Class on Strategic Planning

Today was an interesting class on strategic planning: creating an organizational roadmap.  I took this class as part of my efforts to learn more about non-profit management  as part of my own development as an executive director of a medium-sized non-profit and as a governing member of two state-wide non-profits.

It’s fascinating to think about some of the cultural and sociological forces that will impact non-profits in the coming years.  What will it mean for our services as the population in the US ages, as it is expected that over 50% of the population will be over 50 years old, with 30% of that group over 60 years.

While in the anti-violence industry, the need is to focus on prevention of violence, it is apparent that the focus on intervention needs to address violence within the aging population.  This will require such a shift from centers who are focused on intervention to children and young adults.

In the art therapy industry, this impacts our services to both professionals and consumers.   The initial leaders of the field are aging with little emphasis on mentoring new people into the field as leaders and visionaries.  For consumers, the field has a major focus on services for children.

Both of these industries have a major shift in how they envision themselves and how they operate.  A dual focus almost needs to develop; focusing both on adjusting services to an aging population as well as developing success planning to mentor a new generation of leaders into these programs.

Reading: Managing Creativity and Innovation: The S-Curve

I’m back to reading Managing Creativity and Innovation published by Harvard Business Essentials.  I got off track with all the other things going on in my non-profits and general life.  The chapter on the S-curve is an interesting discourse on the interaction between established technology and emerging rival technologies.  While this chapter is written for profit oriented businesses that produce a product, it’s an interesting exercise to relate these concepts to services developed and provided by small non-profits.  I look at the two fields I work in: anti-violence advocacy and art therapy; and notice they are both at about the 30+ year mark in development and reaching their peak of technology in it’s current business plans.  If that’s the case, these fields are at the point of charging ahead under current conceptions of practice with possible diminishing returns, or attempting to refine it’s practices to maintain their missions for a short time farther, or dropping their current plans to attempt new developments that will evolve the fields with the directions of our changing cultures.  The authors identify problems that impact the viability of any of these options to occur.

1. The existing structure may not have the competencies to develop new technologies and new services…

The anti-violence field is managed through a relatively disconnected network of small non-profits that operate without any unifying vision and so vary widely both within each state and most certainly between states.  These small non-profits struggle to stay afloat to provide any services and have few resources to develop new technologies or services. There is also division in the field over where the focus needs to be, as well as disagreements over the recognition of interpersonal violence as a crime.  This factor results a poor focus on funding from federal, state, and local resources.

Art Therapy is still considered an obscure element barely tethered to the field of psychology.   These programs are often the first cut during recessions, are not billable through insurance in all states, and is not regulated for provision of services.  These factors lead to a lack of concerted effort in the field to develop new technologies or advancements in the field except through the individual efforts of a few highly motivated practitioners.

2. Leaders in One Generation of Technology are Seldom Leaders in the Next…

For the anti-violence field, the leaders began these small non-profits 30+ years ago without any business experience as it was not necessary then for the field to get started.  The focus was on identifying the existence of inequality in human rights, identifying rape and domestic violence against women as crimes, and advocating for changes in laws to support such recognition.  These leaders focused on developing advocacy skills, learning law, and educating the community.  The most minimal of services were developed: hot-line support and shelters.  Staff hired by the small non-profits that developed were not required to have any special education, nor was any specialized education available.  Due to a lack of specialized educational programs, low compensation, and few professional growth opportunities a high turn-over of staff exists that limits the availability of younger people to rise into leadership roles effectively.

Within Art Therapy, a similar development occurred.  Some art therapists started as individuals with counseling or psychology degrees but many started as artists or other interested parties to promote the idea of using art as a therapeutic and healing tool.  The development of art therapy happened outside the realm of psychology and social work as a separate field and faced disparagement from standardized human services fields as a lessor or non-viable practice thereby rendering it’s regulation to an obscure arena for years.  This resulted in an uneven pay scale for practitioners, poor job security, lack of resources to develop research and clinical studies to study it’s effectiveness, and major disagreements in the field as to focus, regulation, and alignment with other areas of psychology and human service fields. Once again, the majority of the initial leaders are nearing retirement age.  While there has been more specialized educational opportunities developed with specific graduate programs across the US, there remains a small group of individuals existing as the leaders with no real efforts to mentor younger practitioners into leadership roles.

