Oscars, schmoscars – Seattle Works is hitting the screen via Comcast Newsmakers!
The interview is available on YouTube and has been showing on tv in conjunction with CNN Headline News. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKeLz4igQSU&feature=youtu.be
It’s five minutes of big picture perspective on Seattle Works, including a shout-out on being selected as an Innovation Hub.
Thanks Comcast for the opportunity (and the mug!)
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- Tara
From the Points of Light Blog…
“Leaders from HandsOn Network’s 10 Innovation Hubs recently came together for a five-day summit near Atlanta to share creative ideas, develop new strategies to engage volunteers and create cutting-edge community engagement models that can be replicated across the network.
“The summit was an intentional and strategic deep dive into innovation and how it is applied to community challenges in a rapidly changing world,” said Tara Smith, executive director of Seattle Works. “I think it ignited a conversation that would have otherwise not happened and will yield powerful results for our role in community transformation across the country.”
Read the rest of the article: http://pointsoflightblog.org/2012/02/06/news-flash-innovation-hubs-share-ideas-inspiration/
Home. A week at HandsOn Network‘s Innovation Summit in Palmetto, GA was an incredible gift. And today, I’m happy to be sitting on my couch, alone with my own thoughts and a cup of black coffee. Not a buttered biscuit or other trace of Southern breakfast in sight.
I went to the Summit to learn, and to more clearly define the next steps for Seattle Works. Going in, the idea of being there with nine other cities was a cool bonus, but not the point. Like our peers, Seattle Works received the Innovation Hub designation based on the great work we’re doing locally – for our own leadership and our own programs. We got invited to this Summit to start thinking about what OUR next innovation would be. I was probably not alone in this mindset going in.
Funny thing is, when you give a bunch of smart, caring, community-building types an entire week to think together, they start seeing a lot further than their own backyards. With each passing day, it became less about what each of us would create, and more about what each of us could learn from one another, what we could co-create and what we might leverage across cities.
What’s next? In terms of the specifics, I still don’t know. It will involve building a stronger network of Seattle Works volunteer leaders. It will involve a deeper of understanding of community issues and how to affect those issues in multiple ways – with volunteer time, with advocacy, with money. It will be developed in partnership with and in response to the Seattle Works community, not handed down on high from me or anyone else on staff. I also knew those things going in.
What I did not know, is that it may be something that Seattle and one or two other cities co-create and try out at the same time. It may involve a combo of new things built from scratch here, and importing things that are working elsewhere but not yet happening in Seattle.
I’m home from the Summit with three important things: 1) an even stronger conviction that Seattle Works’ strategic direction is the right one 2) a bigger set of tools and resources to keep us moving in that right direction and 3) a deeper sense of appreciation and admiration for our partners in this effort.
Long story short – we’re better together.
Sigh. Writing you from a beautiful room on a beautiful farm where I am calling airline baggage service every 10 minutes until they pick up the phone. Wish I was strolling these lovely grounds instead of calculating whether I’m going to have to catch a ride into town and buy a week’s worth of underwear before the Summit starts.
In the meantime… might as well blog.
I’m excited for Sarah and I to not only spend this time with the nine fellow iHub organizations and some of the HandsOn Network staff, but for the power-house combo of partners HON is bringing to this retreat. I’ll try and spotlight some them during the week. Today:
Alison Fine (@afine), co-author of “The Networked Nonprofit” http://www.allisonfine.com/
This book has been on my reading list for a few months now, and the news that I would be spending this week with one of the authors was the kick I needed to actually START READING IT (I’m halfway through so far.)
Wish I would have done this sooner! While I’ve been hearing that this book is the go-to foundation for nonprofits and social media (a great topic, but not necessarily one that would jump to the top of my priority list), I now understand that the book is really about big-picture organizational change.
Networked Nonprofits are simple and transparent organizations. They are easy for outsiders to get in and insiders to get out. They engage people to shape and share their work in order to raise awareness of social issues, organize communities to provide services or advocate for legislation. In the long run, they are helping to make the world a safer, fairer, healthier place to live.
Networked Nonprofits don’t work harder or longer than other organizations, they work differently. They engage in conversations with people beyond their walls — lots of conversations — to build relationships that spread their work through the network.
http://www.allisonfine.com/publications/networked-nonprofit/ (emphasis added by me)
WHOA! All the things I have been thinking about Seattle Works and our future – some of which only live right now as gut-level, semi-articulated concepts in my brain – spelled out clearly.
Our board has laid our a fantastic vision in our Strategic Plan, and as I work to operationalize it, I’ve been thinking and saying things like:
“flat”
“transparent”
“more integrated across teams”
“even more participant and partner-driven”
“giving our volunteer leaders more responsibility and more say”
“building deeper relationships with our nonprofit partners”
It turns out what I’ve really been saying is “Let’s make Seattle Works even more of a Networked Nonprofit“.
AHA!
Now if I only had a toothbrush…
With all the do, do, DOING at Seattle Works, I’ve been trying harder lately to take make sure I’m taking enough time to step back and THINK. It’s important to take a break from the everyday hustle and bustle (of which there is plenty!) and really consider how Seattle Works can be the most amazing resource possible for our community.
HandsOn Network’s Innovation Hub Summit couldn’t be coming at a better time. A week of uninterrupted thinking and planning with smart people… for FREE? This does not often happen in the nonprofit sector. At least not to me! If I weren’t so tired from heading to the airport at 4am, I’d be downright giddy.
The Summit kicks off Monday, just outside Atlanta. I’m going to make an attempt to share my thoughts on our blog throughout the week, as well as on Twitter via #ihubs. Stay tuned and if you have any questions, thoughts, ideas – let me know!
best, T
Tara Smith, Executive Director
p.s. Board Chair Sarah Haeger and I are here because Seattle Works was named one of ten national Innovation Hubs by HandsOn Network. More info at: http://www.seattleworks.org/SW_News
