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Hi, Lisa:<br><br>
Here´s one experience we had several years ago that hasn´t been mentioned
yet and may be useful to you. <br><br>
A transnational food products company in Colombia, South America, wanted
to show its Corporate Social Responsibility with a corporate volunteerism
project in the small farming towns surrounding their plant and where the
dairy farmers (their providers) lived and worked. Our original plan
was to just do an OS for the interested people in the company and the
NGOs that were interested in (read that "competing for")
getting the job. <br><br>
Halfway through the day´s work with several excellent plans on the wall,
one group asked itself, then asked other groups, why are they deciding
this when it is the communities themselves that should be participating
in deciding what kind of help they wanted and needed. The idea
spread like a wildfire amongst the seventy some people in attendance and
the only decision made that day was to take the process to the three
small towns and ask them. Three groups of volunteers offered to
promote the idea in each of the towns and outlying areas.<br><br>
At each of the three, half-day OS sessions on three successive Saturday
mornings, an average of 150 peasant farmers, their families, town
political leaders (who of course tried to "organize" the event
which we didn´t allow), NGO leaders that served the communities and
volunteers from the Company met to discuss the particular community needs
and what the company could do, in a non-paternalistic way, to help them
develop sustainable programs.<br><br>
The impact was amazing, not just in the development of the programs, many
of which are still in place and functioning many years later, but in the
collective self-image of the people who learned that day that they
<u>can</u> do something about their reality. An interesting
by-product that was attributed to the OS events by the Company
Vice-President for Community Affairs, was that in all three of the towns,
representatives of the predominant, traditional political parties were
thrown out of office at the next mayoral and council elections in favor
of <br>
grass roots representation.<br><br>
Warm regards,<br><br>
Gil<br><br>
At 02:00 a.m. 24/03/2005, you wrote:<br>
7. OS for corporate volunteerism (5)<br>
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************************************************************* <br>
<b>Dr. Gilbert Brenson-Lazán - Executive President <br>
AMAUTA INTERNATIONAL, LLC <br>
Bogotá, Colombia - West Hartford, CT, USA <br>
E-Mail: <<a href="mailto:gbl@amauta.org">gbl@amauta.org</a>>
Website: <<a href="http://amauta.org/">http://amauta.org</a>></b>
<br>
************************************* <br>
<font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#800000"><b><i>We optimize the
effectiveness of those who facilitate, lead and manage processes<br>
of sustainable cultural transformation in organizations and
communities.<br>
</font></b></i></div>
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