Watch a community working session reviewing the essential aspects of working differently and collective impact ...
Here's a brief kickoff speech I made recently for the 400 folks attending the recent @ErieTogether Forum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVkuDpvILzw&sns=em
To be tweeted links to my new posts -- blog, book reviews (both nonfiction and fiction), data or other recommended tools -- either go to Twitter.com and follow me @jcrubicon, or just go to my Home page and click on the Twitter button on the right, just above the tweet stream, and follow me @jcrubicon.
Podcasts
Testimonials
Jay, your imprint is still felt here with the Erie Together group. It might be too late for me since I already have grown children and 5 grandkids. But when I grow up, I want to be Jay Connor! I wish you continued success.
-- John Rushe Partner, Werle & Rushe Insurance Agency LLC
It was great meeting you at yesterday's Startup Summit at ASU. I attended both of your sessions and want to thank you for sharing your valuable insights, knowledge and experience. Plus, I always appreciate a skilled and enthusiastic speaker! Thanks again for yesterday's terrific presentations and advice! Wendy Bader, M.S. Nutrition & Health Communications Consultant / Nutrition Myth Buster!
Jay,
Fantastic article! I love where this discussion is going. As an advocate I do a lot of talking to school teams. Jodi Tucker
Clinical Director and CEO at Kids Matter Canada, Inc.
Inspiring! Mu Ming Yang
Jay Connor has again produced another great blog that will be of great use to any community that struggles with engaging the business community in their poverty reduction efforts - See more at: http://vibrantcanada.ca/blogs/donna-jean-forster-gill/cities-connect-november-2013#sthash.HfYsm3aZ.dpuf. Tamarack Institute, Canada
Education Technology can Benefit by Applying Lessons from Working Differently Communities.....Your writing has impressed me. It’s simple, clear and precise. I will definitely recommend you to my friends and family. Regards and good luck
Liz Weaver
@weaverworksFollow@jcrubicon @weebly worth visitingworkingdifferently.org for intriguing content + #bigideas @VC_Canada
@jcrubicon has posted some amazing blogs with great advice for community change practitioners #readandbelieve
"I’ve very much enjoyed your recent blog, posted on the Vibrant Canada website about the 10 “traps” to watch out for in undertaking community engagement work. In fact, it is featured in the upcoming issue of Engage!, Tamarack’s monthly e-magazine ... think that your blog would also be very meaningful to the members of the Tamarack CCI Learning Community and therefore am writing to ask for your permission to cross-post the same blog in the Tamarack CCI Learning Site." Sylvia Cheuy, Editor, Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
"I think you're an amazing speaker." -Mina Kim, Program Coordinator, Tides Foundation, San Francisco, CA
"I have been so helped by your session in Decatur last Thursday. Your approach was affirming of our work in the community and in schools. Also, your orchestration of the discussion - what do we want to achieve and what are the markers of progress toward that achievement - was specifically helpful.... After the Decatur meeting, I called the E.D. of The Lumpkin Family Foundation and then a colleague who consults for one of the schools I work with and then the chairs of the Regional Alliance for Youth that is currently forming itself, bubbling over with an account of the process you used to start the community development around getting kids ready for their (and our) future. If you can envision a latter day Ancient Mariner, accosting all he meets with his tale, you'll have a little sense of the impact of your session. Jay, the session was very helpful." -Dr. Mary Eddy, Regional Alliance for Youth, Urbana, Illinois
"MANY THANKS ... for the shot in the arm that Jay has been to Poughkeepsie this week - Building Bridges, Coalition of DC Non-profits, City Youth Advisory Board - thank you United Way for bringing him and lending him to the community, and thank you Jay for being willing to have all your time claimed and to cheerfully provide your feedback on our efforts. ...I believe your visit to Poughkeepsie, sowing ideas, has made a listing impact. I hear people saying things like, 'But what about putting the community first?' Thank you again for making yourself so available to dialogue with various groups." -Susan Grove, Executive Director, Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Poughkeepsie, New York
"Jay's work with our community foundation a few years ago got us started off on the right foot and we have seen great results in early childhood and other work since." -Janet DeYoung, President, Community Foundation of the Holland Zeeland (Michigan) Area
"That diagram is mind-boggling. Thanks for linking the way to The Collaboratory for Community Support page. The publication resources and case study data are invaluable." Lawrence DiRe, Dover, DE
"I always love your book reviews!" Marci Nickell, Ann Arbor, Michigan
"Thanks Jay for all your help, but I really think how you handled cross team and steward team meetings, as well as developing an approach for November, is extremely helpful ... you are always so complimentary of Erie and us but I really believe we would not have come this far without your expertise and support." -Debra Liebel, an involved citizen, Erie, Pennsylvania
