Melanie Redman tag:www.melanieredman.com,2009-02-03://4 2012-02-05T22:32:42Z social mission collaborator Movable Type 4.35-en Melanie Redman Named 2012 DiverseCity Fellow tag:www.melanieredman.com,2012://4.2797 2012-02-05T22:24:46Z 2012-02-05T22:32:42Z The awesome folks at CivicAction recommended that we Fellows do a bit of online bragging to raise our profile and that of the DiverseCity Fellows Program, so here goes...... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com DiverseCity Fellows Program, so here goes...]]>
And guess what? I'm one of them! Stay tuned for more reflections on this exciting program and my personal development as a Fellow. Read more about the program and meet the 2012 crop of Fellows here.
]]> Embodying Our Values tag:www.melanieredman.com,2011://4.2758 2011-09-24T14:37:03Z 2011-09-24T14:42:23Z This post originally appeared on my blog Folks Gotta Eat. I run a charity. It's a fabulous charity. It's radical in all the right ways, and has an amazing history of facilitating transformation in the lives of youth. However, due... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Folks Gotta Eat.

I run a charity. It's a fabulous charity. It's radical in all the right ways, and has an amazing history of facilitating transformation in the lives of youth. However, due to budget constraints, we have to make on-going tough choices around food - we go local and/or organic where we can, but it's hard. In an attempt to further my own thinking on this issue, I'm going to name the key challenges we face in hopes that our readers will weigh in with some creative solutions. ]]>
Challenges
The overarching challenge is that we have to buy an enormous amount of non-local, non-organic food from a food distribution company. Here's why.
  • Location: The basecamp for our summer programs is located in Temagami. On a good day, it takes about 6 hours to drive there from Toronto, or 7 hours on the train. The location is amazing in most ways, except for the rising costs of fuel that contribute to our high transportation and food costs.
  • Local Availability: There is a grocery store in Temagami that comes and goes. The selection is, um, limited. There is a weekly farmers' market in the summer, but due to our program schedule and staff resources, it is often impossible for us to hit that. Obviously, we have to set menus in advance for healthy, long canoe trip-appropriate food that youth will actually eat. This means we can't just wing it with whatever is available at the weekly farmers' market even if we can get to it.
  • Local Farm Access: The Temagami Region is not farm country, so it would be time and transport intensive for us to make individual deals with the nearest farmers. We do procure local honey and local cheese. We've had great success with generous discounts and donations from these producers.
  • Staples vs. Fresh Goods: We can obviously front load orders of dry good staples, but fresh items have to be sourced on a regular basis to match the numbers of youth coming on the various scheduled trips, and to limit waste.
  • Youth: Like most youth programs, we have an on-going challenge getting youth to want to eat whole grains and fresh fruits and veggies instead of processed foods and white bread. They're generally shocked and dismayed that we run a vegetarian operation. Though real magic occurs over the course of a trip when youth start digging on the veggies, fruits and grains. We've pretty much adopted the philosophy that if you provide only whole grains, fruits and veggies, youth will eventually get hungry enough from paddling and portaging that they will eat it, and sometimes, even like it.
Possible solutions
As a food policy/food security junkie, I have spent some time thinking about how we can address the challenges. However, I could use some feedback, ideas and support.
  • Regional Network: I would love to work with other camps in the region to support a regional network for purchasing Ontario farm goods. In my mind, Local Food Plus is the place to go to make this happen. I am guilty of repeatedly contacting them and then playing a massive game of phone tag that led to nothing.  
  • Train: The train to Temagami from Toronto used to arrive and leave at weird times in the night. Now there is a daily train (except Saturdays) that drops off and picks up in Temagami at a more reasonable time. I rode it for the first time the other day, and had a wonderful experience. I'm wondering if we couldn't make a deal with the Northland train to make regular drops of goods that I procure from the GreenBelt. Given that the ticket clerk chased after me the other morning to give me his phone number, I might be able to make this happen.
Dreams
The magic of my job is that I work with creative, inspiring people, and have no end to the amount of positive change I can imagine and initiate. 
  • Organic Garden: Our summer staff rock. Each year, one or more of our canoe trippers takes our basecamp's organic garden a step or two further. With a little planning and cultivation, we could provide much more of our fresh veggies from our own garden. In the process, we'll continue to lead by example, as well as educate, our youth about self-sufficiency and healthy practices.
  • Food Education: My co-blogger, Shana, sent me a link this morning to an organization called "Terra Summer." The mission of Terra Summer is to give children a glimpse into the story behind what we eat; to introduce them to the beauty and magic of food as well as the urgent and fundamental economic, environmental, social, and political issues related to the world of food and its production. Wouldn't it be fabulous to continue to infuse Project Canoe's programming with this type of insight while staying true to the mission? Though I just had an out-loud chuckle thinking about The Simpsons episode when Lisa's class watches the film about the slaughterhouse. My goal is to steer clear of scarring the youth for life.
I'll look forward to your ideas. For now, I'll leave you with the video clip I refer to above. Enjoy.

