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# Al Etmanski

Author, Power of Disability

## Sitemaps

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## Posts

- [Blog posts by Al](https://aletmanski.com/blog/) - Preorder Al's latest book, the Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World
- [Disability Digest #20 featuring Sarah Biffen, Ali Stroker, Brian Wilson, Selma Blair and Helen Keller](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-20/) - Dear Reader“History will be kind to us,” wrote Winston Churchill, “because I will write it.” That point is more than debatable these days. What isn’t debatable is the fact that history hasn’t been kind to people with disabilities. Even though as you will read in this issue they have produced heavenly music and exquisite works
- [Disability Digest #19 featuring Wendy and Phil Allen, Curtis Mayfield, Susan Sygall and Christy Brown](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-19/) - Dear ReaderThe painting that graces this issue is by Irish painter and writer Christy Brown. Also featured are educators and incurable romantics Wendy and Phil Allen, legendary soul singer, Curtis Mayfield, and wheelchair rider Susan Sygall.I hope you agree that people with disabilities influence every aspect of life. And that any barrier that prevents them
- [Disability Digest #7 (February 22-29)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-7/) - Dear ReaderPeople with disabilities have been major players throughout history. If you were to take away their contributions, you wouldn’t recognize the world. It would be a much different place and in much rougher shape, even though the history books have missed most of these achievements or have given credit to someone else.This issue highlights
- [Disability Digest #18 ( May 21- 31) featuring Alexander Pope the most quoted writer in the English language, poet Jane Kenyon and English suffragette May Billinghurst](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-18/) - Dear ReaderThe photograph that graces this issue of the Digest is by Indonesian freelance photographer, Rusidah Badawi. Badawi was born without forearms and works with film, not digital. She uses a modified camera with a screw on the shutter button to make it easier for her to operate.Also featured are Alexander Pope one of the
- [Disability Digest #17( May 12- 19) featuring Stevie Wonder, David Smith, Michelle Dawson, Stacey Milbern and Michelle Amiere.](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-17/) - Dear ReaderPainter, photographer, sculpturer Michelle Amerie created the Irises that open this issue of the Disability Digest. In her spare time she is a spokesperson for the MS Society which includes rappelling down high rise buildings in her wheelchair. During the pandemic Michelle converted her original art pieces onto face masks. Check out her extensive
- [Disability Digest #16 (May 6-11) featuring Maria Montessori, Anne Strike, Lauren Potter and Tom Shakespeare](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-16/) - Dear ReaderThis issue of the Disability Digest highlights renowned educator Maria Montessori, athlete and diversity campaigner Anne Strike, Glee actor, Lauren Potter and British academic and activist Tom Shakespeare. The world is so much more wonderful with their presence, creativity and contribution, isn’t it?The picture above is from Time-Lapse: Post-Humous Conversations—A Geoff McMurchy Retrospective, curated
- [Disability Digest #15 (April 27-30) featuring Merissa Hylton, Antonio Gramsci, Jillian Mercado and Lynn Manning.](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-15/) - Dear ReaderThere are two ways disability is erased from history. One is to completely ignore the person with a disability, their presence and contribution. The other is to erase all traces of the person’s disability. That’s the situation with Italian cultural critic and politician Antonio Gramsci who is featured below. The sculpture that begins this issue
- [Disability Digest #14 (April 22- 25) featuring Lucy Maud Montgomery author of Anne of Green Gables](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-14/) - Dear ReaderThis Digest is written to recognize people with disabilities for who they really are: authoritative sources on creativity, resilience, love, resistance, science, adversity, a good life and so much more. In a small way we hope this Digest can help take control of the past, correct what the history books have overlooked and influence
- [Disability Digest Issue #13 (April 12-17) Featuring Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher and friend](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-13/) - Dear ReaderWelcome to the April 11-17th edition of the Disability Digest.In researching The Power of Disability I discovered that people with disabilities have been major players throughout history. If you were to take away their contributions you wouldn’t recognize the world. It would be a much different place and in much rougher shape. That’s the
- [Disability Digest #12 (April 1-7) – featuring Virginia Hall, the spy who terrified the Nazis](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-12/) - Dear ReaderWelcome to the Disability Digest.If you are a first time reader, this Digest was created to correct what history has overlooked, the contributions of people with disability. Since the beginning of time people with disability have produced exquisite works of art, made us laugh, and touched our souls. They have fought for justice, been
- [Disability Digest # 11 (March 25-31)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-11/) - Dear ReaderThis issue of the Disability Digest highlights blues guitarist Jeff Healey, lawyer Harriet McBryde Johnson, writer and political activist Alice Wong, and Black Beauty author Anna Sewell. What a more just, caring and beautiful world they have helped create.I have exciting news. Beginning with the next issue two organizations dear to my heart, Plan
- [Disability Digest #10 (March 19-25)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-10/) - Dear ReaderThis issue of the Disability Digest highlights Valerie Rose the daughter of singer Phoebe Snow, actor and playwright James Sanders, Chinese poet sensation Yu Xiuhua, and the most popular artist in the world, Yayoi Kusama.The world would be a less vibrant place without their presence and contributions don’t you agree?Thanks – Al This week
- [Disability Digest #6 (February 14-21)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-6/) - Dear ReaderDisability is written out of history either by ignoring the contributions of persons with disability or by separating their disability from their contributions. This issue highlights artist Frida Kahlo, Phillipp Pozzo di Borgo whose autobiography A Second Wind was made into the popular film The Intouchables, teenage model sensation Aaron Philp, Lenín Moreno, President
- [Disability digest #1](https://aletmanski.com/impact/disability-digest-1/) - Dear ReaderThis is a beta version of something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, create a digest that illustrates the remarkable contributions of people with disabilities. There wasn’t room in my new book, The Power of Disability for all the stories I came across. This digest is the next best thing.I’d like
- [Disability Digest #8 (March 1-8)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-8/) - Dear ReaderIn researching my book, The Power of Disability, I discovered that people with disabilities have been major players throughout history. Much more than I realized. If you were to take away their contributions, you wouldn’t recognize the world. The world would be a much different place and in much rougher shape. Sadly the history
- [Disability Digest #9 (March 10-15)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-9/) - Dear ReaderIn researching my book, The Power of Disability, I discovered that people with disabilities have been major players throughout history. Sadly the history books have missed most of their achievements, or given credit to someone else or ignored the person’s disability.This issue highlights abolitionist and suffragist Harriet Tubman, politician Tammy Duckworth, scientist Stephen Hawking
- [Disability Digest #2 (January 9 – 15th, 2021)](https://aletmanski.com/disability-digest/disability-digest-2/) - Dear ReaderThanks for the feedback on the first issue of this Digest.This beta issue #2 incorporates your suggestions. The main change relates to formatting. We have switched to Mail Chimp for distribution so that the beautiful design by Lisa Joy Trick survives on whatever device you use.Let me know what you think and I’ll keep
- [Disability Digest #5 (February 6-13)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-5/) - Dear ReaderDisability is written out of history either by ignoring the contributions of persons with disability or by separating their disability from their contributions. This issue highlights artist Judith Snow, Mary MacDonald daughter of Canada’s first Prime Minister, jazz legend “Chick” Webb, a secret that playwright Arthur Miller carried to his grave, Abraham Lincoln and
- [Disability Digest #3 (January 21 – 28 )](https://aletmanski.com/disability-digest/disability-digest-3/) - Dear Reader Thanks for your feedback on the first two issues of this Digest. I confess I’m having trouble limiting the number of profiles as well as their length. Bear with me, there is so much to share. Please send your suggestions via this form. Thanks Al This week in history ... January 21st is
- [Disability Digest #4 (January  30 – February 5)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/disability-digest-4/) - Dear ReaderDisability is written out of history either by ignoring the contributions of persons with disability or by separating their disability from their contributions. This issue of the Disability Digest is still in beta mode as we strive for improvements. Please send your comments and suggestions via this form. And if you like what you’re
- [Life comes  from life](https://aletmanski.com/impact/life-comes-from-life/) - Life comes from life.It comes from life in every shape, size, and background. Complex lives. Messy lives. Struggling lives. Determined lives. Funny lives. Mysterious lives. Sensual lives. Beautiful lives. Sacred lives.It doesn’t come from machines, technology, techniques, and touchups.Nor from artificial intelligence and artificial limbs. Nor from quick fixes and miracle cures. Nor from positive
- [The Power of Disability](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-power-of-disability/) - My new book The Power of Disability was published in February just before the pandemic hit. Momentum had started, reviews were positive, and book concerts featuring local artists with disability were lined up.Covid put all that on hold. Book sales in general nose dived carrying The Power of Disability with it. The good news is that
- [Learning from the Danes – building back better (fifth in a series)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/learning-from-the-danes-building-back-better-fifth-in-a-series/) - Monumental change requires a mindset that is wildly different from the status quo. Otherwise the momentum of an outdated approach will ensnare us.This mindset influences what we aspire to, the values we hold dear, the way we conduct ourselves and treat others. It’s more than an outlook. It’s a discipline requiring gentle tending and constant
- [Nothing About Us Without Us – Building back better (fourth in a series)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/nothing-about-us-without-us-building-back-better-fourth-in-a-series/) - The recent Throne Speech promised a Canadian Disability Benefit. This makes Canada the first country in the world to commit to ending poverty for its disabled citizens. It’s an historic investment in their financial well being. If properly designed the proposed Benefit will have the same impact as the Guaranteed Income Supplement, which ended poverty
- [In the beginning was a caring relationship – building back better (third in a series)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/in-the-beginning-was-a-caring-relationship-building-back-better-third-in-a-series/) - With apologies to the gospel in the beginning wasn’t the word, it was a caring relationship. In 2001 the 530,000 year old partial skeleton of a 12 year old girl was discovered in Spain. The shape of her skull indicated to scientists that she had a disability that limited her mobility. The extent of her
- [Renegotiating the social contract – building back better (second in a series)](https://aletmanski.com/caring/renegotiating-the-social-contract-building-back-better-second-in-a-series/) - The pandemic has revealed that a caring society is a do-it-together, not a do-it yourself, project. And that government and civil society in partnership makes it so.
- [The world needs more community organizers – building back better (first in a series)](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/the-world-needs-more-community-organizers/) - The phrase “build back better” is being used to capture the determination and desire of politicians and activists alike to come out of the pandemic with a more just, equitable, accessible and inclusive society. The phrase, adapted from a 2015 UN conference on disaster relief, has surfaced in the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery,
- [Forget Your Perfect Offering](https://aletmanski.com/impact/forget-your-perfect-offering-2/) - First a reminder that our Power of Disability Concert takes place this Saturday May 9th at 7:00 eastern. Entertainers include the lead clown for Cirque du Soleil, a comedian with White House experience, award winning singers, storytellers, hip hop artists all with soaring voices and universal insights. The LOL (Labour of Love) team who volunteered
- [The Power of Disability Concert](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-power-of-disability-concert/) - Update: The live version of this concert was hosted on May 9th but you can watch the full concert recording anytime online. The Power of Disability reminds us of what we have in common – the power to create a good life for ourselves and for others no matter what the world has in store for us.– Michael
- [The Abundant Sense of a Community Organizer](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-abundant-sense-of-a-community-organizer/) - There is a group of people whose sense of what we can do together is abundant. They are known as community organizers. Their specialty is connecting people who want to make the world more just, equal, accessible and inclusive. They are active during the pandemic. They are essential for the recovery.Community organizers unify. They draw
- [If Terror was Temperature](https://aletmanski.com/impact/if-terror-was-temperature/) - During the Easter weekend Carla Qualtrough the federal Minister of Employment and Disability Inclusion created a Covid-19 Disability Advisory group. Here is why it matters. It’s been a tough four weeks for the disability community. Over and above everyone’s general anxiety and disorientation there are everyday reminders that fairness and equity plays out differently for
- [Love During Adversity is a Powerful Combination](https://aletmanski.com/impact/love-during-adversity-is-a-powerful-combination/) - I’ve noticed three different states of mind related to the Covid-19 virus.1) OMG this is a disaster. Somebody, anybody, please do something.2) The people in authority are best positioned to tell us what to do.3) The situation is unprecedented. No one is completely sure what to do. We are all in the same boat.It’s easy
- [Let us rally the lovesick and brokenhearted](https://aletmanski.com/impact/let-us-rally-the-lovesick-and-brokenhearted/) - Our inadequacy in the face of the world’s suffering and desecration disturbs us. As it should. We flinch every time we use another plastic bag, step around a fellow human being sleeping on the sidewalk, hop on a plane, fill up at the pump, or ignore another call to sign up, donate and take action.We
- [There can be no justice without love](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/there-can-be-no-justice-without-love/) - MY NEW BOOK: I was still blushing over Aaron Johannes’ review of The Power of Disability when Markets Insider chose it as one of twelve books that human resource managers should get in 2020 if they want to build diverse teams. Now I’m blushing and tickled. Speaking of reviews, I’m told by those who know
- [The Power of Disability is now available](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/the-power-of-disability-is-now-available/) - They, and by they I mean good friends who specialize in spreading the word, assure me you won’t mind receiving the news more than once. My fourth book went on sale today and they urge me to shout it from the rooftops. I’m pretty excited so here’s my shout out. Dear Reader I have a
- [My new book is being printed.](https://aletmanski.com/power-of-disability/my-new-book-is-being-printed/) - Dear Reader You are the first to know. My new book The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving and Changing the World is at the printers. It contains more than one hundred stories of individuals from twenty countries celebrating people with disabilities as the invisible force that has shaped history. Their contributions have
- [Your Base is Just a Baseline](https://aletmanski.com/impact/your-base-is-just-a-baseline/) - Dear Reader - I hope this post makes you curious about new approaches to organizing, campaigning and achieving your objectives. Unless you have all the support you need, your twin organizing goals are: One, to maintain your existing base and Two, to appeal to those beyond your base. This is harder than you think. You
- [You Have More Power Than You Think](https://aletmanski.com/impact/you-have-more-power-than-you-think/) - You have more power to achieve the changes you are after than you think. Not as much as you might like. But more than you realize. The trick is to claim it. And not let the boundaries of that power be defined by others, particularly government. How much should you claim? As much as you
- [We’re From Civil Society and We’re Here to Help](https://aletmanski.com/impact/were-from-civil-society-and-were-here-to-help/) - In a healthy democracy citizens are engaged as mature equal partners with government. They recognize government’s limitations and pitch in to compensate. They pursue solutions while also improving the overall decision making capacity of government. They take care not to undermine faith and confidence in the democratic process. They create a healthy boundary between civil
- [Don’t Give Up](https://aletmanski.com/impact/dont-give-up/) - A change of government is always challenging. Particularly if you don’t respect the leader. Understandably you brace for the worst. The danger is that you succumb to the drama. And a prophecy is fulfilled. On the other hand all new governments, yes all, are looking for new ideas including those that will bail them out of
- [10 Canadian-International Book Pairings](https://aletmanski.com/impact/10-canadian-international-book-pairings/) - Looking for a good book or two? Here are ten of my favourite Canadian books paired with ten favourites by writers from away. For your long weekend reading pleasure. A Disappearance in Damascus, the true story of reporter Deborah Campbell's time in Syria. Excellent background on the reasons behind the Syrian disaster. The search for her
- [10 good reasons why people who are poor should be in charge of ending poverty](https://aletmanski.com/impact/10-good-reasons-why-people-who-are-poor-should-be-in-charge-of-ending-poverty/) - People who are poor never get to be in charge of ending poverty Even though they know more about poverty than anyone. Here are ten good reasons why they should be. Every percentage point of the Canadian population represents 360,000 people. Since 9 to 12 % of Canadians are poor (depending on which poverty measure
- [Yaniv Janson is Changing the World One Painting at a Time](https://aletmanski.com/impact/yaniv-janson-is-changing-the-world-one-painting-at-a-time/) - “I wonder what they think about climate change?” That question contained the most compelling vision of inclusion I have ever encountered. It was offered by a speaker in Scotland a number of years back. She asked us to imagine a time when people with disabilities were recognized for what they thought about the big issues
- [Making Peace with Fear, the Convincing and Beautiful Presence of Katheren Szabo](https://aletmanski.com/impact/making-peace-with-fear-the-convincing-and-beautiful-presence-of-katheren-szabo/) - Katheren Szabo knows how to make peace with her fears. Which is something most of us aspire to. Especially during these outrageous, topsy turvy times when a low level state of fear hovers like a dirty cloud. For many good reasons that are too personal to be told by anyone but her, Katheren’s fear kept her isolated
- [POP Goes the Vernacular](https://aletmanski.com/impact/pop-goes-the-vernacular/) - Vernacular is a good word to know but not a good word to use in a speech, song or sentence. It means the language of the people. Which is where Shakespeare found his poetry. It’s the reason Leonard Cohen left poetry and became a singer/songwriter. It’s the secret to writer Alice Munro’s success including her
- [Making Political Love](https://aletmanski.com/impact/making-political-love/) - Partisan politics continues to disappoint. Regardless of which party is elected, promises are broken. When decisions are made they are usually incremental. Never going as deep and substantive as promised. Even when bold decisions are made, bold implementation remains elusive. There are many reasons for the limited capacity of governments to tackle tough issues with
- [If you don’t know there are potatoes in the borsch …](https://aletmanski.com/impact/if-you-dont-know-there-are-potatoes-in-the-borsch/) - My Polish ancestors used to say: “If you don’t know there are potatoes in the borsch there could be orphans working in the mine.” In other words if you don’t know what’s going on in your own backyard there could be big problems elsewhere. The truth of that proverb is brought home in a recent
- [Blessing Your Presenters](https://aletmanski.com/impact/blessing-your-presenters/) - Many years ago J.R., a remarkable community organizer was consulting in a northern Inuit community. One night after supper when stories were being told J.R. told a funny one involving his two young children. The room gasped. No one laughed. Eventually someone asked, “If you have children why aren’t you at home with them?” J.R.
- [You Don't Need to Start Another Movement](https://aletmanski.com/impact/you-dont-need-to-start-another-movement/) - The question I get asked most often is, “How do you start a movement?” My answer is always, “You don’t need to start another movement. All you have to do is contribute to the movements that you are already part of." In order to do so you have to let go of your belief that
- [Adversity Makes you Wiser](https://aletmanski.com/impact/adversity-makes-you-wiser/) - Eventually the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” will strike you or someone or something that you love. The adversity or tragedy will be deeply personal. It will appear in a variety of forms – accident, loss, death, indignity, cruelty, desecration, brutality and desolation. Grief, anger, fear and despair are understandable reactions. But adversity can
- [Goosebumps Never Lie](https://aletmanski.com/impact/goosebumps-never-lie/) - The Guess Who had it right. Unless people are shakin' all over, your issue, campaign or movement will sputter. If you want to rally more than the usual suspects get spines tingling. That means having a bold vision that cuts through the debris and chatter. Which means paying attention to the words you use. Your
- [Simply Irresistible](https://aletmanski.com/impact/simply-irresistible/) - Black Beauty remains one of the most popular novels ever written. Anna Sewell’s “autobiography of a horse” is estimated to have sold nearly as many copies (40-50 million) as the complete works of Charles Dickens (50 million.) Not bad for protest literature. And protest literature it surely was. She wrote Black Beauty to "induce kindness,
- [Maudie – the Genius and Life of Painter Maud Lewis](https://aletmanski.com/impact/maudie-the-genius-and-life-of-painter-maud-lewis/) - When then President Richard Nixon commissioned two paintings from Nova Scotia artist Maud Lewis she agreed provided that he pay in advance. Ms Lewis didn’t know who he was. Which is not surprising since her world existed within a sixty-mile radius of her home near Digby, Nova Scotia. It was a world without indoor plumbing,
- [Artists Aren’t Ahead of Their Time](https://aletmanski.com/impact/artists-arent-ahead-of-their-time/) - Alchemy is on full display in King Arthur’s Night a brand new theatre production conceived by actor Niall McNeil. And co-written by him and Marcus Youssef an award-winning playwright and actor. And what a swirl of desires, darkness, wit and whimsy they are serving up. This is not the King Arthur you know. McNeil’s interpretation of
- [Working with the Status Quo not Against It](https://aletmanski.com/impact/working-with-the-status-quo-not-against-it/) - Sooner or later you will have to stop challenging the status quo and start working with it. Why? Because at best challenging the status quo only pries the door open. Then comes the much more difficult work. Which is walking through the door and sitting down with representatives of the status quo. By status quo
- [Don't Leap so Far Ahead of The Parade You Can't Hear the Band](https://aletmanski.com/impact/dont-leap-so-far-ahead-of-the-parade-you-cant-hear-the-band/) - Are you a leaper or a grinder? Are you inclined to leap over the day-to-day messes and frustrations of social and environmental challenges, to demonstrate your solution for a better future, and to pull the present towards you? Or do you prefer to keep your nose to the grindstone, to take care of people and
- [Hitting the Key Notes of Your Time – Learning from Margaret Atwood and Gabrielle Roy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/hitting-key-notes-time-learning-margaret-atwood-gabrielle-roy/) - People are inherently story driven. Therefore an important aptitude of successful movements and change-making efforts is aligning with the powerful and shifting cultural stories that are already out there. You can, of course, learn about storytelling, narrative principles and effective communication strategies at a workshop. You can also learn from storytelling royalty like Gabrielle Roy
- [The World Needs More…Of You](https://aletmanski.com/impact/world-needs-moreof/) - The world needs more of you. Not just your projects, programs, and innovations. It needs the thinking, values and aspirations behind them. It needs to understand the soul of your work. Otherwise your projects, programs and innovations will have limited influence on culture i.e. those habits, beliefs and practices that keep things the way they
- [Hockey Legend Ken Dryden'sTips for Changing the Rules of Your Game](https://aletmanski.com/impact/hockey-legend-ken-drydenstips-changing-rules-game/) - One of the world’s best hockey players, Ken Dryden wants to eliminate concussions from hockey. There are two key rule changes that he's certain will do it: 1) Ban all hits to the head (head shots) and 2) Penalize players for “finishing their check” i.e.hitting the opposing player after they have just released the puck. Seems
- [The World Needs More Peace Makers not Social Innovators](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-world-needs-more-peace-makers-not-social-innovators/) - The world needs more peace makers not social innovators. Why? Because there are already tens of millions of social innovators out there. Maybe more. There always have been. There always will be. People are very ingenious about inventing themselves out of adversity. The real challenge is to spread the best of these innovations so that
- [Easy Sell](https://aletmanski.com/impact/easy-sell/) - Want to make your life better? How about your family, neighbourhood, community, country, world? Have I got a deal for you. All you have to do is: Take risks Get comfortable with ambiguity Ditch your habits Forget your traditions Become more innovative Change everything. Right away. As long as you remember it’s a complex world
- [Death's Tug of War with Mystery and Science](https://aletmanski.com/impact/deaths-tug-war-mystery-science/) - Death grabbed my pen several decades ago when I was finishing a sentence that I had written a couple of hundred times before, "PLAN creates good lives for people with disabilities." To my surprise the pen continued, "and good deaths for their parents." Which at the time was a truth we hadn’t acknowledged and were reluctant to
- [Intellectual Imperialism and the Vocabulary of Harm](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/intellectual-imperialism-vocabulary-harm/) - The headline of a recent Medium post, “The Age of the Imbecile” caught me at a bad time. I’m immersed in examining the harmful impact of words on people who experience a disability. “Imbecile” is one of the terms developed by Professor Henry Goddard in 1913 to categorize people who he described as "feebleminded." Known
- [Percé Rock and the Crumbling Patriarchy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/perce-rock-crumbling-patriarchy/) - The French writer and surrealist André Breton wouldn’t have been the first man to think it but he’s the first one that I know of who wrote it. The excerpt below is from his book Arcanum 17: “The time has come to value the ideas of woman at the expense of those of man, whose
- [White Men Can’t Jump and People with Disabilities Can’t Act](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/white-men-cant-jump-people-disabilities-cant-act/) - Dear readers - you may have noticed that recently I slyly inserted a second weekly post. It is distributed, like this one, every Monday evening. They are excerpts from a new book I’m writing. The book, not yet named, will offer lessons from the world of disability for thriving and surviving in turbulent times. ~
- [Throwing Snowballs for Dave Barrett](https://aletmanski.com/impact/throwing-snowballs-dave-barrett/) - Dave Barrett and his 1972-75 government is the answer to people who assert that, once elected politicians lose their boldness. His government passed 357 bills in three short years. Including the Agricultural Land Reserve a bill to preserve farmland that the rest of the world is still struggling to catch do. To honour his passing and
- [Confessions of a Non Swimmer in the Currents of Culture](https://aletmanski.com/impact/confessions-non-swimmer-currents-culture/) - ( first in a new series.) All my life I thought that the way to solve social problems was to make a big splash. To protest unjust ways of doing things, change laws, secure large sums of money, elect sympathetic politicians, mount popular public education campaigns, invent and spread innovative solutions. I took lessons and trained
- [What Are You Doing Here?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/what-are-you-doing-here/) - A man I admire greatly took that question seriously. And has become one of Canada’s most prolific and talented social entrepreneurs. His name is Brian Smith and his story needs more space than I have available. So here is the abridged version. Brian was in India for 3 months with Melissa his future wife. They
- [Emancipate yourself from Mental Slavery](https://aletmanski.com/impact/emancipate-mental-slavery/) - Those words from Bob Marley’s Redemption Song were birthed in Nova Scotia. “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,” was part of a speech delivered by Black rights activist Marcus Garvey in Sydney Nova Scotia in 1937. Marley likely heard about the speech because he came from the same region in Jamaica as Garvey. African Nova Scotians
- [Yayoi Kusama's Path to Infinity](https://aletmanski.com/impact/yayoi-kusamas-path-infinity/) - Tokyo based Yayoi Kusama is known as the “priestess of Polka Dots.” During the 1960’s she was part of New York’s avant-garde scene and became friends with Andy Warhol and Georgia O’Keefe. She is now the most popular artist in the world as ranked by museum attendance. Yet every morning this diminutive artist who is in
- [Moose Hide - a love story](https://aletmanski.com/impact/moose-hide-love-story/) - This is a story about men doing something about our propensity for violence against women. It is also a story about what one man, an Indigenous hunter, can do when he listens to his daughter. The daughter’s name is Raven. In 2011 she was moose hunting with her dad Paul on territory that is near
- [Cultural Transformation one (Baby Gerber) Step at a Time](https://aletmanski.com/impact/cultural-transformation-one-baby-gerber-step-time/) - Lucas Warren, the current Gerber baby, is delighting mainstream and social media. Of course he’s cute. And deserves all the oohs and ahs he is getting. The big deal is that he has down syndrome. Which to some people should no longer be a big deal. To me it’s a really big deal. Perhaps it’s
- [Eyes Wide Shut - Carmen Papalia’s Guide to Democracy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/eyes-wide-shut-carmen-papalias-guide-democracy-things/) - Vancouver artist Carmen Papalia's adventures in darkness refreshes the practice of democracy. And illustrates yet again the depth of wisdom within the world of disability. His views on agency and accessibility are influencing art galleries around the world, including the Vancouver Art Gallery, Ottawa Art Gallery, New York Museum of Modern Arts, The Guggenheim, Whitney
- [Government Innovation isn't Your Main Problem](https://aletmanski.com/impact/government-innovation-isnt-main-problem/) - Government innovation isn't your main problem. It's government's. After many years of unsuccessfully peddling the processes of social innovation to governments across Canada I've learned: Not to peddle process. Instead to focus on proposing bold, workable solutions to problems they are dealing with. Preferably backed by widespread public support. That challenge by itself is more than
- [“Saving” Ryan](https://aletmanski.com/impact/saving-ryan/) - Montreal born animator Ryan Larkin had a couple of brushes with Hollywood. Which is not surprising for someone once described as the Frank Zappa of animation. The first brush was for his 1970 Oscar-nominated film Walking. The second was for “Ryan” by Chris Landreth which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in
- [Don’t Forget the Other Social Innovators](https://aletmanski.com/impact/dont-forget-social-innovators/) - Canada's federal government seems to have forgotten the other social innovators. They are not the only jurisdiction doing so. These forgotten practitioners are the ones who everyday, everywhere invent themselves out of adversity. They are the original hackers whose solutions may be worthy of spreading further. Who don’t use the language of innovation. Who don’t know which doorstep to camp
- [Artisans for the Common Good](https://aletmanski.com/impact/artisans-common-good/) - I have found a new elegant phrase to describe a class of people whose small daily acts without fanfare, flourish or compensation make the world a better place. These people are the original change makers, long before it became a profession or designation. They’re not confined by job descriptions or office hours. They spot trouble and
- [The Role of Containers, Hacks, Frames and Metaphors in Social Change](https://aletmanski.com/impact/role-containers-hacks-frames-metaphors-social-change/) - You may have a great solution to a social challenge. Something that you are certain will be beneficial to thousands, maybe more. However, unless you have the right container, package, framing or metaphor your proven innovation may linger in isolation or disregard. The right container for your content makes it easier for people to recognize
- [Mental Fitness Touches a Nerve in Everyone](https://aletmanski.com/impact/mental-fitness-touches-nerve-everyone/) - Mental fitness touches a nerve in everyone, myself included. It exposes one of our deepest fears, the fear of deviancy and incapability, of losing it, of not measuring up, of not being seen as a person. The signs are everywhere. Within the disability world there is a hierarchy of worthiness with mental handicap at the
- [A Bystander’s Guide to Civility in a Time of Rage](https://aletmanski.com/impact/bystanders-guide-civility-time-rage/) - Uproar, anger and righteousness are flourishing. Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Idle No More are three examples. You may have been on the receiving end of their concerns directly. Or felt the insinuation indirectly via mainstream or social media. You may be sympathetic to the issue. You may not. Either way you are uncomfortable, disturbed and
- [A Desperado Waiting for a Train](https://aletmanski.com/impact/desperado-waiting-train/) - It’s after midnight, the prairie wind is blowing cold and people are secure in their cells at the school for the incurables. Or are they? Curfew was hours ago and the guards are lulled into holiday drowsiness. Or maybe they’ve been bribed? Possibly charmed. He was always pretty good at that. Either way he’s determined
- [Using Starlight and Statistics to Reclaim our Humanity](https://aletmanski.com/impact/using-starlight-statistics-reclaim-humanity/) - The Harper government dimmed the lights at Statistics Canada and the National Council of Welfare in 2012. Into that darkness stepped the Caledon Institute, who committed to continue collecting, analyzing and publishing data related to poverty and welfare in Canada. The lights have now gone out at Caledon, a non partisan, independent social policy think
- [Twelve Books Shaping the World We Want](https://aletmanski.com/impact/twelve-books-shaping-world-want/) - Looking for a good read for yourself or someone else? Have a look at these titles. Links to reviews and where to purchase included. Spirit Bear and Children Make History! this beautifully illustrated book will appeal to the children in your life. It tells the story of First Nations and other children standing together for
- [Hold on to your Crowning Achievements](https://aletmanski.com/impact/hold-crowning-achievements/) - Season two of The Crown dropped into Netflix on the weekend. The historical backdrop is the Suez Crisis which earned the future Prime Minister of Canada, Lester Pearson, the Nobel Prize for “saving the world.” I wondered who would play his character. John Lithgow’s portrayal of Churchill in Season one was captivating. Surely someone of
- [What to do when the door to the status quo opens slightly](https://aletmanski.com/impact/door-status-quo-opens-slightly/) - There are times when you manage to open the door to the status quo ever so slightly. By status quo, I refer to those organizations and institutions (foundations, big budget non-profits, universities, government ministries, health systems, police departments and so on) who have power and resources to back up their perspective and mandate. Don't be deceived.
