Blog
Solidarity in the Carpathian Region
Sándor Köles is a Hungarian-born sociologist, the President of the Carpathian Foundation, a founding member of the PASS Board of Advisors, and a member of the Berlin-based Robert Bosch Academy. He had been the Senior Vice-President of the International Center for Democratic Transition (ICDT), the main goal was to share and make applicable Central European experiences on democratic transition in a wider world. Previously, he had been the Carpathian Foundation's Executive Director, promoting cross-border and interethnic cooperation in the bordering areas of Hungary, ...
Interview with Ho`ōla Nā Pua on Their Mission to End Sex Trafficking
Jessica R. Munoz is a clinical emergency nurse practitioner, and president and founder of Hoʻōla Nā Pua Pua (HNP) which means "New life for our children", a nonprofit organization whose mission is the prevention of child sex trafficking and providing care for youth who have been exploited. Rooted on the “justice gene in her DNA”, her passion for shining the light in the dark places and watching new life come forth shapes her vision and life’s mission.
She provides executive leadership, innovation, and development of a growing social service agency. She has ...
Empowerment Through the Lens
Manca Juvan, photographer, curator, photography mentor, and director at APIS Institute, sits down with VantagePoints for a conversation about her work and her journey as an artist. Manca has travelled extensively and used photography as a tool for experiencing and learning about the places she has travelled to. Above all else, Manca is a storyteller. Her most well known projects, “Guardians of the Spoon” and “Unordinary Lives”, share a new perspective on the people who lived in the Italian Fascist Camps and Afghanistan, respectively.
Manca shares with us her ...
Addressing Food Insecurity: A Community Approach
Lauren Shweder Biel is Executive Director and co-founder of DC Greens. She has served as co-chair of DC Health's "Diabesity" Committee and on the Mayor's Commission for Healthy Youth and Schools. Lauren was named a 2014 Toyota "Mother of Invention," and received a 2019 David Bradt Nonprofit Leadership Award. She is currently an advisor to the Aspen Institute's Food & Society, Food is Medicine working group.
What drove you to create DC Greens, and has any of that vision changed since you started?
My co-founder and I first founded DC Greens in 2009. So, if ...
Empowering the Future of Social Impact
Carrie Rich is the co-founder and CEO of The Global Good Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports high potential social entrepreneurs in more than 25 countries globally, collectively serving 339,000 beneficiaries.
Channeling Women’s Voices Through Digital Multimedia
If you gather people for an event and you show them a short film—you are able to more quickly convince them of your cause, rather than just relying on a speech or a lecture. Short films are a very effective tool to inform people about important topics. Of course, they can also go viral.
Building Resiliency Around the World
VantagePoints shares the impactful work of thought leaders around the world who are making a social impact. We understand that many of us have started to feel frustrated, bored, and restless during these times. That’s why we have picked out three of our articles that continue to inspire us and leave us hopeful for a kinder, more positive global society.
Empowering Women Military Leaders Through Learning and Collaboration
Halifax International Security Forum is an organization that is dedicated to strengthening strategic cooperation among democracies and is recognized as the leading gathering of democratic leaders committed to global security and prosperity. Setting the security agenda each November for the coming calendar year, the Forum convenes relevant and key leaders in an unscripted, intimate atmosphere over three days in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A key issue that has emerged within the international security space over several years is advancing women leaders within the security sector...
Understanding the Business and Human Rights Agenda: A Conversation with Marti Flacks
The ever-growing global reach and impact of business enterprises has given rise to a robust debate about such actors' roles and responsibilities with regards to human rights. This debate continues today but has produced a significant number of guidelines and frameworks including the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights along with standards and regulations for various industries such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Given the rapid expansion and transformation of the business and human rights landscape, it is important to ...
Rethinking Gender and Violent Extremism
Within the field of countering violent extremism, research and interventions that do consider the role of gender in recruitment have mainly focused on women in violent extremism. However, men and boys are disproportionately recruited by and join extremist groups, and they are more likely to carry out extremist violence. With an increasing interest in shifting the narrative from countering to “preventing” violent extremism, there is a need to look deeper into the reasons why men join such groups, and to examine how their gendered identities constructed in day-to-day ...