]]> CSI Releases Network Evaluation Book tag:www.melanieredman.com,2011://4.849 2011-01-18T19:46:48Z 2011-01-18T20:00:52Z In my professional life, it's easy to get caught up in present work and forget all the amazing projects and organizations I've had the privilege to collaborate with. These days I'm the Executive Director of a fantastic organization 3.5 days... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com fantastic organization 3.5 days each week. I'm in the exploration mode for what to do with the remaining professional consulting time (other than my constant blogging with Folks Gotta Eat and rabble.ca). 

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Today I have cause to reflect on my previous professional contributions. The Centre for Social Innovation released their new book Network Evaluation: Cultivating Healthy Networks for Social Change. It's the culmination of a series of "think tank" sessions I was proud to be part of, convened by the Centre for Social Innovation and the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. If you're engaged in network development or management, this book contains some fantastic tools for assessing the health and vibrancy of your network. 
]]> It's All About the People tag:www.melanieredman.com,2010://4.436 2010-07-15T13:36:37Z 2010-07-15T13:52:41Z It's been a while since I posted to this blog. Life just has a way of taking me away from the professional website sometimes, and thankfully, has me doing the actual work I talk about here. The last months have... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com It's been a while since I posted to this blog. Life just has a way of taking me away from the professional website sometimes, and thankfully, has me doing the actual work I talk about here. The last months have been packed full with a fantastic, emerging project. 

I won't take time here describing the project, because that isn't today's point. The point is that for that last months, one universal "truism" has revealed itself over and over again - it's all about the people. You see, in this role, I've composed one strategy after the other. We've all agreed to the process, and the process makes sense. Somehow, however, the ideas don't manifest in actual deliverables. So, what was I doing wrong? I was imagining that square pegs were going to fit into round holes.
]]> You see, it doesn't matter how brilliant the strategy is. If you don't have some fantastic, self-directed, imaginative folks to take your framework and run with it, it will lay dormant. And, any strategy should be just that - a framework for emerging ideas and directions. If your strategy is just sitting there one of several things could have happened.

    1. Your strategy sucks
    2. You skipped the "team buy-in" and collaboration phases of the process
    3. You're barking up the wrong tree - you don't have the folks in place who can manifest and expand on your ideas
As I try to practice what Peter Block calls "Flawless Consulting," I knew the problem wasn't points 1 or 2 (giggle). Seriously, though - there were several indicators that the strategy was good and I used a collaborative process to gain buy-in. It was very clear that number 3 was the culprit. 

So, how did I solve this problem? I worked with the client to shift folks around to roles that were more suited to their skill sets. Next, I brought on a couple of folks that can take a simple strategic framework and make it soar, thus proving once again, it's all about the people.

