I recently got a smart phone. I can now check my email and websites without my laptop, opening up a whole new level of connectivity to me. My new favorite app is called “Congress,” and tells me the latest bills introduced and passed, and can map my location and tell me who my elected officials …
Yesterday U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, MN-4, introduced legislation designed to strengthen nonprofit organizations and support their missions. The Nonprofit Sector and Community Solutions Act (H.R. 5533) will establish an inter-agency working group on the nonprofit sector as a whole and give the sector a unified voice in Congress. Importantly, according to her website, “the legislation …
This was the theme of one of the speakers (Lois Adams-Rogers) at Monday’s ABEC conference (Arizona Business and Education Coalition). Education is a community collaboration. As usual, what caught my ear was the talk of data and its purpose in the world of education policy decision-making. One speaker (Tim Waters) likened education to baseball – …
I recently have been reading a great journal, the Stanford Social Innovation Review. The Summer 2010 volume has a piece on the tricky task of measuring social value by Geoff Mulgan. The first step is defining social value, however. Mulgan (former policy director under UK Prime Minister Tony Blair) argues that when we assume that …
Measuring Social Change and the Two-Minute Volunteer Read More »
A friend of mine asked me to think about this question recently, so I will share my thoughts here as well. Regarding new federal legislation, i.e. health care reform – for dentists, it looks like it may have the biggest impact on pediatric dentistry (up to age 21) as all Americans under age 21 will …
Yesterday I attended the presentation from Dr. David Garcia, “Why are Fewer Maricopa County High School Graduates Ready for College-Level Coursework?” hosted by the Arizona Community Foundation in partnership with Arizona Indicators. Dr. Garcia and his students measured college readiness as taking a college-level course in college, freshman or sophomore year; specifically, math and …
As I mentioned earlier, yesterday I attended CIRCLE’s meeting on civic skills and federal policies. It was an intense, full day of discussion with amazing participants on how to increase civic skills in Americans, and CIRCLE also released this fact sheet with new findings on the distribution of civic skills. The ideas for new initiatives, …
Report from the CIRCLE meeting on Civic Skills and Federal Policies Read More »
Tomorrow at the National Press Club in Washington I have the privilege of meeting with other experts, policy makers, government officials, and advocates to discuss how to improve civic skills, a topic near and dear to my heart and the heart of democracy. New research will be released tomorrow indicating that access to civic skills …
Political Passions Run High, but Civic Skills Run Dry Read More »
FirstEval assisted Allegheny College in a survey on civility in politics that was released yesterday. Despite our recent incivility in politics, Americans really do want civility in the public sector. The full report can be found here. Allegheny’s press release can be found here, and USA Today picks up the story here.
Yesterday I attended the Phoenix Business Journal’s Nonprofit Business Summit. Our opening speaker reminded us of the economic challenges nonprofit organizations face in Arizona. While demand for nonprofit services are up 25%, donations are down 22%. This is a disconnect. As well, University of Arizona economist Marshall Vest indicated yesterday that Arizona’s recession is technically …
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