- [I Felt Your Outrage](https://aletmanski.com/impact/i-felt-your-outrage/) - I felt your outrage. It exploded full blast. Catching me sitting at the back of the room. Unaware. Me, who neither shares your experience or your identity. Me, who you accuse of privilege. Who can never be one of you. Why me? Can’t you see that I am a lot like you? Of course, you can’t.
- [First Leap, Bold; Second Leap, Wild](https://aletmanski.com/impact/first-leap-bold-second-leap-wild/) - That first bold leap usually lands you right at the front of the status quo but not very far ahead of it. That’s because you are carrying the lethargy of the past and the momentum of outmoded approaches on your shoulders. And why you often land on a slippery slope that is tilting backward. If
- [Making Peace with the Unforgivable](https://aletmanski.com/impact/making-peace-unforgivable/) - On November 11th we are asked to remember those who gave their lives fighting for peace. How could we not forget? Armed conflict, brutality, violence, torture, abuse and killing continue. We’re exposed to it daily. Most of us indirectly through the media. What do we do with our fear? Our outrage? Our “eye for an
- [Wild Rose, Wild Mind](https://aletmanski.com/impact/wild-rose-wild-mind/) - Innovations from Alberta have broken many of the molds that have trapped Canadians within the momentum of outmoded approaches. Think Chief Crowfoot, think the Famous Five and the Persons case. Think its predecessor, the United Farm Women of Alberta. Think Preston Manning and the Reform Movement. Think many things in the disability field. (During my
- [The Injustice of Acting Boldly](https://aletmanski.com/impact/injustice-acting-boldly/) - What do Cindy Blackstock, Martin Luther King Jr., Barb Goode (disability leader), Emily Murphy, Nelly McClung (plus other members of the Famous Five), Cicely Saunders (founder of hospice), Malala Yousafzai, Muhammad Yunus, Ann Livingston (co-founder VANDU), Rachel Carson, Chief Big Bear, and Marian Tompson (co-founder, La Leche League) have in common? They have all been mocked,
- [From a Stretch to a Leap – Collaborating With the Enemy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/stretch-leap-collaborating-enemy/) - The promise of Adam Kahane’s latest book Collaborating With the Enemy is a stretch for me. First, there’s my preference for collaborations that I’m in charge of and partnerships that report to me! Then there’s my tendency to slam my adversaries. Actually, the thought of working with them is more than a stretch. It’s a
- [Inspector Gamache’s Recipe for Boldness](https://aletmanski.com/impact/inspector-gamaches-recipe-boldness/) - Dear Reader - After a stimulating working vacation in Australia I'm bursting with new content. To make up for my silence these past few weeks I will publish on Mondays as well as my usual Thursdays for the next little while. Feel free to delete. You can always find the posts on my website. Thanks Al
- [You can Learn a lot about SociaI Innovation by paying attention to the World of Disability](https://aletmanski.com/impact/can-learn-lot-sociai-innovation-paying-attention-world-disability/) - It is no surprise innovations abound in the world of disability. They comprise the largest minority group in the world, 1.2 Billion. When you factor in parents, siblings, other relatives as well as friends and caring professionals the minority tilts in favour of a small majority. Having spent the past 15 years in the field
- [Are You a Collector or a Converter?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/are-you-a-collector-or-a-converter/) - Are you constantly on the alert for the “next big thing” or “one more thing?” Do you have thousands of names in your data base? Is your bookshelf brimming with the latest books from your chosen field? Do you pride yourself on reading all the reports that appear in your inbox? Are you exhaustive in
- [Piece of My Heart - Songs in the Key of Change (2)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/passionate-amateur/piece-of-my-heart-songs-in-the-key-of-change-2/) - Watching the video of Melissa Etheridge’s 2005 Grammy tribute to Janis Joplin always starts me shimmering. She performs Piece of My Heart mere days after her last chemo treatment for breast cancer. Melissa is bald. Too tired to move around, as she usually does, she stands radiant and defiant. (Watch the video or Listen to
- [You Don’t Need a Weatherman…](https://aletmanski.com/impact/you-dont-need-a-weatherman/) - You don't need a weatherman to know which way the winds are blowing. Including the cultural winds. (A nod to Bob Dylan for this tip.) A shift in the cultural winds can affect your outlook and sense of possibility as surely as the weather. Especially if you’ve been dealing with headwinds far too long. Fortunately for change-makers,
- [Time for a Charter of Human Obligations](https://aletmanski.com/impact/time-for-a-charter-of-human-obligations/) - I count myself among those Canadians in awe of anything written by Simone Weil, the French philosopher, mystic and political activist. The philosopher/theologian, George Grant (Lament for a Nation) put Weil beside the four gospels as his highest moral authority. He felt unworthy to interpret or critique her writing, only to summarize for the sole
- [American Tune](https://aletmanski.com/impact/american-tune/) - I posted the following piece in September 2012 before the US Presidential election. It was a riff on Paul Simon’s 1973 song American Tune. American Tune was itself a riff on a JS Bach hymn from St. Mathew’s Passion. Simon’s meditation on America’s political malaise is sadly even more relevant today. The Statue of Liberty
- [Sarah Palin and Naomi Klein have at least One Thing in Common](https://aletmanski.com/impact/sarah-palin-and-naomi-klein-have-at-least-one-thing-in-common/) - The belief that caring brings out the best in people. My mother’s stroke was a really formative moment in my life and I think because of it I have been attuned to seeing other expressions of that. When I started to write about crisis in The Shock Doctrine, it was with a sense that these moments
- [Words – A Matter of Love and Death](https://aletmanski.com/impact/words-a-matter-of-love-and-death/) - Words are fascinating. They convey both meaning and misunderstanding. The more exact their meaning the more useful they are. The Inuit people who live in Northern Canada, for example, have at least 50 words for snow and ice. They have words for ‘softly falling snow’ and ‘wet snow that ices the runners of a sleigh,’
- [The Face of the "Other"](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-face-of-the-other/) - I wrote recently about the importance of making face-to-face connection a priority if you want to make the world a better place. This shifts the focus of social activism, innovation and entrepreneurship from something abstract or statistically verifiable to something more powerful, a relationship. A genuine relationship, with the “Other,” with people you don’t know
- [Systems Change Won’t Happen Without a Resurrection of the Ordinary](https://aletmanski.com/impact/systems-change-wont-happen-without-a-resurrection-of-the-ordinary/) - Systems change is code for dealing with root causes, not symptoms. For widespread, as opposed to, piecemeal reform. For transforming our structures of governance and commerce. For dealing with all aspects of a particular challenge – from its origins to its negative impact on people and the environment. Systems change also addresses the cultural dimensions
- [History's Omission – Caregivers](https://aletmanski.com/impact/historys-ommission-caregivers/) - History isn’t only written by the victors. It’s also written by the unmindful. At least if you are a caregiver. Historians have consigned who they are and what they do to nothingness. Can you imagine discovering, inventing, negotiating, politicking, conquering, deal-making and innovating without the assurance and security that someone is tending to your children,
- [Jean Vanier – Bearer of the Beams of Love](https://aletmanski.com/impact/jean-vanier-bearer-of-the-beams-of-love/) - Jean Vanier is a Canadian philosopher, theologian and peacemaker who shines his light on the practical steps that anyone can take to make the world a better place. His wisdom is cultivated from soil that is a thousand joys and sorrows deep. I first heard him speak when I was a young university student and
- [Tend to your Garden of Values](https://aletmanski.com/impact/tend-to-your-garden-of-values/) - The ideas and values that shaped Canada grew from rocky soil, long cold winters, clouds of mosquitoes, dense stands of timber and volumes of water. Ideas about getting along and helping each other out. About appreciating our modest place amidst Creation’s infinite grandeur. About living in harmony with each other and the natural world. A
- [Caring is the Common Ground of Democracy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/caring-is-the-common-ground-of-democracy/) - Barrack Obama, in a thoughtful reflective conversation with my favourite American writer Marilynne Robinson, said that his biggest frustration as a politician was not being able to close the gap between the basic decency and essential goodness of the American people when he met them one on one and their behaviour when partisan political lines
- [Tender Loving Rage](https://aletmanski.com/impact/tender-loving-rage/) - If this was Calcutta you’d think Mother Teresa. If it was a place by the river in old Montreal, you’d think Suzanne who shows you how to act amidst the garbage and the flowers. In Vancouver, think Ann Livingston. Until I met her I didn’t think it was possible for rage to co-exist with anything,
- [Solution Based Activists Start Your Engines](https://aletmanski.com/impact/solution-based-activists-start-your-engines/) - It's election season in British Columbia and in a number of other places – Nova Scotia, Britain, South Korea and France. Which is a timely reminder that a particularly good time for activists to present their policy solutions is immediately after an election. Regardless of whether your vote counted or your issue was a hot topic
- [The Hidden Geniuses Who Always Figure Things Out](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-hidden-geniuses-who-always-figure-things-out/) - There is a special class of geniuses who has a unique capacity to turn adversity into creativity when they love. Their reaction to a seemingly impossible challenge or obstacle is inevitably, “We’ll figure something out.” This has led, for example, to a Centre for Forgiveness at the scene of a tragic and senseless murder, pop-up
- [We Believe: Manifestos, Creeds and other Declarations](https://aletmanski.com/impact/we-believe-manifestos-creeds-and-other-declarations/) - Manifestos, creeds and declarations are making a comeback. The Leap Manifesto – A Call for a Canada Based on Caring for the Earth and One Another continues to make waves. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's controversial manifesto presents fifteen suggestions for raising a feminist. Michael J. Fox offers 6 Rules for Surviving Adversity (they’re well worth reading even
- [Forget Your Perfect Offering](https://aletmanski.com/impact/forget-your-perfect-offering/) - Forget your perfect offering, advised Leonard Cohen. There will always be another shiny concept or tool so much better than the ones you currently use. And consultants, who describe a perfect world within reach should you decide to hire them. And fundraisers, who already have money in the bag ready to be released the moment
- [P(reaching) Beyond the Choir](https://aletmanski.com/impact/preaching-beyond-the-choir/) - The real choice isn’t between preaching to your choir or preaching to the choir that is competing with you. That’s one minority group, coalition or movement preaching past another minority group, coalition or movement. Your messages are pretty well scripted and rehearsed. And you are too busy preaching to listen to what the other preacher
- [Axing Alarming Adverbs – The LY Pledge](https://aletmanski.com/impact/axing-alarming-adverbs-the-ly-pledge/) - Toni Morrison, the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner started it – The LY Pledge – to lessen the unbearably excessive use of adverbs in political debate. Morrison’s adverb usage rate is the lowest of any of the world’s greatest writers, including Hemingway. Her adverb rate of 76 edges out Hemingway’s 80, and puts her exceedingly well ahead of
- [The Lakehead of Democracy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-lakehead-of-democracy/) - When I was growing up there were a couple of small sized cities at the head of Lake Superior named Port Arthur and Fort Williams. Everyone referred to them affectionately as the “Lakehead.” Including the people who lived there. The time came to amalgamate the cities. The choice of names seemed obvious. There was a
- [Stash Your Plan in the Cutlery Drawer](https://aletmanski.com/impact/stash-your-plan-in-the-cutlery-drawer/) - Imagine a restaurant review that focused exclusively on the cutlery on the table. "What about the meal?” you would ask. Indeed. Knives and forks aren’t the meal. They are merely a means to a hopefully delicious end. Sadly in the social justice world there is too much focus on tools and processes. The biggest culprit
- [Take a Leap – Take a Bold Leap](https://aletmanski.com/impact/take-a-leap-take-a-bold-leap/) - The formal system not working for you? Ensnared in its lethargy? Drifting in the momentum of its outmoded approach? Then take a leap. Not onto what exists. Wrestling once more with its inefficiencies. Trying to make a silk’s purse out of a sow’s ear. But over, completely over all that frustrating incrementalism. Create something breathtakingly
- [Shannen’s Dream](https://aletmanski.com/impact/shannens-dream/) - Sadly, Shannen Koostachin will never make the list of the greatest women in Canada. Not because she wouldn’t deserve it – she led one of the biggest youth-led children’s rights campaigns in Canada – but because she died in a car accident when she was just 15. Fittingly she was recently included in a list
- [It’s Good to be Lost](https://aletmanski.com/impact/its-good-to-be-lost/) - One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was to not make any decisions. Not because I didn’t want to but because I didn’t know what I was dealing with. It was a disorienting experience. I had come from a job where for years I made dozens of decisions daily . They weren’t all
- [What a meeting between a PM and a Prez can teach you about advancing your agenda](https://aletmanski.com/impact/what-a-meeting-between-a-pm-and-a-prez-can-teach-you-about-advancing-your-agenda/) - Especially when you are meeting for the first time with people who are distracted by their own priorities and indifferent to yours. Whose worldview appears different than yours. Whose behavior you may abhor. Who have considerably more power than you do. Who have the potential to cause harm to your membership or constituency. And who you
- [Tough Love](https://aletmanski.com/impact/tough-love/) - Here’s a little Valentine’s essay for all the caring change-makers out there, especially those whose efforts are ignored or misunderstood. Marrying love with justice isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes an open heart to fall in love with the mystery and brokenness of your challenges and to make, as the author Anne Michaels
- [Careful, shaming spreads](https://aletmanski.com/impact/careful-shaming-spreads/) - In Prince Edward Island where I spent many a happy summer, the Island went silent on Sundays, especially in the morning and particularly if you were Catholic. Everyone was at church. Or at least they should have been. No one was supposed to work. But, as I was to discover, many did. The hay was
- [The Math of Advocacy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-math-of-advocacy/) - A critical feature of advocacy, whether on behalf of individuals or to advance public policy, is to maintain momentum especially when you have been going uphill far too long. Momentum signals to the folks in the system you are dealing with that you are not going away. It also helps to keep your issue at
- [Have a Little Faith](https://aletmanski.com/impact/have-a-little-faith/) - That thing that happened to the south of us? Smart, caring people are dealing with it. In fact, they have been dealing with it for some time. David Bornstein has been covering it. John McKnight has been inspiring it. Along with countless others. What can we do about it? Not much if we don’t live
- [The Splendour and Isolation of Martin Luther King Jr.](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-splendour-and-isolation-of-martin-luther-king-jr/) - I remember the shock of seeing Martin Luther King Jr’s tomb for the first time. I had just emerged from the King Center on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta not too far from where he once lived and preached. Inside oozed with honey and warmth. A silhouetted history of Dr. King rippled from the rafters. The
- [Flight of the “Ordinaries”](https://aletmanski.com/impact/flight-of-the-ordinaries/) - My regular walk takes me along a dyke beside a fen that should not be there. It exists because one neighbour called another. She happened to be a Mom with a new baby and rushed with her babe in arms to stand in front of the tree cutters and earthmovers. From there they rallied the
- [Peace You Can Count On](https://aletmanski.com/impact/peace-you-can-count-on/) - In early October 2016, thousands of Jewish and Arab women began a two week March of Hope walking from the banks of the Jordan River near Jericho, to Jerusalem. Their purpose – a viable peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. The culmination of the march was a rally on Oct. 19th in front of Prime
- [Angels](https://aletmanski.com/impact/angels/) - This post isn’t about the alarming number of British Columbians who are dying of drug overdoses. It is about those who didn't die because of the angels who saved their lives. These angels, there’s no other word for them, rapidly responded months before the formal system did. And they continue to do so even as
- [The New Underground Railroad](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-new-underground-railroad/) - I’ve written previously about a world class innovation by Canadian citizens that inspired a new approach to refugee sponsorship. This social innovation emerged in the 1970’s because the Canadian government couldn’t keep pace with the groundswell of Canadians who wanted to help Vietnamese boat people settle in Canada. The government responded by creating a new
- [Percolators](https://aletmanski.com/impact/percolators/) - Behind successful change-makers are people: who bubble with enthusiasm for the idea you want to explore who say, “Why not?” and offer another dozen reasons why you should try it who see the majesty in what you are proposing who can’t imagine anyone finer than you to deal with the “slings and arrows of outrageous
- [If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/if-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-it/) - “My name is Liz and I have Down syndrome.” She strode onto the stage without notes, without preparation, and seemingly without a care. A hundred pairs of eyes were anticipating her spoken word poetry performance. A recipe for disaster. A disaster that I had tried to prevent from the moment she was born. It was
- [Artist in Residence](https://aletmanski.com/impact/artist-in-residence/) - I’ve had the pleasure of seeing what happens when non-profit and social change-oriented groups hook up with artists on specific projects. The results include: New perspectives on challenges that have resisted previous efforts Solutions people wouldn’t have otherwise have thought of A release of creative energy within the groups and organizations. The question occurs; What
- [The Social Finance Deal that Keeps on Giving](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-social-finance-deal-that-keeps-on-giving/) - Take two geniuses. The one, Bob Williams, who many consider to be the “social, environmental and economic architect” of modern British Columbia. The other, internationally renowned architect, Bing Thom. Present them with a high-rise mall in decline in an area of Surrey surrounded by abandoned buildings and boarded-up storefronts. And you get Surrey Central City,
- [Meditations for Mindful Impact](https://aletmanski.com/impact/meditations-for-mindful-impact/) - What worked in the past won’t necessarily work in the present. What works in the present won't necessarily work in the future. What will work in the future depends on the past. EH! An obsession with ‘present mindedness’ wipes out concerns about past or future. (Harold Innis) Musical accompaniment this post "Don't Be Afraid" by Tami
- [I See Your Margaret Mead and Raise you Ten.](https://aletmanski.com/impact/i-see-your-margaret-mead-and-raise-you-ten/) - That’s a quote from a recent Margaret Atwood interview. She then went on to propose a qualifier to that famous Margaret Mead quote. You know the one “Never doubt that a small group of people...” Here is Ms. Atwood’s proviso: A large, small group of people. And her reasoning: I think a small group of
- [Have Patience Policy Analysts, Souls are Stirring](https://aletmanski.com/impact/have-patience-policy-analysts-souls-are-stirring/) - Momentum is building to reduce poverty. Multiple strands and strategies are evident: fair wage, minimum wage, welfare reform, financial literacy, Cities Reducing Poverty When Mayors Lead, affordable housing, economic development, enshrining social and economic rights in our Charter and more... The most recent entrant is Basic Income, an approach I’ve been following since the successful
- [30th Anniversary of the Other 'Persons' Case](https://aletmanski.com/impact/30th-anniversary-of-the-other-persons-case/) - Here's a story about cultural impact that too few people know about. The "Eve" Supreme Court ruling which is on a par with the original, “Persons” case. Imagine being a young woman who society moves swiftly by. A society, if it sees you at all, sees you as an object of pity and charity. A society
- [Tale of Two Cities](https://aletmanski.com/impact/tale-of-two-cities/) - I moved to Halifax lured by its legendary bluenose charm. I expected to spend my evenings with Haligonians from every walk of life singing and dancing to live fiddle music at my local pub. I visited Portland because everybody knows it’s a cool, livable city where sharing a crafted beer while talking about innovation is
- [Pilot Infatuation](https://aletmanski.com/impact/pilot-infatuation/) - Former Canadian Minister of Health, Monique Bégin once lamented that Canada is a country of perpetual pilot projects. She was referring to the fact that we can't seem to get off the pilot project treadmill. Perhaps we are perfectionists. Maybe we are trying to be fair by sprinkling limited resources to as many people as possible. Or
- [The Force That Bounces the World](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-force-that-bounces-the-world/) - This may be the easiest assignment Vickie and I have ever had. The good folks at the Plan and Tamarack Institutes have asked us to host a webinar series on the ingenuity of people with disabilities and their families. Easy, because innovation is the core competency of people with disabilities and their families. We know this because Vickie
- [Political Boldness Requires Strong Movements](https://aletmanski.com/impact/political-boldness-requires-strong-movements/) - Q. What do you do when a government you didn’t vote for, or don’t like, lives up to its promises? A. Nurture and strengthen the movement(s) you are part of. Q. What do you do when a government you voted for, or like, doesn’t live up to its promises? A. Nurture and strengthen the movement(s)
- [Transforming Capitalism versus Democratizing the Economy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/transforming-capitalism-versus-democratizing-the-economy/) - There is a hardy breed of activists who have set themselves the rather lofty goal of civilizing capitalism. This renaissance of capitalism will be achieved by reinventing businesses and corporations, transforming markets, recreating Wall Street, and humanizing investments. Capitalism’s purpose, they contend, will shift from excessive profits and growth at any cost to achieving social
- [The Plot Thickens](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-plot-thickens/) - Ever heard of a wicked problem? It’s a challenge that has no borders and attracts as many unanswerable questions as solutions. There are a lot of wicked problems out there. They are tough, stubborn, deep. And their roots are intertwined with connections to other seemingly insurmountable challenges. Think abuse. Violence. Loneliness. Poverty. Climate change.
- [Words Matter – Theirs and Ours](https://aletmanski.com/impact/words-matter-theirs-and-ours/) - “The beautiful word begets the beautiful deed,” wrote Thomas Mann. This is a lesson I, along with many others, struggle with. Our advocacy words don’t always live up to our advocacy ideals. Somehow we think we can denigrate, ridicule, shame and mock those in authority and they will ignore the barbs. Not only that, we
- [Indigenous Wisdom and Peacemaking](https://aletmanski.com/impact/indigenous-wisdom-and-peacemaking/) - The following piece is adapted from a blog essay I wrote for Social Innovation Exchange (SIX). SIX is a global curator of social innovation. They are issuing a series of blogs on peacemaking in advance of their annual Summit which will be held October 5th - 7th in Columbia. Their theme: Social Innovation in Divided
- [A Marriage of Playground and Podium](https://aletmanski.com/impact/a-marriage-of-playground-and-podium/) - On the surface it wasn’t a match made in heaven, a Quebec ethicist and a former Olympic athlete. One committed to participation in sport for the sheer joy of it. The other focused on athletic competition with a laser focus on winning. Yet the beautiful music they and others created transformed sport in Canada to
- [Enterprising Slums and Favelas](https://aletmanski.com/impact/enterprising-slums-and-favellas/) - One of my more embarrassing gaffes occurred while walking through the Nairobi neighbourhood of Kibera. Kibera is home to two and a half million people and is often described as the biggest slum in Africa. My escort was a woman who had lived there with her children all her life. At the end of our
- [Breathing Love into Zika](https://aletmanski.com/impact/breathing-love-into-zika/) - As the world’s gaze is fixated on Brazil’s Olympic and Paralympic games I’m struck by another gaze. The look of love by parents as they fuss over their babies infected by the Zika virus. This is in contrast to the media’s obsession with the horrors of the virus. In their eyes, the story has quickly
- [Reading Brazil](https://aletmanski.com/impact/reading-brazil/) - The glass is also half full in Brazil. Ingenuity and insight in the face of adversity abound. So don’t be dismayed or overwhelmed by the proliferation of tales from the half empty glass. Of course, serious, longstanding challenges exist. But like everywhere else Brazilians aren’t standing idly by. And like everywhere else not much will
- [Beyond the Olympics/Paralympics – 5 World Class Brazilian Social Movements](https://aletmanski.com/impact/beyond-the-olympicsparalympics-5-world-class-brazilian-social-movements/) - There is a lot to learn from Brazil’s social movements. Its citizens have been largely left to their own devices to deal with 500 years of pillaging and the resultant inequity and disparity. Brazil is so much more than the stories that will be circulating during the Paralympic/Olympic games. What will likely be missing is
- [The Long Now of Impact](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-long-now-of-impact/) - Impact can be assessed programmatically or culturally. It can be measured with statistics and numbers or by chronicling shifts in habits, beliefs and values. It can also be gauged using the clock of the long now. That’s what the former Premier of China, Zhou Enlai did when asked about the historic impact of the French
- [Many are cold… but few are frozen](https://aletmanski.com/impact/many-are-cold-but-few-are-frozen/) - Those words by the exquisite writer Anne Michaels provide a glimpse into the source of Canada’s ingenuity. You can’t understand Canada without understanding that you are never very far from winter here. Our ingenuity comes from snow, ice and a harsh cold climate. Yes, it is warming. But it is still pretty cold in most places
- [It’s Not Easy Being Seen](https://aletmanski.com/impact/its-not-easy-being-seen/) - As a cyclist I have come to realize that community organizers, social entrepreneurs and innovators share a common fear with bike riders – NOT BEING SEEN. The result of not being seen are derailments, detours and other disasters. They undermine your momentum and threaten your pride and joy. Even though you have something substantial there
- [I Shall Not Hate](https://aletmanski.com/impact/i-shall-not-hate/) - This is a good time to remember how much we can learn from the peacemakers among us. Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish In 2008 during an Israeli air strike, two rockets smashed into the bedroom of Dr. Abuelaish’s daughters at their Gaza home. Three of his eight daughters were killed along with his niece. Here is his
- [ABCD is the new E=mc<sup>2</sup>](https://aletmanski.com/impact/abcd-is-the-new-e-mc-2/) - I’ve been a community organizer for most of my life. I only began to understand what I could be doing after hearing John McKnight speak about Asset Based Community Development. (ABCD) This led to a lifelong friendship with John and an invitation to be part of his ABCD faculty at Northwestern. There is a lot
- [Drive a stake through it](https://aletmanski.com/impact/drive-a-stake-through-it/) - As satisfying as your new project or initiative is, there is no rule that states it has to continue. In its current form at least. Not everything is useful forever. Including organizations and coalitions. At some point, you will reach a crossroads. Either stake down your territory and make it more or less permanent. Or
- [Loving Strangers – A Vital Source of Social Innovation](https://aletmanski.com/impact/loving-strangers-a-vital-source-of-social-innovation/) - 65,000 Vietnamese boat people were welcomed to Canada in 1979. More than half of them were privately sponsored by community groups.In fact, so strong was the outpouring of caring that the Canadian government had to invent a system for private refugee sponsorship that was and is unique in the world. Private refugee sponsorship is yet
- [The Loneliness of the Long Distance Advocate](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-loneliness-of-the-long-distance-advocate/) - I was asked to present at two different events recently which were organized to discuss major policy reform. Ironically the individuals responsible for 'encouraging' the discussion were not in attendance. In answer to 'why?' the response was, "They would be too disruptive." Well well. This would be amusing if it wasn't so unfortunate. Among many things,
- [Never Again](https://aletmanski.com/impact/never-again/) - "Making sure it never happens again" is such a potent source of social innovation. This combination of necessity and love is a force of nature. Particularly when it emerges from the hands and hearts of Moms. I see it all the time. I bet you do too. Here are three all-too-short illustrations. Consider the work
- [Recipe for ‘Unlaunches’ and other Unlikely Gatherings](https://aletmanski.com/impact/recipe-for-unlaunches-and-other-unlikely-gatherings/) - In answer to the question, “What’s an unlaunch?” here’s a favourite recipe. Find a local sponsor willing to become an alchemist – sharing, blending, experimenting… Choose a room that will enlarge people's spirits Decorate the room with flowers, branches, boughs, rocks, candles, paintings, balloons... Involve local singers, musicians, poets, spoken word artists, dancers, comedians... Select
- [Angers I Have Known](https://aletmanski.com/impact/angers-i-have-known/) - There are plenty of good reasons to be angry at the social and environmental state of the world. Here are six types of anger I’m acquainted with. Wounded bird – Anger is camouflaged as weakness. Expects others to play along. Chip on shoulder – Anyone in authority must be challenged. Anytime. Over anything. Dragon slayer
- [Never Underestimate the Power of Air Miles in the Hands of an Accidental Activist](https://aletmanski.com/impact/never-underestimate-the-power-of-air-miles-in-the-hands-of-an-accidental-activist/) - Particularly if that person is Donald MacPherson. In the late 1990’s a neighbourhood in Vancouver was known as the Killing Fields because of its high overdose death rate (nearly 200 in 1998 alone.) Starting today (April 19th, 2016) the UN General Assembly (UNGASS) is convening a landmark session to kickstart a global rethink on the war
- [Imagine a Country Where No One Is Poor](https://aletmanski.com/impact/imagine-a-country-where-no-one-is-poor/) - Imagine a country where kids don’t have to go to school hungry. Imagine there are no homeless people. Imagine working for a living and not having to rely on food banks. More than one hundred Canadian Mayors and Councilors do. So do Paul Born and Mark Holmgren. Paul founded Vibrant Communities Canada and Mark is
- [Bricks and Mortar](https://aletmanski.com/impact/bricks-and-mortar/) - It’s been almost a year since I released my third book, Impact. It has sold well and I’m having lots of fun travelling around and meeting social innovators. There have been many surprises. One was a recent call from google Canada. Apparently there has been a surge in searches for the word ‘impact’ in Canada
- [The Journey to Transformation Starts with a Resurrection of the Ordinary](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-journey-to-transformation-starts-with-a-resurrection-of-the-ordinary/) - There is a great deal of caring, conserving, creating, innovating, entrepreneuring, protecting, advocating for all life on earth (human, plant and animal) that is done by so-called ordinary people. A quick scan of my friends and neighbours reveals C. who has been growing organic lettuce and greens for 15 years; P. a young mom of
- [Story Money Impact](https://aletmanski.com/impact/story-money-impact/) - So much going on. Each of the following deserves more attention. Ever wonder about the health of documentary filmmaking? Its financing? Its commitment to social justice? Its ‘competitors amidst Youtube, Vimeo and other emerging social platforms? Tracey Friesen has done more than that. She has left her job as a respected NFB producer to ensure
- [Social Change is Enlightened by Love](https://aletmanski.com/impact/social-change-is-enlightened-by-love/) - People care more deeply about our social and environmental challenges than we realize. One of the reasons our initiatives don’t have the impact we’d like is because there aren’t enough people falling in love with them. There are three possible reasons: We aren’t in love with the issue ourselves – its mystery, its brokenness its
- [Fear and Loathing and Social Change](https://aletmanski.com/impact/fear-and-loathing-and-social-change/) - Perpetuating fear, shame or loathing can backfire on you. They beget more of the same. They give people a chance to avoid changing. Why? Because change means risk and risk evokes fear. This pretty much guarantees your message and hard work won't spread. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed but it does change form. There
- [A Robust Society is a Feminist Society](https://aletmanski.com/impact/a-robust-society-is-a-feminist-society/) - Feminist as in women and men making the world a better place together. As in honouring all life. As in being able to do more than one thing at the same time such as taking care of our children, families, food, fish, air and birds while also taking care of our economy. As in understanding
- [When Einstein’s Scared I’m Scared](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/when-einsteins-scared-im-scared/) - That line from the anti-nuclear bomb folksong “Atomic Talking Blues” has been swirling around my brain since the release of recommendations by the joint Parliamentary Committee on physician-assisted dying. The song refers to Einstein’s sober conclusion that we are not as smart as we think we are about scientific advancements particularly those that take us
- [Unleashing the Okanagan –  Ten Noteworthy Social Innovations](https://aletmanski.com/impact/unleashing-the-okanagan-ten-noteworthy-social-innovations/) - Few would deny the importance of geography, soil composition, climate, sunlight and other growing conditions to produce memorable wine. In wine making this is, of course, referred to as ‘terroir’. The Okanagan Valley of British Columbia has a fine grasp of its ‘terroir.’ The wine it produces is so good virtually all of it is
- [Social innovation isn’t a matter of choice for many people](https://aletmanski.com/impact/social-innovation-isnt-a-matter-of-choice-for-many-people/) - It’s a matter of survival. A major source of social innovation is rooted in the challenges of ordinary life. Our creativity when faced with a predicament, defines us as a species. It’s not a specialty reserved for a few. People’s ingenuity and resilience enable them to survive, revive and thrive. For example: Indigenous people have
- [Beware of the Status Quo Values of Social Technologies](https://aletmanski.com/impact/beware-of-the-status-quo-values-of-social-technologies/) - I’ve heard Nora Young the smart host of CBC's Spark end her radio show with the wish that her listeners understand that all technologies come embedded with values and assumptions. Furthermore, she emphasizes, those values are those of the dominant culture. Young is part of a grand tradition of Canadian thinkers who have cautioned about the
- [Eight Questions for Thinking and Acting Like a Movement](https://aletmanski.com/impact/eight-questions-for-thinking-and-acting-like-a-movement/) - Profound social change requires movements. Movements open our hearts and minds. They create the favourable political conditions for legislative change, resource allocation and policy shifts. The recent Paris Climate Agreement would not have happened without a global, grassroots climate movement decades in the making. Social movements do two things much better than other forms of
- [Mother D’Youville – A Woman of Note](https://aletmanski.com/impact/mother-dyouville-a-woman-of-note/) - Canada’s Finance Minister says he wants to feature more women on Canadian banknotes. Seizing the opportunity, CBC’s radio show DNTO asked listeners to nominate women they would like to see on the $20.00 bill. I doubt anyone would disagree with the worthiness of any of the 7000 suggestions. They might also agree that the list was
- [I Had to be Hurt into Becoming Better...](https://aletmanski.com/impact/i-had-to-be-hurt-into-becoming-better/) - I'm lucky that the fractures, failures and cracks of my life have been good for me. Good for my character, good for my relationships, good for my change-making. However, I had to be hurt into becoming a better person and in turn, a better change-maker. By better I simply mean less righteous, less certain, less
- [Box(ed) Thinking](https://aletmanski.com/impact/boxed-thinking/) - By my calculation I’ve used the phrase ‘thinking outside the box’ 963 times. I’m not alone. Thinking outside the box has become synonymous with the creativity required to solve society’s tough challenges. For the number of us thinking outside the box you’d think there would be nobody left inside. And that would be a shame.