]]> Standing at the cross roads tag:www.melanieredman.com,2010://4.339 2010-04-13T15:53:12Z 2010-04-13T16:33:13Z There comes a time (multiple times, actually) in every do-gooder's life when she has to decide where she'll have the most positive impact. I'm currently at one of those cross roads. The question at hand? Should I go back inside... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com There comes a time (multiple times, actually) in every do-gooder's life when she has to decide where she'll have the most positive impact. I'm currently at one of those cross roads. The question at hand? Should I go back inside of an organization to work, or should I continue collaborating with organizations from the outside? Of course, there is always the option to work part-time in an organization and consult part-time. Those opportunities are harder to come by.

]]> As I've described before, I didn't come to this work, this work chose me. I've never, not even for a moment, considered employment options outside of social justice work. I know the ins and outs of online job and project boards such as idealist.org and charityvillage.com, but I couldn't tell you how to go about getting a job in a non social-mission field. So, really, I'm at a loss for other options where my impact could be significant. Sure, I can start my own social mission business, but I've always loved working in collaboration with others to set agendas and move important community ideas forward.

I've noticed that I now have a community of readers for my professional blog (this blog), as well as my intellectual-development blog, Folks Gotta Eat. So, I'm asking for your feedback. Send me a private message through the contact form with your advice. Do I stay outside of organizations, or find the right leadership position back inside of the beast? 
]]> Melanie Redman launches Folks Gotta Eat tag:www.melanieredman.com,2010://4.285 2010-03-10T21:50:36Z 2010-03-10T22:04:43Z With each project I engage in my collaborative consulting practice, I dig a little deeper to examine the root causes of policy failure and social injustice as a whole. I'm reminded of my favorite professor in graduate school at Brandeis,... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Brandeis, Dr. David Gil. In my graduate studies, I focused on oppression: sources, dynamics and manifestations. The first day I walked into one of Dr. Gil's courses, he said (in his thick Austrian accent), "If you want to begin to understand social policy as we have it today, you must go back to the beginning and understand the first roots of oppression - when individuals began to store food and control its distribution." After that, one of my classmates asked about our reading list for the semester. Dr. Gil handed us each a bibliography of no less than 100 books and commented, "You can start here."]]>
In the spirit of putting my money where my mouth is, I'm launching a little side project called Folks Gotta Eat. It's a blog, plain and simple. For me, it's much, much more. It's a solid way for me to continue to educate myself concerning the complexities of food systems and the policies that shape them. It's also a way for me to engage a community of thinkers on said topic - to continue to "get schooled," so to speak. Along the way, I hope to provide a service and lend voice to whatever audience I may cultivate. So, check it out, share it, make some comments, or send me some direct feedback. "Because the issues are complex, and Folks Gotta Eat..."
]]> Constellation Model in Support of Family Literacy tag:www.melanieredman.com,2010://4.153 2010-01-19T20:44:48Z 2010-01-19T20:54:59Z Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Ontario Literacy Coalition (OLC).  The goal?  To imagine, convene and implement a cross-sectoral, cross-ministerial strategy in support of intergenerational family literacy programs in Ontario.  (Wow, say that 10 times fast!)  Like many umbrella groups, the Ontario Literacy Coalition is a membership-based organization that works to not only increase the capacity of its member organizations, but also to act as a convening entity in the space between the public, private and charity/non-profit sectors.  This is where I was invited in.
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For example, some of the most successful family literacy programs in Ontario operate out of the Toronto District School Board with consistent, on-going funding.  Clearly the funder in this case will determine the service delivery mechanisms and priorities for moving forward.  In another community, a critical family literacy program operates out of the basement of a library and attracts young families through free lunches and vouchers for transportation.  This program constantly has to re-invent itself, even going so far as re-naming the program, in order to secure new pockets of funding.  Programs across the spectrum and those who fund them have one thing in common - they believe that intergenerational family literacy programming is a key component of healthy, vibrant communities.