How will either of these industries fair in the current recession?  Both are struggling with a reduction in resources to fields outside of the mainstream focus, a need for both to evolve to keep up with the needs of our changing and diversifying society, and the impact of the founding leadership aging out of the field with minimal mentoring of new leadership to face the new challenges.

I think both would benefit from creating active mentorship programs to develop new leaders, seeking new partnerships to promote evolution of the fields and putting more efforts to influencing cultural changes to address needed recognition of human rights and the impact of creativity on healing.

National Philanthropy Day: Engaging the Next Generation of Donors & Social Networking

This morning I went to the National Philanthropy Day in Richmond.  They had a panel presentation on Engaging the Next Generation of Donors.  A panel of high schoolers and young adults engaged in philanthropy.  It was a nice panel and emphasized engaging youth in the Youth in Philanthropy movements.

The Community Foundation of the Rappahannock River Region located in Fredericksburg also has a Youth in Philanthropy (YIP) grant program.  It is such a good idea to start such programs and engage youth in learning about non-profits and how they serve the community.   During my work at the Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault, we have received YIP funding to implement our Teens Against  Sexual Assault (TASA) program in local high schools.  A very successful endeavor  in both a Fredericksburg City school and a King George High School.

The high-schoolers certainly come across as very mature, focused and comfortable in front of what turned out to be a large audience.  They talked about how to engage youth in non-profits and how to engage them via social networking, the new buzzword.   We certainly have gained volunteers and some funding from social networking: facebook fan and cause pages, twitter, blog and now ammado.  We reach people we would not normally interact with through the internet and have expanded our voice in the community.

 

Challenges of Staff Supervision Class

I’m taking a class at VCU on staff supervision.  It’s fairly interesting but I am having to adjust my expectations of the class.  While I thought it would be more direct on dealing with specific kinds of staff, it’s more conceptual on organizing your business and hiring a mix of personalities.  At least for today.

The instructor used the concept of relating employee types to water craft.  There are Battleships who are goal and results driven and tend to be the leaders of agencies, Power Boats who tend to have great enthusiasm and ideas but  need lots of attention, Houseboats who are socially oriented, need time to absorb information and are slow to make changes, and submarines who are concerned with details and specifics. Funny how all our learning continues to be presented as metaphor,;using crafts we develop, machines we build to then represent ourselves in teaching moments.   Does the general student need metaphors rather than discussing personality types directly?  Does it make the description of some types less offensive?

The instructor also made the interesting comment that most non-profit directors were or should be Battleships.  However, I think most are really Houseboats who have been forced or promoted into jobs that really require them to be Battleships.   So is there a school to transform Houseboats into Battleships?

So today’s class was on how identify yourself and then learn to interact with types different from you.  This, however, was not about supervising but on communicating.  Is there a difference?  Mostly what I learned was how to think about sharing the same information differently to different people. As for supervision, really all I learned today was how to set up your human resources to create a paper-trail for supervision.  I suppose that is one way.  I want to be able to lead employees to grow in their jobs and not have it be just a punitive thing if they make mistakes. Although there is a difference with staff who learn from their mistakes and move forward and those who spend the majority of their time manipulating to get out of work or out of trouble or to just increase their salary without any outcomes to present.   Those supervision issues are the most difficult as I feel you need to spend more time dealing with manipulation in the workplace.   Those employees often spend their time manipulating other staff to do their jobs or cover for them.

 

I welcome a new board member

On my agency website and newsletter, I welcomed a new board member: Jack Rowley. Here is his bio below:

The Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault is pleased to welcome Jack Rowley to its Board of Directors as a Stafford County Representative. Mr. Rowley shares that he has “great respect for RCASA and it’s voice for victims in the community and is proud to be a part of the organization.”
Mr. Rowley brings many years of human services experience to our Board through his involve-ment with the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board (RACSB) and the Rappahan-nock United Way. He is currently serving as a Stafford County Representative on the RACSB. He served as Chairman of the Rappahannock United Way Board of Directors in Fiscal Years 2007 – 2008. He is the Campaign Chair for 2009.
For more than 15-years, Mr. Rowley has been involved with various non-profit organizations that serve individuals with disabilities. He serves on the Board of Directors for ICON Commu-nity Services in Alexandria. The organization assists individuals with mental disabilities with employment opportunities. Mr. Rowley is a Past President of the Fredericksburg Host Lions Club. He was recognized as Lion of the Year in 2003 and 2008. Mr. Rowley is a member of the Stafford County Economic Development Authority and is a director for the Germanna Community College Foundation.
Mr. Rowley and his wife Patsy live on a small farm with two horses and a collection of classic cars. The two have been married for nearly forty years and have four children.