- [Songs in the Key of Change (1)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/container-content/songs-in-the-key-of-change-1/) - I can’t imagine a world without rhythm and harmony. CS Lewis went so far as to imagine the world of Narnia sung into creation. In The Magician’s Nephew, Polly and Digory find themselves in a darkness so cold and dry it was “uncommonly like Nothing.” It was so dark that it made no difference whether
- [Compulsive Novelty Hyperactivity Disorder](https://aletmanski.com/impact/compulsive-novelty-hyperactivity-disorder/) - I have a condition I’ve been struggling with over a lifetime. I’ve noticed that I am not alone. Symptoms include: Faith that novelty and innovation are enough to surmount every social and environmental challenge Head down focus on perfecting the invention Disinterest in others who are working on the same challenge Reluctance to build on
- [The Art of Disruption](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-art-of-disruption/) - “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of the imagination” The truth of the above assertion by poet John Keats shone brightly for me in 2015. By far the most enjoyable and moving events I was associated with included singers, musicians and spoken word poets. It got
- [Grace](https://aletmanski.com/impact/grace/) - Grace comes, but not often, and you don’t get to say when or how. - Helen Macdonald author H is for Hawk I didn’t recognize her at first. The ceremony was over and people were milling about. She appeared to be heading directly toward me. The determined look in her eyes took me back decades to
- [Economic Citizenship - Setting the post-RDSP agenda](https://aletmanski.com/impact/economic-citizenship-setting-the-post-rdsp-agenda/) - The Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) enables Canadians with disabilities to do something most of us take for granted, save money. Already the accumulated amount in registered plans across Canada exceeds $2 billion. By itself, this is not enough to reduce one of the biggest handicaps experienced by people with disabilities, poverty. However, the RDSP
- [A New Media Cocktail - 10 Alternatives to Mainstream Media](https://aletmanski.com/impact/a-new-media-cocktail-10-alternatives-to-mainstream-media/) - I severed my connections to mainstream media because: It does not cover the indispensable and abundant happenings of civil society. Civil society is where problem-solving to make the world a better place takes place every day, everywhere and by just about everyone. It is preoccupied with politics, economics and sports. And these are dominated by
- [Impact – Ability (in honour of International Day of Persons with Disabilities)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/impact-ability-in-honour-of-international-day-of-persons-with-disabilities/) - Not surprisingly, folks with a disability, their families, friends and supporters are determined to make the world a better place for all people with disability. We also understand that in doing so we are making the world a better place for everyone. We seek impact. Not short term impact. But impact that lasts and sustains
- [“Encyclopedia House”](https://aletmanski.com/impact/encyclopedia-house/) - The house pictured here stands amidst a grove of trees in the Newton community of Surrey, British Columbia, my hometown. The ‘bricks’ are mainly encyclopedias, textbooks and reference books. All were discarded, unwanted and destined for the dump until celebrated artist Don Li-Leger rescued them. Like all communities, Surrey has its fair share of challenges.
- [The restaurant where I work is right around the corner from the Bataclan…](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-restaurant-where-i-work-is-right-around-the-corner-from-the-bataclan/) - Dear family and friends, I wanted to let you know I am fine and that I am thinking of you all. The events of Friday night have left me weary. My heart is broken. Pas de Loup, the restaurant where I work is right around the corner from the Bataclan, the concert hall that was at the
- [My Challenge with Introducing Social Innovation to Indigenous Communities](https://aletmanski.com/impact/my-challenge-with-introducing-social-innovation-to-indigenous-communities/) - A remarkable event is taking place in Winnipeg next week – Canada’s first ever Indigenous Innovation Summit. I wasn’t certain whether I should accept the offer to participate. What could I say that would make a difference? Everything I’ve ever read about social innovation I’ve found alive and thriving in Indigenous communities. And Indigenous people
- [The Vitality of Despair](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-vitality-of-despair/) - I came upon a fiddler on a Halifax pier just after dusk recently. He was playing a lament. The moon was already bright and sparkly yet the music transported me into a sorrowful state as it always does. Laments are slow airs written in memory of more desperate times. But they are not meant to
- [Happy Without Heroes?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/happy-without-heroes/) - It’s sad but perhaps fitting that few Canadians know of Women’s Institute. Even fewer remember Adelaide Hoodless who got it started. Sad because not too long ago Women's Institute was selected as one of the top ten social innovations in the world. You know Women's Institute, if at all, from the Helen Mirren movie Calendar
- [Top Ten New Brunswick & Nova Scotia Social Innovations](https://aletmanski.com/impact/top-ten-new-brunswick-nova-scotia-social-innovations/) - My soul is Maritime infused. My earliest memory is of tap dancing as a toddler to Don Messer’s Jubilee on the radio. My Mother was a Prince Edward Islander. I cut my community and political organizing teeth in Halifax. Scents, sounds, scenes and songs from the Maritimes mingle delightfully in my memory. Springtime driving along
- [Peace Is Our Time](https://aletmanski.com/impact/peace-is-our-time/) - Canada is a country with deep peacemaking roots. We were welcomed in peace by First Nations and aboriginal people, although we seriously betrayed their hospitality and trust. Many of the early French explorers were humanists who sought a land where they could practice tolerance and live in diversity. Our commonwealth heritage emphasizes our responsibilities to
- [Wanted: Social Entrepreneur Book Publisher](https://aletmanski.com/impact/wanted-social-entrepreneur-book-publisher/) - It’s been a busy book-publishing year for me. My new book, Impact: Six Patterns to Spread Your Social Innovation was published in April. In addition, two expanded versions of my first book, Safe and Secure were published – one in British Columbia, the other just recently in England. There are now 12 editions of Safe and
- [Take Us to the Limit](https://aletmanski.com/impact/take-us-to-the-limit/) - A new breed of social change activists has emerged that wants us to become comfortable with complexity, chaos, uncertainty and ambiguity. They contend, and I agree, that we no longer live in a world where we know exactly where we are going. Instead of going from A to B. We are going from A to
- [Salt, Seed and Taking Care](https://aletmanski.com/impact/salt-seed-and-taking-care/) - Ghandhi’s first act of civil disobedience was aimed at the British Salt Tax. Salt was deeply symbolic to Ghandhi. “Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life,” he said. He understood that an item of everyday use would resonate more than an abstract demand for greater political rights. Vandana Shiva is
- [Caring Makes the World go Round](https://aletmanski.com/impact/caring-makes-the-world-go-round/) - There is a direct link between caring for each other and caring for our planet. Caring is that invisible but indispensable force that connects us to each other and to all forms of life. Caring reminds us that we belong, as Jean Vanier believes, “to the universe, to the earth, to the air, to the
- [Thinking Like a Voyageur – Prévoyance](https://aletmanski.com/impact/thinking-like-a-voyageur-prevoyance/) - Prévoyance is the ability to prepare for the unexpected in a world of uncertainty while maintaining your principles. It is a concept introduced to Canada by the great explorer Champlain. There is no English equivalent. Pity. We could use more of this ability today. Prévoyance is different from foresight, insight or hindsight. It describes the
- [Angels in the Architecture](https://aletmanski.com/impact/angels-in-the-architecture/) - I woke up the other day to a radio report that one of the parties in the election campaign will now be ‘turning its guns’ on the leader of another party. I was filled with sadness. Election campaigns are not war. Ridings are not battlegrounds. Politicians are not warriors. ‘Taking no prisoners,’ is not debate.
- [The Truth About Vulnerable](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-truth-about-vulnerable/) - Our culture is inexhaustible in its capacity to ignore the fact of our vulnerability. As a result, we are all becoming more fragile. The fashion, advertising and sports industries 'sell' perfection of the body as something we should all strive for. Transhumanism promotes the seductive belief we can transcend our mental, social and psychological limitations. Not
- [Glory Days](https://aletmanski.com/impact/glory-days/) - August 28th is the 50th anniversary of my near association with glory. I caught a perfect game for the Hearst Lumberkings. The game launched the Lumberkings on a magic season that led to the all-Ontario finals, a unique feat for a small Northern Ontario town. It was also my first experience at being seen. The
- [Without a Vision People Perish; Without a Vehicle Vision Languishes](https://aletmanski.com/impact/without-a-vision-people-perish-without-a-vehicle-vision-languishes/) - Vickie and I had a short essay about vision rejected recently. It took us a while to understand why. They wanted vision as 'content.' We imagined vision as 'vehicle.' Vickie and I agree about the importance of describing the details of a vision. The last three decades of our work has been fuelled by rethinking
- [Play the Field with Concepts but Stay Faithful to Your Ethics](https://aletmanski.com/impact/play-the-field-with-concepts-but-stay-faithful-to-your-ethics/) - By all means get to know the latest concept. Date it for a while. Allow yourself to become infatuated with its appearance of perfect possibility. I do! But don’t get too enraptured. Another concept is just around the corner. If you chart the course of your life you will find that ideas, techniques, theories and
- [A River Runs Through John](https://aletmanski.com/impact/a-river-runs-through-john/) - I wrote the following review of a new book by a new friend, Cormac Russell, about an old friend, John McKnight. For those who don't know John, he is the man who taught community organizing to Obama. And helped get him into Harvard Law school. Among numerous other achievements. A River Runs Through John There
- [What Colour is Your Flag?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/what-colour-is-your-flag-2/) - Mine is monotone peppery. There it is. High on that mountain top. Not that one. Or that one. Not that one either. Those flags belong to people who are a little naïve about social change. They tend to compromise easily. They are pretenders. Some are full of themselves. They always have to be right. If
- [Whole Systems Change is not a Rubik's Cube](https://aletmanski.com/impact/whole-systems-change-is-not-a-rubiks-cube/) - If you are inside the social innovation world you know everybody’s talking about whole systems change, If you are not, get ready. It’s bound to seep into more and more public discussions. That’s a good thing as long as we can keep it from getting complicated. Whole systems change is really a way of thinking.
- [Like Shining from Shook Foil](https://aletmanski.com/impact/like-shining-from-shook-foil/) - The title above is borrowed from a favourite poem, God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins. July 28 is his birthday and I couldn’t resist the occasion. The poem begins: The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil: It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze
- [Which comes first transforming the banking system or government?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/which-comes-first-transforming-the-banking-system-or-government/) - There is a lot of activity in the social and philanthropic sector to attract investment from banks. This pursuit is a component of what is generally referred to as social finance. Impact investment is another popular description. Many see it as a way of curbing the excesses of our banking system (remember the global financial crisis
- [Richard Steckel - the playful Social Entrepreneur](https://aletmanski.com/impact/richard-steckel-the-playful-social-entrepreneur/) - Social movements have many parents and the social enterprise movement is no exception. The first social entrepreneur in Canada for example dates back to Mother D’Youville in the early 1700's. The current manifestation of social enterprise is often attributed to Bill Drayton and Ashoka. Or the UK folks chronicled by Charles Leadbeater in The Rise
- [Reading a Case of Canada](https://aletmanski.com/impact/reading-a-case-of-canada/) - I could read a case of Canadian books and still be on my feet. The following books nurtured my understanding of this great, big, diverse, ornery, multi- textured land. Here they are from east to west. Guaranteed to hit ‘terroir’ on Canada Day and beyond. Newfoundland: The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston. A
- [Slow Change](https://aletmanski.com/impact/slow-change/) - Despite the urgency, lasting change takes much longer than we appreciate. Darn. One way to counteract our impatience is to shift from 'chronos’ to ‘kairos’ time. Chronos time is sequential time, measured by the clock and which seems to be speeding up. Kairos time bends and stretches, sometimes it even seems to stand still. Chronos
- [Montréal's Top Social Innovations](https://aletmanski.com/series/montreals-top-social-innovations/) - Ah Montréal. Thank you for your joy, vibrancy and sensual delight. Thank you for introducing pleasure to Canada's diet. You have been very patient with the rest of us. Thank you for blending the inclusiveness of Canada's first people with the humanism of Henry IV's France. You are more Samuel de Champlain than Jacques Cartier
- [Innovation is Birthed from Disorder](https://aletmanski.com/impact/innovation-is-birthed-from-disorder/) - Here's some advice for the explorer in you who desires to make the world better, particularly the young bright sparks who are just setting out. Trust all your senses. When your experience compels you to seek something different and your intuition beckons you off the beaten track, be wary of voices that try to bring
- [Stardust](https://aletmanski.com/impact/stardust/) - "Look up," said the Friendly Giant who was a staple of children's television for decades. "Look way, way up." When we hear the words "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" most of us are likely thinking they refer to the ground beneath us. More likely they refer to stardust. Nature's imagination is richer than ours. The universe
- [The Role of the Canoe in Creating Canada](https://aletmanski.com/series/the-role-of-the-canoe-in-creating-canada/) - The canoe is Canada's original and preeminent social innovation. There is no other invention that has impacted us so profoundly and for so long. The canoe defines us as Canadians. It is relevant to every nook and cranny of the country whether you are an urban or rural dweller, whether you are First Nations, settler
- [Moral Oxygen](https://aletmanski.com/impact/moral-oxygen/) - Social change can be harsh and unyielding. It can take a toll on you, your family, your friends, your colleagues and your adversaries. The sustenance for this journey comes from what Quebec philosopher and social commentator Jacques Dufresne describes as “moral oxygen.” Our bodies can’t exist without oxygen. Our souls need similar nourishment. Just as we must
- [Generation Without Boundaries](https://aletmanski.com/series/generation-without-boundaries/) - One of the many reasons I’m optimistic about the future is because we will soon be led by the first generation without boundaries. This generation is transcending traditional boundaries and shattering artificial borders. They are shaking things up and making dynamic what has become static. They are changing the way we change the world. The
- [Impact 6 is Ready to Make a Dent in the Conversation](https://aletmanski.com/series/impact-6-is-ready-to-make-a-dent-in-the-conversation/) - My new book Impact: Six Patterns to Spread Your Social Innovation is now available in print and electronic formats. Impact explores the difference between short term success and lasting impact. It will be of interest to anyone who has ever wondered why, despite our best efforts, talent and money we have not made as big
- [Singable Songs for the Young at Heart](https://aletmanski.com/series/singable-songs-for-the-young-at-heart/) - The recent death of Lois Lillenstein of Sharon Lois and Bram reminds me of the revolution in children’s music that beloved trio was part of in the late 1970’s. It started with Raffi who was both musical innovator and social entrepreneur. He challenged the tinny sound, formulaic lyrics and Disney merchandising sub text. He founded
- [Toronto's Top Dozen Social Innovations](https://aletmanski.com/impact/torontos-top-social-innovations/) - The rest of Canada can get petulant about Toronto. Once it was even fashionable to describe Toronto as dull. I doubt it was ever true. Or that Toronto was any duller than any other place in the country - except of course Montreal which was/is never dull! Regardless this world-class, creative and culturally diverse city
- [Beautifying Social Change](https://aletmanski.com/impact/beautifying-social-change/) - Too much of the conversation about social change is wrapped in the language of policy and finance. While these are important considerations they are limited in describing and realizing the world we want. We need a different language. I propose the language of beauty. Beauty is proxy for the aesthetic, for those qualities that attract
- [Social Innovation - a Definition of Opportunity](https://aletmanski.com/series/social-innovation-definition-of-opportunity/) - When asked recently to define social innovation I replied rather off handedly it's a combination of the old, the new and the surprising. It's not much of a definition but then again the ambiguity might be useful. Definitions all too often constrain us when at their best they're meant to enlarge us. A good definition
- [The Spark That Ignites the Social Innovator's Journey](https://aletmanski.com/series/the-spark-that-ignites-the-social-innovators-journey/) - Then, when he had flown a while longer, Something brightened toward the north, It caught his eye, they say. And then he flew right up against it. He pushed his mind through And pulled his body after. These words by Skaay, an oral poet from Haida Gwaii whom many consider
- [US Embargo on Intellectual Property Shakes Up Canadian Change-Makers](https://aletmanski.com/impact/us-embargo-on-intellectual-property-shakes-up-canadian-change-makers/) - The Canadian social change community is slowly reacting to the latest American border restrictions. It’s hard to believe but the Americans intend to restrict the free use of US intellectual property (including social change concepts and practices) outside their borders. Plus they intend to invoice you, should you inadvertently use American ideas. All they need
- [Cherry Blossoms & the Social Innovation ‘Terroir’ of Canada](https://aletmanski.com/series/cherry-blossoms-the-social-innovation-terroir-of-canada/) - Have you ever wondered what cherry blossoms in Vancouver taste like? I didn’t have the imagination to even conceive of such a question let alone answer it until I attended a dinner hosted by Elementa a collective of young culinary talents in Vancouver last spring. Not only did they serve a cup of frozen aerated
- [Steve Nash and Acting Your Age](https://aletmanski.com/series/steve-nash-and-acting-your-age/) - Steve Nash’s decision to retire from basketball is a reminder that boomers like me also have a hard time letting go of our roles and responsibilities. The professional sports world is full of stories of athletes who stayed on past their prime or came back “one more time.” The social change world confronts the same
- [Setting the Heather on Fire - The Antigonish Movement](https://aletmanski.com/series/setting-the-heather-on-fire-the-antigonish-movement/) - I fell in love with Nova Scotia in the 1970’s. It started in Antigonish - green rolling hills, sea bound coast, hundreds of fiddlers performing under the summer stars, John Allen Cameron singing at a local club, caber tossing, and the Coady Institute. The Coady Institute is the inheritor of the famous Antigonish Movement started
- [Dating Concepts](https://aletmanski.com/series/dating-concepts/) - I fall a little in love with new ideas, methods and concepts. It happens all the time. We date. Everything is rosy. They are perfect. There is nothing they can’t do. I've found the one. This has happened with social impact bonds, person-centred planning and change labs. It’s starting to happen with social innovation. Yikes,
- [Resurrecting the Ordinary](https://aletmanski.com/series/resurrecting-the-ordinary/) - The Quakers of the seventeenth century thought of themselves as “God’s ordinaries.” They meant ordinary in the sense that extraordinary acts are not reserved for the special few. They believed that we are all born with the capacity to be brave, to speak out and to make a difference. So do I. Small ‘l’ leadership
- [Stepping Out](https://aletmanski.com/series/stepping-out/) - Dear Reader, I’m excited to be back blogging! For more than 2 years I’ve been immersed in writing a new book, Impact: Six Patterns to Spread Your Social Innovation. (More details very soon!) Writing a book in my case meant sifting through decades of accumulated change-making debris to discover what I truly believe as opposed
- [Women for The Long Now](https://aletmanski.com/impact/women-for-the-long-now/) - I support the Long Now Foundation. It wants to shift our fast paced, fast thinking culture toward long term thinking. Among their many projects they are assembling the 3,500 books most essential for sustaining or rebuilding humanity. Its co-founder Stewart Brand (also founder of the Whole Earth Catalogue) contributed 76 books to the list. All but
- [Mark Kingwell - Becoming Visible in 2011- Real Democracy](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/mark-kingwell-becoming-visible-in-2011/) - This is an appetizer. I asked the individuals I profiled and referenced during my first year as a blog columnist to answer this question: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? Fifty-five responded. One of those is Mark Kingwell. Mark is a philosopher, author, columnist and magazine writer who doesn't hesitate to
- [Eliminating Poverty - Senator Hugh Segal and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, 1st, On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/tackling-poverty-again-and-again-and-again/) - In a meeting with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty just before Christmas to discuss the recommendations of the Social Finance Task Force he asked whether we had also spoken with Senator Hugh Segal about them. Hearing we hadn't, he immediately asked his assistant to track him down and invite him into our meeting. Alas Senator Segal
- [The Thin Place - the Meeting Place](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-thin-place-the-meeting-place/) - "Heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller." –Celtic Saying One of my pleasures this year was meeting Angeles Arrien at her home base in Sausalito California. Vickie met Angeles several years ago and we have both been deeply influenced by her wisdom, her writing
- [What Would You Say in 7 Minutes?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/what-would-you-say-in-7-minutes/) - I have a great speaking opportunity on June 9th. A large audience; co-presenting with some of the most creative people in Vancouver whose work is influencing the world. The catch - I have only 7 minutes .The event is the first public salon hosted by former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and his Global Civic Policy
- [Cairine MacDonald - One of Canada's Most Powerful (and Loving) Women](https://aletmanski.com/impact/cairine-macdonald-one-of-canadas-most-powerful-and-loving-women/) - ..one of the secrets of Cairine's success is her intellectual curiosity. She is driven to discover creative solutions to tough, often unyielding social problems. She is not content to rest on, 'the way it has always been done.' With prudence and diligence she seeks proven innovative approaches and thoughfully adapts them to the British
- [Sam Sullivan Canadian Ambassador to Vancouver Paralympics](https://aletmanski.com/impact/sam-sullivan-and-paralympics/) - Note: This is the first in a series of posts on the Vancouver Winter Paralympic Games. I have a particular interest since I am a Paralympic torch bearer and have been an active participant in 'leveraging' the Games to advance the disability agenda for all people with disabilities not just athletes.The decision to appoint former
- [Brian McKeever not a token Paralympian](https://aletmanski.com/impact/brian-mckeever-not-a-token-paralympian/) - Brian McKeever is an accomplished athlete and star Paralympian who qualified for the Canadian Olympic team by winning an able bodied 50 km. race in January. On Saturday he was told he was not chosen for one of the four spots on the team.I have mixed feelings about Brian McKeever not being selected to represent
- [Born Free - A Contemporary Magi -  Annie Lennox's Gift to the Universal Child](https://aletmanski.com/impact/born-free-a-gift-for-annie-lennoxs-universal-child/) - Several years ago I personally witnessed Nelson Mandela, standing in front of his former prison cell on Robben Island, addressing the world's press. His message was that the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in africa was in fact, a genocide. Since that time I resolved to do as much as I can to bring attention to the
- [Wiki Says: No Such Thing as the Family Movement!](https://aletmanski.com/impact/no-such-thing-as-the-family-movement/) - A good portion of last week was spent searching for independent references for the parent advocacy or family movement because the good folks at Wikipedia ruled we didn't exist without them. This was a surreal experience. As nonsensical as: My art isn't art until some objective source says it is. My hardship isn't real unless
- [Gregor Wolbring - Becoming Visible 2011 - People with Disabilities as Problem Solvers](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/gregor-wolbring-becoming-visible-2011-people-with-disabilities-as-problem-solvers/) - Gregor Wolbring is a professor at the University of Calgary. He pursues ethical questions that affect those of us who are or will become disabled, infirmed, reliant on medical technology or are concerned about the implications of nano - tehnology, synthetic biology and other scientific pursuits that seem to grow exponentially without an ethical anchor.
- [Steve Sunderland - Becoming Visible 2011 - Compassion](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/steve-sunderland/) - Steve Sunderland is a professor of Peace and Educational Studies at the University of Cincinnati and founder of an inclusive Peace Village which emerged out of the inner city riots in Cincinnati ten years ago. His experience at peace making extends back to the civil rights movement in the American South and includes an active
- [Peter Deitz - Becoming Visible 2011 - Data](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/peter-deitz-becoming-visible-2011-data/) - Peter Deitz is a social entrepreneur, micro-finance advocate and the Managing editor of SocialFinance.ca. He has taken on the pioneering task of reporting and distributing information and news on the emerging social finance/social enterprise field in Canada. Have a look at the impressive array of writers, commentators, bloggers and essayists he has already assembled! Here
- [Jennifer Corriero - Becoming Visible 2011 - Youth Taking Informed Action (Tread Lightly and Sprout )](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/jennifer-corriero-becoming-visible-2011-youth-taking-informed-action-tread-lightly-and-sprout/) - Jennifer Corriero is Co-founder and Executive Director of TakingITGlobal. She and her team have created the largest on-line community of youth interested in global issues and using digital technologies to change the world. If you ever wonder what the next generation of leaders looks like, have a look at this U-tube video of Jennifer
- [Shawn Smith - Becoming Visible 2011 - Harnessing Undergraduate Business Education for Social Innovation](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/shawn-smith-becoming-visible-2011-harnessing-business-for-social-innovation/) - Shawn Smith is a young social entrepreneur innovating on a global canvas. Which is ironic since he is also my neighbour. One of last year's delights was to appear on a panel hosted by him in Oxford last spring, during the Skoll World Forum. He is co-founder and President of Global Agents for Change inspiring
- [Sean Moore's Double Double](https://aletmanski.com/impact/sean-moores-double-double/) - Sean Moore, Canada's public policy walrus is re-doubling his efforts. He's launching two new products: Advocacy School and a major article on public policy in the The Philanthropist. Advocacy School is designed to assist civil sector organizations influence government decisions, constructively and effectively. There are two primary items on the Advocacy school menu: on-line or
- [Lindsay Can](https://aletmanski.com/impact/lindsay-can/) - A name change is in order for Lindsay Cant.They said she'd never fly. Today she has completed over 140 glider flights.They said she wouldn't leave the hospital. Today she lives in her own place near Perth, Scotland.They said she'd never speak. On March 16th she addressed a reception in the new Scottish Parliament Buildings in
- [PLAN© sues Google](https://aletmanski.com/impact/plan-sues-google-and-wkipedia-1/) - PRESS RELEASE - for immediate circulation Vancouver based Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN) launched a law suit today against Google for the unauthorized use of the word plan in all google search results. The Governments of Canada and the United States have joined the lawsuit supporting PLAN. "My government owes PLAN a great deal," admitted
- [Literary Review of Canada profiles Donna Thomson's new book](https://aletmanski.com/impact/literary-review-of-canada-profiles-donna-thomsons-new-book/) - The current issue of the Literary Review of Canada carries a thoughtful overview and commentary on The Four Walls of My Freedom by Donna Thomson. Thanks to Alastair Cheng, LRC's Managing Editor, who passed along this electronic version of the review, Defining A Good Life. This has to be encouraging news for first time
- [Donna Thomson's new blog](https://aletmanski.com/impact/donna-thomsons-new-blog/) - Donna Thomson, author of the new book, Four Walls of My Freedom has just started her own blog. Here is the link: https://www.donnathomson.blogspot.com/ Donna's blog will cover the interplay among family, community connectedness, policy, ethics and culture. Here is a sample from a recent post: Last year at the Skoll World Forum for Social Enterprise,
- [Peace in Our Time - Peace in Our Classrooms](https://aletmanski.com/impact/peace-in-our-time-peace-in-our-classrooms/) - The well being of our grandchildren is directly linked to the well being of our enemy's grandchildren. John Paul Lederach, author The Moral Imagination - TheArt and Soul of Building Peace Empathy makes our world go around. It helps people to relate, share, include and cooperate. It helps children grow into caring and responsible parents
- [Powerful Strangers on the Way to Maybe](https://aletmanski.com/impact/powerful-strangers/) - While in Toronto I had a chance to introduce two friends, Frances Westley from the University of Waterloo (SiG at Waterloo) and Leighton Jay from the School of Management, Curtin University, Perth Australia. Both are activists and academics with a special interest in social innovation and disability. Leighton is a big fan of Frances' book,
- [Who's Reading What?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/what-are-paul-martin-gg-david-johnson-tamara-vrooman-ceo-vancity-reading-this-holiday-season-thats-a-question-david-mitche/) - What are former PM's, Governor Generals, journalists, Premiers, University Presidents, and community leaders reading this holiday season? That's a question David Mitchell, President and CEO of the Public Policy Forum asked 34 of us. The results were published in the Toronto Star last weekend and below. Just click on it and it will pop up
- [Get Your Hands On Shari Graydon's, "I Feel Great About My Hands"](https://aletmanski.com/impact/get-your-hands-on-shari-graydons-i-feel-good-about-my-hands/) - Delicious, funny, irreverent, salty, poignant. 41 essays by women over 50, assembled and edited by award winning journalist and author Shari Graydon. Essays that reveal the wisdom, beauty and power of aging women. I Feel Great About My Hands - And other Unexpected Joys of Aging, is a collective riff off of Nora Ephron's, I
- [So the Minister is full of sh##?  - Tips for Solution Based advocacy (41)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/so-the-minister-is-full-of-sh-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-4/) - I didn't even see it coming. A big, slow, deliberate set-up. How could I miss it? My adrenalin was gushing. Our campaign to get the Minister to close down a children's facility providing sub standard care was picking up momentum. The Minister was forced to respond to our concerns. Even though she refused our recommendations
- [John Ralston Saul - Speed Does not Equal Intelligence](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/john-ralston-saul/) - John Ralston Saul from the Foreword to Through The Eyes of Artists, 2004 Nina Hagerty Centre for the Arts ... those of us who are lucky enough to have been close to a person with disabilities know the talents they have, what they can do and the impact they have on those around them. Some
- [Patrick O'Neill:  Starting Well - Avoiding Poor Beginnings](https://aletmanski.com/impact/patrick-oneil-starting-well-avoiding-poor-beginnings/) - Patrick O'Neill and his publication Transformational Leader, continues to offer helpful advice to people in leadership positions. His latest, Starting Well outlines how to avoid poor beginnings the inevitable result of a 'fast lane' mentality in organizations that attempt to manage at warp speed. With Patrick's permission, here is the full article, including four 'starting
- [Frances Westley Presents to Nobel Laureates](https://aletmanski.com/impact/frances-westley-presents-to-nobel-laureates/) - Frances Westley is a Canadian treasure. Not enough people know that. I am biased because she is a friend and colleague. Sometimes we don't appreciate how special someone is until the world takes notice. I can't think of a more prestigious body to take notice of Frances than Nobel prize winners. Between May 16th and
- [Ashoka - Impresario for Social Entrepreneurs](https://aletmanski.com/impact/a/) - Ever wonder if the social organizations that were founded in the 19th or 20th century are capable of handling the complexities of the 21st centuy? Ever wonder who is inventing the 21st century version of the Red Cross, YWCA, Big Brothers/Big Sisters , United Way, Volunteer Bureau? Ever wonder how to find them? Look to
- [Alan Broadbent on Stupid Rules that Shackle the Community Sector](https://aletmanski.com/impact/alan-broadbent-on-stupid-rules-that-shackle-the-community-sector/) - In this month's Maytree Newsleter, Alan Broadbent addresses the proliferation of 'accountability' mechanisms which have nothing to do with accountability and everything to do with government funders managing risk. The unfortunate consequence is community organizations who must adhere to rules which sap their time and energy and which suck up resources better spent on mandates.