"Thank you again for your time last week - you were inspirational, thought-provoking and gave us all - me especially - great food for thought. I wish we could clone you! As you know, Community Visions, Community Solutions is our Bible - the book that helped us articulate our vision for United Way/Centraide Ottawa. Your visit, however, has inspired us to move even further - in, and with, our community. I am really excited about our potential to do great things!" -Eileen Dooley, Vice President, Community Services, United Way/Centraide Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
"I was trying to find a way of appraching a conflict that is getting in the way of a community solution. This (blog post) is very helpful. So glad the person that I was waiting for didn't show up and that I had time to read this. Thank you!" Mary Hartnett, Executive Director at Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans, Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
"Your effective presentation was a great way to start the day." John M. Fulwider, Lincoln, Nebraska
"I wanted to thank you again for going far beyond the call of duty over the last couple of days. We made a lot of progress, both in term of community engagement and in gaining a greater sense of direction. I really appreciate your hard work, patience and guidance, and I know that Lynne, Arthur, John and all the others do so as well." -Susan Furgeson, Executive Director, Blue River Community Foundation, Shelbyville, Indiana
"What a treat - to see you again in Saint Paul, giving us the inspiration to keep doing it and doing it better. I hope your words stick!" -Francis J. Schweigert, Ph.D., Research and Evaluation Lead, Northwest Area Foundation, Saint Paul, Minnesota
"GOOD JOB today, Jay - I enjoyed the entire experience!" -Larry J. Busdeker, Superintendent, Hancock County Educational Service Center, Findlay, Ohio
"This was incredibly helpful! Jay made the idea of systems thinking feel manageable and applicable to the work we do." Bethany Hamilton, Senior Site Coordinator, Planned Parenthood - Mid-Hudson Valley, Poughkeepsie, New York
"Along with a diverse group of businesses, nonprofits, foundations, and others, United Way has invited the incredible Jay Connor to our community to help us - all of us, even you - to start working differently to make our community better. His proven approach to community collaboration is the next step in propelling the Seacoast's already strong spirit of working together to a higher level in order to accomplish even more." -Event Announcement, United Way of the Greater Seacoast, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
"We had Strategic Planning at the DeKalb County Community Foundation today! Your name was brought up a few times ... Community Leadership is still a priority for us. Everyone remembered your visit last year ... good stuff!" -Daniel P. Templin, President, DeKalb County Community Foundation, Sycamore, Illinois
"Thanks again for your work with the Shelby Arts Council Board. A lot of them told me they really enjoyed it and felt like it had really helped them. You are sooooo good!" -Lynne Ensminger, Program Director, Blue River Community Foundation, Shelbyville, Indiana
"It was a pleasure to connect with all of the 'seekers' in Erie, and to observe your exceptional skill in facilitation. This was the most organized and polished conference call I have ever participated in - nice job!" -Suprotik Stotz-Ghosh, Kalamazoo Community Foundation to serve as Community Investment Officer for their Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo initiative, Kalamazoo, Michigan
"The Collaboratory creates an environment where agencies can think out of the box and explore collaborative approaches to community problem solving." -Glen Richter, United Way of Greater Toledo
"This was the best CPO retreat we've had since I can remember!" -Holly Hoagland-Fojtik, participant in United Way of Greater Toledo retreat for "Chief Professional Officers" facilitated by The Collaboratory and based on research we presented
"I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for an excellent Board Retreat yesterday at the Bahai Center. Jay, your presentation was on target. I had two board members who said the retreat was the best they had experienced. ...Jay, you've kicked us off beautifully and we look forward to continued focus on outcomes." -Sue Suter, CFRE, Executive Director, United Way of the Greater Seacoast, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
"Truly, I appreciated your insight, thoughts, and strategies today." -Denise Holland, Aspiration Steering Committee founding member, Social Work Coordinator, Major Hospital, Shelbyville, Indiana
"I just felt inclined to touch base and again say how much I appreciate your working with us. For me, the positive relationships built with so many are what keeps me motivated." -Laura Lewis, Erie Together founding partner, Associate Professor of Social Work/Sociology, Mercyhurst College, and Research Fellow with the Mercyhurst Civic Institute, Erie, Pennsylvania
"We have been frantically running around finishing our work for our event tomorrow, but I wanted to say thanks again for your GREAT WORK at the meetings!" -Susan Furgeson, Executive Director, Blue River Community Foundation, Shelbyville, Indiana
"Jay, we were thrilled to have you here with us in New Hampshire for the past day and a half and are very excited about the community's response to the forums. Already working on ways to get you out there to other groups during the October visit..." -Cyndi Peabody Paulin, CCU Director, Carroll County Collaborative, Tamworth, New Hampshire
"...I think Jay would be a great facilitator to get us to the point that we could use our 'content facilitator' to the max. He has done wonders for bringing our disparate education and community groups together." -Lucy Murphy, President, The Community Foundation of Decatur/Macon County, Decatur, Illinois
