『自分が変われば、世界も変わる』 シアトルで学ぶ社会起業！　（第5回）

日本の若者との交流

This month I would like to share two significant events that happened back-to-back with each other. The first happened on Thursday, March 18th, when Rootspring (formerly iLEAP) held a graduation ceremony in Seattle to recognize the outstanding work of four young Japanese ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158184&id=105967641096) who I believe will become leaders in the field of social innovation in Japan. Our Social Innovation in Seattle (SIIS) programs seem to attract the best and brightest from Japan and I have such a great job to be able to work with such inspired and committed people who are actively working to nurture and develop ideas around social change. Photos of our event can be found on our Facebook Fan Page (Rootspring: The Center for Critical Service).

シアトルの第一回グローバル・ドナーズ会議

The second event was the 1st Global Donors Conference in Seattle, which gathered over 150 people who are actively involved in philanthropy and social venture in the Pacific Northwest. This was the first event of its kind in Seattle and it convened a conversation that has been growing for some time in this region around, “how is global giving changing and growing in the 21st century?” While everyone knows about the largest foundation in the world, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that is here in Seattle, did you also know that Seattle has a many other private foundations and donors who give hundreds of millions of dollars every year to support social innovation around the world? There are literally thousands of people in the Seattle area who work in the field of giving and social innovation and are actively working to develop new ways to connect donors and recipients. I was encouraged to hear much of what I teach being talked about at the conference: the importance of collaboration, the value in listening, and the need for more bold risk taking. The future of this part of the United States is very bright as donors and recipients align to tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow around the world.

アジア・アフリカのリーダーシップ支援

One such example of this alignment is a new partnership between Rootspring and a local foundation called the Seattle International Foundation (SeaIF). In February, we learned that SeaIF will be fully funding 5 slots for our 2010 International Fellowship program. This is our program that brings leaders from Asia, Africa and Latin America to Seattle for a 3 month training in leadership and social innovation. Participants in this program have demonstrated at least 5 years of leadership in a socially innovative project and are some of the most inspirational people you will ever meet. What is exciting about this new grant from SeaIF is that these five slots are earmarked for women leaders from Central America. This means that we will be able to double our participants this year (the program runs from September-November)! We are very excited about this partnership and how committed the Seattle International Foundation is to empowering women leaders and connecting with Rootspring to offer this training.

４月の来日にむけて

As a reminder,I will be visiting Japan from April 1-April 6. During this time, I will be giving two public talks.The first is Friday, April 2nd at 19:00 at Mainichi Education Abroad (RSVP required) and the second on Sunday, April 4th, time and location TBD. The talk on Sunday will also be with Professor Hideyuki Inoue and Mr. Ken Ito, two of the leaders in social innovation thought in Japan. It should be a great event-please keep your eye open for information.

Thank you for reading-and please feel free to email or contact me with any questions.

Hope to see you in April!