- [Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge - Cambodian War Crimes Tribunal Resumes](https://aletmanski.com/impact/cambodia-background-on-current-war-crimes-trials/) - On June 27th (2011) the four most senior officials of the Khmer Rouge regime went on trial in Phnom Penh - more than 30 years after they were driven from power. Finally. This is Case #2. The first trial convicted one person - a former math teacher. Nicknamed 'Duch', he was the regime's chief
- [Representation Agreements - I Am Because We Are (2)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/representation-agreements-i-am-because-we-are-2/) - I wrote the following story nearly 20 years ago when we were in the midst of a law reform campaign to establish Representation Agreements as a grass roots alternate to traditional adult guardianship. (see my previous post - Love in the Architecture) I had been asked to write what would have been a rather dry
- [Social Gold:  Ted Jackson's Financing Strategies for Non-Profits in a Turbulent World](https://aletmanski.com/impact/social-gold-financing-strategies-for-non-profits-in-a-turbulent-world/) - Ted Jackson, community organizer, fellow Frontier College alumni and Professor at Carleton University presented the following speech at the 52nd annual meeting of the Quinte West Association for Community Living. A comprehensive analysis and call to action relevant for all non profits. Social Gold The metaphor I want to use is that of gold. But
- [The Solution to Misplaced Humility](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-solution-to-misplaced-humility/) - Another creative piece from the talented author, commentator and founder of Informed Opinions - Shari Graydon.
- [Understanding the Student Demonstrations in Quebec](https://aletmanski.com/impact/understanding-the-student-demonstrations-in-quebec/) - The rest of Canada was slow to pick up on the student demonstrations in Montreal. There have been nightly parades, demonstrations and rallies for over one hundred days straight. Usually they involve tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands. However as these spread to other parts of Quebec and beyond students the rest of
- [Imagine - John Lennon and the soundtracks of our llives](https://aletmanski.com/impact/imagine-john-lennon-and-the-soundtracks-of-our-llives/) - Have a look at this rollicking, endearing tribute to John Lennon. Can you count the number of Beatle and Lennon songs and references? So what is the soundtrack for your rebellious nature? An informal survey of a younger generation yielded the following. Billy Bragg: To Have and To Have Not Sam Cooke: A Change is
- [Joe Coughlin - 'Slow and Slower'](https://aletmanski.com/impact/joe-coughlin-slow-and-slower/) - Joe Coughlin is multi honoured jazz singer who deserves to be better known around the world. He has won the Canadian Jazz Award for best Male Vocalist three times in the past decade (2000, 2008, 2009.) Joe is a saloon singer with a style often compared to Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra but with an
- [Vancouver Connects and Engages](https://aletmanski.com/impact/connect-engage-together-vancouver/) - Something is in the air in my home town. Posters on bulletin boards everywhere including my favourite bagel shop. Daily op- ed features in the Vancouver Sun. An ambitious week long 'public square' celebration and dialogue beginning September 18th and hosted by Simon Fraser University on the glue that
- [Big Changes in the Ability World](https://aletmanski.com/impact/my-blog-has-been-silent-these-past-two-weeks-because-ive-been-engaged-in-confidential-negotiations-with-the-federal-governmen/) - My blog has been silent these past two weeks because I've been engaged in confidential negotiations with the federal government associated with their recent budget. I'm now in a position to make an informal announcement. Full details will be released by the PM at a press conference this week. The federal government has made PLAN
- [Caledon's Tribute to Tom Kent](https://aletmanski.com/impact/caledonstribute-to-tom-kent/) - I became aware of Tom Kent a seminal figure in the development of Canadian social policy just after I moved to Halifax in the 1970's. At the time he chaired the Cape Breton Development Corporation establishing the model of regional economic development that still exists today. Next he chaired the Royal Commission on Newspapers where
- [Taking Care - It's In Our Nature](https://aletmanski.com/impact/taking-care-its-in-our-nature/) - Natural care is heart work, accompanied by joy, grace, and tenderness. It can also be messy, unyielding and decidedly unglamorous. And it is playing teeter totter with an elephant. Natural care is the topic of a webinar I will be presenting Wednesday December 7th at 9:00 (PST) Noon (EST) GMT (8:00). Free Registration Here. The
- [Peter Block and Mark Anielski on the Economics of Neighbourliness](https://aletmanski.com/impact/peter-block-and-mark-anielski-on-the-economics-of-neighbourliness/) - Here's an important cross border convergence of intellect, analysis and passion - Canadian Mark Anieski and American Peter Block. Both challenging Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of our well being. Both seeking alternative measures for the indispensable virtues of, " generosity, relationship, kindness, cooking, gardening, watching kids and all the non-money exchanges that
- [Natural Care Webinar](https://aletmanski.com/impact/natural-care-webinar-available-for-downloading/) - The capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest meaning and significance. Pablo Casals The slide-deck for my webinar, Natural Care - It's In our Nature, is now available on line. I offer some definitions. Natural freely given care is the backbone of our society. Natural care is a fact of everyday life
- [Cairine MacDonald - What Am I Skating Towards? The Unexpected](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/cairine-macdonald-what-i-am-skating-towards-real-change/) - This is Cairine MacDonald's response to the question, What are you skating towards in 2012? The Unexpected In a tribute to times past, skaters are gliding down canals on old-fashioned wooden skates. These skates are practical, efficient and allow you to go places. They don't have the sex and jazz of figure skates. They aren't
- [Margo Button - An Unhinging of Wings](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/margo-button/) - Margo Button is an award winning poet. She wrote her first collection of poetry in honour of her son Randall John Button whose mental illness eventually led to his suicide. The following poem is from, The Unhinging of Wings which won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 1997. She writes to a universal challenge. How
- [Jean Vanier - the Earth of Community](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/jean-vanier-the-bonds-of-imperfection/) - Imagine if we were drawn to each other not just because of our talents but also because of our darker thoughts, pettiness, secret vices and betrayals? Would we realize how much we have in common? Would we be as quick to judge? Would we be better able to tolerate our own blemishes? Would recognition that
- [Phil Allen - The One Most Likely to Succeed](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/phil-allen-the-one-most-likely-to-succeed/) - When Phil Allen was 27 his friends helped him escape from the Saskatchewan Institution where they were kept against their will. They figured he was the one most likely to make it and come back to help them. They were right. For the past 50 years Phil has been a tireless advocate for closing institutions
- [10 Recommended Summer Reads from Ashoka's Changemakers](https://aletmanski.com/impact/10-recommended-remainder-of-summer-reads-from-ashokas-changemakers/) - Summertime and the living is easy. But no fish are jumping on the west coast. Instead geese are migrating - already. They appear to be seeking the same hidden sun as the rest us. Never mind, a little rain and cool weather is perfect for reading. Kristie Wang a talented member of the Ashoka Changemaker team
- [What Will You be Reading for the Holidays?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/what-im-reading-for-the-holidays/) - Each year David Mitchell President of Public Policy Forum asks a number of Canadians what they will be reading over the holidays. This year the results were published in the Books section of the Globe and Mail (Saturday December 17). They are also featured on PPF's website. Here are my five choices (the Globe chose
- [Flourishing into Life](https://aletmanski.com/impact/flourishing-into-life/) - Karin Melberg Schwier’s new book Flourish creates the right conditions for a little hell to break loose. That’s because it pays attention to the real stuff of life – beauty, love, hospitality, longing, desire, messiness, passion, pleasure, joy, celebration… This remarkable book tells the story of dozens of folks who have dumped their labels, stamped
- [Conveners strive to create a sense of belonging](https://aletmanski.com/archives/conveners-strive-to-create-a-sense-of-belonging/)
- [Gordon Hogg - Social Innovation's Political Ambassador](https://aletmanski.com/impact/gordon-hogg-social-innovations-political-ambassador/) - When Charlie Leadbeater visited British Columbia earlier this year he commented on three strategic social innovation advantages BC has compared to other jurisdictions. One is the presence of First Nations leadership connected to a heritage of resilience, creativity amidst adversity and wisdom. The other is Vancity Credit Union - a mainstream financial institution prepared to
- [Making the world more beautiful](https://aletmanski.com/impact/making-the-world-more-beautiful/)
- [Linda Perry's Big Picture is Priceless](https://aletmanski.com/impact/linda-perry/) - Linda Perry's feet are planted as solidly on this earth as anyone I know. This means she can simultaneously keep her ear to the ground while at the same time keeping her eyes on the big picture. These two vantage points have served her well in a long and successful career as advocate, creative problem
- [Jim Flaherty, poverty fighter](https://aletmanski.com/archives/jim-flaherty-poverty-fighter/) - Today, Jim Flaherty, Canada's former Minister of Finance is bring honoured with a state funeral. Even his critics acknowledge his commitment to people with disabilities and their families. They point to the Registered Disability Savings Plan as the highlight. My commentary, Thanks to Jim Flaherty Canadians with Disabilities can Fulfill Their Dreams has been published
- [Paul Born's Convening - A Prologue To Trust, 10th, On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/paul-born-may-the-force-be-with-you-tenth-in-a-series-on-poverty/) - The best hosts preside over dinners, conversations, salons, interviews, broadcasts, town hall forums, dialogues and meetings with a style that brings out the best in everyone. Paul Born is one of them. He'd be right up there with Martha Stewart, Vicki Gabereau or Eleanor Wachtel except his convening has a nobler but less pop culture
- [Herb Barbolet - Eating for a Living, 9th, on Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/eating-for-a-living-higher-fuel-prices-equals-more-hungry-people-ninth-in-a-series-on-poverty/) - "Something happens to people who plant seeds- it is impossible to watch a plant grow and flourish without getting a sense of the miracle of all life." -Herb Barbolet Herb Barbolet is the Wayne Gretzky of healthy local food. Decades before the 100 mile diet, Slow Food, and the food security movement he understood the
- [The Dignity Project of the Salvation Army, 7th, on Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/the-dignity-project-of-the-salvation-army-7th-in-a-series-on-poverty/) - There is no dignity in poverty, in not being able to feed your kids, in not providing them with the essentials, in worrying how to take care of your family, in struggling to survive, in being blamed for being poor, particularly amidst a culture obsessed with gadgets, wealth and entitlement. Too many Canadians live in
- [The Homeless Hub, 6th, On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/the-homeless-hub-6th-in-a-series-on-poverty/) - Research, reflection, data, measurement are not seen as glamorous pursuits when tackling poverty or its accompanying challenge - homelessness. Unless it's in the hands of Stephen Gaetz, Associate Dean of Education and Director of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network, York University. I met Stephen at a North-South conference on Homelessness and Living a Good Life,
- [A Saharan Food Desert  - John Stapleton's Poverty Fighting Research, 5th On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/a-food-desert-for-the-poor-john-stapletons-the-poor-pay-more-5th-in-the-poverty-series/) - You have to be rich to be poor. The poorer you are the more things cost. Imagine living where you cannot buy healthy affordable food? Where retail food chains, if they haven't deserted your area, charge you more for fruit, vegetables, whole grain foods than in other areas of the city. Where high calorie junk
- [Canadians with Severe Disabilities - A Basic Income Plan, 4th, On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/impact/canadians-with-severe-disabilities-a-basic-income-plan-4th-in-series-on-poverty/) - The Caledon Institute our leading social policy think tank is at it again. They have produced a thoughtful working report on one of the bigger handicaps faced by people with disability - poverty. And their fundamental recommendation is to establish a basic income program for adult with disabilities in Canada that would replace the myriad
- [A Canadian town where no one was poor, 3rd, On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/a-canadian-town-where-no-one-was-poor/) - "Once upon a time in Canada, there was a town where no one was poor." So begins a 2009 report by Dr. Evelyn Forget who assessed the effects on health of a guaranteed annual income for the town. That might seem like a fairy tale, but it's an historic fact. And an extraordinary episode in
- [Fighting the Crime of Poverty: The Life Work of Dr. Fred MacKinnon, 2nd, On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/the-crime-of-poverty-the-life-work-of-dr-fred-mackinnon/) - “The sad and unfortunate fact is that we continue to view poverty as the fault of the individual and ignore the social and economic systems and mechanisms that are so often responsible for it.”
- [Patsy George - A Happy Social Worker Has No Analysis. 8th, On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/patsy-george-a-happy-social-worker-has-no-analysis/) - Patsy George is the social worker we all wish we could be. She has spent more than four decades pursuing social and economic justice in Canada and globally. She worked for the provincial government in British Columbia for most of that time. That didn't seem to douse her passion or her effectiveness. She rose as
- [Jean Swanson - Standing Up to Poor Bashing, 11th, On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/jean-swanson-standing-up-to-poor-bashing/) - Jean Swansen knows poor people and their tremendous capability to stretch a dollar and to survive with next to nothing. She also has a clear, steady eye for the structural causes of their poverty. She is not fooled by studies, the latest poverty busting fad, political promises, reforms and consultations. She's seem them all come
- [Maytree Foundation: Creating a Stronger Canada, 12th, On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/series/on-poverty/maytree-foundation-creating-a-stronger-canadatwelveth-in-a-poverty-series/) - Want to read 50 great ideas for protecting vulnerable Canadians while contributing to Canada's prosperity? Then have a look at the Maytree Foundation's, just released Charting Prosperity: Practical Ideas for a Stronger Canada. It stems from Maytree's belief that: Poverty represses the human spirit and bears paralyzing costs to society. Maytree is committed to fighting
- [An American Tune](https://aletmanski.com/impact/an-american-tune/) - It is peak season for US politics. We non-Americans watch entranced and disgusted by the search for shadows that are bound to lurk in the hearts of Presidential opponents, as they do in each of us. Hubris takes no prisoners as it fractures into partisan flags flying from solitary peaks. There must be no spaces
- [After the Black Out](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/the-impact-was-dramatic-first-we-lost-all-our-government-funding-as-part-of-an-omnibus-bill-within-a-massive-restraint-progr/) - The impact was dramatic. First we lost all our government funding as part of an omnibus bill within a massive restraint program. Then we were obliged to submit to a long onerous and time consuming Income Tax audit. The third was revealed a few years later – a Cabinet Memo had been circulated to politicans
- [BC Ideas - Seeking Innovative Responses to Social Challenges](https://aletmanski.com/impact/bc-ideas-launches/) - For the past year I've been part of a group developing BC Ideas - a web based, crowd sourcing platform seeking innovative solutions to some of British Columbia's tough social and environmental challenges. All ideas welcome. No idea too big or too small! BC Ideas is also one of the key recommendations of BC's Council
- [Lost and Found. a poem for Fathers' Day by Tom Konyves](https://aletmanski.com/impact/lost-and-found-a-poem-for-fathers-day-by-tom-konyves/) - Tom Konyves is a ground breaking Canadian poet and talented video producer, who just happens to be my neighbour. If you've ever enjoyed poetry on public transit you can thank Tom who initiated the first Poetry on the Bus collaboration several decades ago in Montreal. If you appreciate poets who explore new ways to express
- [Mother Time](https://aletmanski.com/impact/mother-time/) - One of the great pleasures of being nestled within the family arm of the disability movement is enjoying a diverse group of people who have at least one thing in common - love for their family member who has a disability. We come in all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life, from multiple
- [10 Reasons for Thinking Like a Movement](https://aletmanski.com/impact/10-reasons-for-thinking-like-a-movement/) - Every January Vickie Cammack and I host PLAN Institute's Thinking Like a Movement. This year we;ve added Social Innovation Generation as a co-sponsor. It is a time to share insights and perspectives about social and environmental change we've gleaned form the previous year. We keep the gathering small and intimate and make sure we have
- [The British Paralympics - Destination Unknown](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/the-british-paralympics-destination-unknown/) - Gregor Wolbring is the purest, cheekiest and most prolific commentator I know on issues affecting people with disabilities. Perhaps it's his European origins blended with his Albertan sensibilities as Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary. He does not appear to be constrained by the usual nuances of language or moral righteousness exhibited by
- [Five (Plus One) Good Ideas About Social Innovation](https://aletmanski.com/impact/five-plus-one-good-ideas-about-social-innovation/) - The Maytree Foundation runs a marvellous lunch and learn series titled Five Good Ideas. They cover just about everything and are worth having a look at. Fortunately they have released a compilation of their first years called not surprisingly Five Good Ideas - Practical Strategies for Non-Profit Success. You can download an excerpt here. I
- [Speaking Up for the Soul of Civic Life - Cardus](https://aletmanski.com/impact/after-2000-years-its-fair-to-say-that-whatever-we-think-about-christianity-it-has-shaped-western-social-structures-our-ethics/) - An eloquent champion for civic values, community life and charities has emerged on the Canadian scene. Cardus (see note below) is a Canadian think tank which draws, "on more than 2000 years of Christian social thought, and works to enrich and challenge public debate through research, events and publications, for the common good." I've
- [Relying On Each Other- the Abundance of Community](https://aletmanski.com/impact/relying-on-each-other-the-abundance-of-community/) - Many of us believe we should not rely on the institutions of government, business and non profits to solve our toughest societal challenges on their own. Who then can we count on? The answer, if you follow John McKnight's work, is to rely on each other particularly when we come together in voluntary associations, networks
- [Arthur Wood - A Clauswitzian Interpretation Of Impact Investing](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/arthur-wood-what-am-i-skating-towards/) - Arthur Wood is the Einstein of social finance. You may not immediately understand everything he says, writes or does but you know he is worth paying attention to. For example, several years ago on a whiteboard in Vancouver he sketched out the basic concept of what would become Social Impact Bonds. None of us realized
- [Belonging a 21st Century Challenge](https://aletmanski.com/impact/belonging-a-21st-century-challenge/) - Here is an excerpt from a recent breakfast presentation sponsored by Metro Vancouver. I had the pleasure of co-presenting with Catherine Clement and Lidia Kemeny, two leading philanthropists with the Vancouver Foundation. Illustration opposite courtesy my talented Australian friend Paul Pholeros. ... I call Belonging a 21ST CHALLENGE for two reasons. One, it is a
- [Joe Clark's Advice for Social Innovators - Marry Imagination with Mandate](https://aletmanski.com/impact/former-pm-joe-clarks-wise-words-about-innovation/) - At a recent Public Policy Forum dinner honouring Canada's six living former Prime Ministers, Joe Clark spoke about the critical talents required for a changing world. It is a world in which non - governmental organizations may have more power and influence than states themselves. He cited these examples. Amnesty International has offices in 80
- [BC Social Innovation Council releases final report](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-bc-social-innovation-council-released-its-final-report-action-plan-recommendations-to-maximize-social-innovation-in-brit/) - The BC Social Innovation Council released its final report, Action Plan Recommendations to Maximize Social Innovation in British Columbia, on Friday April 27th. Here is the report. The eleven recommendations are meant to enhance the work of social innovators and entrepreneurs today as well as creating opportunities for new ideas and new players in the
- [](https://aletmanski.com/impact/consider-this-there-are-more-first-nations-youth-in-government-care-today-than-at-the-height-of-the-residental-school-trave/) - Consider this: there are more First Nations youth in government care today than at the height of the residential school travesty in Canada funding for on -reserve schools is 25 per cent less than funding for public schools and only 40 per cent of first nations students on reserve graduate. Something should be done about
- [Caroline Casey - What Am I Skating Towards? A Global Disability Business Movement](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/caroline-casey-what-am-i-skating-towards-a-global-disability-business-movement/) - I am in Ireland at Ashoka's massive Change Nation initiative (more on this soon). One of the organizers is Caroline Casey an Ashoka fellow and force of nature. Here is Caroline's response to What Are You Skating Towards in 2012? Download the full collection here. A Global Disability Business Movement HAVING BROKEN
- [What Are You Skating Towards? The Complete Essay Collection now Available](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/what-are-you-skating-towards-the-complete-essay-collection/) - I am always attracted to unoccupied space. Realms where the dominant culture has not advanced its patriarchal or empire narrative."writes Peter Block in the collection What Are You Skating Towards in 2012? His essay is one of 60 which begins to occupy this space. Combined they are, as Gord Tulloch suggests in his own contribution,
- [Charles Holmes - What Am I Skating Towards? Wish People and Wish Organizations](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/charles-holmes-what-am-i-skating-towards-wish-people-and-wish-organizations/) - This is Charles Holmes' response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Wish People and Wish Organizations MY QUESTION FOR 2012: Am I working with wish people and wish organizations? A few days ago I received a touching message from a client who has become a dear friend. She recalled a story I
- [Jacques Dufresne - What Am I Skating Towards? The Hill of Life](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/jacques-dufresne/) - Here is Jacques Dufresne's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? The Hill of Life MY CONCERN THIS YEAR is the threat to the frail, imperfect, but rich, vibrant and organic life of humans, of communities
- [Lindsay Cant - What Am I Skating Towards? My Own Dog](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/lindsay-cant-what-am-i-skating-towards-my-own-dog/) - This is Lindsay Cant's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? My Own Dog THIS YEAR I WOULD LIKE to get my own dog. My family likes dogs. My Dad likes his dog Billy so much I have seen him kiss him ten times in a row. My brother John and his wife,
- [Richard Bridge - What Am I Skating Towards? The Future of the Annapolis Valley](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/richard-bridge-what-am-i-skating-towards/) - This is Richard Bridge's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? The Future of the Annapolis Valley Despite the exceptionally mild month of December in this part of the world and a rare absence of ice on the pond, I am trying to skate toward an understanding of the future of my adopted
- [Cormac Russell - What Am I Skating Towards? Community: The Forgotten Tool of Change](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/cormac-russell-what-am-i-skating-towards-community-the-forgotten-tool-of-change/) - This is Cormac Russell's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Community: The Forgotten Tool of Change OF LATE, the most important lesson to emerge, from what seems to me to be a fledgling renaissance of community life across the globe, is that there are certain things only citizens, organizing themselves into associational
- [Stefan Lorimer - What Am I Skating Towards? Canada's New Identity](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/stefan-lorimer-what-am-i-skating-towards/) - This is Stefan Lorimer's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Canada’s New Identity Respice Nos Exempla — Look to us for Examples — Tournent vers nous pour des Exemples — 希望我們的例子 Multiculturalism isn’t enough to form a national identity. I’m skating towards the establishment of national interests that can shape the Canadian
- [Brad Johnston - What am I Skating Towards? - Skating, Flying, Surfacing](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/brad-johnston-what-am-i-skating-towards-skating-flying-surfacing/) - This is Brad Johnston's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Skating, Flying, Surfing I am a public servant in the Ontario government at a time of unparalleled fiscal imbalance — where the services we already have, cost more than the funding we have to pay for them. We are living in times
- [Gord Tulloch - What Am I Skating Towards? Being a 'Good' Person](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/gord-tulloch-what-am-i-skating-towards-being-a-good-person/) - This is Gord Tulloch's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Being A ‘Good’ Person Throughout my life I have wanted to be a good person. I have spent a lot of time trying to get a handle on what “being good” means, what it requires of me. But there are so many
- [Tim Draimin - What Am I Skating Towards? Solutions Alignment](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/tim-draimin-what-are-you-skating-towards/) - This is Tim Draimin's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Solutions Alignment I AM SKATING IN 2012 towards solutions alignment — accelerating how we bring our resources — within and among organizations and sectors — into alignment on solving society’s intractable problems. 2012 is a significant milestone. For example, it marks half
- [Shawn Smith - What Am I Skating Towards? Investing in Human Potential](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/shawn-smith-what/) - This is Shawn Smith's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Investing in Human Potential We’ve all seen the statistics about poverty, and probably felt a bit overwhelmed. When we do engage it is often through a 1-800 number imploring us to ‘save’ a helpless child, or starving person. Our conceptions of the
- [Linda Perry - What Am I Skating Towards? Community](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/linda-perry-what-am-i-skating-towards/) - This is Linda Perry's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Community When I first started to mull this idea over, I was thinking fairly literally about the experience of skating and considering what I am currently skating towards. I realized that a more accurate image is that I am speed skating to,
- [David Roche - What Am I Skating Towards? Skating Like a Movement](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/david-roche-what-am-i-skating-towards-skating-like-a-movement/) - This is David Roche's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Skating Like a Movement For the last year or so I nursed the puck, staying in my own zone, circling behind the goal, then off to the side, watching the action down the ice, waiting for line changes, avoiding hits, guarding the
- [Ted Kuntz - What Am I Skating Towards? The Edge](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/ted-kuntz-what-am-i-skating-towards-the-edge/) - This is Ted Kuntz's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? The Edge I’m skating toward the edge. I believe we all are. I believe we are living in a time of profound change. Life as we have known it for the last number of centuries is undergoing a transformation. The structures, paradigms
- [Vickie Cammack - What Am I Skating Towards? Balance](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/vickie-cammack-what-am-i-skating-towards-balance/) - This is Vickie Cammack's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Balance I am six years old. Beaver Lake in Stanley Park is frozen solid and my thin legs stand rigid for the first time in unforgiving, gleaming white skates. The ice is uneven. The small cracks and twigs poking out of the
- [Alex Fox - What Am I Skating Towards? Belonging in the UK](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/alex-fox-what-am-i-skating-towards-belonging/) - This is Alex Fox's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Belonging For some time now, social care in the UK has been all about independent living: helping younger disabled people to move into their own homes; helping older people to stay in their own homes. That’s going brilliantly (people who would have
- [](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/this-is-gordon-atherleys-response-to-what-are-you-skating-towards-in-2012-shifting-the-mindset-of-canadas-healthcare-sys/) - This is Gordon Atherley's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Shifting the Mindset of Canada’s Healthcare System The shift is needed, urgently, because of increasing dominance in Canada by diseases that are incurable. Healthcare needs to acknowledge that, for incurable diseases, the healthcare provided by the healthcare system may be necessary but
- [Kirsteen Main - What Am I Skating Towards? - Getting My Poems Published](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/kirsteen-main-what-am-i-skating-towards-published-poetry/) - Here is poetry by Kirsteen Main for your Valentine's Day reading pleasure as well as her response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Getting My Poems Published What I would be skating towards – if I could skate – would be finally getting my poems published. In a book. For the whole world
- [Steve Sunderland - What Am I Skating Towards? Compassion](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/steve-sunderland-what-al-i-skating-towards/) - This is Steve Sunderland's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? COMPASSION Teaching the concept of “compassion” has been a joy since September 11, 2001. This is my personal program to foster understanding and insight into what would prevent the return of a terroristic form of communication. Now, ten years later, I look
- [Sean Moore: Where Am I Skating Towards? Effective Public Engagement](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/sean-moore-where-am-i-skating-towards-effective-public-engagement/) - This is Sean Moore's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Effective Public Engagement in Civic Affairs My current preoccupation, my passion, my thing these days, is to very personally and directly do something tangible about what most everyone seems to agree these days is the abysmal state of public engagement in civic
- [Linda Couture - What Am I Skating Towards? Celebrating Our Shared Humanity](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/linda-couture-what-am-i-skating-towards-celebrating-our-shared-humanity/) - This is Linda Couture's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Celebrating Our Shared Humanity Looking back at this past year’s experience of living in my mother’s world of Alzheimer, and accompanying my dad in this journey, has taught me the most. I learned the greatest lesson of humility and a great deal
- [Ted Jackson - What I Am Skating Towards.](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/this-is-ted-jacksons-response-to-what-are-you-skating-towards-in-2012-skating-towards-the-corners-in-hockey-when-you-skat/) - This is Ted Jackson's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Skating Towards the Corners In hockey, when you skate into the corners of the rink, you know you are headed for a rough ride. That’s the place where the elbows and sticks come up, bodies are slammed against the glass, and the
- [Sherri Torjman - What Am I Skating Towards? Recreation and Community Engagement](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/sherri-torjman-what-am-i-skating-towards/) - Here is Sherri Torjman's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Recreation and Community Engagement I recently delivered a keynote address at the first National Recreation Summit. The event gathered from all regions people who are involved in creating recreational opportunities in communities. I say ‘recreational opportunities’ because the focus did not always
- [Cheryl Rose - What Are You Skating Towards? The Middle of Nowhere](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/cheryl-rose-what-are-you-skating-towards-the-middle-of-nowhere/) - This is Cheryl Rose's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? The Middle of Nowhere Between the old and the new, there is a place that is a kind of nowhere-land and it is one of the most challenging places to be. It can be lonely and is full of uncertainty and tension.