"I want to thank you for an excellent session on 'International Collaboration' on Tuesday at the Bunting Collaboration Symposium in Portsmouth, NH. It certainly was stimulating and I learned some things about collaboration and funding streams that I did not consider prior to attending." -Yvonne Schulze, Seniors Count Project Facilitator, Manchester, New Hampshire
"After Jay Connor made his first presentation in June, organizers reported that the feedback from the 60 community stakeholders who attended was 'overwhelmingly positive.' Connor was invited back to facilitate additional introductory workshops that led to two 'aspiration setting workshops' that were held in August." -Meeting Document, Blue River Community Foundation, Shelbyville, Indiana
"The Collaborative successfully brought a group of diverse people from around the county together for this presentation. There were 9 advisory council members and 27 community members in attendance. The feedback from Jay Connor's presentation was strongly positive with 27 of 28 respondents expressing the opinion that Carroll County would benefit from this type of community development approach." -Summary of Feedback from "Working Differently" presentation for Carroll County Collaborative Advisory Council, Tamworth, New Hampshire
"Just a brief message to say thank you for meeting with the museum studies pro-seminar Monday evening. It was a terrific session. As I mentioned, it stimulated more than the usual amount of buzz in the group. The ideas you presented are quite radical, basically a rethinking of the role that the museum plays in a community. The paradigm seems viable for small, community-focused museums. ...Thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with us. I will certainly keep in touch and let's plan on you participating in the proseminar (if feasible) on a more regular basis!" -Raymond Silverman, Director of the University of Michigan Museum Studies Program, Ann Arbor, Michigan
"It was nice to meet you this week at the Congress on Rural Education. Watching your presentation was very insightful and reaffirming." -Ron Nowlan, B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed., Community Education Consultant & Policy Analyst, First Nations and Metis Education Branch, Ministry of Education, Regina, SK, Canada
"So, I'm finishing up my third day ... and I feel like I've hit the ground running because of the EdCo and Millikin! I feel like I need to say THANK YOU! I believe I'll be able to do some amazing things to positively impact children in the community if I continue to surround myself with the best people out there (yes, consider yourself included in that group)." -Julienne Pajer, Extended Learning Coordinator, Professional Development Institute, Decatur Public Schools, Decatur, Illinois
"Thank you for a great day Friday! The message you presented was outstanding, and exactly what we all needed to hear." -Doug Warnecke, Aspiration Steering Committee founding member, Shelby County Commissioner, Shelbyville, Indiana
"Again thank you for all your help and insight. I truly believe that with your help we are on the right path, to help the Foundation take the necessary steps to be the leader we all want it to be!!" -Bradley V. Brown, President of the Board, DeKalb County Community Foundation, Sycamore, Illinois and Vice President Retail Banking, The National Bank & Trust Company of Sycamore, Sycamore, Illinois
"I just wanted to tell you how much we appreciated the time you spent with our spring conference attendees. This is exciting times for all of our foundations who are beginning to understand the value of engaging the community around common issues. Your conversation helped to put context around the process and alleviated a lot of fears." -Cindy Blorstad, Program Associate-GIFT, Indiana Grantmakers Alliance, Indianapolis, Indiana
"A reminder that the first steering committee meeting with our consultant Jay Connor is set... We hope that you will all plan to be there. Feedback from a colleague from the Rochester Planning Department who sat on the Seacoast Steering Committee was that her time on the committee working with Jay was very rewarding - one of the best things she had been involved in for a long time. It gave her a chance to do the kind of thinking - really making her stretch - that she rarely got to do in her formal job. I hope you find it as rewarding as she did!" -Event Announcement, Carroll County United Steering Committee, Tamworth, New Hampshire
"Thanks for another great round of progress-making sessions. You are the best." -Lucy Murphy, Executive Director, The Community Foundation of Decatur/Macon County, Decatur, Illinois
"Your presentations have been referenced several times this past week in various meetings and conversations (and not just by me!) so it is heartening to see that people have continued to give your messages much thought, and how we might apply it to our work here." -Tracey Mann, Director, Community Impact and Investments, United Way of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
"Thank you for your inspirational call yesterday. This is exactly the kind of approach we have been looking for.... Many thanks." -Joanne Moss, Department of Public Works, Municipality of North Grenville, Kemptville, Ontario, Canada
"Your ears might be ringing these days as we've been bandying about your name as we work.... I have ordered 20 copies of the book [Community Visions, Community Solutions] and plan to distribute for mandatory reading and guided discussion in several different contexts of government! It's a great starting point for our thinking differently in order to plan and work differently - and it confirms some of the notions we had derived from the successes and challenges of the past 8 or 9 years." -Terry Myers, Executive Director, Regional Services and Human Services Integration Forum, Saskatchewan Learning, Saskatchewan, Canada