So how does this wide array of stakeholders begin to work together in an organized, comprehensive way WITHOUT creating yet ANOTHER organization or government body?  I found an interesting solution in my work and association with an imaginative leader and practitioner at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto, Tonya Surman.  Tonya had previously encountered this conundrum of how to bring various stakeholders together and create some real movement on an issue without creating another organization.  She started looking at how to distribute responsibilities and break projects into components and hand them off to smaller constellations of stakeholders that have a natural interest or affinity in that particular piece of the work.  You assign the role of convening the larger strategy and shepherding the individual project or research constellations in the direction of the shared vision to an organization or a hired individual that acts on behalf of the collective interest.  

What about funding, you ask?  Well, the Constellation Model asks organizations that lead various project or research constellations to act as the flow-through for funds and distribute them to the constellation as the work requires.  The key here is to identify which organization sitting at a constellation table is already in a position to lead their particular chunk of work with their constellation of stakeholders and remain accountable to the entire collective of constellations.

Sound interesting?  Read my full report on applying the Constellation Model to the interests of the intergenerational family literacy stakeholders.  Apparently, HRSDC/OLES thinks it's interesting too, as they recently funded the OLC to move forward with this strategy for the next two years, acting as a convening organization.  Stay tuned as we follow the implementation of this interesting approach to collaboration.

]]> MSC Stories for Evaluation AND Marketing? I think not. tag:www.melanieredman.com,2010://4.152 2010-01-19T15:50:17Z 2010-01-19T16:24:51Z Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Most Significant Change Evaluation and Monitoring Framework (MSC) has been insightful, interesting and rewarding.  Having just wrapped up a two-year stint working with Intercordia Canada to imagine, test and implement MSC in the context of their international programs, I'm now settling in for a little reflection on the process.  What I see as a primary challenge of implementing MSC is the tension between story collection for evaluation purposes and story collection for marketing purposes. 


]]> earlier post where I thoroughly lay out the implementation of MSC with Intercordia, the framework is extremely rich and versatile.  The heart of MSC is the collection of stories of change at the ground level, followed by various rounds of review and story selection by identified stakeholders.  What happens in this process is that many important and insightful stories find their way into the hands of those responsible for either procuring program funding or funding programs.  Anyone with a basic understanding of program marketing or public relations would jump at the chance to have authentic tales of positive program impact/change to share with the funding community and the broader community of supporters and stakeholders.  It's natural.  I get it.  And, I'm sure you can make a case for it.  However, I will not be the one making that particular case.

The purpose of an evaluation/monitoring framework like MSC is to get to the heart of what's happening on the ground.  How do our programs and good intentions play out in the lives of real folks?  With these people as the focus of the work, I've come to believe that the stories submitted for evaluation and monitoring should not be used for marketing.  Not only is there the potential for the MSC process and story selection to include bias in favor of choosing stories that "sell," but there is also the real possibility of over-exploiting the genuine participation and intention of the story teller.  (I should mention that I participate in a global forum on the implementation of MSC in a whole slew of contexts.  This question is the most prevalent concern of those implementing the framework - having experienced the tension first-hand, I completely understand why.)

Sure, if in the process of collecting and reviewing MSC stories you run across a person who tells their story in a way that fits perfectly with the marketing goals of the organization,  it makes sense on a case-by-case basis to request a separate interview for these purposes.  The real key is to keep the intention of evaluation/monitoring and the intention of marketing separate so your evaluation results are as authentic and unbiased as possible. 

If you're interested in discussing my experiences in implementing MSC, please feel free to contact me.  I really enjoy this conversation.]]> Intercordia Canada: Evaluating Transformation of the Heart tag:www.melanieredman.com,2009://4.56 2009-06-27T23:07:09Z 2010-01-19T16:27:15Z Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Questions

Over the last couple of years, I've been working with one of the most compelling organizations in Canada, Intercordia.  The organization is a thoughtful off-shoot of the international L'Arche movement, steeped in the philosophy and learnings of L'Arche founder, Jean Vanier.  Intercordia is a radical model of service learning/study abroad programming for Canadian university students.  Among many areas of engagement, the folks at Intercordia came to me to help them answer the question, "How do we evaluate transformation of the heart?" 