I am excited to have this new board and this new board member.  I think the mix of people, skills, and experience is going to be good for me.  The majority of my learning board governance and managment comes from board officers, other directors, and employees.  But mainly the officers.  Non-profits are so different in their concept, design, history of development, and management.  The mission so often drives how they operate in the community, their relationship with the public and funders, and how they utilize employees.  Yet non-profits are often compared as if they need to operate the same. 

This new board member has many years of working on different non-profits, governance of small to medium to large non-profits that should be a great learning opportunity for me.  I think it is always interesting as well to have someone who works in the private business sector with those viewpoints of management, interaction with the public in marketing products and services, and financial oversight.

Recent presentation

Last month I presented at the Virginia Association of Community Service Boards on our trauma program. It was nice to be back interacting with the community services boards/behavioral health care agencies that I used to work for. It reminded me of how much I have grown since I left working for a BHA. It also gave me an opportunity to take a staff person with me to help her learn presentation in front of a professional audience outside of our direct field. I realized how much I have spent presenting on programs I have developed and grown over the years. All the way back in California presenting on Art Therapy at an Activity Therapy Conference to specialized addiction programs at national conferences to now, a specialized therapeutic program for victims of interpersonal violence. It’s time to publish all this work Now to find time to write.

Coffee Meetings and Free Advice or Informal Mentoring

For the price of Starbucks, I got some great advice as usual from an informal development mentor. As usual, his advice is always right on. Recently I struggled with conflict in my non-profit, anxiety about problems, direction, executive support. That coupled with feeling sick lately drove me to consider moving on to other opportunities or even returning to the world of private practice. The power of self-doubt and fears of conflict that pull one from your goals and distract you from your growth as the main topics in today’s conversation. Having someone mirror back to you both your faults/areas of struggles and areas of strengths is always illuminating.

RP – Women’s Funding Network on Domestic Violence Awareness

October marks two events that raise awareness about the well-being of women across the U.S. and around the world: October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and October 17 is World Poverty Day. The link between violence against women and poverty is no coincidence and you can help.
These are the facts around women, poverty and violence:
• 70% of the world’s poor are women

• 1 in 3 women will experience sexual or physical abuse at the hands of a partner in their lifetime.

• Between September 2008 and April 2009, 75% of 600 domestic violence shelters reported more women were seeking their services.

• The National Domestic Violence Hotline measured a 21% increase in calls during the third quarter of 2008. The Hotline released a study in January 2009 that showed 54% of callers reported a change in their household financial situation and 64% said they believed abusive behavior increased over the past year.
No matter where you are, you can join Women’s Funding Network and the United Nations-affiliated Millennium Campaign to Stand Up for Gender Equality to Fight Poverty online on Friday, October 16. Simply sign the widget on our page at any time in the 24-hour period during October 16 and you will be counted as a supporter of the worldwide Stand Up campaign to end poverty.
If you live in the United States, you can also join Women’s Funding Network in urging lawmakers to recognize that poverty and violence affect women disproportionately and policies must work to reconcile these differences. Send a letter to your representatives in Congress urging them to create policies that increase investment in women to combat poverty and violence!

Check out our RCASA blog

www.rcasa.wordpress.com

Domestic and Sexual Violence in Later Life – presentation and focus group

The Coalition on Violence and Vulnerable Populations is hosting a presentation and focus group on Domestic & Sexual Violence in Later Life. We are hoping you will attend to learn about the issues unique to individuals in later life who have been or are at risk for domestic and sexual assault. We would also like people to stay after the presentation for a focus group so we can hear from you on how to better provide services to elderly victims you serve, how to provide support to your staff to identify victims, and other concerns you have in serving elderly victims of sexual and domestic violence.

September 3, 2009 at Fairview at River Club

Schedule:

9:00 am “Responding to Domestic and Sexual Violence in Later Life”
Lisa Furr, Project Coordinator – Central Virginia Taskforce on Domestic and Sexual Violence in Later Life – Virginia Center on Aging.

10:00 am Focus Group— Led by the Coalition on Violence and Vulnerable Populations and facilitated by Lisa Furr.

Directions: www.fairviewatriverclub.com RSVP to carol@rcasa.org