RTV #52 - The Year of Raising a Village

In search of a way to examine what our blogs have expressed over the last year, it was with great anticipation that we clicked "ok" for the great reveal...

First, let's look back to December 2010. We at Raising the Village were fired up to share! Here is an excerpt from our blog and our commitment to our readers that 2011 would be a Year of Raising the Village:

There are many different ways to Raise a Village so we are taking some of the innovative and timeless ideas we have researched and will be sharing them with you. Yes, a year of ideas that in and of themselves might not sound like a sustainable village effort, but pieced together they sure are impressive! ...  We ask you to consider the year of ideas as a united tapestry – by taking these seemingly separate patchwork activity ideas and weaving them together into an integrated and coordinated strategy that aims at reducing child vulnerability and increasing community engagement and awareness. We encourage you to take your own grass roots approach and adapt and create what works for you and your community.

Fast forward to today... we copied every single blog entry of 2011 into wordle (www.wordle.net) hoping to see what kind of language we chose most often to express our messages.
 

 What fun to have this image materialize - full of the words that resonate with what we do, what we believe in and what we have hoped to share.




The fact that COMMUNITY jumps as the most commonly used word in 12 months of blogs is significant. As community developers, it is our passion to promote how community plays a vital role in supporting positive change.


But take a look at some of the others that made the top 50 word list - IDEAS, FUN, PLAY, CHANGE, PROCESS... just to name a few that tickle our fancy.


It has also been illuminating to look at the wordle using two new lenses - those of the 2 streams of work that we do at Raising the Village. The first focuses on “It takes a Village to Raise a Child” which is our work around building communities that nourish and support their youngest citizens thereby nourishing our future.

As we have written in our book (Raising the Village), "The well-being of children has a complex and interconnected relationship with the well-being of communities...Every person has the capacity to be a community builder. Parents, grandparents, neighbours, child-care providers, health-care workers, educators, politicians, and entrepreneurs - all contribute because the well-being of children touches us all."


The blog words of CHILDREN, TOGETHER, PLAY, SOCIAL, TIME , PEOPLE, LOCAL and FAMILIES emphasize this important focus.


Our other stream of work is around organizational collaboration, team building and strengthened leadership capacity. Here too, the wordle reflects the work we do with organizations who are engaged in supporting the well-being of children.

PROCESS, CHANGE, IDEAS, TIME, BUILDING, QUESTIONS, GROUP and TOGETHER leap out as sparks to social change makers.


So it is with great satisfaction that we end the official Year of Raising the Village and begin 2012 with a validated sense of direction and re-committed purpose to share ideas and inspiration with people. Those who want to make this world a better one for children...and those whose paths are to strengthen collaborative communities.
Happy New Year
from Tracy & Tammy

RTV# 51 Evolve Your Work Streams

A Year of Raising the Village.

Week #51: Evolve Your Work Streams.

Nearing the end of one year and heading into a new. For many of us this seems like a naturally good time to pause, ponder and set new intentions. If you look back to the last blog of December 2010 we set our intention to provide you with 52 community building ideas ( A Year of Raising the Village).

Our notion was to bring a range of ideas from simple relationship building events and activities to larger social and organizational change strategies. We think we’ve done this (but, you tell us!) and in the process we have evolved and become clearer on our “streams” of our Village Raising work.

Why not take this time of year to re-describe and get to know what your current work streams are?

It can help:

- Summarize how you are meeting your goals and intentions
- Focus your scope so that people can easily connect and interact with the messages you offer
- Serve as an evaluation on how you evolve along the way

We’ve become more clear that the work of Raising the Village currently has two streams, one that focuses on “It takes a Village to Raise a Child” which is our work around building communities that nourish and support their youngest citizens thereby nourishing our future. Our other stream of work is around organizational collaboration, team building and strengthened leadership capacity.

