is this: there is a productive zone of disequilibrium in every system.     The “productive zone” is a place where observation, interpretation, and intervention take place in a cycle that promotes learning and progress.

I invite you to come back next week for a look at how knowing about this zone is helping CCSR - and, we hope, other Kansas organizations - respond to change.

Photo courtesy of Rachel

Change | by Scott Wituk

2010-01-11T13:05:00.002-06:00

Welcome to CCSR.

Change. It is everywhere. One only needs to look at the daily paper, newscast, listserv, podcast, or other favorite media outlet to see that this past year has been marked by some of the greatest social, economic, and political changes. We’ve elected the first African-American President, witnessed and chances are know someone who has lost a job, and flocked to new forms of communication like Twitter and Facebook. Locally, we have seen aircraft companies drastically reduce their workforces, a new governor and our share of Kansas weather—well, some things never change! CCSR, like many organizations, has had its fair share of changes this past year, including my appointment as Director.

Change can come from external forces and decisions that can be a source of frustration, stress and uncertainty. These types of changes leave us with some options. First, we could watch the change go by and potentially be positively or negatively impacted by it. I’ve certainly been in situations when I’ve thought “now is not the time to jump in” or “if I don’t do anything, maybe nothing will happen and this will all just blow over.” Unfortunately, more times than not, things did happen and it did not just blow over. These past experiences lead to a second option: Recognize the change, determine how to proceed and potentially harness the momentum of change.

It is with this in mind that CCSR is currently conducting our “Listen. Think. Act” planning process. Due to changes at CCSR this past year, the staff, many close advisors, and I recognized that we wanted to determine our future. We wanted not to be changed, but to create change—both for ourselves, our organization and Kansas communities. “Listen. Think. Act.” is one way we are responding and already seeing significant impacts on our work. A brief review of the “Listen. Think. Act.” process:

Listen. CCSR embarked on its largest “listening campaign” in more than 10 years. We interviewed approximately 40 Kansas community partners, some whom we had worked with in the past and some whom we had not. Secondly, we held a series of CCSR retreats for CCSR staff and consultants to provide their insights and suggestions about our future. Finally, our WSU Advisory Committee has been very helpful in actively participating and providing suggestions to CCSR as we help in serving WSU’s urban-serving mission. I’ve enjoyed and appreciated the candid remarks and believe these conversations will serve as a healthy foundation for the planning process.

Think. CCSR staff and consultants continue to review the comments from Kansas community partners and WSU advisors. We are looking for connections across the comments and ideas that were previously shared. We are considering our mission, vision, and organizational values, especially in light of the identified needs and opportunities in Kansas communities. This review will help us focus our future efforts.

Act. This spring, CCSR will present a summary of our plan for the future. It will include and describe the direction of CCSR and its services to Kansas communities. This plan will serve as a starting point and guide for our work in future years. CCSR staff are known for taking action, and I believe this process will end no differently.

As the planning process unfolds, I and others at CCSR will provide additional updates. What information would be useful to you in these updates? Please share your thoughts and ideas by email: scott.wituk@wichita.edu.

- Scott Wituk, Director

--Picture courtesy of Aussiegall

One Small Step into the Blogosphere

2010-01-05T08:59:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the WSU Center
for Community Support and
Research blog.

A center of Wichita State University, the CCSR partners with communities and organizations to strengthen Kansas through education, leadership development, facilitation, and research. We work with communities and organizations across the state to achieve our vision that all Kansans use their talents and experiences to create thriving communities.

Our purpose in blogging is to discuss our work, to share about the trends we see affecting the nonprofit and public sectors, and to contribute to relevant blogosphere discussions. We expect to have several contributors from our staff as well as guest bloggers. As we add contributors we will post their information to our contributors list.

For more information about who we are, check out our website, follow us on twitter, become our fan on facebook—and keep reading this blog!

-CCSR Blog Team

Photo courtesy of Brian Henry Thompson