IMPACT: Think & Act Like a Movement
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. EST
Hosts: Al Etmanski & Marian Tompson, Co-Founder of La Leche League
Thinking and acting like a movement is not about starting a movement, although your actions may be the spark that ignites one. Instead, it's about supporting the movement(s) you are already part of. That means paying attention to the key players and initiatives in your immediate field and beyond, and becoming more deliberate about aligning your efforts. When you think and act like a movement, you strengthen the specific work you are doing and expand general receptivity for the bold vision behind it.
In Al Etmanski's latest book: IMPACT: Six Patterns to Spread Your Social Innovation, he highlights the story of Marian Tompson, who, in the late 1950s, began challenging doctors, hospitals and baby food giants about their role in fostering negative attitudes about breastfeeding. Marian, along with six other young mothers, ended up launching a movement that introduced the "womanly art of breastfeeding" into the global lexicon. She co-founded and served as the President of La Leche League for twenty-four years, which is now the world's foremost authority on breastfeeding.
Join Al for an intimate conversation with Marian as they explore how thinking and acting like a movement can lead to unexpected and spectacular results.
Register for IMPACT: Think & Act Like a Movement
Please note that this session is 1 part of a 6 Part Learning Journey Webinar Series for Social Innovators & Community Change Agents with Al Etmanski. Space is limited in all the sessions, and you must register for each session you wish to attend.
About Al Etmanski
Al Etmanski is a community organizer, social entrepreneur and author. He is a founding partner of Social Innovation Generation (SiG) and BC Partners for Social Impact. Previously he co-founded Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN) with his wife Vickie Cammack and Jack Collins. Al is an Ashoka fellow, and a faculty member of John McKnight's Asset Based Community Development Institute (ABCD).
Al has received numerous awards for his work with people with disabilities, including the Order of Canada (2014), Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013), and Governor General's Meritorious Service Medal (2005). He lives with his wife Vickie Cammack – who also received the Order of Canada – just outside of Vancouver and delight in the creative pursuits of their five children.
In his highly praised new book, Impact: Six Patterns To Spread Your Social Innovation, Etmanski provides an inspirational and practical roadmap for others wishing to transform our society. He is a thought-leader, researcher, and storyteller with the rare ability to both inspire audiences and leave them with actionable change strategies.
About Marian Tompson
Marian Tompson is one of the seven Founders of La Leche League International. She has worked to promote breastfeeding for 50 years and served as president of La Leche League for the first 24 years. Marian continues to speak at LLL Conferences around the world. She also currently serves on the International Advisory Council for WABA (World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action).
Marian spends every spare minute gathering information, raising critical questions and stimulating needed research about breastfeeding in the context of HIV/AIDS and is the founder, President and CEO of AnotherLook, a not-for-profit corporation.
In 1999, she received the Ethical Humanist Award from the New York Society for Ethical Culture and the Today’s Chicago Woman – 100 Women Making a Difference Award.
12pm - 1pm Eastern Time
Sarah Wakefield is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto; she is also the Director of the Health Studies Program in University College. Her research has two main themes: (1) food security policy and practice; and (2) improving neighbourhood health through participatory community development and community-based research. These areas are connected by an overarching interest in understanding how individuals and organizations work together to create just, healthy, and sustainable communities. She works closely with community organizations and health policy actors to enhance the relevance of her research. Her recent work in partnership with the City of Hamilton investigates the planning and implementation of the Neighbourhood Action Strategy, a multi-stakeholder partnership focused on helping residents develop local action plans, and implementing those plans to build healthier neighbourhoods.
Across the country, communities and local governments are leading efforts to ensure that economic development delivers real community benefits like good jobs for local residents, community stability and housing that people can afford, community amenities like grocery stores and health clinics and environmental mitigation. City and county officials and staff and their community partners have pioneered new tools for success. Come learn what strategies are most effective, what pitfalls to avoid and what are the latest success stories.
10:00am to 11:00am Pacific Time
The International Council of the WSF enthusiastically welcomed the idea of holding a World Social Forum (WSF) in Quebec for 2016. The goal of the WSF 2016 is to gather tens of thousands of people from groups in civil society, organizations and social movements who want to build a sustainable and inclusive world, where every person and every people has its place and can make its voice heard. Join this collaboration and solidarity process between the North and South, East and West, and between the older generation of social actors and the new movements of indignation, resistance, decolonization and occupation that have emerged around the world since the Arab Spring of 2011. In order to build real alternatives, it is now urgent to unify humanity around a solidarity between people beyond divisions, to collectively take back power over our lives and thereby to open the horizon of possibilities.
Developmental Evaluation (DE) can be used to evaluate innovative initiatives in complex, dynamic environments, including a range of fields and international settings.
Michael Patton, with more than 45 years experience as an evaluator, is a generalist who uses all kinds of methods, especially mixed methods, and focuses on adapting the design to the situation, intended uses, and intended users to maximize use -- utilization-focused evaluation, the approach he pioneered in the 1970's. He has worked with organizations and programs at the international, national, state, and local levels, and with philanthropic, not-for-profit, private sector, and government programs. He has worked with peoples from many different cultures and perspectives. As a generalist he has worked across the full range of efforts at improving human effectiveness and results, including programs in leadership development, education, human services, the environment, public health, employment, agricultural extension, food systems, human rights, early childhood, arts, criminal justice, anti-poverty programs, transportation, diversity, managing for results, performance indicators, effective governance, and futuring. His recent work has focused on developmental evaluation and principles-driven evaluation, both of which he pioneered, and are based on complexity theory and systems thinking. Michael is also co-author of Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed with Frances Westley and Brenda Zimmerman. 
Mark Cabaj is an Associate of Tamarack and Vibrant Communities and President of the company From Here to There. Mark’s current focus is on developing practical ways to assist groups to understand, plan and evaluate policies, programs and initiatives that address complex issues. This includes challenges such as neighbourhood renewal, poverty and homelessness, community safety, educational achievement and health. He is particularly focused on expanding the ideas and practice of developmental evaluation, a new approach to evaluation which emphasizes learning and design thinking in emerging and sometimes fast-moving environments.