16 results for tag: community engagement
Empowerment for Change
Our goal at VantagePoints is to engage socially activated leaders to hear their ideas for solving some of the biggest global challenges. Many of the thought leaders we have interviewed name empowerment as a key part of their work. Click on the articles below to read more about how these leaders are empowering others to make a change across our globe.
We encourage you to share with us how you empower those around you! Leave a note in the "Comments" section or by sending us an email at vantagepoints@pass-usa.net.
Interview with Ho`ōla Nā Pua on their Mission to End Sex Trafficking
Jessica Munoz is the Founder and President of Ho`ōla Nā Pua ...
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 you go back to that moment, it was right as the Obamas had just taken office for ...
Urban Farming for Social Impact
Josephine Chu is the Programs and Operations Manager at Common Good City Farm. She manages the distribution of the farm's produce through the Farm Stand and organizes the Seed-to-Table workshops and Community Events. As a graduate from American University's MA program in Global Environmental Politics, she became very involved in DC's food justice work. She co-founded Zenful Bites, a women-of-color owned social enterprise that provides plant-based eco-catering services and food education programming to foster a sustainable and fair food system in the DC metro region.
We asked Josephine some questions about her organization...
Common Good City ...
Building and Bridging Central Asia
By Ambassador Natalia Gherman
I was appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres to be the Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, (UNRCCA) on September 15, 2017. UNRCCA is an interesting assignment. The mission is one of the smallest United Nations Special Political Missions but covers an absolutely enormous territory that bridges Europe and Asia. Together with my staff, I am charged with supporting the Governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in their efforts to jointly face a wide array of challenges that are at the top of the ...
Storytelling for Social Impact
In the digital era, the shape and delivery of stories have evolved dramatically. It has provided an opportunity to reach more people and get them engaged.
Our Better World (OBW), the digital storytelling initiative of the Singapore International Foundation, leverages the power of stories and digital media for social impact. Rebecca Lim, Head of OBW, shared with VantagePoints that their approach is to tell stories of people doing good in Asia to inspire their global online community to take action. In September 2018, OBW won the Best International Not-for-Profit Case Study Competition awarded by ESOMAR Foundation for its research on “Empowering ...
Propelling Empowerment in Barangay Communities
The Philippines has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. In contrast, the Philippines also faces considerable challenges due to social and environmental issues. Education and health are persistent problems. 1 out of 4 Filipinos live in poverty, and 1 in 3 children are developmentally stunted due to malnutrition. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and floods frequently devastate the nation. Additionally, pollution and plastic waste are ongoing problems experienced throughout the country.
Project Propel has been working in the Philippines since 2013. Project Propel has been successful in quickly developing sustainable and ...
Coding to Fight Gender Inequality
In the 2017/18 Women, Peace and Security Index launched by the Georgetown Institute of Women, Peace, and Security and the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, Afghanistan and Syria tied at the bottom as the worst countries to be a woman. In both countries, years of violence, discriminatory practices, and cultural barriers have denied women job opportunities and inadequate representation in the society.
In this feature, Fereshteh Forough drew upon her own experience of being born a refugee in Iran during the Soviet’s invasion of Afghanistan. She witnessed firsthand the lack of opportunities afforded to women. With the mission of educating ...
Basic Lines of Operation: Governance, Development and Security
21st-century global environment demands that good governance and development must be incorporated in security strategies. How and when can the security sector shift from mere affording physical protection to the long-term benefits of human security and development needs? In this VantagePoints piece, James Creighton, a former commander of Combined Team Uruzgan and Chief of Plans for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan shares how the interconnected challenges of governance, development, and security require significant integration within and among partners and stakeholders. Mr. Creighton served as a commissioned ...
PARTNERSHIP, TRUST, RISK: DANIEL BADER ON THE PRACTICE OF PHILANTHROPY
"It's all about partnership at different levels. We take our concept of partnerships very seriously. We're not just merely an organization that gives money to nonprofit organizations. We work in partnership with nonprofit organizations—and it starts from the very beginning, from the very first conversation."
Engaging Community Responses to Crisis Situations
"What worries me most is that, as time passes on, we're all spending more time concentrating on our differences than our similarities. At the end of the day, there's a lot more similarities."