"Thank you very much for a great morning. I was excited to see the level of engagement from the people in the room and was pleased with the excellent questions that people asked. The feedback from the community attendees was positive to very positive." -Cyndi Paulin, CCU Director, Carroll County Collaborative, Tamworth, New Hampshire
"Thank you again for such a positive presentation for our board. They all have given me great feed back and look forward to meeting with you again. We all appreciate your passion and knowledge to get us on the path to 'making the same movie.'" -Jill Applebee, Community Impact Director, United Way of Decatur & Mid-Illinois, Decatur, Illinois
"An amazing 77 evaluations turned in from the symposium!! I'll send the detailed tabulations shortly - but a quick scan indicated the day was a huge success. They loved you, Jay. And many found the workshops practical and helpful." -Susan Taylor Simpson, Principal/Owner, ProAct Ideas, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
"The 'New Corporate Roles to Support Community Building' session was very highly ranked by the participants, due to your input and experience. We hope that you will participate in future Net Impact events...." -Karen Klausner, Net Impact, National Conference
"Your presentation was terrific.... As someone who's just recovered from an "interesting" non-profit experience, I felt how your presentation touched on all the sensitive issues. Your model makes sense, enormously authentic sense. For further background, I'm reading your book and hope to have the opportunity to share thoughts about this in the future." -Carol Treat Morton, School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
"You earn 'followers' because you give credibility to what a lot of us know intuitively is the way to work, with community in the center. You have what it takes to give the message to those who need to hear it ... music to our ears." -Diane Brandon, Coordinator, KEYS Coalition/Community Wellness Coalition, Kittery, Maine
"I thought we really rocked! Once again, thanks for making such a significant contribution to our new directions." -Lisa Rutledge, AIDS Partnership of Michigan
"Thank you for your follow-up and for permitting us to keep you in the loop regarding our United Way and Community dialogue. As you know your work/research has been the guiding light for much of our transition and your visit served only to bring more 'disciples' to the vision." -Michael Allen, President Chief Executive Officer, United Way/Centraide Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
"What a day! Thank you for making this process bearable and FUN!!! [Jay Connor] is a terrific and energetic speaker and has many nuggets to share with us about how communities can truly work together and make a difference in the quality of life of its members." -LaNell Lucius, Director, Resource Development for Community Impact, United Way of Southwestern Indiana, Evansville, Indiana
"It was great to have you spend some time with the Leadership Team this morning…. There was a unanimous sense that the time was very well spent and, indeed, where we need to focus our strategic energies at this time." -Janet DeYoung, Executive Director, Good Samaritan Ministries, Holland, Michigan
"You bring an important perspective that helps groups understand their experience in a context, and that is both very comforting and empowering." -Andrea Nagel, Interaction Institute for Social Change, Boston, Massachusetts
"Thanks for yesterday's work session. A lot of light bulbs went off in that room, many of them over my head. You do a great job sizing things up in real time and sharpening our focus too.... We are all in very good hands indeed." -Laura Coyne, Community Development Program Coordinator, Elkhart County Planning, Elkhart, Indiana
"Again, everyone was quite impressed and motivated by your excellent presentation and your overall approach and philosophy." -Marianne L. Ehrlich, President and CEO, Healthy Family Initiatives, Houston, Texas
"Thanks for a great call this afternoon! We had a flurry of last minute registrations and it was obvious, by the quality of their questions, that people were engaged with you and the topic. You were great - thanks so much for taking the time to do this." -Louise Kearney, Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
"Love this work with you.!" -Paul Born, Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
"Wow!! The guidebook is fabulous!! I am so excited! You did a wonderful job weaving the various components together to make a seamless document! This really captures everything we discussed in our last meeting. Great job." -Kandis Anderson, Program Officer, Detroit LISC, Detroit, Michigan
"It was such a pleasure to meet you at our recent National Conference. You truly inspired and motivated delegates with your thoughts on holistic, community-wide solutions to social problems. As you know, this is a direction in which United Ways - Centraides are moving and your insights will be invaluable to them in their evolution. We too are venturing into "no man's land" and are pleased to know that someone with your insight and skills is there with us.
I hope that we will have the opportunity to work with you in the future. In the meantime, take care - you are a gift to those of us who believe in what you are working towards." -Al Hatton, President and Chief Executive Officer, United Way Centraide of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
