Governor's Council on Children

Monday, December 4th, 2006
I was encouraged on Friday when I attended a session of the GC in Calgary. About 35 people from 20 ish organizations and groups attended a workshop specifically looking at Child Homelessness in Calgary. The thrust of the breakout sessions was very action oriented using the question ” What are we going to do about it?”

As you might expect, I was branded a ‘rabble rouser’ by two attendees, with no offense intended or taken. The encouragement came when I recognized that a paradigm shift had occurred in two of the small group (15) sessions I participated in. There was some very interesting discussion and disclosure that took place and new initiatives were explored. As in most nonprofit sector meetings some participants immeadiate reaction was to jump to the barriers and reasons why the ideas wouldn’t work. ( Here comes some rabble rousing) I suggested that our best intentions, commitments, endeavors and actions combined with our experience, expertise and resources had left us with a persistent and growing problem. We can’t continue to blame others for these shortcomings without examining our own complicity.

This seemed to shift the dynamic of the discussion a bit and I saw the group shift to solutions to overcome barriers rather than naysaying new ideas. There wasn’t a big ‘AHHA’ but a series of small inroads that may lead to some strategic positioning in the future.

Bravo!