To help you easily connect with these two streams we have broken some of our blog titles from the year into the two sections.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child & Early Years Community Development:
RTV #1 - Tumble Down Fences & Throw a Block Party!...
RTV #2 - Double Dipping Allowed! Fondue & Raclette...
Living the African Proverb
RTV #4 - Sharpen Your View! Distribute Cameras to ...
RTV #5 - CREATE a relationship with children and n...
RTV #6 - Welcome to our Community, Little One!
RTV # 7- HAVE IMPACT! Support ART as a catalyst fo...
RTV #8 - Build a Community Play Space
RTV # 13 Plant Seeds! Community Gardens!
RTV #15 Blitz a family friendly business crusade!
RTV# 16 Balance Screen Time!
RTV #17 Unite Families with a Group Garage Sale
RTV # 19 - Got Youth?
RTV #20 - Support and be Supported by a Service Cl...
RTV #25 Creative Give-a-ways!
RTV# 47 Champion the Champions
RTV # 48 Find the bright spots.


Collaboration, Team Building, Change Efforts, Leadership, Group Process:
RTV Week #10 - Talk: Then Put it into Practice!
RTV #11 - Gather and share stories about what com...
RTV #12 - Carpool!
RTV #14 Embrace Change. Spark Change
RTV #18 Chase new friends - using the golden rules...
RTV #21: Who gets the job– the good listener, the ...
RTV #22 - Top 10 little actions
RTV# 23 - MORE little things we can all do
RTV # 24 - Research, go for a variety!
RTV#26 Locate your Playing Field!
RTV # 27 Make A Movement - your way!
RTV #28 The trust building tango.
RTV #29 Are you up for a 30 Day Challenge?
RTV# 30 - Have you tried the chicken-scratch napki...
RTV #31 - Find What Binds You!
RTV - #32 Break the Ice
RTV #33 - Turning Cantankerous into Cooperative!
RTV # 34 - Make the Invisible -- Visible!
RTV# 35 ChargeYour Group B.S. Meter! Oh Yeah!
RTV #36 - 10 Secrets of Sustained Innovation
RTV # 38 - Remembering to Play (with Vince Gowmon...
RTV #39 - Re-energize: 7 Easy Ways to Bring Humour...
RTV#40 De-fuzz: Express Clearly!
RTV#41 The Devil's Advocate
RTV #42 - Get it in writing
RTV# 44 One WORD at a time!
RTV # 45 Tips for group toys
RTV #46 - The shared experience of absurdity
http://raisingthevillage.blogspot.com/2011/12/rtv-49-sketch-it-out.html
http://raisingthevillage.blogspot.com/2011/12/rtv50-warm-up-be-climate-setter.html



Let us know what you think.

What do you want more of? Less of?

What else could we provide that would boost your village raising efforts?

How do our streams align with what you are after?

While we have split our work into two sorting sections it is still intertwined. If using the metaphor of "streams" consider two streams that evolve, change and flow into a larger body of water... or in our case into the bigger village that connects us all.

Watch for next week’s blog which will go even deeper into our streams and uncover what we have learned in the Year of Raising the Village.

Village Raising Questions:
What are your work streams? When is it time to re-describe and theme them?

RTV#50 Warm up - Be a Climate Setter!

A Year of Raising the Village, Week #50: Be a Climate Setter!

You are sitting in your weekly team meeting and find yourself...

a) Actively listening and contributing : Warmed up
b) Listening, contributing and checking Facebook: Luke Warm
c) Counting the number of tack holes in the cork board: Cold as Ice

There are likely a slew of reasons that feed into engagement levels (day, time, history, assumptions, things not said, political and funding realities, workload, group process and dynamics etc.). There will also likely be a natural flow between group temperatures... we won‘t all be warm all of the time. However if we are talking about full active engagement let’s assume that we want things in the warmer climate more often.

So, what can be done to engage with others and find out "where they are"? How can we be climate setters?

1. Begin by checking in (often) on your own personal responses and approaches to others. Be clear where you lie on the continuum of group climate possibilities. Ask others where they are.
2. Get clear on the tone you and others would like to see in the group setting. Do you want to change the pace, add some energy or fun, hold respectful safe dialogue space, get to know each other, or stimulate creative thinking (or the lofty answer of all of the above and more than the above)?
3. Pick a process to match the tone and climate you are all after.

Listed below are some fun and easy check-in exercises that we have done (or plan to do) that will help warm group climates.

• Place recycled calendar pictures on a meeting table and ask people to pick the picture that most aligns with... (What they are feeling today, where they are in terms of the group decision, or what they would like to get out of the meeting). Metaphors and images can be a powerful way to encourage free expression.


• Put up a weather barometer and ask people to introduce themselves and where they are in regards to the group issue at hand based on a temperature on the barometer. Bring the barometer back out during “check out” to see if any weather patterns have changed!