I must admit that I am not an evaluation guru, though I've been forced over the years to be thoroughly engaged in the practice of program outcome evaluation (thank you, United Way).  Sure, I took methods courses in graduate school and know my way around a randomized trial.  What I am known for is exploring and applying creative solutions in spaces with limited resources.  You might say I can turn an egg and a beer into a champagne brunch.
]]> Intercordia's Web site: "The goal of this innovative learning program is to encourage moral responsiveness, develop respect for diversity and a valuing of other cultures, religions and socio-economic backgrounds that will enable Canadian students to attain a well-educated solidarity with others who are different."  Through this type of inner-transformation, Intercordia enhances the capacity of young Canadians to thoughtfully engage in their own communities, now and in the future.  Sounds great, eh?  So what does the program actually look like?

Students enrolled in the program take an academic course designed by their university to provide them with critical tools and lenses to engage and begin to understand an unjust world.  Simultaneously, students participate in seminars that cover everything from the practicalities of travel in the majority world to Jean Vanier's philosophy concerning encounters with the "other."  Students then spend 3 months living and working in community with marginalized people in Ghana, Swaziland, Bosnia, Ukraine, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic or Brazil.  Sounds like any other service learning/study abroad program, eh?  Well, the key difference is the radical formation and re-integration that the students experience.

Intercordia encourages students away from the need/desire to DO, which is a key characteristic of most service learning programs.  Intercordia helps students recognize that at this juncture in their lives, the only thing that they really have to give is their time, presence and openness to learning.  Sure, they have volunteer jobs while they are in placement, but the main focus is on BEING in community with the people.  Intercordia students live in often extreme circumstances to learn about people, community and, dare I say it? love.  The most important thing the students experience is the formation of honest relationships with people.  The breaking down of barriers and stereotypes in this way encourages future moral responsiveness in the face of widespread injustice.

The experience isn't controlled in the ways that most service learning/study abroad programs are.  Instead, Intercordia relies on the wisdom of partnering grassroots organizations to trouble-shoot, work with host families and community employers and set the terms by which the students are present in the communities.

Challenges

The key challenge Intercordia faces in evaluating the impact of their program is a common story for innovative organizations and projects - resources.  While a UN-funded development project may have the funds and personnel required to engage in a well-rounded, long-term evaluation strategy, Intercordia does not.  In addition, evaluation gets a little more tricky because Intercordia's partners differ in their approaches and offerings.  For example, student A may be coming from the Christianity and Culture program at one university with certain theoretical frameworks and approaches, while student B comes from the Social Justice program at another university.  Then we take student A and send her to rural Ghana to live in community and teach in schools where caning is sanctioned.  Maybe we send student B to Honduras to live in community and work with families who live and work in toxic dump sites.  While student B is in Honduras, the current president is ousted in a military coup and mass civil unrest ensues.  So clearly, we have different approaches, frameworks and emergent challenges to incorporate into an evaluation framework.

Assets

Intercordia has a true culture of innovation.  From the Board and executive leadership all the way to part-time program staff, there is a history of deep-listening and learning that translates into the ability to innovate, or to engage in what I call some honest-to-goodness trial and error. The program itself is small and nimble, with no more than 50 participants in a given program year.  An additional asset is one not to be underestimated - Intercordia has some pretty fantastic, innovative funders who believe in the uniqueness of Intercordia's model of transformation.  Finally, Intercordia is an organization that loves stories. I remember when they contacted me to have our first meeting. In that session I was asked repeatedly by the Director and Board members to "Tell us a story of a time when..." This last asset is the key to my evaluative approach.

