Open Thread Thursday: 2.11.10

Good evening all,

Rosetta, I just want to thank you for creating such an excellent resource. It has helped me tremendously. Now, here's my question. I am a recent college graduate, I have a B.A. degree in English, minor in Journalism. Just recently I realized I confirmed that I want to build a career in nonprofit. I have prior experience in leadership roles, as well as a keen writing and editing skill set, yet I'm clueless as to where I should start.

All my work experience has been related to my writing career, yet I know my heart is connected to inspiring people and implementing social change through our future leaders.

Where does an individual, like myself, start? And how can I incorporate my skill set to benefit a nonprofit organization? Do you have any advice for me?

Thank you,
Ciara

Question for the open thread:

What will it take for people living in the inner-city to pursue careers in sustainability or social enterprise, in order to develop solutions to the problems that effect their communities?

More and more, I feel like the freedom to do social change work comes from having the privilege to be that free -- when you gotta worry about your light bill or graduating from high school, a career in sustainability might be the furthest thing from your mind.

I love this question, and would love to talk more about it. I think, Christopher, you're right, the indigenous solutions are often the most effective ones. I teach classes for urban high school students of color about activism and leadership, and it's definitely an uphill conversation. I try to move us to a place where we can at least be candid about the sacrifice in "the choice to change", which is what I've been calling this whole topic in my classroom.

Another thought re: this question -- careers in social change, until you get to the elected official level, MAYBE, are not marketed (don't know if that's the best word choice?) in an appealing way. My students think nonprofit work, for example, is designed for broke college students to pass the time until graduation or for near-retirees who've made their mark in other professions, not a "real" job that pays "real" money and honors "real" talent. So I think part of this too is changing the perception of our industry and then changing the actual realities within it that deter folks from doing this work in the first place.

Hi Rosetta,

Just wanted to say that I was super impressed with the radio show yesterday! I'm pretty sure we'll be using it in some format for our organization's social media needs!

Thanks Andrew! Glad you could tune in. I'd love to see more organizations using the Blog Talk Radio technology. It's awesome and free!