• Use quotes as a way for people to share their passions and thoughts around the group (use a variety maybe its leadership quotes, community building, consensus, conflict, etc.) Print the quotes in large font and place around the meeting table. Have each person pick and then read out the quote that reflects where they are or where they want the group to go. (These can be hung around the room and serve as reminder for future meetings). People can piggyback on already chosen quotes.


• Fill up a candy dish with many different jelly beans. Ask each person to pick the colour jelly bean that represents their current mood around the present group condition.


• Find the questions that encourage group exploration: A hope I have is..., A concern I have is..., One thing that made it difficult to come here today is..., One thing that made it easy to be here today is..., I appreciate..., I feel proud of..., I want to know...,
  

Yet another way to Raise the Village within communities and organizations... Be a Climate Setter!

Village Raising Questions:
What’s your group’s current climate? How can you find out?
If you are planning a meeting or event...what kind of tone do you want to set? How will you do that?

Share your Climate check-in exercise ideas with us!

RTV# 49: Sketch it Out!

A Year of Raising the Village. Week # 49: Sketch it Out!

What kinds of relationships do you have? What kind do you want to have?

We recently presented at a conference in Alberta that was entitled “It Takes A Village” (see ARCQUE http://www.arcqe.ca/ ). Not only was this a chance to engage and share our village raising information it was a chance to learn from a spectacular group of community builders. We were blown clear across the beautiful Prairie landscape by their top notch welcoming conference coordination, Canadian groundbreaking Accreditation standards and their Village raising expertise.

Part of our workshop offering was to have participants create relationship maps around WHO was in their village (or network of stakeholders). We continuously delight in the creative ways people respond to this exercise and are firm believers that there is not one way to do this. The maps have varied from purely pictorial, to basic bones, to extremely intricate ones. The key thing here is that participants put the amount of detail that helps them clearly identify and map out the resources, strengths, and collective possibilities within their community.


Alberta held up the creativity bar and provided many detailed maps. In the photo above you can see one example from these bright engaged village sketchers. Here this duo decided not only to list out the many relationships, they decided to map out the range (or kinds) of relationships (before we prompted them to)!They connected partners with strong highways, bumpy roads, train tracks etc.


Feel like trying this out? Your turn! Grab a piece of blank paper and draw out your own relationship map. Using the above map as inspiration, consider relationships that are...

• over the rails or on the other side of the railroad tracks






• built with bridges (already constructed or in various stages of construction)






• direct close links






• two way streets (and those that are one way)






• more of an indirect distant connection (maybe even a bit loopy with communication pathways)






• brand new






• established, but could use some strengthening or attention

Here is another way we take people through these maps. Draw relationships you consider:

• in cooperation (working side by side but not on a common vision together)






• in coordination (maybe you work on a project or event that you co-plan)






• in collaboration ( a longer term commitment such as an early years table)

How is this helpful?
You can look at the maps, reflect, set intents and base your plans around engagement. You can open up the dialogue with others and sketch it out together. Do this as part of your evaluation and revisit your map to see how relationships change over time.

Village Raising Questions:
What kinds of relationship are on your map?
What kinds of relationship do you want? How will you build these?
Where do the other people on you map want to be in this relationship (have you asked them)?




Watch for our upcoming Action Guide series for fuller community mapping exercise (and how to build on this).

RTV # 48 Find the bright spots.

A Year of Raising the Village. Week #48 - Find the Bright Spots

At Raising the Village - we are proponents of strength based thinking and strength based approaches. So when we first heard about the work of Jerry and Monique Sternin, we were intrigued by a new strength based change model - one that "flips the standard protocol on its head" - called positive deviance.

In their book entitled The Power of Positive Deviance: How unlikely innovators solve the world's toughest problems, authors Richard Pascale, Jerry and Monique Sternin outline a highly village-like approach to tackling complex issues. They write;

Positive Deviance is based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.
The Positive Deviance approach is an asset-based, problem-solving, and community-driven approach that enables the community to discover these successful behaviors and strategies and develop a plan of action to promote their adoption by all concerned.

Their discovery of this method was in Vietnam, 1990, working with very poor villages whose children suffered from malnutrition. The cause of the malnutrition was systemic - lack of clean water, immense poverty, no social support beyond the occasional food handout, a collapsed health care system, a US trade embargo against Vietnam, and the inevitable political hurdles.


