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Powering Nonprofit Success Through Participatory Processes:

Did you know that organizations prioritizing participatory processes and deliberately decreasing barriers see a significant increase in program effectiveness? This Fall, I’m excited to delve into how this framework powers real-world success through our three-part webinar series, Insights for Impact!

On September 18th, Dr. Inderjit Vicky Basra, President and CEO of the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center, and Jessica Raymond, former Chief of Staff of the YWCA, joined Sharity Global Expert Anne Miskey to offer real-world examples of ways participatory processes elevated their organizations’ mission and impact. Dr. Basra emphasized the importance of including direct and indirect experts in decision-making conversations. She noted, “…layered communication makes the change.” When those in the community who experience the challenges your organization strives to address work alongside those with academic or professional experience in key areas, your organization can begin to affect systemic change. Jessica added, “When we talk about advocating for people and engaging their voices…here is the mic! You sit at this table, you tell me what you need from us, you make the decision…”

Key takeaways from the conversation included:

  • Write equity into your policies and procedures.
  • Avoid “tokenizing” the community you serve. Ensure that if you ask something of your community members, such as asking them to share their stories, you are developing and strengthening a mutually beneficial relationship with them.
  • Identify ways your organization may connect direct experts, those with lived experience, with donors, elected officials, and other community leaders and influencers.
  • Engaging all voices allows you to review and evaluate the impact of your programming with an open mind and heart.
  • Give credit to all the experts helping you execute your mission. Whenever possible, compensate and recognize direct experts, those with lived experiences, for their work on behalf of your organization, just as you would an indirect expert with academic or professional experience. 

Dr. Basra summed up the importance of engaging all voices when she described the success her organization has had with connecting survivor mentors with the recently rescued. “[Survivor’s] concepts around hope look very different because they’re sitting across from somebody, that at some point, was in the same space that they are in…Their survivor-mentor becomes a beacon of hope!” Anne added, “The little ways you can connect your donors in real ways to people” will bring about transformation.

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Three conferences in one month. One on the east coast of the U.S. One on the west coast of the U.S., and one in Nepal. I am still catching my breath.

The month began with the Safe Children Coalition Conference in Sarasota, FL, where I co-presented with the Children’s Home Society of Florida’s Megan Olive, Research and Evaluation Coordinator, and Gloria Saiz, Clinical Program Director, on “Changing the Child Welfare System Response to Domestic Violence.” The event was a major success with some 250 child welfare and youth mental health experts and practitioners from across Florida in attendance.

This presentation focuses on CHS’s pilot program “Partners 4 Safe Families” and its Domestic Violence training program. This six-month pilot project was conducted to determine if the use of evidenced-based domestic violence screening tools and assessments at intake could alter the way that child welfare staff address domestic violence. The results were transformative and provide simple low-cost solutions that can be implemented to create systemic change that protects both children and survivors.

Then, Gloria and I took the show on the road to San Francisco and presented at the Ending Violence Against Women International Conference, which focuses on sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking, human trafficking and elder abuse. The three-day conference brought together law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, victim advocates, judges, parole and probation officers, rape crisis workers, health care professionals, faith community members, educators, researchers and others to highligh promising practices — like “Partners 4 Safe Families” — and emerging issues to effectively respond to these crimes in all communities.

Finally, I braved 30 hours on multiple airplanes to attend and present at the Nepal Advocacy Training and Strategic Planning Workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal. I represented For Every Woman Treaty, for which I serve as its Chief of Global Operations. Along with Every Woman Treaty, this event was sponsored by Nepal Rotary Club of Kathmandu in partnership with the Global Health Advocacy Incubator. This event brought women’s rights leaders together to help them develop advocacy, communications, and leadership skills, and to help these leaders build a network enabling them to seek measures to both prevent and address violence against women to drastically improve the safety of women in Nepal.

Being able to share and develop a strategy to take the GHAI treaty process from the pilot to other countries around the world was just the pinnacle of my Nepalese adventure. I also was fortunate enough to be able to take some time to explore the countryside and hike some of Nepal’s most popular treks. I hope you enjoy the photos from this incredible adventure.

Now that I am back stateside, the daily work of empowering nonprofits to expand their missions continues. If you are interested in hearing more about the recent conferences or want to know how Sharity can benefit your nonprofit, visit https://sharityglobal.com/ today.