Keynote speakers are two of the most influential voices in the field today
The 2010 Alliance National Conference features two high-caliber keynote speakers, who are among the most influential voices in the nonprofit human services field today: Paul Light and Geoffrey Canada. Light will give the opening keynote address Wednesday, Oct. 20; and Canada will close the conference Friday, Oct. 22.
Guiding Social Change: Vigilance and Innovation
Paul Light is a prolific writer, political observer, and champion of the nonprofit sector. He has sparked considerable debate both within and outside the nonprofit sector with his writings about social entrepreneurship, the declining public trust in the nonprofit sector, and his vision for the sector’s future.
The Alliance condensed a version of one of Light’s more powerful recent articles in Issue 2 – 2009 of the Nonprofit Director. In the article, Light outlines four scenarios for the future of the nonprofit sector and considers whether, down the road, the sector will be owned more by institutional funders or by community stakeholders.
Light is vocal about his belief that in order for the nonprofit sector to fulfill its vital commitment to society, inspired leadership is necessary. This observation is influenced by his previous work as founding director at the Center for Public Service, and as Douglas Dillon senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
He currently is Paulette Goddard professor of public service and founding principal investigator of the Organizational Performance Initiative at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.
Although Light believes firmly in the fundamental role nonprofit organizations play in today’s society, he has often written about and commented on the public’s declining trust in the sector. He suggests that charities should be alarmed at their failure to convince much of the public that they are doing a good job.1
| Paul Light talks briefly about social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. |
The survey, which was commissioned by New York University’s Organizational Performance Initiative, also revealed that only 17 percent of those polled believed charities were “very good” at running programs and services, while 59 percent said “somewhat good.”3
These results, Light says, are not reassuring. “You never get off an airplane and say, I’m really glad the pilot did a ‘somewhat good’ job of flying this thing.”4
Light’s impact, while certainly strong within the nonprofit sector, also extends to politics and government. After the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, Light authored a column in The Washington Post that followed the transition to the new administration.
Articles by Light have also appeared in other notable national publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Nonprofit Quarterly, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy. The extensive collection of books and articles he’s authored is outlined at wagner.nyu.edu/light.
Saving the World One Child at a Time
As president and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), New York, Geoffrey Canada has created a holistic model for economic mobility and neighborhood building, one that is rooted in uncommon approaches to education, vocational training, health care, and social services.
Canada’s leadership efforts and visionary approach to building better lives for children, families, and neighborhoods has gained the attention of Congressional leaders and the White House. President Barack Obama hails HCZ as the model for his federal Promise Neighborhoods initiative, a program championed by the Alliance and United Neighborhood Centers of America.
Growing up in the Bronx, Canada experienced poverty firsthand. He struggled to escape an environment that doesn’t easily allow people to leave its clutches. He earned a scholarship to attend Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; received a bachelor’s degree in 1974; and later earned a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
He says he knew at an early age that he wanted to help other people. “I knew I wanted to do this work when I was 9 years old. It was simply being very aware of how unjust the world was for poor children,” he once told The New York Times.5
Geoffrey Canada talks about the Harlem's Children Zone as part of the American Express Members Project. |
Canada says his lifework is fueled by the belief that the only way to save children is to save their neighborhoods.
“Part of the reason we’ve not been able to help some families when it comes to moving them from poverty is we’ve tried discreet approaches in which we help one child here and another child there,” says Canada. “It’s not that this doesn’t work. It does. But it saves individuals, not communities. I believe that unless we can provide a platform of support for children and families, they won’t be able to work themselves from poverty into the middle class.”6
He continues, “Its stuff that exists in other communities that’s taken for granted: functioning schools, social services, jobs, and safe streets.”7
ENDNOTES:
1. The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, “Public Confidence in Nonprofit Groups Slides Back, New Survey Finds,” April 3, 2008.
2. The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, “Public Confidence in Nonprofit Groups Slides Back, New Survey Finds,” April 3, 2008.
3. The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, “Public Confidence in Nonprofit Groups Slides Back, New Survey Finds,” April 3, 2008.
4. The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry, “Public Confidence in Nonprofit Groups Slides Back, New Survey Finds,” April 3, 2008.
5. The New York Times, Felicia R. Lee, “COPING; For Harlem’s children, a Catcher in the Rye,” Jan. 9, 2000.
6. The New York Times, Felicia R. Lee, “COPING; For Harlem’s children, a Catcher in the Rye,” Jan. 9, 2000.
7. The New York Times, Felicia R. Lee, “COPING; For Harlem’s children, a Catcher in the Rye,” Jan. 9, 2000.
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