This fascinating story is told in their book, and also in Switch by Dan and Chip Heath (another great read about change). The positive deviant practices were found by interviewing families who, despite the villages' dire situation, had children who were well nourished. They called these families bright spots. What made their practices different was identified by the villagers and local volunteers. The practices that could be replicated were then introduced to the village. The consultants played a background role in the process as the villages, themselves, found strategies and implemented them.

The result? A 65-80% reduction in childhood malnutrition in 22 Vietnamese provinces with a total population of 2.3 million. And the change (drum roll please) is a sustainable one!

Real, sustainable change, according to the Sternins, begins with new behaviors rather than new knowledge. And since these new behaviors come from real people – rather than from top down or fancy consultants – there’s real ownership of the solution rather then merely a buy-in. In this process, the very people whose behavior needs to change to solve the problem are the ones who discover the solution.

At first we thought - well good for them but that kind of thing wouldn't work in North America! The book goes on to tell a number of stories from other places around the world - including Pennsylvania.

So...this week's village raising strategy borrows from the thinking of positive deviance. As community builders, let us re-frame how we approach community change, and consider how we can support a process that finds and spreads the positive practices of the bright spots.

We would LOVE to learn from your experience! Please share (through comments or by email) your stories about finding positive deviants and enabling them to spark sustainable change.

RTV# 47 Champion the Champions

Dr. Fraser Mustard 1927-2011

A Year of Raising the Village. Week #47:

Champion the Champions...and deliver the straight goods.

Dr. Fraser Mustard, renowned early years champion and scientist, passed away last week. This is a profound loss to the early years movement and perhaps a time to reflect on how we champion our champions. It is well known that Mustard was a pioneer in the understanding of how the early years impacted human development. We have had the pleasure to hear Dr. Mustard present over the years. He shot straight from the hip (or the podium if you will) about how we must all invest in the early years and create MORE for our children which in turn is MORE for our communities and our collective future. No excuses, no debate, no doubts...he delivered the straight goods. His celebrated work and influence will long be remembered as will the sentiments of a true champion. In the same week as his passing, National Children’s Day is also celebrated (November 20th). We thought, what better way to tip our village raising hat to Dr. Fraser Mustards work, then to pay tribute to him and the rights of children. Join us in championing the champion and take a moment to think about your promise to our future, our children. And then act on it.


To get the straight goods on Child’s well being and to look at ways to celebrate the children in your life and community, here are some go-to resources:
Child Rights in practice:
http://globalclassroom.unicef.ca/en/news/ncd.htm
http://www.unicef.ca/en/1word
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncd-jne/kit-eng.php
http://www.canadiancrc.com/Canadas_national_Child_Day.aspx


And remember, we do not have to wait for a champions passing or a National day to honour one another. Do it now.

Village Raising Question:What are the ways you champion your champions?

RTV #46 - The shared experience of absurdity

A Year of Raising the Village. Week # 46:The shared experience of absurdity.

12 minutes.

In 12 minutes Charlie Todd shares the hilarious antics of ImproveEverywhere - his organization that brings laughter into the everyday.

Charlie Todd: The shared experience of absurdity | Video on TED.com

In the first story, the group secretly films a subway passenger's reaction when 6 guys enter the subway - all at different stops, not interacting with each other - with NO PANTS.  Not only hilarious, it is also a wonderful reflection on humanity and the power of connections.  He says at one point that "as soon as something becomes a share experience, it becomes less weird or scary and more fun."


Lets look at how ImproveEverywhere is a great example of village raising.

1.  Absurdity, play, laughter and extraordinary behaviour help to shake up our thinking and take our participation up a notch.  It reminds us of our experience in a flash mob dance . It felt refreshing to be a part of something different for the sake of joy and playfulness!

2. On a similar vein as Charlie's comment on shared experience, complex community issues become less overwhelming when they become a shared endeavor. Together we can share the load and create more meaning along the way.


Doing crazy stuff together...sounds like fun!  It is well worth the 12 minutes!

Check out these other blogs that speak to play & humour.
Re-energize- 7 easy ways to bring humour at work
Remember to play
Locate your playing field
How attached is your community? (speaks about play in community)
Tips for Group Toys