- [Christian Bason - What Am I Skating Towards? Rehearsing the Future](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/christian-bason-what-am-i-skating-towards-rehearsing-the-future/) - This is Christian Bason's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Rehearsing the future As we enter 2012, new challenges arise for MindLab, the organisation I run. An internal innovation unit for three national ministries, MindLab has for a decade assisted policy makers in crafting better and more creative solutions to society’s wicked
- [Sam Sullivan - What Am I Skating Towards? A New Wave of Urban Reform](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/sam-sullivan-what-am-i-skating-towards-1/) - This is Sam Sullivan's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? A New Wave of Urban Reform My study of the history of Canadian cities leads me to conclude that we are ready for a new wave of urban reform. Canada has had three waves of urban reform. It is possible to locate
- [John Stapleton - What Am I Skating Towards? Addressing Public Scarcity and Private Wealth](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/john-stapleton-what-am-i-skating-towards-addressing-public-scarcity-and-private-wealth/) - This is John Stapleton's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? I want to conduct ‘thought experiments’ concerning where Canada is heading as a nation as we race to create greater inequality through increased public scarcity and private wealth. What does this look like? The area I know best is our income security
- [Delyse Sylvester - What Am I Skating Towards? Investing in Collaboration](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/delyse-sylvester-what-am-i-skating-towards-investing-in-collaboration/) - This is Delyse Sylvester's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? A more fully invested collaborator We were very lucky to live our two daughters’ “success by six” years at a housing coop in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive neighbourhood. Last fall, after many years living in Nelson - our girls are now 19 and
- [John McKnight - What Am I Skating Towards? Cooperation](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/john-mcknight-what-am-i-skating-towards/) - This is John McKnight's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Cooperation is the context for each of us to value doing well for ourselves and others. I have always believed that competition is the thin ice of society and the further we get from it, the safer we become because we will
- [Peter Deitz- What Am I Skating Towards? Microphilanthropy](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/peter-deitz-what-am-i-skating-towards/) - This is Peter Deitz's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? "What are you skating toward?" is a Canadian remix of the classic Siddharthian question, "Whither will my path yet lead me?" I recall coming across this question in high school, and thinking, "that's one of the best questions I've been confronted with
- [Adam Kahane - What Am I Skating Towards? Learning to Work Together](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/adam-kahane-what-am-i-skating-towards-learning-to-work-together/) - This is Adam Kahane's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? We Need to Learn How To Work Together We face a widening gap between our need to work together and our ability to do so. Our societies are becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent. What people over there, on the other side of
- [Kathy Bromley - What Am I Skating Towards? A Big Black Unknown](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/kathy-bromley-what-am-i-skating-towards/) - This is Kathy Bromley's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? As Shannon approaches her final semester of high school I find myself reflecting on how things have changed since Rob and I first introduced her to the teachers at our local elementary school. We wanted to make sure they realized that what
- [Paul Born - What Am I Skating Towards?](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/paul-born-what-am-i-skating-towards/) - NOTE - On Thursday January 26th (noon EST/9:00am PST) Paul Born and I will offer a free tele-learning seminar on Innovating Together. More details below This is Paul Born's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? When the ice is good it is easier to skate than to walk. Similarly when relationships are
- [Colleen McCormick: What Am I Skating Towards? The New Public Servant](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/colleen-mccormick-what-am-i-skating-towards-the-new-public-servant/) - Here is Colleen McCormick's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? The New Public Servant I am skating towards unleashing the power of government's greatest asset - the intrapreneur. The economic meltdown has crippled governments already challenged by climate change, healthcare crises, collapsing social structures, and growing public safety concerns. Faced with such
- [Jack Pearpoint - What Am I Skating Towards? Stories of the Remarkable and Ordinary](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/jack-pearpoint-what-am-i-skating-towards-stories-of-the-remarkable-and-ordinary/) - Here is Jack Pearpoint's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Local stories - Local people - Remarkably Ordinary I am a prairie boy where skating on frozen creeks and homemade rinks was a way of life. There were always cracks and rills; often you had to clear the snow, but then it
- [Maggie Vilvang and Richard Faucher - What We Are Skating Towards.](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/maggie-vilvang-and-richard-faucher-what-we-are-skating-towards/) - This is Richard and Maggie's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? What are we skating toward? The net, always the net! Sometimes on a breakaway, sometimes receiving a pass, sometimes offering an assist, but always, we are crossing the blue line with others who share our passion to achieve the goal. And
- [Mark Anielski - What Am I Skating Towards? Happiness Inc.](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/in-2012-a-group-of-10-inspired-professionals-are-forming-the-first-collaborative-profit-sharing-corporation-in-canada-calle/) - Here is Mark Anielski's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? In 2012 a group of 10 inspired professionals are forming the first collaborative profit-sharing corporation in Canada called Happiness Inc. Our mission is to help individuals, households, communities, cities/towns, organizations, regions, countries and the world to enhance Genuine Wealth, Happiness and ultimately
- [Allyson Hewitt - What Am I Skating Towards? Ambiguity and Vulnerability](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/allyson-hewitt-what-am-i-skating-towards-ambiguity-and-vulnerability/) - Here is Allyson Hewitt's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Hope, Opportunity Ambiguity and Vulnerability I’m skating towards hope, opportunity, and the embracing of ambiguity and vulnerability. And I’d like to share with you a quote and a video from two women who have skated this journey ahead of me: Gilda Radner
- [Peter Block - What Am I Skating Towards? Unoccupied Space](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/peter-block-what-am-i-skating-towards-unoccupied-space/) - This is Peter Block's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Unoccupied Space I am always attracted to unoccupied space. Realms where the dominant culture has not advanced its patriarchal or empire narrative. The fresher areas that have drawn me over the last few years are Journalism, Economics and now Religion. The journalism
- [Donna Thomson - What Am I Skating Towards? Defense](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/donna-thomson-what-are-you-skating-towards-defence/) - This is Donna Thomson's response to What are you skating towards in 2012? Defense Frankly, I have no idea what I'm skating towards. I am careening and I can’t quite see where the winds of change are taking me. Within the last four months, we have moved our family across the world, my husband retired
- [Marcel Lauzière - What Am I Skating Towards? Talking to Canadians](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/marcel-lauziere-what-am-i-skating-towards-talking-to-canadians/) - This is Marcel Lauzière's response to the question, What are you skating towards in 2012? Talking to Canadians Coming out of the National Summit for the Charitable and Nonprofit Sector in December, a number of key priorities will be worked on in the coming year. Of all of these, I am most passionate about the
- [Mark Kingwell - What Am I Skating Towards? Democracy and Empathy](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/mark-kingwell-what-are-you-skating-towards-democracy-and-empathy/) - Here is Mark Kingwell's response to the question, What are you skating towards in 2012? The Relationship Between Democracy and Empathy I can't skate very well, at least by Canadian standards, so I think I'm more groping and staggering towards something this coming year. It is the relationship between democracy and empathy -- the idea,
- [Shari Graydon - What Am I Skating Towards? Voice and Agency](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/shari-graydon-what-are-you-skating-towards-voice-and-agency/) - This is Shari Graydon's answer to What Are You Skating Towards? The Intersection of Voice and Agency As a young child, Sharon Carstairs was sexually abused by a family friend who effectively silenced her by insisting that no one would believe her if she spoke about his violations. But in the essay that she contributed
- [Stephen Owen - What Am I Skating Towards? Responsibility to Protect](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/stephen-owen-what-are-you-skating-towards-responsibility-to-protect/) - Here is Stephen Owen's response to, What Are you Skating Towards in 2012? Responsibility to Protect (R2P) The International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, sponsored by Canada, published “The Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) in 2001, which became part of international law when adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 and the Security
- [Patrick O'Neill - What Am I Skating Towards? Fast Ice](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/patrick-oneill-what-are-you-skating-towards-fast-ice/) - Fast Ice “Do you know that disease and death must needs overtake us, no matter what we are doing? …What do you wish to be doing when it overtakes you? …If you have anything better to be doing when you are so overtaken, get to work on that.” –Epictetus I’m skating towards oblivion. Sorry to
- [Molly Harrington - What Am I Skating Towards? Today's Youth](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/molly-harrington-what-are-you-skating-towards/) - Molly Harrington is Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and Research Division, British Columbia Ministry of Social Development. She is also co-chair of the Advisory Council on Social Entrepreneurship. This is her response to the question, What are you skating towards in 2012? Today's Youth I feel like I’m skating towards total appreciation and enjoyment of today’s
- [What Are You Skating Towards in 2012?](https://aletmanski.com/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/what-are-you-skating-towards-in-2012/) - Quid Tum - What next? is a declaration of our faith in the future, in the power of human ingenuity. It encompasses passion, curiosity, exploration, truth seeking. As readers will know, this blog is about the power of creativity and innovation when applied to our destiny's challenge - a good life for everyone. Truth seekers
- [Vancouver seeks TED prize](https://aletmanski.com/impact/city-power/) - "The physical design of cities and their economic functions are secondary to their relationship to the natural environment and to the spiritual values of human community." Lewis Mumford Half the world's population of 7 billion live in cities. Another 2 billion are expected to become city dwellers by 2030. Urban life is a fact of
- [Donald MacPherson - Swerving Around the War on Drugs](https://aletmanski.com/impact/for-years-community-activists-in-the-downtown-east-side-of-vancouver-understood-that-arresting-drug-users-or-stopping-the-flo/) - I liken Donald MacPherson to Thomas Clarkson the original community organizer. Clarkson was the unassuming, tireless workhorse behind the successful 18th century campaign to end the British slave trade. Donald is the legendary community organizer behind the 4 Pillars Drug Strategy, a campaign as ambitious, daunting and complex as addressing slavery. Donald like Clarkson has
- [33 Revolutions Per Minute - A Nod to John Lennon](https://aletmanski.com/impact/33-revolutions-per-minute-a-nod-to-john-lennon/) - Pop music helps resist oppression. Change, protest and movements are usually accompanied by songtracks. We Shall Overcome was introduced to Martin Luther King by Pete Seeger and it became an anthem for those resisting racist oppression in the 60's. I am partial to songs that reveal deception, penetrate assumptions or create possibilities. Songs that heal,
- [BC's Advisory Council on Social Entrepreneurship Releases Interim Report](https://aletmanski.com/impact/bcs-advisory-council-on-social-entrepreneurship-releases-interim-report/) - Together: Respecting the Future is now on-line. https://socialinnovationbc.ca/ You can access and comment on the draft report using Google Docs. To download a full copy of the Draft Recommendations click here. This draft report represents the current thinking of members of the BC Government’s Advisory Council on Social Entrepreneurship on how best to address our
- [Imagine Canada - Standing Still, Leaping Boldly](https://aletmanski.com/impact/imagine-1/) - I've always been partial to imagination as opposed to dreams. Imagination has an element of intentionality, of agency. Dreams start too far back in the unconscious for me. Bold leaps of imagination inspire bold actions. This sense of purpose and deliberation is a good description of Imagine Canada today. After the inevitable growing pains associated
- [Pre-Occupy Post-Occupy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/pre-occupy-post-occupy/) - "Democratic governance must evolve rapidly if it is to guide us through our social and environmental challenges. We require a deeper, more integrated form of democracy." John Richardson Founder Party 'X' The lingering memory of a recent Paul Hawken speech was the delivery of a comment from the audience. Stepping back from the mike a
- [BC Innovation Summit to be Broadcast Live](https://aletmanski.com/impact/bc-innovation-summit-to-be-broadcast-live/) - On November 25, 500 social innovators will gather at Vancouver's new Convention Centre for BC's first Non-Profit Partnership Summit: Collective Impact through Social Innovation. The event, hosted by the BC Government, has been designed to stimulate conversation among business, labour, government and community. To do that they've invited 5 impressive presenters; thoughtful panelists; mystery guests
- [Implementing Shannen's Dream: Inspiring Approaches through Changemakers](https://aletmanski.com/impact/shannens-dream-inspiring-approaches-through-changemakers/) - 15 year old Shannen Koostachin of Attawapiskat First Nation in Ontario had a dream - to go to a real school. A school that was safe and comfy, offering culturally based education for herself and her classmates. She led a group of students from her remote James Bay community to Ottawa to ask why the
- [War Horse - They Shot Horses Too](https://aletmanski.com/impact/war-horse-they-shot-horses-too/) - War Horse is the best play I've ever seen - meaningful, disturbing, and persistent. Others agree. In December 2010, War Horse was dubbed "the theatrical event of the decade" by The Times and it welcomed its millionth visitor at its West End London location this year. The puppetry of the life size horses is transcendent .
- [Survival of the Kindest](https://aletmanski.com/impact/survival-of-the-kindness/) - Charles Darwin believed that kindness, sympathy, empathy,and compassion for all life both human and non human was the highest moral achievement. "Looking at humans, as a naturalist would at any other mamiferous animal, it may be concluded that they have parental, conjugal and social instincts...these instincts consist of a feeling of love and benevolence to
- [Happy Birthday John McKnight](https://aletmanski.com/impact/happy-birthday-john-mcknight/) - It’s early September and I really should be downstairs at work. But the morning sun has attracted a golden finch to the railing. And juice from an Okanagan freestone peach is sticking to my bearded chin. John McKnight in autumn – wonder floats on my drowsiness. Autumn is the fullest season. Autumn reminds us the
- [Future Quotient - Loving Future Generations](https://aletmanski.com/impact/future-quotient-for-the-love-of-future-generations/) - 200 Japanese pensioners volunteered to begin the cleanup of the Fukushima power plant earlier this year. The self-proclaimed 'Skilled Veterans Corp,' asserted that they, not younger people, should risk radiation because, "they are more likely to die of natural causes before the cancers take hold." This example jumped out as a loving illustration of future
- [What Canada Needs Most - Resilience -  Important new McConnell Publication](https://aletmanski.com/impact/resilient-society-is-inclusive-sustainable-and-innovative-that-pretty-well-sums-up-the-jw-mcconnell-family-foundations-last/) - A Resilient Society is Inclusive, Sustainable and Innovative. That pretty well sums up the fruits of the JW McConnell Family Foundation's journey over the last fifteen years. Fifteen years of learning, risk taking and jettisoning assumptions. A period in which the foundation shifted from funding buildings to supporting the adaptive capacity of people; from
- [Don't Miss Alison Lawton](https://aletmanski.com/impact/dont-miss-alison-lawton/) - There it was on page S-14 of Saturday's Globe and Mail, a full page UBC ad profiling a remarkable documentary produced by UBC journalism students on the perils of dumping millions of tons of electronic waste, particularly on workers and children in developing countries. And if you look closely, there in small letters in the
- [Charles Leadbeater - Setting the Post Bridget Jones Agenda](https://aletmanski.com/impact/charles-leadbeater-setting-the-post-social-enterprise-agenda/) - "At the core of a good society, a fulfilling life and an effective state are relationships among people, between citizens, with public services that provide care, recognition, purpose and motivation." Charles Leadbeater Charles Leadbeater has been tracking and chronicling creative responses to our social challenges for several decades. He has a gift for weeding out
- [Representation Agreements - Love in the Architecture](https://aletmanski.com/impact/representation-agreements-angels-in-the-architecture/) - Simone Weil the French mystic, philosopher and social activist wrote, "Intelligence is enlightened by love." So is legislation. After a nearly 25 year journey the British Columbia government recently affirmed the status of Representation Agreements, a grass roots alternative to formal adult guardianship. This ends numerous attempts to claw back its usefulness. Rep Agreements are
- [Stephen Huddart's Beautiful World](https://aletmanski.com/impact/stephen-huddarts-beautiful-world/) - "There's always someone trying to make change happen and to make our world even more beautiful," observes Stephen Huddart, the new President and CEO of the McConnell Family Foundation. And that pretty well sums up Stephen's inspiration and delight in his new job. Stephen's path to McConnell circumnavigates the world geographically and experientially. The little
- [Kirsteen and Cat Main - Making Words Visible](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/kirsteen-and-cat-main/) - I used to see her hanging around art festivals. Like every young poet with something to say. Waiting. Waiting for a chance to share her poems. ...A single tear falls remembering the happy timesSo far and few betweenAnger not understood, only feltTime wasting as words go unheard... Occasionally she would be given space to
- [Diogo Vasconcelos - He Was What He Shared](https://aletmanski.com/impact/diogo-vasconcelos-he-was-what-he-shared/) - Conviviality is a word designed for Diogo Vasconceleos - gregarious, intimate, cheerful, gracious. You could settle in to a deep conversation with him the way the earth settled into an orbit around the sun. Simultaneously attracted by his energy and ideas while basking in his curiosity and attention. He gave you European thinkers all nicely
- [Learning from the Canadian Caregiver Coalition's Success](https://aletmanski.com/impact/a-retrospective-view-of-the-canadian-caregiver-coalitions-success/) - There are no coincidences in politics. If an issue is on a platform or a policy agenda, it’s because someone or a whole lot of someones worked long and hard to put it there. - Effecting Policy Change It is no accident that all major parties made an election commitment to support family caregivers in
- [Preston Manning’s Barometer of Canada](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/preston-mannings-barometer-of-canada/) - It is worth paying attention to Preston Manning. His impact on Canada over the last twenty-five years is profound. He created a political movement from scratch and founded two political parties (Reform Party and the Reform-Conservative Alliance ) which became the official Opposition and smoothed the way to the current Conservative majority government. In between
- [Adam Kahane's Impressive Array of Changelabs](https://aletmanski.com/impact/an-impressive-array-of-changelabs/) - I remain convinced one of our BIG challenges is learning to work together both within our community sector and among various sectors including government and business. Apprehension, misunderstandings and mistrust are more prevalent that we care to admit. That is why I am impressed with the various 'changelabs emerging around the world. I have written
- [Why Government Needs our Help](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/why-government-needs-our-help/) - The central characteristic of most advocacy is to get the right proposition in front of government and to lobby for its acceptance and implementation. However even when a commitment to action is secured there is often a failure to implement. It has dawned on many of us there are other forces at play. In fact
- [Caring, Daring and Working Hard: The Forces that will shape the Future of Vulnerability](https://aletmanski.com/impact/caring-daring-and-working-hard-the-forces-that-will-shape-the-future-of-vulnerability/) - The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation uses its significant endowment to support 'disruptive' healthcare innovation. Their definition of health is far broader than hospitals or health care institutions. Among their many portfolios is one dealing with Vulnerable Populations. If you are wondering about the language of vulnerability don't. The trajectory of their funding tilts in the
- [Will Social Finance be in Flaherty's June 6th Budget?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/will-social-finance-be-in-flahertys-june-6th-budget/) - iPOLITICS.ca is a great website/e-magazine for those who want more than predictable stories or columns in mainstream media. And they are timelier. And far more comprehensive. Well worth subscribing to. For fans of social finance and the recommendations of the National Task Force on Social Finance, here with iPOLITICS' permission is an opinion piece by
- [André Picard - 5 Mantras for Healthcare Reform](https://aletmanski.com/impact/andre-picard-5-mantras-for-healthcare-reform/) - I wasn't able to make the Public Policy Forum's annual testimonial dinner on April 28th when André Picard, the Globe and Mail's Health Reporter received the Hy Solomon Award. However, those who attended were unanimous - his short acceptance speech was brilliant. Here it is, with André's permission. The Five Mantras of Healthcare Reform The
- [Tipping Toward Sustainability - Frances Westley's presentation to Nobel Laureates](https://aletmanski.com/impact/frances-westley-tipping-toward-sustainability/) - Canadian academic Frances Westley's recent presentation to Nobel laureates is now available for viewing. Frances is renowned in academic circles. Stephen Huddart, incoming CEO of the JW McConnell Family Foundation recounts her 'rock star' status at a recent Resilience Alliance conference where attendees, (academics all ) followed her around from workshop to workshop lining up
- [Sheila Fraser's last Speech a Call to Action for Social Innovators](https://aletmanski.com/impact/i-find-it-really-tragic-that-after-ten-years-over-thirty-audits-of-first-nations-issues-on-reserves-a-fair-bit-of-money-ha/) - The blunt, plain speaking Sheila Fraser is retiring as Canada's Auditor General. She has become a household name over the past 10 years often referred to as a 'rock star' - a seemingly impossible tag for an accountant. She has a unique view of Canada, looking behind the promises, rhetoric and policies to the inner
- [Ontario's Social Innovation Strategy - Summit, Wiki, Roundtables...](https://aletmanski.com/impact/ontarios-social-innovation-strategy-0-summit-wiki-roundtables/) - Ontario's vibrant social innovation community is coalescing around some major initiatives. First they held a Social Innovation Summit on May 16th. Noteworthy was the participation of three Ontario Cabinet Ministers representing the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, the Ministry of Research and Innovation and the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. The Summit web pages
- [GLEE Finale Features Hard Hitting PSA calling for an end to 'R' word](https://aletmanski.com/impact/glee-finale-features-hard-hitting-psa-calling-for-an-end-to-r-word/) - A new hard hitting public service announcement, Not Acceptable, calling for an end to the use of the 'r' word will air tonight on GLEE's season ending show. The PSA gives voice to a variety of diverse communities, each of whom expresses that it is not acceptable to call them by what were once common
- [Quebec's new Declaration on Social Innovation](https://aletmanski.com/impact/quebecs-new-declaration-on-social-innovation/) - A group of prominent Quebec activists, government representatives, researchers, academics and community practitioners has just published a Declaration on Social Innovation which is well worth a look. Quebec is a global leader in social transformation. Its leadership in creating a social economy (Chantier de l'économie social), has set a standard the rest of Canada has
- [Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations](https://aletmanski.com/impact/parliamentary-commissioner-for-future-generations/) - For those worrying about the state of natural, spiritual and financial resources we will leave future generations, here is an idea from Hungary whose time has come - a Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations. The Hungarian Parliament established the position in 2007 with the following mission: The welfare of future generations is dependent on the
- [Rules for Charities Engaging in Advocacy](https://aletmanski.com/impact/rules-for-charities-engaging-in-advocacy/) - The advocacy chill for Canadian charities wanting to advocate may not be as frigid as you think. In Canada organizations that are federally registered as charities must adhere to a set of rules set out by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that limit their engagement in certain types of political activities. This has led to
- [Gordon Walker -  Our Gentle Horse Whisperer](https://aletmanski.com/impact/gordon-walker/) - Those of us associated with PLAN are fortunate to be tethered to passion. Our range is the life and death struggles of people who surmount labels, stigma, and ignorance, supported by the love of their friends, neighbours and families. A lot of this spiritual oxygen has left the room. Gordon Walker our very own horse
- [Ten Innovations that have Shaped the World of Disability](https://aletmanski.com/impact/ten-innovations-in-the-world-of-disability/) - In previous posts I have highlighted that social innovation is not an incremental change to the status quo but a substantive, disruptive one. Social innovations improve our ability (whether as individuals, families, networks, communities) to define and solve our challenges, rather than looking for outside help. Important by-products of social innovation should include greater resilience,
- [Happy Mother's Day courtesy Shane Koyczan](https://aletmanski.com/impact/happy-mothers-day-courtesy-shane-koyczan/) - Can we ever repay our Moms? Never, is the worn truth, every child eventually realizes. But Canadian poet and spoken word virtuoso, Shane Koyczan has an insight that might just satisfy the Moms of this world. Koyczan is an immensely talented young man who caught international attention at the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010
- [Disaster, Disability and Haiti](https://aletmanski.com/impact/disaster-disability-and-haiti/) - Two things are predictable concerning people with disabilities and natural disasters. One, they will be displaced making it even tougher to gain access to basic supports. Two, there will be even more people with disabilities as a result of the catastrophe. According to a 2008 report more than 10% of the 35 million people who
- [Inspire, Innovate, Incite, Invent - Increasing the Resilience of Commuities](https://aletmanski.com/impact/insight/) - The re-named Canadian Centre for Community Renewal has a new e-journal (i4) about Inspiring, Innovating, Inciting, and Inventing ways of life and work that permit humanity and the planet to thrive in this century of unprecedented challenges. Both the Centre and its magazine are committed to working with communities to increase their resilience especially their
- [Who Invented the Blue Box? Jack McGinnis did.](https://aletmanski.com/impact/who-invented-the-blue-box-jack-mcginnis-did/) - I was saddened to learn that Jack McGinnis, inventor of the ubiquitous curbside recycling, blue box, died earlier this year. Sad at the death of someone who touched all our lives in such a positive way. Sad because such an important social inventor should have been publicly eulogized. Sad because I always wanted to know
- [André Picard wins prestiguous Public Policy Forum award](https://aletmanski.com/impact/andre-picard-wins-prestiguous-public-policy-forum-award/) - André Picard knows something most journalists or historians don't. The majority of us live our lives taking care of each other, - our children, our spouses and partners, our parents, our friends, our neighbours, our co-workers, even strangers. In good times and bad. Through triumphs and tragedies, illness, ageing, accidents and chronic illness. André's specialty
- ["Passionate Amateurs" a Primary Source of Social Innovation](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-role-of-passionate-amateurs-in-social-innovation/) - Care is an expression of love - parental, familial, neighbourly. The primary source of care provided to our children, those with chronic disease, mental illness, or disability and those who are sick or ageing, comes from family, friends, neighbours, co-workers and personal networks. Most breakthroughs in care originate from the challenges we face nourishing, comforting,
- [Passionate Amateurs as Inspired Innovators in Family Caregiving](https://aletmanski.com/impact/passionate-amateurs-as-inspired-innovators-in-family-caregiving/) - Join me live Tuesday April 26th, for an internet talk radio show, Family Caregivers Unite! with Dr. Gordon Atherley on my favourite topic - natural, everyday, loving care inspired by ties of kinship, neighbourliness and friendship. Our discussion will focus on: Passionate Amateurs as Inspired Innovators in Family Caregiving. NOTE: The Podcast of this program
- [Mobile Movement nominated for a Webby](https://aletmanski.com/impact/mobile-movement-nominated-for-a-webby/) - Mobile Movement a group co-founded by Jess Fraser, who I have profiled before, has been nominated for a Webby Award in the Youth Category! Webbies are the equivalent of Oscars for on line campaigns. And they are in good company: MTV, National Geographic, Electric Company and Interfuel were also honoured with a nomination. Mobile Movement
- [Ten B.C. Environmental Innovations](https://aletmanski.com/impact/ten-environmental-innovations-in-british-columbia/) - All the talk about social innovation could lead one to the conclusion that it is something brand new, something emerging. In fact ingenuity, creativity and innovative problem solving is ongoing and has been around forever. One of the primary values of the emerging social innovation discussion is to shine a light on old and
- [Apathy is Boring](https://aletmanski.com/impact/apathy-is-boring/) - Apathy is Boring aims to use art and technology to educate young people about democracy and encourage their active involvement in decision making. Founded by my colleague and Ashoka fellow Ilona Dougherty they have already inspired over 30,000 young Canadians to pledge to vote in our upcoming federal election May 2nd. You may have noticed
- [Two Views of Social Innovation](https://aletmanski.com/impact/two-views-of-social-innovation/) - Here are two views of social innovation as expressed by Professional Ezio Manzini at the launch of the European Union's Social Innovation Europe, March 2011. Professor Manzini is one of the world's prominent thinkers on sustainability and social innovation. First View: Social innovation that seeks to correct market failures and the weaknesses, limitations, excesses and
- [Jason Mogus - Six Principles of Transformative Digital Campaigns](https://aletmanski.com/impact/jason-mogus-six-principles-of-transformative-digital-campaigns/) - Jason Mogus , founder and CEO of Communicopia, is one of the world's foremost digital strategists. He has been in the digital trenches since its infancy and sees behind and beyond the dazzle of technology and social media to design elegant campaigns for social and ecological justice. He has won a Webby (the web equivalent
- [Leadership is for the Birds](https://aletmanski.com/impact/leadership-is-for-the-birds/) - Have a look at this thrilling U-tube video Starlings on Otmor. You won't be disappointed. Harmony. Beauty. Inspiration. No collisions, no bird in charge, each moving individually, yet achieving common objectives - warmth, safety and security. How do hundreds of thousands of birds become a single moving entity? Is this akin to today's new vision
- [A Hat Trick for the Canadian Caregivers Coalition](https://aletmanski.com/impact/a-hat-trick-for-the-canadian-caregivers-coalition/) - Congratulations to the Canadian Caregivers Coalition. Caregiver promises are in the Conservative, Liberal and NDP party platforms. This is an intent few groups aspire to. And a feat few accomplish. The platforms are of course different but the dialogue has gained momentum, the debate has begun and delivery is on the horizon. Four million family
- [Social Innovation - Doing More With More](https://aletmanski.com/impact/social-innovation-doing-more-with-more/) - The phrase social innovation is surfacing everywhere. The European Union has just launched Social Innovation Europe. The UK has multiple initiatives around social innovation. President Obama has an Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. The Canadian Government has established awards for social innovation. The British Columbia Government has created an Advisory Council on Social
- [See Change - What Mainstream Media Misses](https://aletmanski.com/impact/see-change-what-mainstream-media-misses/) - SEE Change Magazine is Canada’s first publication for and about social enterprise and entrepreneurship. It was created in response to a need - the need to spread the word about an important social-business movement that has the capacity to change the way we live and engage with our communities. Something mainstream media is missing. There
- [Top Ten Books About Vancouver](https://aletmanski.com/impact/top-ten-books-about-vancouver/) - Vancouver, my home town turns 125 on April 6th. Over the years a number of writers have lived here. Some have even set all or part of their plots here. Here is my top ten list of fiction books about Vancouver. What's yours? By the way this list is best enjoyed by listening to my
- [Martin Luther King's Last Speech](https://aletmanski.com/impact/martin-luther-kingss-last-speech/) - Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegon fame writes a regular web column called the Writers Almanac featuring highlights of each day in history. Thanks to the tip from my friend Steve Sunderland here is a re-post of the April 3rd feature. On April 3rd 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final speech in Memphis, Tennessee,
- [Margaret Heffernan - Personal Responsibility](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/margaret-heffernan-personal-responsibility/) - Margaret Heffernan's new book is, Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril. Willful blindness is our collective capacity to 'go along' with what everyone else is doing; to carry forward with the familiar, to turn a 'blind eye' to what is going on whether it is incompetence, fraud, lies or immoral behaviour.
