The A Spot

I found this article by Laura Miller of Salon.com a fascinating look at how advocacy works in communities where civil order breaks down — as Miller puts it, whether you’re talking about “Afghanistan, Somalia, or the South Side of Chicago.”

The piece is an extended book review of Sudhir Venkatesh’s inside look at inner city housing projects, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes To The Streets. Venkatesh spent seven years following a Black Kings gang leader through the Robert Taylor Homes, the largest housing project in the United States. His account documents how when civil services are unavailable and ostensibly “legitimate” authority figures are unable or unwilling to act on behalf of their constiuents, all sorts of informal power structures will emerge. Citizens come to rely on back-door connections and unspoken agreements to advocate for their needs.

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ISC - UCAN Playing the Social Media Game 2

Originally uploaded by ISC ALC
The participants in the Social Media Strategy Workshop loved the social media game and we had a lively discussion about how they would implement these tools as part of their strategy.

So I have been struggling about what to write about in my first post to the A Spot. First it was a biography post, then a top 10 list post and finally I settled on something with a bit more meat that I think folks will be interested in…a social media workshop in Kiev with NGOs.

Today I facilitated a workshop for staff from NGOs in Ukraine on strategies for using social media tools. This was part two of a series of workshops sponsored by the Ukrainian Citizen Action Network which is a USAID funded program based in Kiev but serving all of Ukraine. My organization, Institute for Sustainable Communities, is the parent organization to UCAN. The first workshop was an all day event introducing the basic tools and concepts of social media. For this second workshop we decided to go deeper by focusing on the strategies for using these tools. A third workshop is planned for later in the spring which fill focus on one or two specific tools.

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Welcome to the “A” Spot, and welcome to our inaugural post!

And just what, you must be wondering, does the “A” stand for?

Why, it stands for “advocacy,” of course. The Advocacy Spot.

Hmmm. Yeah… And I guess now you’re probably wondering what we mean by “advocacy”.

Good question! That, in fact, is exactly what the A Spot is all about! Now that’s out of the way, we can get started.

Pardon me? Oh. Right.

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