[OSList] Open Space with Children's System of Care in NJ

[Harrison Owen]

Thank you Chuni for sharing this story. Every so often a dream comes true,
and when it does, isn't it wonderful!

 

Harrison

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

 

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 20854

 

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

 

www.openspaceworld.com 

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of
chunili2000 at yahoo.com
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 2:01 PM
To: OSLIST
Subject: [OSList] Open Space with Children's System of Care in NJ

 

This is an open letter.
Dear Harrison and Suzanne,


I wanted to drop you a note to tell you that the wish I made in Jan 2011 in
New York (when we first met) had just come true a couple of weeks ago. I
remember saying to myself then: "This open space format would be so
beneficial to the NJ Children's System of Care that I need to figure out a
way to sell it to my agency and the entire System!"

Well, on 9/20 and 9/21, we held a two-day Children's System of Care Call to
Collaboration convening for Monmouth County. My agency MonmouthCares
sponsored the event, my Executive Director was the host, our partner
Community YMCA donated the camp ground as the venue, and I was the
facilitator. 

Everything went beautifully! 60 system partners came representing the
government, schools, juvenile justice system, behavioral health services,
mobile response system, family support services, youth advocacy, etc.
Weather was great and the open space environment couldn't have been better.

And the best part of this journey is that it wasn't me who drove the
project. It was one of our supervisors who created a vision from last year's
strategic planning retreat, which I facilitated using Open Space, and took
the initiative to make this happen. I watched the entire leadership team in
my organization doing this without me having to convince anybody. I did
little in the preparation; I just showed up, opened the circle, held the
space, and closed the circle. And for that, they thanked me for my
"leadership" and gave me a pair of Tibetan bells as gift!

Seriously, now that the word has gone out, my next wish is to take it to the
government and the state level.

Looking forward to seeing you next week!

Chuni Li
New Jersey

 

 

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