- [Nancy Hall's Spirit is Released to the Heavens](https://aletmanski.com/impact/nancy-hall-rest-in-peace/) - Our dear friend Nancy Hall died peacefully on Thursday March 24th. She was an effective and tireless advocate for people with mental illness. If we had our cultural priorities straight we would be giving her the honour of a state funeral. We worked most closely these past few years on the Better Together initiative to
- [Jean Vanier - The Power of Gentleness](https://aletmanski.com/impact/jean-vanier/) - Throughout history exceptional humans have given up wealth, power and privilege to teach us about a great but obscure form of power. These include Catherine of Siena, Donna Gracia Mendes of Spain, Frances of Assisi, and Prince Ashoka of India. Jean Vanier is one of these exceptional humans. He was born into the power of
- [The Next European Renaissance - Social Innovation Europe](https://aletmanski.com/impact/european-unio/) - The European Union has just raised the social innovation bar for governments. On March 17th in Brussels, President Barossa of the European Commission officially launched Social Innovation Europe. The EU's goal: by 2014, Social Innovation Europe will be the meeting place (virtual and real) for social innovators, entrepreneurs, non-profit organisations, policy makers, foundations and
- [Thomas Homer-Dixon - Steering Through Turbulent Times](https://aletmanski.com/impact/thomas-homer-dixon-steering-through-turbulent-times/) - In the News today: Earthquake, tsunami, meltdown, economic crisis .... Peak oil, political unrest in oil producing countries, verging civil war in Libya, economic crisis.... These events have led me to revisit two of Thomas Homer-Dixon's books:The Ingenuity Gap - explores the inadequacy of current expertise - the widening gap between our need for new
- [Spirit of the West - Putting Up With The Jones](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/spirit-of-the-west-keeping-up-with-the-jones/) - Spirit of the West composed one of the most popular college drinking songs of all time, particularly on St. Patrick's Day - Home for a Rest. On the sober side their songs reflect a critical eye on the decline of democracy, poverty, homelessness and the sterilization and institutionalization of citizens with disabilities. They wrote Puttin
- [Brad Johnston - A Social Innovation Gardener](https://aletmanski.com/impact/brad-johnston-a-social-innovation-gardener/) - Brad is an Ontario public servant who decided to step outside his comfort zone. Without authority, mandate or stategic plan he is successfully gathering fellow social innovators within the Ontario Public Service. Brad is keen to connect with public servants everywhere as well as those citizens interested in change labs and co-creation so don't hesitate
- [Hey There L'll Red Riding Hood - Think Like a Mountain](https://aletmanski.com/impact/what-about-the-good-wolves-lll-red-ridinghood/) - Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf. So writes Aldo Leopold, an environmentalist, forester and ecologist who died in 1948. Yet his famous essay, Thinking Like a Mountain, still offers insight. He describes how, in his boyish enthusiasm for hunting, he jumped at every opportunity to
- [Support Independent Bookstores](https://aletmanski.com/impact/alliance-of-small-bookstores/) - A happy convergence in my life was subscribing to the Literary Review of Canada, Geist and the New York Review of Books, at the same time as learning to order books on line. The prospect was too tempting and the columns of book sculptures in our home tottered as high as they multiplied. I had
- [Nick Hornby: About A Boy, His son Danny](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/nick-hornby/) - Nick Hornby writes popular books which become equally popular movies, (High Fidelity and About a Boy ) He also wrote the screenplay for the award winning film, An Education. His writing resonates, I suspect because like Hornby, music is the soundtrack of many of our lives. Having a family member with a disability, is also
- [The Hateful 'r' Word](https://aletmanski.com/impact/banish-the-r-word/) - J. e-mails a number of us about the "r" word regularly. It's a painful ache she can't explain. In addition to her environmental pursuits and her special passion for arachnids she wants answers: "Why do they keep calling us 'r' names? " R stands for retarded, a word that's likely not in your vocabulary and
- [Look Who's Talking? Shari Graydon and Informed Opinions](https://aletmanski.com/impact/shari-graydons-informed-opinion/) - Look who's talking? Men. And editorializing, opining, pontificating, informing, pitching, swaying and influencing. To a ratio of 80/20 according to the research . That's right 80% of editorial opinion in the Canadian media comes from men. This, despite the fact women make up 52% of the population; 60% of university graduates, and are represented in
- [Bonnie Sherr Klein - The Gift of Asking](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/bonnie-sherr-klein-the-gift-of-asking/) - Bonnie Sherr Klein is a celebrated documentary filmmaker. From her base at the National Film Board she created award winning films such as, the anti-pornography documentary Not a Love Story and Speaking Our Peace. Along the way she helped create Studio D - the world's first government funded studio devoted to women filmmakers. In 1987
- [Tim Winton's Cloudstreet reveals the birth of Compassion](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/tim-winton-how-people-with-disabilities-will-save-the-world/) - Australian writer Tim Winton's masterpiece is, Cloudstreet whose every word seems to sparkle with the special light that illuminates the air in his hometown of Perth. The novel revolves around two charming, eccentric families. I am drawn in particular to the tenderness between two brothers, Quick and Fish. Quick saved Fish from near drowning and
- [One of the Seven Wonders in the World of Disability - Wolf Wolfensberger](https://aletmanski.com/impact/a-nobel-for-truth-telling-wolf-wolfensberger/) - The phrase doesn't roll off the tongue like: I have a Dream; or Yes We Can. But it had a stirring impact on a generation of disability right activists, including me. The phrase is: “the utilization of means that are culturally normative in order to establish and/or maintain personal behaviors and characteristics that are culturally
- [Deanna Kawatski - How People With Disabilities Will Save the World](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/deanna-kawatski/) - Clara and Me - The Story of an Unexpected Friendship by Deanna Kawatski is an enchanting story about the mysterious exchange of friendship. Set in remote Northern British Columbia, Deanna longed for a female companion for eleven years. Then Clara arrived! "Knowing Clara showed me how friendships can arrive in surprise packages and how at
- [How People With Disability Will Save the World](https://aletmanski.com/series/lessons/how-people-with-disability-will-save-the-modern-world-1/) - In Ian Brown's award winning book, The Boy in the Moon, he highlights the impact John Ralson Saul's brother Anthony had on the internationally acclaimed writer and essayist's life. Saul is currently President of PEN International and Patron of PLAN. Here is the excerpt from Ian's book: I had only just learned that Saul had
- [TED and Ashoka Together at Last!](https://aletmanski.com/impact/ted-and-ashoka-together-at-last/) - Here's a treat for those who enjoy the TED series of inspiring videos and are equally impressed with Ashoka's continued global leadership on social enterprise. They have come together to offer an amazing conference over the web. On Friday February 25th 1:00 pm PST (4:00 EST; ) there will be free live streaming of the
- [Vickie Cammack - Becoming Visible 2011 - Faithful Friends](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/vickie-cammack-becoming-visible-2011-faithful-friends/) - Vickie Cammack is founder and CEO of Tyze - a social purpose business which creates personalized networks and bridges the divide between natural loving care and formal systems of care-giving. She is also a serial social innovator. She co-founded Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN). While there she invented personal network strategies that have endured over
- [Jessica Fraser - Becoming Visible 2011 - The Harmony of Contradiction](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/jessica-fraser-becoming-visible-2011-the-harmony-of-contradiction/) - Jessica Fraser is a film producer and co-creator of Mobile Movement which provides microfinace (either loans or grants) to 15 youth led initiatives in Nairobi, Kenya. As a donor or lender you get to choose the projects and communicate directly with them using mobile phone technology. Mobile Movement partners with the United Nations agency UN-HABITAT
- [Stefan Lorimer - Becoming Visible 2011 - Entitlement](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/stefan-lorimer-becoming-visible-2011-entitlement/) - Stefan Lorimer is a multi-talented digital technology strategist, community advocate and blogger . Stefan has single handedly built the infrastructure for PLAN's web strategy. He is also the person who convinced me to become intentional and conscious about digital strategies and helped me become a blogger. Most important for purposes of this series he is
- [Gord Tulloch - Becoming Visible 2011 - Natural Connections](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/gord-tulloch-becoming-visible-2011-natural-connections/) - Gord Tulloch is the innovative Program Director of the largest community living organization in British Columbia - possAbilities. His command of history, theoretical constructs and ethics qualifies him for the indispensable role as the community living movement's philosopher in British Columbia. It's a pity his other responsibilities limit his writing and commentating. Here is his
- [John Restakis - Becoming Visible 2011 - A Social Market](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/john-restakis-becoming-visible-2011-the-social-market/) - John Restakis is Executive Director of the BC Co-operative Association in Vancouver. By vocation he is a community organizer and popular educator. Aside from being a sessional instructor in the University of Victoria's new Masters in Community Development he is an international consultant on cooperative development including the Bologna Summer Studies Program with Professor Stefano
- [Raffi on Cairo the City of his Birth](https://aletmanski.com/impact/raffis-essay-on-cairo-the-city-of-his-birth/) - I've had many happy hours listening to global troubadour Raffi and his music with my daughters. I've also come to know him as a man of intense passion and profound integrity. His refusal to "sell out" his stories and music to the commercial interests in Hollywood for example makes him an ethical 'star'. He is
- [Peter Nares - Becoming Visible 2011 - Social Innovation](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/peter-nares-becoming-visible-2011-social-innovation/) - Peter Nares is the founding Executive Director of SEDI (Social and Enterprise Development Innovations) whose mission is to reduce poverty by expanding social and economic opportunities for low income Canadians. He is the personification of a social innovator. Peter has made a number of significant advances on behalf of people who are poor including changing
- [Tim Brodhead - Stepping Away as McConnell Foundation CEO](https://aletmanski.com/impact/tim-brodhead-stepping-away-as-mcconnell-foundation-ceo/) - Even though we knew it was coming, the February 10th announcement by the JW McConnell Family Foundation that Tim Brodhead is stepping away as President and CEO startles. The short announcement in the Foundation's monthly e-news was likely influenced by Tim's modesty and aversion to being the centre of attention and wanting to shine the
- [Ray Cohen - Becoming Visible 2011 - More Voices of People With Disabilities for the General Good](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/ray-cohen-becoming-visible-2011-more-voices-of-people-with-disabilities-for-the-general-good/) - Ray Cohen has been unlocking the resources of institutions and government agencies to benefit groups often overlooked by big systems since the 1970's. This includes progressive work in supporting children in care, alcohol and drug treatment and youth employment. Since 1986 he has provided a forum, through Abilities magazine for the voices and deeds of
- [Brian Salisbury - Becoming Visible 2011 - Co-Production](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/brian-salisbury-becoming-visible-2011-co-production/) - Brian Salisbury is one of only a handful of experts on individualized funding and direct payments in the world. He has made it his lifetime work to give individuals with disabilities and their families the financial power to control the type of disability supports they require. He is now an institutional entrepreneur as Director of
- [Victor Lachance - Becoming Visible 2011 - Scientific Inquiry](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/victor-lachance-becoming-visible-2011-scientific-inquiry/) - Victor Lachance is the former President and CEO of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. From that position he helped nurture True Sport and Sports Matters Group into existence. As such he helped create one of the most effective and unique public policy un - organizations in Canada. I appreciate Victor's focus on the
- [Budd Hall - Becoming Visible 2011 - A Knowledge Democracy Movement](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/bud-hall-becoming-visible-2011-a-knowledge-democracy-movement/) - Budd Hall is founding Director of the Office of Community Based Research at the University of Victoria. I first heard about him decades ago, from friends who counted on him and the university based resources he made available for community action. He continues to inspire class after class of students with his wisdom, passion and
- [Ian Curtin - Becoming Visible 2011 - Congruence Between our Inner Selves and our Activism](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/ian-curtin-becoming-visible-2011-congruence-between-our-inner-selves-and-our-activism/) - Ian Curtin has a unique background in business, labour and government. He understands the tough, complex swirl of personal and external variables that accompany change. His specialty is helping groups and organizations develop a mutually identified goal, "without anyone being diminished in the process." A few years ago at the request of visionary Brad Jarvis
- [Paul Martin Talks Social Finance](https://aletmanski.com/impact/paul-martin-on-talk-radio/) - Tina Crouse, is sharing her social entrepreneur expertise and passion with a larger audience. She now hosts a regular internet radio show on all matters of social finance. This Sunday February 6th she will be interviewing Canada's former Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Paul Martin who is equally passionate about social enterprise, particularly as it
- [Steve Sunderland - Becoming Visible 2011 - Compassion](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/steve-sunderland-becoming-visible-2011-compassion/) - Steve Sunderland is a professor of Peace and Educational Studies at the University of Cincinnati and founder of an inclusive Peace Village which emerged out of the inner city riots in Cincinnati ten years ago. His experience at peace making extends back to the civil rights movement in the American South and includes an active
- [Ted Kuntz - Becoming Visible 2011 - An Agent of Peace and Joy](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/ted-kuntz-becoming-visible-2011-an-agent-of-peace-and-joy/) - Ted Kuntz is a community activist, disability advocate, psychotherapist and author of Peace Begins With Me. Here is Ted's contribution to: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? You can also Download Becoming Visible - the complete collection of 58 essays. I recommend you read this essay in conjunction with Steve Sunderland's,
- [The "clean souls" of Egypt - A Letter from an Ashoka and Egyptian Leader](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-clean-souls-of-egypt-a-letter-from-an-ashoka-and-egyptian-leader/) - The following letter is written by Dr. Iman Bibars, who is an Ashoka Vice President and the Egypt based, Regional Director of Ashoka Arab World. Ashoka is a global fellowship of over 2600 of the world's leading social entrepreneurs, many of whom are working in Arab Nations. These men and women are addressing some of
- [Sean Moore - Becoming Visible 2011 - Improving the Lives of Canada's First Nations people](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/sean-moore-becoming-visible-2011-improving-the-lives-of-canadas-first-nations-people/) - Sean Moore is Canada's most experienced practionner, advisor, writer and teacher about public policy advocacy. For the past several years he has devoted his time to assisting civil society organizations upgrade their lobby and advocacy skills. To that end he is developing Advocacy School which will be able on line and through Sean's personal appearances.
- [Paul Pholeros - Becoming Visible 2011 - Making Simple](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/paul-pholeros-becoming-visible-2011-making-simple/) - Paul Pholeros is a multi talented architect/artist/community organizer who lives in Australia. I met him at a North-South conference on housing and homelessness and have followed his effective and surprisingly simple approach to this complex challenge. He founded and directs Healthhabitat which improves the living environment of indigenous Australians thereby improving their health. His
- [Linda Couture - Becoming Visible 2011 - A Natural End to Life](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/linda-couture-becoming-visible-2011-a-natural-end-to-life/) - Linda Couture is the Director of Living with Dignity a Quebec based organization promoting palliative care, home care and a natural end to life as opposed to assisted suicide or euthanasia. The Quebec government's Special Parliamentary Committee on Dying with Dignity has sparked both an intense debate inside Quebec and across Canada. Here is her
- [Allyson Hewitt - Becoming Visible 2011 - Blending Social and Economic Outcomes](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/allyson-hewitt-becoming-visible-2011-blending-social-and-economic-outcomes/) - Allyson Hewitt is a force for change. She has led impressive advocacy campaigns herself including the development of 211 - providing three-digit and online access to social service, community and government information. Now she heads the Social Enterprise Unit at MaRS Discovery District and is a colleague at Social Innovation Generation. Her organizing talents are
- [Cheryl Rose - Becoming Visible 2011 - Passion](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/cheryl-rose-becoming-visible-2011-passion/) - Cheryl Rose is an accomplished educator, well loved by her students. She pioneered the development of Community Service Learning in universities throughout Canada. Community Service Learning convenes students, educators and community in partnerships to learn from each other. She is also a colleague at Social Innovation Generation - Waterloo. Here is her answer to:
- [Cormac Russell - Becoming Visible 2011 - Relying on Each Other](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/cormac-russell-becoming-visible-2011-relying-on-each-other/) - Cormac Russell is a colleague of mine at the Asset Based Community Development Institute. He is Managing Director of Nurture Development, an Irish training and development agency. He also works internationally advising governments, organizations and communities on how to re-negotiate the Social Contract in a way that strengthens community life and social justice. Here is
- [Gordon Hogg - Becoming Visible 2011 - Our Common Fund of Stories](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/gordon-hogg-becoming-visible-2011-our-common-fund-of-stories/) - Gordon Hogg has been a Mayor and then member of the Legislative Assembly in British Columbia for more than three decades. During that period he has held a number of Cabinet posts leading reforms in the area of disability and public health. He is a passionate advocate for community problem solving and social enterprise. Just
- [Nancy Hall - Becoming Visible 2011 - Changing the Mental Health and Addiction Agenda](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/nancy-hall-becoming-visible-2011-changing-the-mental-health-and-addiction-agenda/) - Nancy Hall is a long time mental health advocate, scholar, strategist and public policy expert. She specializes in individual and family focused solutions. Last fall she was awarded Canada's most celebrated Clarence Hincks mental health Award. Here is her answer to: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? You can also Download
- [Paul Born -  Becoming Visible 2011 - Community](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/paul-born-becoming-visible-2011-community/) - Paul Born is a man of many talents, all of which he puts at the service of strengthening the ties that bind us together in community. He is a master convener using those skills to create and sustain Vibrant Communities - a poverty reduction strategy in dozens of Canadian communities. Paul shares his expertise and
- [Don Cayo - Becoming Visible 2011 - Civility](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/don-cayo-becoming-visible-2011-civility/) - Don Cayo is a Vancouver Sun business columnist. His column and his blog tackles globalization,taxation, third world poverty and other issues that matter. For years he has been mentoring young journalists, leading regular investigative study tours to developing countries. Here is Don's response to: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? You
- [Donna Thomson - Becoming Visible 2011 - Me](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/donna-thomson-becoming-visible-2011/) - Donna Thomson is an advocate and international advisor to the PLAN Institute. She is also the author of Four Walls of My Freedom which I reviewed in a previous post. Here is Donna's response to: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? You can also Download Becoming Visible - the complete collection
- [David Bornstein - Becoming Visible 2011 - Our Hidden History of Bright Spots and Positive Pathways](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/david-bornstein-becoming-visible-2011-bright-spots-and-positive-pathways/) - David Bornstein is an author and journalist. His book, How to Change the World - Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas has become a classic for changemakers and social entrepreneurs. Last year he launched Dowser a solution based on- line journal. Dowser is interested in the practical and human elements of social innovation:
- [John McKnight - Becoming Visible 2011 - The Visible Neighbourhood](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/john-mcknight-becoming-visible-2011-the-visible-neighbourhood/) - John McKnight is perhaps the most acclaimed community organizer in North America although in recent years his student Barack Obama seems to have attracted a fair amount of media interest himself. If you want to observe and understand the strengths and capacities of any neighbourhood or community read his book: Building Communities From the Inside
- [Denis Rowley - Becoming Visible 2011 - Hidden Gifts and Contributions](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/denis-rowley-becoming-visible-2011-hidden-gifts-and-contributions/) - Denis Rowley is a social entrepreneur, inspired teacher, disability activist and the Director of Equal Futures, Scotland. Among Denis' many gifts is a profound knowledge of Canadian folk music. Denis has become a co-author with Vickie Cammack and I, on the Scottish edition of Safe and Secure. We hope to be in Edinburgh on March
- [Caroline Casey - Becoming Visible 2011 - One Billion Member Disability Market](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/caroline-casey-becoming-visible-2011-one-billion-member-disability-market/) - Caroline Casey is a global adventurer, compelling and charismatic international speaker. She had everyone buzzing during her keynote at last year's Skoll World Forum. Her home base is Ireland where she founded Kanchi and the O2 Ability Awards. Caroline is an Ashoka colleague. Together with other Ashoka fellows we are developing a global strategy to
- [Christian Bason - Becoming Visible 2011 - Citizen Insight](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/christian-bason-becoming-visible-2011/) - Christian Bason is head of MindLab, a unit for citizen-centred innovation in Denmark. He is part of a vanguard who are creating meaningful ways for government to become innovative and to do so in partnership with community and business. His new book, Leading Public Sector Innovation is quickly becoming a bible for rejuvenation of the
- [Bob Williams - Becoming Visible 2011 - The End of Invisibility](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/bob-williams-becoming-visible-2011-the-end-of-invisibility/) - Bob Williams is a Board member and living legend at Vancity Credit Union, a former BC Cabinet Minister and British Columbia’s most accomplished social entrepreneur. Here is his answer to:What would you like to become more visible in 2011? You can also Download Becoming Visible - the complete collection of 58 essays. The End of
- [Ted Jackson - Becoming Visible 2011 - Pathways Out of the Precariat](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/ted-jackson-becoming-visible-2011/) - Ted Jackson is a university professor, management consultant and author who is a faculty member in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University. Ted and I also share the common experience of having been labourer -teachers in the early 1970's with that marvellous adult education institution, Frontier College. This is Ted's answer
- [Stephen Huddart - Becoming Visible 2011 - Hope](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/stephen-huddart-becoming-visible-2011-hope/) - Stephen Huddart is the Chief Operating Officer of the JW McConnell Family Foundation and a critical participant in our Social Innovation Generation collaboration. The richness and thoughtfulness of his perspective is honed from his extensive background in business, non profits and philanthropy. His inquiring mind generated the following response to:What would you like to become
- [Tim Draimin - Becoming Visible 2011 - Social Innovation Goes Mainstream](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/tim-draimin-becoming-visible-2011-social-innovation-goes-mainstream/) - The legendary Tim Draimin is Executive Directive of Social Innovation Generation (SiG), Chair of Causeway Social Finance and prior to that the founding CEO of the Tides Canada Foundation. He is the key behind the scenes force behind the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance. His blog is well worth subscribing to. He, Celia Cruz
- [TYZE CEO one of headliners Global Social Innovation and Finance week](https://aletmanski.com/impact/tyze-ceo-one-of-headliners-global-social-innovation-and-finance-week/) - Global Social Innovation and Finance week starts in Vancouver, Monday January 17th. As a warmup to a series of events including an Ashoka/SiG/PLAN Institute/Causeway - led study tour to Vancouver here is a repost of a recent article on Tyze CEO and social entrepreneur, Vickie Cammack. The source is Axiom News , a refreshing new,
- [Arthur Wood - Becoming Visible 2011 -  Eleven Global Social Finance Trends](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/arthur-wood-becoming-visible-2011-eleven-social-finance-trends/) - Arthur Wood is the Einstein of social finance. He knows the secrets of how the universe's money works! He is brilliant and full of insights and well worth paying attention to. Previously Global Head Social Finance Services for Ashoka he is Founding Partner of Total Impact Advisors. Vancouver is playing host to a Social Innovation
- [Adam Kahane - Becoming Visible 2011 - Power and Love](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/adam-kahane-becoming-visible-2011-reconciliation-of-power-and-love/) - Adam Kahane is a best selling author, global consultant with Reos Partners and peace maker. His abilities have drawn invitations from warring factions to help resolve their differences in many of the world's trouble spots. He knows how to solve tough problems in tough situations. His most recent book, Power and Love is prefaced by
- [Alison Loat - Becoming Visible 2011 - Democracy](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/alison-loat-becoming-visible-2011-democracy/) - Alison Loat is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Samara. They seek to improve political leadership; the participation of citizens in public life; and public affairs journalism and have adopted a creative multi-communication strategy to do so. Samara is the winged helicopter seed that falls from maple, elm and ash trees. Here is Alison's answer to
- [Martin Luther King and Waddie Welcome](https://aletmanski.com/impact/martin-luther-king-and-waddie-welcome/) - Martin Luther King Junior and Waddie Welcome have four things in common. One they both hail from Georgia. Two, Waddie died at the age of 87 on January 17th, a date now recognized as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US. There is a world wide movement arising around Waddie. (That's the third thing
- [BC Government establishes Advisory Council on Social Entrepreneurship](https://aletmanski.com/impact/bc-government-establishes-advisory-council-on-social-entrepreneurship/) - Things are moving faster in British Columbia on the social innovation, social finance and social enterprise front. Gordon Hogg, BC's and Canada's first Parliamentary Secretary for Social Entrepreneurship, announced today (January 12, 2011) the creation of an Advisory Council on Social Entrepreneurship. The mandate of the Council is to make recommendations which maximize social innovation
- [David Eaves - Becoming Visible in 2011 - Comfort with Decline and Death](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/david-eaves-becoming-visible-in-2011-comfort-with-decline-and-death/) - David Eaves is a proficient blogger and open government activist. He is in demand as a public speaker and consultant on open government, negotiations, strategy and public policy. Here is his provocative answer to the question: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? You can also Download Becoming Visible - the complete
- [Stacey Corriveau - Becoming Visible 2011 - Community Economic Development and Environmental Solutions](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/stacey-corriveau-becoming-visible-2011-community-economic-development-and-environmentalism/) - Stacey Corriveau is the Director of the BC Centre for Social Enterprise and the founder and Executive Director of Resilient Communities Canada. She has been the driving force behind the research and adaptation of legal structures that would increase the ability of social purpose organizations and social enterprises to attract capital. Here is her response
- [Tim Brodhead - Becoming Visible 2011 - Dethroning the GDP](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/tim-brodhead-becoming-visible-2011-dethroning-the-gdp/) - Tim Brodhead is one of Canada's intellectual leaders and most accomplished activists. He is also President and CEO of the JW McConnell Family Foundation and co-founder of Social Innovation Generation (SiG). Here is his response to the question: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? You can also Download Becoming Visible -
- [Prime Minister Harper announces Award for Social Innovators](https://aletmanski.com/impact/on-january-7th-prime-minister-harper-announced-a-series-of-national-and-regional-awards-that-honor-indivduals-particularly/) - On January 7th Prime Minister Harper announced a series of national and regional awards that honor individuals, (particularly young adults), non profits, businesses and social enterprises who are improving the well being of their community and supporting social innovation. The language of the Prime Minister reflects that used by leading non profit, voluntary sector, government
- [Richard Faucher - Becoming Visible 2011 - Leveraging Our Collective Assets](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/richard-faucher-becoming-visible-2011-agents-of-a-huge-talent-pool/) - Richard Faucher is a modern courier de bois. He is Executive Director of the Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion. Read his refreshing call to action below. Here is his response to the question: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? You can also Download Becoming Visible - the complete collection of 58
- [Sam Sullivan - Becoming Visible 2011 - Greeting Fluency](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/sam-sullivan-becoming-visible-2011-greeting-fluency/) - Sam Sullivan is a serial social inventor. He is the Alexander Graham Bell of the disability sector who has now turned his curiosity and creativity to the civic sector. He has created more organizations than anyone I know. More impressive, most of them are still thriving despite his 'moving on'. Moving on is what he
- [Delyse Sylvester - Becoming Visible 2011 - Making Change Through Tri-Sector Partnerships](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/delyse-sylvester-becoming-visible-2011-tri-sector-partnerships/) - Delyse Sylvester is Director of Community with Ashoka's Changemakers. Changemakers is a remarkable vehicle for convening people using an on line platform and mobilizing their creativity to solve tough problems. In this context she was called to lead a Changemakers 'competition' involving the G-20 leaders and creating a fund to finance small and medium enterprises
- [Karim Harji - Becoming Visible 2011 -  Increased Opportunities for Youth in Social Finance](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/karim-harji-becoming-visible-2011-increased-opportunities-for-youth-and-social-finance/) - Get used to this name, Karim Harji. You'll be hearing and seeing a lot more of him in the years to come. Karim is a leading example of a group of emerging leaders in the 'social finance' community in Canada. Aside from being a Senior Manager of Partnerships and Social Impact at Bill Young's Social
- [David Roche - Becoming Visible 2011 - Your Own True Beauty](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/david-roche-becoming-visible-2011-your-own-true-beauty/) - David Roche has performed in the Clinton White House, at PLAN Institute's annual Thinking Like a Movement retreat on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia and around the world. He is a natural teacher and natural story teller. Natural because he speaks about what has meaning to him and by extension to ourselves. His authenticity
- [Cairine MacDonald - Becoming Visible 2011 - Love and Leadership](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/cairine-macdonald-becoming-visible-2011/) - Cairine MacDonald has worked in community development, education, non profits and business. Now she brings that rich experience to government. We met and worked together when she was Deputy Minister, Housing and Social Development. I gained insight and respect for the passions that inspire the best of our public servants, from Cairine and the senior
- [John Mighton - Becoming Visible in 2011 - Rising to our Children's Potential](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/becoming-visible-in-2011-john-mighton-teaching-to-our-childrens-potential/) - John Mighton was one of the fifty-eight who responded to my question: What would you like to become visible in 2011? John is an award winning playwright, author, mathematician, occasional movie actor and founder of JUMP. John has a wise and thoughtful eye. While he 'sees' the true potential in each of us he is
- [Peter Block - Becoming Visible, 2011 - A Shift in Economic Thinking](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/peter-block-becoming-visible-2011-a-shift-in-economic-thinking/) - Peter Block is a well known author (Flawless Consulting; The Answer to How is Yes; Community: The Structure of Belonging ) and consultant. If you spend time with him, you'll experience an endless stream of admirers lined up to let him know how much one of his books has meant to them and perhaps to
- [Jacques Dufresne - Becoming Visible 2011 - Totalitarian Ignorance](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/jacques-dufresne-becoming-visible-2011-totalitarian-ignorance/) - Jacques Dufresne's response to my question, What would you like to become more visible in 2011? was immediate. Ignorance! He would like us to see the danger in an ignorance that is proud of itself and which, in the hands of self-satisfied pundits, cuts through complexity, undermining facts and scientific wisdom. Jacques is a philosopher,
- [Becoming Visible - the 2011 Collection](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/becoming-visible-in-2011-master-document/) - On February 16th I posted the updated collection adding new essays by Allyson Hewitt, Budd Hall, Cheryl Rose, Ilse Treurnicht and John Restakis. When you download the document below it will contain the revised of collection of 63 essay. What better way to celebrate a new year than with the gift of reflection, projection and
- [Richard Bridge - Becoming Visible in 2011 - Old Rural Wisdom](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/richard-bridge-becoming-visible-in-2011-old-rural-wisdom/) - Richard Bridge is a respondent to my question: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? Richard is one of a handful of experts in charity, non-profit law in Canada. (www.lawyerforcharities.ca) He has applied his multiple talents to a range of initiatives to improve civil society. Only some of which involve the law.