Actions

In 2007, I had the privilege of joining a 2-year working group convened by the Millennium Scholarship Foundation and the Centre for Social Innovation to think about and document strategies for evaluating networks.  It was through this group that I met Jamie Gamble from Imprint, Inc.  Jamie had recently authored "A Development Evaluation Primer" with the support of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation (also one of Intercordia's funders).  Prior to the working group, I was already smitten with the possibilities for Development Evaluation (DE). It was through my exploration of DE that I came to know an evaluation/monitoring framework often used in sustainable international development projects known as "Most Significant Change (MSC)."

According to the framework's primary authors, Rick Davies and Jess Dart,
 
"The MSC technique is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation.  Essentially, the process involves the collection of significant change stories emanating from the field level, and the systematic selection of the most significant of these stories by groups of designed stakeholders or staff.  The designated staff and stakeholders are initially involved by "searching" for project impact.  Once changes have been captured, various people sit down together, read the stories aloud and have regular and often in-depth discussions about the value of these reported changes."

In the case of Intercordia we ask the participants a series of open-ended questions while they are in placement.  The questions are designed in collaboration with the university partners to encourage personal reflection, the telling of personal stories, within a critical framework.  Students respond to the questions in a password-protected "member zone" of the Intercordia Web site. The responses are monitored by Intercordia staff as an additional risk-management layer (looking for "red flags" in the experience of the student). The responses to the questions become the focus of the reintegration seminar - a way of highlighting the common threads of experience for all of the participants and deepening their understanding of their stories in the larger context of the placements. The students are the engaged stakeholders who review the stories with each other and staff, discussing the experiences and reported impacts. These selected stories are then passed on to the broader community of stakeholders (Board, funders, etc.) for review and discussion. The responses to the questions offer a way to assess the extent to which Intercordia's desired outcomes are met.  The MSC framework allows real learning of the positive, negative and unintended impacts of the Intercordia program on the lives of the participants, and as Intercordia has the resources to expand the framework, on the participating partners and communities.

I must be clear that due to limited resources and numerous areas of inquiry, the piloting of the MSC program evaluation/monitoring framework was not intended to be a comprehensive program evaluation strategy, but rather one framework that builds on the current culture and systems of the organization to engage in deep-listening concerning the program impacts.  It also enables the participants to deepen their reflections while in placement and beyond - which is a key component of inner transformation and action beyond the boundaries of the program.

Learnings

I will admit that what I find so amazing about this project are the MSC stories that emerge from the program participants.  It's hard to maintain objective distance when the stories make me laugh, cry and bring me closer to the struggles and joys the students experience in placement.  Below I've highlighted a handful of key learnings in the refinement of the MSC process.

  • Early in the implementation of MSC, I discovered a vibrant MSC community of practice.  This group of global practitioners allows me to challenge my assumptions and refine the process.
  • During the first year of implementation, it was clear that the MSC reflection process with the students would be greatly enhanced through the presence of a mentor.  In year two, we piloted a mentor program that placed mentors in 3 of the placements (Swaziland, Ghana and Dominican Republic) to live and work in community with the students in order to faciliate deeper reflection.  The program has proven to be incredibly valuable in supporting students in their MSC reflection. Intercordia plans to expand the pilot mentor program in the coming years.
  • It is clear that the MSC technique can be expanded to include the collection of stories from community organizations and family members in the international placements.  We are currently crafting a strategy for years 3 and 4 that captures stories from these important stakeholders.
  • Several MSC practitioners world-wide have had great success combining the MSC technique with Participatory Video.  We believe this marriage is appropriate for Intercordia moving forward as a way to facilitate additional MSC participation in placement communities.  We are currently exploring the implementation logistics.
  • MSC stories are fantastic marketing tools where appropriate. 

*Stay tuned for updates on the expansion of this compelling framework.  If you have any questions or would like to offer suggestions, please feel free to contact me.




 
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