The following video may be a bit tongue in cheek, but in all honesty, it isn’t that far off. There has been much conversation in recent months and years about the importance of acknowledging and learning from the full range of experience on the continent of Africa, and supporting the innate capacity of all Africans to help themselves and create their own solutions (as all humans can and do).

The same conversation needs to happen here in the U.S., too. And, luckily in some quarters, it is. How often do we in the nonprofit and philanthropic community, while having the best intentions, see ourselves as “saving” or “giving voice” to those “less fortunate?” I have long respected the work of John McKnight, and was forever changed by the perspective shift I gained from reading his book  The Careless Society. Check out his work through the Asset-Based Community Development Institute for tools that could radically change how you engage in community change work.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 3:25 pm and is filed under creating a just world. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.