- [Alexandra Samuel - Becoming Visible 2011 - Embracing our IRL, Online and Offline](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/alexandra-samuel-becoming-visible-2011-embracing-irl-in-real-life/) - Alexandra Samuel is one of 58 respondents to my question: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? Alex is Director of the Social and Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University. She co-founded Social Signal and blogs for Oprah.com on the one hand and the Harvard Business Review on the other. Alex
- [André Picard - Becoming Visible in 2011 - The Contributions of Seniors to a Healthy Canada](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/andre-picard-becoming-visible-in-2011/) - Globe and Mail public health reporter and award winning writer, André Picard is one of the 58 contributors to my New Year's series, Becoming Visible. I asked those I profiled or referenced in my 2010 blog columns to answer the following question: What would you like to become more visible in 2011? André is also
- [Sherri Torjman - Becoming Visible in 2011- Walking Tall](https://aletmanski.com/series/becoming-visible-2011/sherri-torjman-becoming-visible-in-2011/) - Sherri Torjman was one of the fifty-five who responded to my question: What would you like to become visible in 2011? Sherri is an author, policy analyst, researcher, Vice President of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy and one of Canada's most acclaimed and accomplished commentators on social policy. With her at your side, your
- [Canadian Songs for the 'close and holy darkness'](https://aletmanski.com/impact/canadian-songs-for-the-close-and-holy-darkness/) - A cosy Canadian Christmas to my readers who, google stats suggest, are now scattered over 44 countries. Gilles Vigneault composed this chanson about Quebec, Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays - c'est l'hiver ( My country isn't a country it's winter.) True, for the rest of Canada except Vancouver where we will enjoy a
- [A Gesture of Appreciation - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (50)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/the-gesture-of-appreciation-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-50/) - Is there a politician, editorial writer, public servant, fellow advocate, foundation staff person, competitor, colleague, business leader, funder, community activist, high profile commentator who did the right thing, took a stand, supported you, 'saw' what you are trying to do, went several extra kilometres, shifted the momentum, advanced the agenda, achieved a goal, silently corrected
- [The Wild Abandon of 'Big' Jim Schwier](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-wild-abandon-of-big-jim-schwier/) - I share many things in common with Jim Schwier but the one that gives me the biggest chuckle is our mutual love of tool belts. Jim has many other passions and talents. Some of these are reflected in a letter sent to the YMCA by his step Mom, Karin Melberg Schwier Canada's most prolific and
- [Virginia Greene - All That Heaven Will Allow](https://aletmanski.com/impact/virginia-greene-all-that-heaven-will-allow/) - When you are starting fresh, despite your brazen front, you are full of insecurities. Some you know, some you don't. And those insecurities can weigh you down, undercut your imagination and restrict your actions. More than you realize. Especially when your heaven seems far away. Then someone sees you. She sees what you are
- [Putting the Social in Infrastructure](https://aletmanski.com/impact/putting-the-social-in-infrastructure/) - Federal Government infrastructure spending in response to our economic crisis is expected to produce multiple wins: jump-start the economy, provide employment, repair our aging sewers, roads and bridges and expand transit services. Given that the Federal Government's budget for infrastructure spending hasn't been spent and they have extended their deadline from March 31st until October
- [Uploading versus Downloading - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (49)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/uploading-versus-downloading/) - What we need is a new model of citizenship based on the act of participation itself, not on some quality or thought or right enjoyed by its possessor. This participatory citizenship doesn't simply demand action from existing citizens; it makes action at once the condition and the task of citizenship. Mark Kingwell author The World
- [Hallelujah - The Gifts of a Unique Artist - Michelle Amerie](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-gifts-of-a-unique-artist-michelle-amerie/) - Looking for the perfect gift this Christmas? And a good reason to avoid the malls? Check out our talented artist friend, Michelle Amerie's silk art. Ties (these will get worn!) framed prints, scarves (so will these) and beautiful clothing (for sure.) Should you order now they will arrive before Christmas. Contact Michelle directly. Or order
- [20 Stories Down - The Ascent of Stephanie Cadieux](https://aletmanski.com/impact/20-stories-down-the-ascent-of-stephanie-cadieux/) - She rappels down the sides of tall buildings, wheelchair and all. This may be all you need to know about Stephanie Cadieux, British Columbia's first ever Cabinet Minister with a spinal cord injury. A short clip is worth a thousand words. Of course there is more to this woman of adventure, spirit and talent. While
- [A Wise and Tender Heart - Jean Vanier's letter to Parliamentary Committee on Palliative Care](https://aletmanski.com/impact/wise-and-tender-heart-jean-vaniers-letter-to-parliamentary-committee-on-palliative-care/) - There is an all Party Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care engaged in consultations across Canada. They are preparing policy recommendations on palliative care, suicide prevention, elder abuse and disability issues related to health care. Jean Vanier is the founder of L'Arche - communities of people around the world that commit to sharing their lives
- [Adapting the Social Finance Task Force Recommendations to Your Sector -Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (48)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/adapting-the-social-finance-task-force-recommendations-to-your-sector/) - Many leaders within British Columbia's disability sector are promoting and adapting a social finance strategy that parallels the seven recommendations of the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance released on November 30th.They are doing it because they: realize the days of increased government funding are over and they want to be prepared for more challenging
- [The Time Has Come the Walrus said to 'Do' Public Policy Ourselves and establish a Social Finance Task Force - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy(47)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/the-time-has-come-the-walrus-said-to-do-public-policy-ourselves-and-establish-a-social-finance-task/) - Sean Moore, the wise and big hearted walrus of public policy first remarked this several years ago. Most government departments have either eliminated or pared to the bare bones their policy development arms. This means there are few staff dedicated to policy research, policy formulation, policy surveillance, and policy exploration. The time has come, Sean
- [Ouch - It's an International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Thing - December 3rd](https://aletmanski.com/impact/international-day-of-persons-with-disabilities-december-3rd/) - What do you do when you have an abundance of topics, profiles, initiatives to highlight the extraordinary contributions of individuals with disabilities? Link them to the most irreverent group of people with disabilities you know - Ouch - it's a disability thing. Read why Disability Bitch likes a good leak - WikiLeak that is. Read
- [The Spaces In Between - The Back Story of the Task Force on Social Finance - an illustration of Solution Based Advocacy (46)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/the-back-story-social-finance-in-canada/) - It took a million steps and thousands of relationships to launch the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance. Here are a few of those stories. I welcome your contributions, additions, amplifications. Let's record our history. Eight years ago Tim Brodhead and the Board of the JW McConnell Family Foundation took perhaps the biggest risk of
- [Shooting the Rapids - Ballast from the Social Finance Task Force](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-community-sector-in-canada-has-hit-white-water-non-profits-charities-coops-citizen-groups-are-contending-with-governm/) - The community sector in Canada has hit white water and the sound of the waterfalls is echoing louder. Non profits, charities, co-ops, and citizen groups are contending with government funding reductions, more competition for the donor and foundation dollar and scarce additional resources to invest in recruiting and retaining high calibre staff or acquiring the
- [The Inner Activist - A Site for Sore Eyes - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (45)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/the-inner-activist-a-site-for-sore-eyes-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - And for flagging spirits, tired bodies, troubled minds and suffering souls. Social change can be harsh, hard, unyielding work. It can take a toll on you, your families, your friends, your acquaintances, your adversaries... It has on occasion turned me into the very dragon I thought I was doing battle with. But that's the old
- [Flaherty Makes Disability Savings Plan More Accessible](https://aletmanski.com/impact/flaherty-makes-disability-savings-plan-more-accessible/) - Finance Minister Jim Flaherty continues to be a champion for people with disabilities and their families. He intends to correct a procedural barrier to eligibility for the Disability Tax Credit (DTC). Eligibility for the Disability Tax Credit is the only way to become eligible to establish a Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP). The current problem
- [Caroline MacGillivray's Redemption of Beauty](https://aletmanski.com/impact/dignity-is-beautiful-especially-when-touched-by-caroline-macgillvray/) - Let the beauty of what you love be what you do There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. -RUMI There is a young Vancouver woman whose special touch with the invisible women of our society gets as close to pure caring as anything I have seen. Her name is Caroline MacGillivray
- [Ask David Eaves: Is the Internet our new Parliament Buildings?  (Part Three)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/ask-david-eaves-is-the-internet-our-new-parliament-buildings-part-three/) - David Eaves is an app inventor, philosopher, negotiation specialist and one of the world’s leading proponent of Open Government. Open Government for David consists of making government more transparent, accountable and collaborative. To give birth to Open Government he, like all good social entrepreneurs, works in the grey zone of ambiguity, serendipity and unpredictability. In
- [Ask Alexandra Samuel: Is the Internet our new Parliament Buildings?  (Part Two)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/ask-alexandra-samuels-is-the-internet-our-new-parliament-buildings-part-two/) - People working in the field of social media bear a particular responsibility for imagining, interrogating and forming this new world that is just beginning, for what use is our insatiable appetite for connectivity, our constant embrace of new tools, our perpetually self-reflecting conversation, if not for the job of shaping this new world with some
- [Is the Internet our new Parliament Buildings? (Part One)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/is-the-internet-our-new-parliament-buildings/) - The future is going to happen no matter what we do, writes Douglas Copeland in his latest book Player One: What is to Become of Us, reminding us of the obvious. And that future, regardless of what we think will include the internet, social media and its related iterations and devices, present and future.
- [What Makes a Hand a Hand? - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (44)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/what-makes-a-hand-a-hand-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-44/) - The fingers? Yes. Obviously, but... What about the spaces in between? The hand is a system comprised of fingers and the spaces in between. The fingers don't exist without the spaces in between. Without the spaces in between the fingers wouldn't fulfill their potential. Community organizers, social entrepreneurs and solution based advocates, specialize in the
- [I'll Get My Data to Talk to Your Data! - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (43)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/ill-get-my-data-to-talk-to-your-data-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-42/) - According to David Eaves, one of the world's expert on open data and open government there are more than 300 different data sets in the federal government alone! How are they able to 'talk' to each other let alone to the public's own proliferation of data sets? I once tried unsuccessfully to export my addresses
- [A British Columbia Jewel at the G-20 Seoul Summit - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (42)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/a-british-columbia-jewel-at-the-g-20-seoul-summit/) - Here's a positive footnote to the recently completed G-20 Summit in Seoul, South Korea. The G-20 leaders committed more than half a billion dollars to support social finance. That's serious money for sustainable and socially responsible businesses. While critics and commentators question these gatherings and wonder about their worth, an enterprising, creative East Kootenay social
- [Who invented the committee? - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (40 )](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/who-invented-the-committee-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - A foolish question perhaps. How about Task Force? Advisory Body? Expert Panel? Regardless these forms have been around for a long time. Now a new vehicle or container is emerging simultaneously in many parts of the world. It's generic description is 'social laboratory'. These 'labs' have a specific function: to convene multiple and diverse parties
- [The Courage of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi - a Profile of Solution Based Advocacy (39)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/the-courage-of-daw-aung-san-suu-kyi/) - "Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men and women are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to bear the responsibilities and uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society." — Aung San Suu Kyi Here's a curiosity. Next
- [The Thousand Faces of Peter Nares - A Case Study in Solution Based Advocacy (38)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/the-thousand-faces-of-peter-nares-a-case-study-in-solution-based-advocacy/) - Poverty is a tough, gnarly, complex problem. It has been resistant to countless efforts, strategies and expenditures over decades, even centuries. It has befuddled many many sharp, smart people. The poverty activists I pay attention to are those who start off by recognizing, what is not as obvious as it should be: poverty is a
- [Kindness - Vickie Cammack's Reflections on Who We Really Are](https://aletmanski.com/impact/kindness-a-reflection-of-who-we-really-are/) - This is the first in a series of guest blogs. This article by Vickie Cammack is a cross posting from PLAN Institute and TYZE - Vickie's social mission business. See also the NOTES below. As I sit shivering in a cold hockey rink for my son’s pre dawn hockey practice a stranger sits down and
- [What Can We Learn About Power and Love from Aung San Suu Kyi? - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (37)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/what-can-we-learn-about-power-and-love-from-aung-san-suu-kyi/) - Burma will be in the news over the next few weeks. November 7th is the 'official' election day - an election in which the party that won the previous election (1990) is both boycotting and ineligible to run. This is primarily because its leadership including Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi has
- [The Philanthropist - A Cornucopia of Content for the Social Sector](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-philanthropist-a-cornucopia-of-content-for-the-social-sector/) - The Philanthropist is quickly becoming the must read journal for anyone who cares about the health and vitality of the social sector in Canada. The sector is variously referred to as the voluntary, non profit, non governmental, civic, citizen and charitable sector. The health of this sector, in its various manifestations, is directly related to
- [David  Roche - Man's Gift to Intuition](https://aletmanski.com/impact/how-sincere-is-david-roche/) - David Roche is like most men. He never gets lost. This helped him find the White House and perform for President Clinton. A hunch tells him when to grab a beer out of the fridge. On an inkling he took the ashtray off his motorcycle. A premonition told him not to root for Goliath. David
- [Fractals - The Thumbprint of Creation - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (36)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/fractals-the-thumbprint-of-advocacy-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-36/) - "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line." - B. Mandelbrot Benoît Mandelbrot died this month. Most won't know him but he discovered what many describe as God's thumbprint - fractals! And provided me with a deeper
- [Sean Moore's 'Do It Yourself Public Policy' - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy ( 35)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/sean-moores-do-it-yourself-public-policy-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-35/) - Since the 1990’s the federal government and most provincial governments have eliminated 'in- house' policy units. If you want to get government to do something you have to learn to do public policy yourself. Sean Moore Stacey Corriveau at the BC Centre for Social Enterprise refers to Sean Moore, one of Canada's most successful public
- [Power plus Love equals Advocacy - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (34)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/power-and-love-equals-advocacy-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - This is another riff on Adam Kahane's delicious new book, Power and Love - A Theory and Practice of Social Change. (Incidentally Adam is speaking at Robson Square, Vancouver on Monday November 1st. Details below.) In an earlier incarnation as an advocate I saw the world in either/or terms. Translation: I/we are right - you/they
- [UK Budget Cuts - It's Time to Get Serious About Social Finance](https://aletmanski.com/impact/uk-budget-cuts-its-time-to-get-serious-about-social-finance/) - It's worth looking at government financial decisions in Europe and the UK. They provide a glimpse of scenarios we might face in Canada and may make us better prepared to surmount them. Lets look at the dramatic budget cuts announced by the UK government last week. About 490,000 public sector jobs are likely to be
- ['Queen' Nancy Hall Honoured in London](https://aletmanski.com/impact/queen-nancy-hall-honoured-in-london/) - London Ontario that is. On Friday evening October 22nd Nancy Hall receives the most prestigious award the mental health community can award anyone. The C M Hincks Award presented by the Canadian Mental Health Association at a special gala and awards dinner, is the equivalent of an Oscar or Giller or NHL Most Valuable Player
- [Rubber Duckies 'Banned' in Canada - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (33)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/rubber-duckies-outlawed-in-canada-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - Here's a great story of persistent advocacy and creative strategy. Canada announced last week it has formally added BPA ( Bisphenol A) to the list of toxic substances. BPA is found in clear hard plastic containers and toys, the lining of soft drink, fruit and vegetable cans, newsprint and cash register receipts. No other government
- [Lennon without McCartney: Tips for Solution Based advocacy (32)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/lennon-without-mccartney-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-32/) - Can you imagine a catcher without a pitcher? Lennon without McCartney? A working functional democracy without a responsive, talented public service? I can't. One of the many weaknesses of my early advocacy career was ignorance about the individuals who make up what many of us consider the faceless arm of government - the bureaucracy. I
- [Unknown Legend - the Women's Institute - In the Water Supply (2)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/womens-institute-into-the-water-supply/) - One of the most successful social change movements in the world is a well kept secret in Canada - the place of its origins. I am referring to the Women's Institute which began in Stoney Creek Ontario in the 1890's. Today eight million women are involved from over sixty countries. We have forgotten how revolutionary
- [The Keilburger Kids versus Justin Bieber - who'll win? - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (31)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/kids-nothings-the-matter-with-kids-today/) - When the Keilburger brothers, Craig and Marc, were born they probably fixed the broken cribs in the nursery, persuaded all the mothers to buy some rocking chairs and rallied all the babies into a cry against infant formula. All mere practice for when 12 year old Craig hearing about the brutal death of a 12
- [What do you get when you cross Will Hunting with Wittgenstein?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/jump-starts-with-john-mighton/) - It's exhilarating and eerie at the same time - to sit in front of a white board on a rainy Saturday in Toronto with a dozen other adults and master calculus in an hour. Well at least master my fear of calculus - my belief it was too complex and I was too incompetent. John
- [Roundup - NPR/Belonging/Leaking Toilets](https://aletmanski.com/impact/r/) - Lots of updates on previous posts. Here are three: One: A marvellous National Public Radio (NPR) profile of the ongoing work at PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network) was aired Friday October 8th. Journalist Wendy Kaufman has distilled the essence of our work - addressing social isolation and financial poverty. She also managed to get me
- [John Lennon's Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (30)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/john-lennons-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - "You say you got a real solution. Well, you know, we'd love to see the plan. You ask me for a contribution. Well, you know, we're all doing what we can. But if you want money for people with minds that hate. All I can tell you is, 'Brother, you have to wait.' -Revolution
- [Stand By Me! For the Belonging Journey](https://aletmanski.com/impact/stand-by-me-the-belonging-journey-from-sentiment-to-action/) - Thanksgiving is in the air in Canada. And 'belonging' was in the air at the launch of the Vancouver Foundation's Vital Signs report. I was pleased with the reaction to my speech. Folks understand that belonging has to be taken from the realm of rhetoric and converted to practical action. I received a number of
- [Why don't public servants open their windows in the morning? - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (29)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/why-dont-public-servants-open-their-windows-in-the-morning-tips-fr-solution-based-advocacy/) - Ah bureaucracy - the institution we love to make fun of, to ridicule, to denounce. Paradoxically it is attacked for its abuse of power and its bungling inefficiency. Yes there is red tape, yes there is insensitivity, yes there is obfuscation. But if that is the only lens we look through, we will miss allies,
- [Vital Signs in our social garden](https://aletmanski.com/impact/vital-signs-in-our-social-garden/) - The Vancouver Foundation released it bi-annual, Vital Signs Report today. And guess what? What really matters to Metro Vancouver residents is belonging and the strength of our connections to each other. Not our scenery, money, education, achievements, gender, age, or ethnic background. To quote from the report: A strong sense of belonging - really feeling
- [Fingers crossed that Bob Dylan was right](https://aletmanski.com/impact/fingers-crossed-that-bob-dylan-was-right/) - You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows. On Friday October 1st the winds across Canada were blowing social innovation. Relative to previous public references and announcements Friday's wind was a hurricane. Three high profile Canadian references to social enterprise and social innovation in one day. Here they are. First
- [The un-incorporated 'un' organzation- Sports Matters Group - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (28)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-un-incorporated-un-organzation-sports-matters-group/) - “Sometimes it takes a different kind of organization to make a difference,” writes Paul Jurbala athlete, coach and organizational development consultant. One such entity is Sport Matters Group (SMG), an unincorporated, “un-organization.” SMG emerged from a series of brown bag luncheons hosted by Victor Lachance (Canadian Centre for Ethics and Sports) for the various sports
- [Which type of community organizer is Obama? - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (27)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/which-type-of-community-organizer-is-obama/) - Chicago is to community organizing as New York is to apples. Big! The birth of modern community organizing goes back to the days of Saul Alinsky and his Back of the Yards movement. His agressive strategies and tactics taught many of us how to organize to fight power with power. Those of a certain generation
- [Stephen Hawking and 'Abilities' - still going strong](https://aletmanski.com/impact/stephen-hawking-abilities-icon/) - What does Stephen Hawking think of his disability? Not much apparently. The current issue of Abilities magazine offers two perspectives on Hawking - one from the man himself; the other from CBC journalist and Quirks and Quacks host Bob McDonald.Hawking doesn't live his life defined by his disability. It is a major fact in his
- [No survey without service - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (26)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/no-survey-without-service-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-26/) - When Paul Pholeros or his HealthHabitat team visit indigenous Australian communities to survey improvements to their housing the first thing they do is offer to replace fuses, repair toilets or shower heads. Paul understands one of the basic rules of community organizing and solution based advocacy: Don't promise to change someone's world, until and unless
- [Under Stress - The Heart of Home Care](https://aletmanski.com/impact/under-stress-the-heart-of-home-care/) - Thanks to Andre Picard, the Globe and Mail's Public Health reporter for his recent report on two new studies on natural caregivers by the CIHI - Canadian Institute for Health Information. CIHI just released, Supporting Informal Caregivers - The Heart of Home Care and Caring for Seniors with Alzheimer's Disease and Other Forms of Dementia.
- [Obama says it best: Success comes from within](https://aletmanski.com/impact/obama-says-it-best-success-comes-from-within/) - One of the great delights of writing this blog is the feedback I receive from young social entrepreneurs. I wrote the following for SEE Change, an on line journal started for social entrepreneurs. I am reprinting here with the encouragement to check out this issue of See Change and consider becoming a subscriber.Shortly after Peter
- [The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo has a Rainforest Brain](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tatoo-has-a-rainforest-brain/) - Hands up if, like me, you spent the summer immersed in reading the Millennium Trilogy? The first novel introduces us to Lisbeth Salander, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.Lisbeth Salander is a most unusual lead character and heroine. She spends most of the 3 novels under a Guardianship order - in other words Swedish law
- [La Leche League - getting Mothers' milk 'into the water supply' - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (25)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/la-leche-league-getting-breast-milk-into-the-water-supply/) - The boldest, grandest and most desirable objective for people who want to change the world is to get their principles, ideas, approaches, solutions into the 'water supply.' By that I mean their social or environmental innovation becomes so common place, so accepted, so prevalent, so 'institutionalized', so obvious it seems, well, simply natural. Achieving such
- [Not Dead Yet - more on the euthanasia debates (3)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/not-dead-yet/) - My last post on Stephen Dawson outlined insights about euthanasia I have gained from over 30 years as a disability advocate. Those reflections were triggered by the Dying with Dignity hearings which began in Quebec just after Labour Day. These issues are never far from the surface in the rest of Canada, the US, UK
- [The Four Walls of My Freedom](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-four-walls-of-my-freedom/) - Borrowing her intriguing title from Thomas Merton, Donna Thomson's first book: The Four Walls of My Freedom will be available in book stores on Friday September 17th.Donna and her husband are dear friends. We met in Ottawa where Donna was part of creating a PLAN affiliate group, Lifetime Networks Ottawa. Donna, Jim and son Nicholas
- [Miracle in Rwanda](https://aletmanski.com/impact/miracle-in-rwanda/) - Rwanda will forever be associated with the horrific massacre and genocide of nearly one million people in 1994. And that is a double tragedy. It should also be associated with what has happened since, We have as much to learn from how individual Rwandans are dealing with the aftermath of the evil that overtook their
- [Not Again ... Never Again](https://aletmanski.com/impact/not-again-never-again/) - Not again! The news from St Jude Quebec is distressing. Two middle aged brothers found dead in their family home. The older brother, Jean-Guy died first. He took care of his younger brother Richard after their mother died a few years ago. Richard had the disability and first reports suggest he starved to death several
- [Stick out Your Tongue and Change the world - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (24)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/stick-out-your-tongue-and-change-the-world/) - Social entrepreneurs and dear friends Richard and Shelli Steckel are doing it again. Their Milestones Project is changing the world one tongue at a time. The Milestones project has the rather majestic goal of banishing hatred. They want to tackle the ignorance that divides the world into 'us' and 'them' and our fear of those
- [Stephen Dawson - Living with Dignity (2)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/living-with-dignity-2/) - In my previous post I referred to my direct role in the well publicized Stephen Dawson 'right to treatment' case in the mid-1980's. My ethical position on euthanasia stems from this and over 30 years of close association with people with disabilities. First some background. Stephen was a young boy with cerebral palsy when the
- [Quebec's Dying With Dignity hearings  attracting unprecedented particpation (1)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/quebecs-dying-with-dignity-hearings-attracting-unprecedented-particpation/) - There is ferment brewing in Quebec that concerns the future of all Canadians. But it's not about separation or sovereignty association. It is about euthanasia. Based on involvement so far, more Quebecois will participate in the hearings of the Quebec Special Select Committee on Dying with Dignity which begin in September, than on any other
- [Sockeye slip through a 'crack' in the universe](https://aletmanski.com/impact/sockeye-slip-through-a-crack-in-the-universe/) - As summer ends, British Columbia's shores are awash with sockeye salmon. The most bountiful run in over a hundred years. Last year's run was so dismal a federal judicial inquiry was created. The collapse of the wild salmon fishery was predicted. The delicious taste of wild salmon was soon to be a forgotten pleasure. Or
- [Ducks and Icebergs(Part Two) - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (23)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/ducks-icebergs-and-public-servants-part-two-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - In my last post, Part One of Ducks and Icebergs, I summarized some of the challenges public servants and of course, the rest of us are facing in the next 15 years. Here are five trends public servants are exploring in response to these challenges:(1) Co- production and co-creation. This is not a particularly great
- [Ducks, Icebergs and Public Servants (Part One) - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (22)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/ducks-and-icebergs-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-22/) - Ducks and icebergs have a lot in common. To get a complete picture you have to look beneath the surface. Ducks, calmly gliding through the surface of the water, while busily paddling underneath. Icebergs, massive enough as they float, revealing their true nature (80%) underwater. The same is true of our public service. There is
- [The Fur Trade and Social Finance](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-fur-trade-and-social-finance/) - The fur trade in Canada provides a distant mirror for Social Finance advocates and practitioners on the complex effects of any new technology. It makes us mindful that every intervention has side effects, both positive and negative. Harold Innis was English Canada's first economic historian. He wrote in an era when our history was defined
- [Follow The Money - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (21)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/follow-the-money-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-20/) - I was asked by a young parent recently, what is the most common mistake made by advocates. My reply was immediate. Not following the money trail in Government. Or, as was the case in this circumstance (he was advocating for inclusive education at a local School Board), within and between levels of Government.You can get
- [Neglected Sources of Innovation - Individuals and Families](https://aletmanski.com/impact/sources-of-innovation/) - Social Innovation - is the 'catch phrase' most commonly used to describe the imperative to unleash our collective creativity to respond to tough, deeply embedded social and environmental problems. These existing and emerging challenges seem to be resistant to traditional solutions and approaches. Just as bacteria becomes drug resistant over time, inter-generational poverty; climate change;
- [Innovate and Die?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/innovate-and-die/) - There is a Buddhist parable that tells of a man swept into the waters of a raging river. In panic he grasps for something solid - a rock! Holding on with terrified certainty he drowns, burdened by the extra weight. Burdened as well by his unwillingness to let go, to try something equally terrifying but
- [Le Tour du Momentum - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (20)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/time-keeps-on-ticking-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-20/) - Summertime and the living is easy. Except for cyclists in the grandest sporting event of the summer, Le Tour de France. And perhaps solution focused advocates. It may be the perfect time to maintain momentum - the secret of successful bike racing and lobbying. The old mindset suggests that since Parliament, the National Assembly, or
- [A Matter of Justice: Social Finance - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (19)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/social-finance-a-creative-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - Not sure why some non profit leaders, advocates and academics dismiss the growing social finance developments so readily and without serious consideration. This lack of curiosity is irresponsible.We can learn a lot from successful social, economic and environmental justice movements. They give us clues, tips and inspiration about tactics and strategies we can adopt. One
- [Is Social Finance the 'Next Big Thing'?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-next-big-thing-social-finance/) - How do you spot the difference between a fad and a trend?When you've hung around the social sector for decades you learn to be discerning. At the outset they appear the same, capturing interest, attracting pilot funding, developing constituencies, attracting academic research, even influencing policy. Inevitably there is a fork in the road. Despite the
- [Code Yellow](https://aletmanski.com/impact/code-yellow/) - Ahh, the momentum of outmoded approaches. The horn that still sounds a curfew even though the plant has closed down. Saving pennies. Ashtrays on bicycles. Encyclopedia sellers. Yellow pages delivered to your office or doorstep. Yes, yellow pages. While trolling through my mail one morning I came across the news that if you live in
- [Next Up for What's Next](https://aletmanski.com/impact/my-entry/) - Alice laughed, "There's no use trying," she said, "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." When the looking glass gets clouded there
- [Potpourri](https://aletmanski.com/impact/potpourri/) - With the first long Canadian summer weekend upon us here is a collection of items which expand on recent postings.Abundant Community - Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods. John McKnight and Peter Block's new book is now in bookstores . You can get it for about $20.00 on line which is indeed a bargain.
- [The World's Older Profession - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (18)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/the-worlds-older-profession/) - Imagine performing for extraordinary long hours every day of the week, in an arena full of people whose predisposition is to boo your every move. Every weakness, every imperfection, every mistake is magnified. You can't hide. Your friends are suspect. You must pretend you don't have a family. You must keep a smile on your
- [Eating Alone](https://aletmanski.com/impact/eating-alone/) - Food is the common denominator. It gives us life. It delights and satisfies the senses. It provides an opportunity to share and enjoy with others. It is both pleasurable and good for you. At least it used to be. There is a lot to be concerned about when thinking about food today: fast food; artificial
- [The Future European Style - Reinventing Europe Through Innovation](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-future-european-style-reinventing-europe-through-innovation/) - In keeping with our interest and belief that Europe offers a great window and learning laboratory on how to tackle our social/economic and environmental challenges, I commend a refreshing European Union report: Reinventing Europe Thru Innovation. Download Reinvent Europe Thru Innovation panel_report_en-1. Readers of this blog will know of my interest in nurturing a culture
- [The Sacred Headwaters of Belonging](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-sacred-headwaters-of-belonging/) - In Wade Davis' The Wayfinders - Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, he describes a wonder of British Columbia geography - the headwaters of Canada's most important salmon rivers, the Stikine, Skeena and Nass as well as the origins of Canada's greatest river, the Mackenzie. Davis, National Geographic's Explorer in Residence, compares these
- [Love and Power - a potent combination: Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (17)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/love-and-power-a-potent-combination-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - My wife Vickie Cammack is clear - our work at PLAN and in social innovation generally cannot succumb to 'either - or' thinking. Instead she has infused a practice of, 'both - and'. A paradox to be sure but one we see as necessary to move beyond the status quo and to address the roots
- [Ian Brown's 'The Boy in the Moon' - A Book for Dads](https://aletmanski.com/impact/ian-browns-the-boy-in-the-moon-fathers-day-reading/) - Here's a book for Dad's - The Boy in the Moon - by award winning Globe and Mail journalist, Ian Brown. It's the story of a father who, while searching for the meaning of his 13 year old son's life, discovers the meaning of his own - as a father, husband, man. For his efforts
- [The worth of a Smile - Reciprocity and Stefano Zamagni](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-worth-of-a-smile-the-reciprocity-theory-of-stefano-zumagni/) - A small group of us had dinner earlier this week with one of the world's greatest economists, Professor Stefano Zamagni. I first met him several years ago when he proved, using economic graphs, that the smile of a person with severe disability is an important source of social capital which encourages a stronger climate of
- [A Disturbing Repeat of the Residential School Nightmare](https://aletmanski.com/impact/cindy-blackstock-and-the-first-nations-caring-society-a-case-study-in-solution-based-advocacy-17/) - This Wednesday at The Forks in Winnipeg the Aboriginal Truth and Reconciliation Commission will begin its hearings into Canada's residential school system. That system saw 150,000 First Nation, Métis and Inuit children placed in 130 residential schools across Canada. These hearings are the first of seven planned across Canada. Their goals, to listen, to heal,
- [Ingredients for Life](https://aletmanski.com/impact/ingredients-for-lifei-have-seven-minutes-to-convince-you-that-people-with-disabilities-represent-an-untapped-resource-to-addr/) - Here is the speech I gave in Vancouver at last night's first ever Public Salon presented by Sam Sullivan's Global Civic Policy Society. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions about what I should say in my seven minutes - a discipline all speakers found both intimidating and stimulating.I have seven minutes to convince you that
- [Cutting Your Issue - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (16)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/cutting-your-issue-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-17/) - One of the first strategic decisions to make when advancing your cause is to 'cut your issue'. Cutting an issue means being specific about what you will ask Government to do or what you want to see changed. There are lots of reasons for doing so. The clearer you are about the change you want,
- [Roundup](https://aletmanski.com/impact/roundup/) - A potpourri of interesting articles, reports and determined leadership to round up the week.The first is the decision by the Hamilton Spectator to profile the unacceptable rates of poverty in Hamilton and to become part of the solution Here, courtesy of Tamarack are links to the editor's declaration to make the reduction of poverty in
- [Who's Your Mentor? Mine is Joan Lawrence.](https://aletmanski.com/impact/who-is-your-mentor/) - Here's my first parent mentor, Joan Lawrence. You might not notice the steely determination in her eyes. It is still there and did it ever enrapture me, mere months after my daughter was born with the label of Down syndrome. I showed up raw, bombastic, angry, enthusiastic, hurt, confused, ready to flail at anything that
- [Stirring it Up - a multi sector mix for social change](https://aletmanski.com/impact/stir-it-up-a-multi-sector-mix-for-social-good/) - A bold announcement to build 1000 new units of supportive housing in Vancouver was made this week. One commentator called it the biggest drive to build social housing in a generation.The details are of course important but how it came together is more instructive for those interested in addressing the causes of social and environmental
- [Laura Bush loves her husband - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (15)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/laura-bush-loves-her-husband-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-15/) - Laura Bush has a new book out, Spoken From the Heart and she reveals herself to be more complex than we observed when she lived at the White House. She appears as a passionate advocate for a number of causes, including literacy, libraries, eliminating AIDS in Africa. As well she speaks her mind in support
- [When the Centre Cannot Hold - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (14)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/when-the-centre-cannot-hold-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-14/) - What happens when a political leader has lost his/her credibility or moral authority? When a leader is so far down in the polls there are rumours about a leadership change? Prevailing wisdom suggests in these circumstances the politicians are so busy, and the public service so paralyzed, the business of Government doesn't get done. But
- [Roundup](https://aletmanski.com/impact/roundup-2/) - To roundup the week, here are updates on two items I recently wrote about: the new UK Government's Big Society agenda; and natural care.Big Society UpdateIt hasn't taken long for the new Coalition Government in the UK to begin implementing its Big Society agenda. From previous posts you will recall the 'learning laboratory' now on
- [Natural Care - Playing Teeter Totter with an Elephant (2)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/natural-care-playing-teeter-totter-with-an-elephant-2/) - In my last post I attempted to differentiate between natural care and paid care. As well, I offered some unromantic texture to what it means to take care of people who are dependent on us. I ended by stating natural care is threatened by the weight of funding and policy attention directed to the paid
- [Natural Care - Playing Teeter Totter with an Elephant (1)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/playing-teeter-totter-with-an-elephant-rescuing-care-from-professionals/) - Care, caring, and caregiver are words used to describe those who take care of family members or friends out of love. These terms are also used by those who are paid to help and support others. This is confusing on a number of fronts. One, there is a big difference between being paid to provide
- [Look! Who's Talking? - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (13)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/look-whose-talking-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-13/) - The Cabinet Minister you have an appointment with may: love flying; play the trumpet in a marching band; volunteer building homes in South America; or have just been diagnosed with prostrate cancer. They may even keep a letter of resignation in their pocket because they expect to be out voted by Cabinet colleagues on a
- [Abundant Community](https://aletmanski.com/impact/abundant-comunity-also-has-a-website/) - I was in San Francisco last week with John McKnight, Peter Block, Angeles Arrien and a number of old and new friends. I will write later on the topic of our deeply satisfying discussions.By coincidence, I was on hand to see John and Peter receive the first two copies of their new book: Abundant Community:
- [Love the One You're With - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (12)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/love-the-one-youre-with-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-12/) - I am encountering more and more people who are frustrated with our current elected political leadership (either federal or provincial) and are considering 'downing tools' and abandoning any effort to make contact with those Governments including contacts with Cabinet Ministers. One reason they cite is the elimination of funding to advocacy groups who speak out
- [Prime Minister David Cameron's Big Society Agenda - a fork in the road worth watching](https://aletmanski.com/impact/pm-david-cameron/) - Now that David Cameron is the new Prime Minister of Britain, it is worth taking a look at his views on civil society. Cameron campaigned on a Big Society agenda. He spoke about the need to restore the balance among civic sector (Big Society), public sector (the Big State) and private sector (Big Business). Some
- [A Mother's Day Tip for Solution Based Advocacy (11)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/happy-mothers-day/) - This Mother's Day video will make you laugh, and smile. And appreciate an effective 'get your attention' strategy. You can put it in your tools for Solution Based Advocacy kit. Only 90 seconds! See below or click here.Happy Mother's Day to the mothers, and moms in our lives.
- [Getting 'Their' Attention - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (10)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/getting-their-attention-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - What do you do when the organization, government department or institution you want to influence completely ignores you, your organization and the cause, you represent? No matter how hard you try, your efforts are met with silence, inaction, and stalling.This happens for a variety of reasons. Your issue is not seen to be high profile
- [Regrets - I Have a Few - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (9)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/things-i-regret-i-did-tops-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - While campaigning for the closure of institutions in British Columbia in the 1980's we created a team that was effective in getting media attention as a means to put pressure on our provincial government. Through trial and error we arrived at a winning formula. Time our press releases for Saturday; release them to news outlets
- [Happy Mother's Day Annie Lennox](https://aletmanski.com/impact/annie-lennox-told-me/) - While in London a few weeks ago we had the pleasure of attending a dinner party with Annie Lennox. The main topic of conversation was the African organization Mothers2Mothers (M2M) which she actively supports. Annie Lennox rocks in more ways than one. She is engaged, articulate, passionate and thoughtful about making change on behalf of
- [Hybrids - a new revenue vehicle for the Community Sector](https://aletmanski.com/impact/attracting-investment-capital-to-address-social-objectives-a-new-paper/) - A major challenge facing community sector organizations is access to money - i.e. to financial capital. Capital to invest in staff, in new technologies, in infrastructure and perhaps most critical, to invest in creative solutions to stubborn social and environmental challenges. The sector has laboured and stumbled over the past few decades as government funding
- [The Original Community Organizer - Thomas Clarkson - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (8)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/the-original-community-organizer-thomas-clarkson-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-8/) - On my last day in London I came away with a portrait of one of my heroes, Thomas Clarkson, one of the most successful community organizers and social entrepreneurs of all time. In 1787 he was the youngest among 12 ordinary but determined citizens who met in the backroom of a print shop in London
- [Nellie McClung, Sterilization and the return of Eugenics](https://aletmanski.com/impact/nellie-mclung-and-eugenics/) - Saturday April 24th's Globe and Mail references a controversy brewing in Winnipeg around Nellie McClung. There is opposition to erecting a statue honouring her role in securing the vote for women because of her prominent support of the sterilization of people with disabilities. Sterilization was one aspect of the eugenics movement. So was "selective breeding",
- [England Swings](https://aletmanski.com/impact/london-calling/) - Reflections on our extended stay in England:Look east, way way east: Canadians tend to look southward for new ideas, trends and perspectives. More and more of us are now looking eastward to the UK and continental Europe for inspiration and practical solutions to tough social and environmental issues. England, Denmark, Spain, France and Portugal are
- [The 'Liberation' of Welfare](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-liberation-of-welfare-1/) - Smack in the middle of the UK election campaign comes a new book Liberation Welfare published by the progressive think tank Demos, focusing on the reform and transformation of our social support systems. You have to hand it to the social/voluntary sector in the UK. Not only are their issues part of the 'Manifestos' of
- [Leave opposition to the Opposition - tips for solution based advocacy (7)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/heres-a-proposition-leave-opposition-to-opposition-parties/) - Judging by their actions, many advocates seem to take opposition critics as their role model for advocacy. Wrong. Opposition political parties oppose everything that is advanced or proposed by the Government. Every idea/issue/announcement invites an opportunity for the Opposition to raise questions about the Government's fitness to stay in power; about the need for a
- [Every Volcanic Cloud Has a Silver Lining](https://aletmanski.com/impact/every-volcanic-cloud-has-a-silver-lining/) - One of the event's that was not postponed under this volcanic ash ceiling still hovering over Europe was the one Million Euro Essl Social Prize presented to Ashoka Founder and CEO Bill Drayton. Ashoka will use this award to assist their fellows scale their proven social inventions globally. This is the latest in a long
- [Global Disability Initiative](https://aletmanski.com/impact/global-disability-strategy/) - A number of Ashoka fellows are addressing challenges experienced by people with disabilities and their families. Over the past few years we have formed ourselves into a 'caucus' to discover how we can combine our efforts, particularly to advance the well being of people with disabilities and their families in developing countries. You may be
- [Civil Society is Also in the UK Air](https://aletmanski.com/impact/its-in-the-uk-air/) - By coincidence we are in the UK during their general election. There is lots of talk about the possibility of a 'hung' Parliament so all Canadians at the Skoll World Forum on Social Enterprise are being asked what it is like to have a minority government. Aside from our instant 'expertise' on minority governments, the
- [England Discards the The Old Math](https://aletmanski.com/impact/my-entry-2/) - It doesn't take too long in London before noticing the emergence of a new math. Social Innovators in England are busy creating new equations to address tough, hard to solve social and environmental challenges. To start they exposed the fallacies of the 'old' math.Here is one equation that is no longer useful and which prevents
- [Going Global in Vienna](https://aletmanski.com/impact/going-global-in-vienna/) - Thanks to Ashoka, Vickie and I will spend three days at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna receiving advice on how to accelerate the global impact of our latest social innovation - Tyze. Along with twenty-four other Ashoka fellows, we will meet with international social, financial and media leaders who want to assist us spread our
- [Civility and Speaking Up: Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (6)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/civility-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy-5/) - Mark Kingwell believes a decline in civility is unhealthy for our Democracy and I agree.Being civil is not about being polite, or being nice or not offending. There is an ethic of substance behind civility. Civility accepts that we hold differing views, beliefs and opinions. Being civil however, enables passionate discussion, debate and discourse about
- [Dowser - a 'divine' alternative to the daily news](https://aletmanski.com/impact/dowser/) - Most great ideas, movements or individuals have a trusted companion and talented scribe equally engaged in creating knowledge and discerning wisdom and insights. In fact making sense out of what is happening and identifying the deeper patterns is an essential and often looked element of successful social change. Engaged reporting, a variation of appreciative inquiry,
- [Be Political not Partisan - Tips for Solution Based advocacy (5)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/political-not-partisan-tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - When I was a young activist eager to take on all the dragons who were resisting the closure of institutions in British Columbia, I got the 'bright' idea to intervene in a provincial by-election. I had studied tactics of the civil rights movement and thought it was possible to influence the election result in Kamloops,
- [The Young and the Restless (2)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/youth-innovators-2/) - Last week I introduced you to four young social innovators under the title of More Refreshing Than Miley Cyrus. As part of a continuing series here are four more. What I have noticed about those you are meeting and those you will meet, is how effortlessly they move across and within sectors. They are prepared
- [One Hand in the Soil - The Other the Sky - Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (4)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/tips-for-solution-based-advocacy/) - Solution based advocacy keeps one hand in the soil while stretching the other to the sky. It addresses the specific social and economic justice issue(s) experienced by a particular group of people, while at the same time expanding opportunities to improve the situation for everyone.Martin Luther King exemplified this approach. While he was unyielding in
- [In the Spirit of Easter - Peace Begins With Me](https://aletmanski.com/impact/the-spirit-of-easter/) - In the spirit of Easter I ask you to vote for my friend Ted Kuntz to become the next spiritual author. As winner, Ted would get a publishing contract with Hampton Roads Publishing, a major publisher of spiritual and self help books. More important, the world would be introduced to this precious, wise man.I have
- [What is Solution Based Advocacy? (1)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/what-is-solution-based-advocacy-1/) - Many of you have expressed appreciation for my blog posts sub titled: Tips for Solution Based Advocacy. In response to your question: What is solution based advocacy? I offer the following working definition. I acknowledge David Beers who gave me the idea. David is the Founding Editor of The Tyee (https://thetyee.ca/Bios/David_Beers/ ) and teaches at
- [More Refreshing than Miley Cyrus](https://aletmanski.com/impact/where-have-all-the-young-ones-gone/) - If you want to find out what young people are really up to don't go to Miley's new movie. Instead, I recommend you read Youth-Driven Innovation in Canada by Vinod Rajaseekaran published in The Mark on March 29th. https://www.themarknews.com/articles/1212-youth-driven-innovation-in-canada . Vinod is a Research Associate with the Public Policy Forum which is committed to engaging
- ['C' is for Canada - 'C' is for Caring (1)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/c-is-for-caring/) - It's time to put caring on the public policy agenda in Canada. By caring I mean the natural, freely giving care providing by individuals, families, friends and social networks. The fact is, more care is provided in Canada by families and friends than by our formal system of care providers whether they are non profit
- [Geraldo Rivera - unlikely Crusader](https://aletmanski.com/impact/geraldo-rivera-unlikely-crusader/) - I had an effusive e-mail on Friday, from Stefan Lorimer, the talented young communications specialist who is leading our digital media strategy around the family movement. Did you know Geraldo Rivera did an expose of Willowbrook Institution, once the largest institution in the world? We were researching the beginnings of the parent advocacy movement and
- [You Can't Always Get What you Want...  Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (3)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/you/) - President Obama's health care reform bill provides insights to public policy advocates on celebrating partial victories. The fact is, not all our advocacy efforts are successful; few are transformative; and many are simply incremental, flawed with compromises. It's clear the extensive health care reform that US progressives lobbied for was not achieved. It's not what
- [Barb Goode - Unsung Hero of the Disability Movement](https://aletmanski.com/impact/barb-goode/) - I sat with Barb Goode during the Paralympic Opening ceremonies last Friday. As tributes were paid to Terry Fox and Rick Hansen I couldn't help but reflect on Barb's pioneering role in breaking stereotypes toward people who are labeled mentally handicapped. And the unfairness that so few know about her when the barriers she faced
- [Whatever Happened to 'Thank You'? Tips for Solution Based Advocacy (2)](https://aletmanski.com/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/whatever-happened-to-thank-you/) - Recently we have had a large number of Throne Speeches; Budgets; and other Government announcements. Some of these have contained good news for the community sector but you would be hard pressed to read or hear about it.Have you ever noticed how often we use a positive announcement from government as an opportunity to criticize
- [It's Time: Combine Paralympic and Olympic Games](https://aletmanski.com/impact/its-time-to-integrate-the-paralympic-games/) - You have to be in Vancouver to appreciate this but one of the hottest questions in the mainstream media is, Why aren't the Parlympics part of the Winter Olympics? Public opinion is very clear - they should be. Paralympians shouldn't have to wait 10 days to re-energize the city and the country. This is the
- [Harper Government best Federal Champion Persons with Disabilities have ever had](https://aletmanski.com/impact/harper-government/) - I believe the Harper Government is hands down the most effective Federal champion people with disabilities and their families have ever had.The March11th ratification by Canada of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a significant addition to the unprecedented commitment of Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet.
- [Archimedes and the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics](https://aletmanski.com/impact/archimedes-and-the-vancouver-2010-paralympics/) - There is a 'back story' to the 2010 Paralympic Games that deserves to be publicized. Archimedes wrote; Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the world.That's what a group of British Columbia disability activists decided to do. Unlike Archimedes however, some of us stood while others sat! One year before
- [My Guide to the 2010 Paralympic Games](https://aletmanski.com/impact/my-guide-to-the-2010-paralympic-games/) - The 2010 Paralympic Games begin officially this Friday March 12th. Starting immediately there is a lot going on - more than enough to interest the sports fan, party enthusiast or arts connoisseur! The combination of events will banish once and for all, any misconceptions about the talents and contributions of people with disabilities.Don't forget Ice
- [Ottawa Throne Speech - Faint hope or Beacon for Social Innovation?](https://aletmanski.com/impact/ottawa-throne-speech-faint-hope-or-beacon/) - Wednesday's Federal Government Throne Speech ( https://www.speech.gc.ca/eng/index.asp ) contained a few paragraphs of 'social innovation' language for the first time. This is a welcome political blessing to the social entrepreneurs inside and outside government. I have reprinted the Throne Speech excerpt at the end of this post but the words and phrases will be familiar
- [Flaherty's Budget Benefits people with disabilities and their families](https://aletmanski.com/impact/flahertys-budget-benefits-people-with-disabilities-and-their-families/) - Once again Finance Minister Flaherty has proven himself to be a friend of people with disabilities and their families. His establishment of the RDSP - a world's first - has not only, shifted financial resources directly into the bank accounts of people with disabilities but also, shaken the old welfare model which kept our sons
- [We’re Building a Cathedral! (2)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/were-building-a-cathedral-2/) - During the construction of the great cathedral at Chartres the Cardinal sent his Bishop to investigate a prolonged period of limited progress. He decided to ask 3 workers at random, what they were doing. The first was a draftsman so preoccupied by minute details he could only state he was measuring column lengths for the
- [We're Building a Cathedral (1)](https://aletmanski.com/impact/were-building-a-cathedral-1/) - The Family arm of the Disability Movement in British Columbia has a long and fruitful history. Together we have: closed all institutions and segregated schools and invented numerous organizations, services and programs to enhance the safety and well being of our family members. But we have never written our history, shared, studied and learned from it.
- [Tim Brodhead - the lynchpin of Canada's Social Innovation Agenda](https://aletmanski.com/impact/tim-brodhead-and-canadas-innovation-agenda/) - Tim Brodhead, President and CEO of the JW McConnell Family Foundation and his colleagues have been systematically and strategically supporting some of the most innovative responses to Canada's social, health, education and environmental challenges since the mid-nineties. Many 'scaled up' social innovations like Mary Gordon's, Roots of Empathy or John Mighton's, JUMP or Anil Patel's
- [Bob Williams –  British Columbia’s Olympian Social Entrepreneur](https://aletmanski.com/impact/bob-williams-british-columbias-olympian-social-entrepreneur/) - Many British Columbians, myself included, believe Bob Williams is our greatest social entrepreneur. His accomplishments are Olympian. The fruits of many of them are on display during the 2010 Vancouver Games. While a Provincial Cabinet Minister he oversaw the creation of the Agricultural Land Reserve (this was in the early 1970’s decades away from our
- [Nurturing Resilience and Belonging in Haiti](https://aletmanski.com/impact/nurturing-resilience-and-belonging-in-haiti/) - While the world’s media is still portraying the immense and immediate challenges faced by Haitians, I am heartened by the awareness that supporting Haitians to rebuild their institutions and infrastructure is equally important. In my view it should be the higher priority for our design, our planning and our resources. There is enough money,

## Pages

- [Home](https://aletmanski.com/) - “This book reminds us of what we have in common: the power to create a good life for ourselves and for others, no matter what the world has in store for us.” ~ Michael J. Fox
- [Disability Digest Overview](https://aletmanski.com/disability-digest-overview/) - The Power of Disability Digest correcting what history has overlooked Throughout history people with disabilities have produced exquisite works of art. They have made us us laugh, and touched our souls. They have fought for justice and have been instrumental in the growth of freedom and democracy. They have unveiled the secrets of the universe. They
- [Books](https://aletmanski.com/books/) - Read Al's latest book, The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World #powerofdisability
- [About](https://aletmanski.com/about/) - Al been a parent activist in the disability world since his daughter Liz was born. He led the closure of institutions and segregated schools in British Columbia, and founded Canada’s first Family Support Institute.
- [Vancouver UnLaunch](https://aletmanski.com/impact-six-patterns-to-spread-your-social-innovation/)
- [The Power of Disability - Table of Contents](https://aletmanski.com/the-power-of-disability-table-of-contents/) - Table of contents FROM AL’S LATEST BOOKTHE POWER OF DISABILITY, 10 LESSONS FOR SURVIVING, THRIVING, AND CHANGING THE WORLD Lesson 1: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It What Gord Walker Taught Me Body Politics: Catherine Frazee Brilliant Imperfection: Eli Clare The Gift: Judith Snow A Brief History of Imperfection: Dr. Stephen Hawking If It
- [The Power of Disability](https://aletmanski.com/the-power-of-disability/) - FIVE POWERFUL DISABILITY ADVANTAGES FROM AL’S LATEST BOOKTHE POWER OF DISABILITY, 10 LESSONS FOR SURVIVING, THRIVING, AND CHANGING THE WORLD “I’ve written this book because I want to change the popular story about disability by correcting what history and media have overlooked and by giving credit where credit is due.” ~ AlThis book focuses on
- [The Power of Disability - Preface](https://aletmanski.com/the-power-of-disability-preface/) - PREFACE FROM AL’S LATEST BOOKTHE POWER OF DISABILITY, 10 LESSONS FOR SURVIVING, THRIVING, AND CHANGING THE WORLD There is a pretty good chance you are directly or indirectly connected to the power of disability. The majority of people are.For starters, one-seventh of the people on the planet have a disability, which makes people with disabilities
- [Stories from the book](https://aletmanski.com/stories/) - “This book reminds us of what we have in common: the power to create a good life for ourselves and for others, no matter what the world has in store for us.” ~ Michael J. Fox
- [Songs in the Key of Change - Media Collection](https://aletmanski.com/songs-in-the-key-of-change-media-collection/) - Melissa Etheridge’s 2005 Grammy tribute - video Melissa Etheridge’s 2005 Grammy tribute - audio
- [Contact Al Etmanski](https://aletmanski.com/contact/) - Get in touch with Al Etmanski, Author of The Power of Disability - 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World.
- [Archives](https://aletmanski.com/archives/)
- [Essays & editorials](https://aletmanski.com/essays/) - What Does the Government’s promised ‘disability lens” really mean? Published Nov. 19. 2019, Ottawa Life Magazine The last minute Liberal election commitment to apply a disability lens to all federal government decisions was both fought for and welcomed widely by the disability community across the country. But it’s easy to promise. Now the government must deliver. Read
- [Series](https://aletmanski.com/series/) - Lessons from the World of DisabilityIf we are to prevent our dear world from cascading out of control we had better make sure everyone’s gifts and talents are welcomed. In fact the collective wisdom, insight and engagement of people with disabilities may just be what will save us.Read posts Get notified Sign up to receive
- [Media](https://aletmanski.com/media/) - Presentations & Webinars Films & Photographs Poetry & Art
- [Schedule & Speaking Requests](https://aletmanski.com/schedule-speaking-requests/) - Schedule & Speaking Requests For speaking engagements please contact Al at al@aletmanski.com ScheduleOctober 18, 2019 – Family Support Institute, Vancouver, BCSeptember 30, 2019 – Community Change Festival, Opening Panelist, Vancouver, BCSeptember 26th – PLAN’s 30th Anniversary, Speaker, Vancouver, BCJune 27, 2019 – Jean Vanier memorial, Speaker, Vancouver, BCJune 14, 2019 – Law Foundation of BC 50th Anniversary, Keynote Speaker, Vancouver,
- [Profiles](https://aletmanski.com/profiles/)
- [Yayoi Kusama](https://aletmanski.com/the-power-of-disability/yayoi-kusama/) - ART BLOOMS AT THE EDGES, A STORY ABOUT YAYOI KUSAMA FROM AL’S LATEST BOOKTHE POWER OF DISABILITY, 10 LESSONS FOR SURVIVING, THRIVING, AND CHANGING THE WORLD My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings.– Yayoi Kusama Art beautifies what we dread
- [CARMEN PAPALIA](https://aletmanski.com/the-power-of-disability/carmen-papalia/) - MANIFESTO FOR CITIZENSHIP, A STORY ABOUT CARMEN PAPALIA FROM AL’S LATEST BOOKTHE POWER OF DISABILITY, 10 LESSONS FOR SURVIVING, THRIVING, AND CHANGING THE WORLD After using their nonvisual senses for a prolonged time, participants begin to recognize looking as one of the many ways to engage with and interpret a place. They realize the opportunities
- [CHRISTA COUTURE](https://aletmanski.com/the-power-of-disability/christa-couture/) - MOTHERING ON, A STORY ABOUT CHRISTA COUTURE FROM AL’S LATEST BOOKTHE POWER OF DISABILITY, 10 LESSONS FOR SURVIVING, THRIVING, AND CHANGING THE WORLD “At this point, the experience of losing my leg and having a disability feels like I’ve been to a country most people haven’t been to, and I have this perspective which is
- [Feedback on the Power of Disability](https://aletmanski.com/books/feedback-on-the-power-of-disability/) - Feedback welcome I’d love to get your feedback. Please let me know whether my book has been helpful and in what way. I also don’t mind your criticisms or friendly challenges. And how I can make the book better. Share your feedback. "The Power of Disability celebrates the way people with disabilities can change the
- [Want to Improve your Impact? ](https://aletmanski.com/about/likeamovement/)
- [Watch the recording](https://aletmanski.com/the-power-of-disability/watch-the-power-of-disability-concert/) - Here by popular demand is the edited recording of the Power of Disability Concert live-streamed in May. A word of caution. Be prepared for joy, laughter and other good feelings. The concert had three purposes: to entertain, to build community and to raise consciousness. It was volunteered into existence by a small team of artists, designers,
- [Patterns](https://aletmanski.com/books/patterns/) - In our encounters with dozens of individuals, groups, coalitions and movements during our social innovation exploration, Vickie and I discovered six patterns that stood out. These patterns challenged our thinking forcing us to let go of many of our certainties about social change. They were our doorways into pattern recognition. And once we understood the
- [Feedback on impact](https://aletmanski.com/books/impactfeedback/)
- [A Desperado Waiting for a Train](https://aletmanski.com/essays/phil/) - It’s after midnight, the prairie wind is blowing cold and people are secure in their cells at the school for the incurables. Or are they? Curfew was hours ago and the guards are lulled into holiday drowsiness. Or maybe they’ve been bribed? Possibly charmed. He was always pretty good at that. Either way he’s determined
- [Bookinars](https://aletmanski.com/books/bookclubs/)
- [Downloading your complementary eBook](https://aletmanski.com/contact/downloading-free-ebook/) - We’re pleased to offer you a complimentary copy of Impact: Six Patterns to Spread your Social Innovation as part of your registration for the upcoming Bookinar series through the Kobo Store. Here's how you get it: step 1: Use your Kobo device or download the app you can use: Android Apple BlackBerry 10 Kobo Desktop -
- [Buy](https://aletmanski.com/books/buy/) - Order Online To order a copy of Impact: Six Patterns to Spread Your Social Innovation through Al directly, click here. You'll be redirected to Al's online store to complete your order. Books are shipped from Surrey, BC and shipping is available in Canada for $5, to the US for $10 and internationally for $18. To
- [Don’t Ask Alice](https://aletmanski.com/series/dont-ask-alice/) - Alice was the Mayor of Lac Sagesse a small town in Quebec. 812 people live there. It is a town where no one is poor. When the town’s mill shut down, nearly everyone was affected. Alice convinced the town Council to help out. Alice being a mother understood the fundamentals of life. Everyone agreed to
- [The Walrus Talks Innovation](https://aletmanski.com/media/the-walrus-talks-innovation/) - Watch How our surroundings influence the way we treat each other from True Growth Presents: The Walrus Talks Innovation. Recorded October 26, 2015 at the Marco Polo Cruise Terminal in Saint John.
- [Collective Impact Summit 2015](https://aletmanski.com/media/collective-impact-summit-2015/) - These photos are from Al's Keynote, Collective Impact as a Social Innovation Strategy at the Collective Impact Summit hosted by Tamarack, in Richmond, BC on Sept 30, 2015
- [Missed the Vancouver Impact Unlaunch?](https://aletmanski.com/impact-six-patterns-to-spread-your-social-innovation/missed-the-vancouver-impact-unlaunch/) - You can watch SFU's recording of April 27, 2015 - an evening of storytelling, poetry & music to celebrate Al Etmanski’s new book. See the photos here.
- [Celebrate Artistry - by Meharoona Ghani](https://aletmanski.com/impact-six-patterns-to-spread-your-social-innovation/celebrate-artistry-by-meharoona-ghani/) - (Spoken Word created from the words of Al Etmanski, Claudia Li, Donald Macpherson, Mike Harcourt, Jason Mogus, Tamara Vrooman, and Claire Mortifee) Do you ever think about life? Hear the words we say, honour this time for balance. I feel the pull, do you? Celebrate our artistry in making this world a better place. Crossing
- [The Impact I Make - by Meharoona Ghani](https://aletmanski.com/impact-six-patterns-to-spread-your-social-innovation/the-impact-i-make-by-meharoona-ghani/) - (Altered Erasure informed by, “Introduction,” Impact: six patterns to spread your social innovation, by Al Etmanski) I want to change the world! I hit a brick wall. Fierce paradigm eroded, forgotten paradox, poverty, pollution, solutions – mind bombs what I want. I confess, was told I have MS. Made the invisible visible. Still learning to
- [Downloads](https://aletmanski.com/contact/downloads/)

## Categories

- [Impact](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/)
- [Becoming Visible 2011](https://aletmanski.com/category/series/becoming-visible-2011/)
- [What Are You Skating Towards?](https://aletmanski.com/category/series/what-are-you-skating-towards/)
- [Tips for Solutions Based Advocacy](https://aletmanski.com/category/series/tips-for-solutions-based-advocacy/)
- [Lessons from the World of Disabilities](https://aletmanski.com/category/series/lessons/)
- [Archives](https://aletmanski.com/category/archives/)
- [Series](https://aletmanski.com/category/series/)
- [On Poverty](https://aletmanski.com/category/series/on-poverty/)
- [Passionate Amateur](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/passionate-amateur/)
- [Wise Traveller](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/wise-traveller/)
- [1. Think&Act Like Movement](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/thinkact-like-movement/)
- [2. Container & Content](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/container-content/)
- [3. Set Table](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/set-table/)
- [4. Mobilize Economic Power](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/mobilize-economic-power/)
- [6. Who vs How](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/6-who-vs-how/)
- [5. Advocate With Empathy](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/5-advocate-with-empathy/)
- [Sacred Headwaters](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/sacred-headwaters/)
- [Resurrection of Ordinary](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/resurrection-of-ordinary/)
- [Caring](https://aletmanski.com/category/caring/)
- [Peacemaking](https://aletmanski.com/category/peacemaking/)
- [Songs in the Key of Change](https://aletmanski.com/category/series/songs-in-the-key-of-change-series/)
- [Social Innovation Terroir](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact/social-innovation-terroir/)
- [Impact-ability](https://aletmanski.com/category/impact-ability/)
- [Confessions of a non-swimmer](https://aletmanski.com/category/series/confessions-of-a-non-swimmer/)
- [Power Of Disability](https://aletmanski.com/category/power-of-disability/)
- [Disability Digest](https://aletmanski.com/category/disability-digest/)

## Tags

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