Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund Convening
The Aspen Forum for Community Solutions is pleased to invite everyone to join livestreamed events from Tuesday May 23rd to Thursday May 25th, happening at our annual convening of Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund partners, and at the Collective Impact Forum annual meeting. The convenings are in Boston, but you won’t need to move from your desk to attend these great events, which feature Aspen Forum staff, national experts, and most importantly, the perspectives of community partners and young adults themselves. Details on the individual sessions follows. Check out the Aspen Forum Twitter account (@AspenFCS) for any last minute updates or changes.
TUESDAY May 23, 2017: 8:00 AM – 9:20 AM Eastern
Opportunity Youth Movement: Reflections and Strategies for Leading a Social Justice Agenda
This OYIF opening plenary session will bring together leaders from private equity (and formerly from government) and philanthropy to collectively reflect on the heightened uncertainty being experienced in communities across our country. Together, these leaders will consider how we must pivot from tactics deployed in the past to act in new ways and achieve better outcomes for our country’s most vulnerable populations, especially opportunity youth. Each leader will share ideas to encourage hope and sustain faith over the long-term, multi- generational, anti-poverty efforts of the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund network.
Spoken Word Performance: Carlos Barbosa
Speakers and Panelists:
Monique Miles, Aspen Forum for Community Solutions
Steve Patrick, Aspen Forum for Community Solutions
Melody Barnes, Aspen Forum for Community Solutions (Moderator)
Governor Deval Patrick, Managing Director of Double Impact Business, Bain Capital and former Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice
Hilary Pennington, Vice President, Education, Creativity and Free Expression, Ford Foundation and co- founder, Jobs for the Future
Ryan Dalton, Cowen Institute at Tulane University
Shawnice Jackson, National Council of Young Leaders – Opportunity Youth United
Kimberly Pham, Project U-Turn
TUESDAY May 23, 2017: 11:20 AM – 1:00 PM Eastern
The Boston Story: Multiple Waves of Collective Impact
This OYIF plenary tells the story of successful collective impact efforts in Boston that, taken together, have advanced large numbers of urban youth through education and careers pathways. First, a dropout prevention and recovery coalition mobilized a city and a school district to The gains won are a result of systems responding to an iterative and collaborative process that includes listening to youth, conducting research, piloting new approaches, and engaging a broad base of support for solutions. Speakers will share how the city is sustaining these improvements over time.
Speakers and Panelists:
Lili Allen, Associate Vice President, Reconnection Designs, Jobs for the Future
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh
Turahn Dorsey, Chief of Education, Boston (Moderator)
Emmanuel Allen, Manager, Re-Engagement Center
Dr. Tommy Chang, Superintendent, Boston Public Schools
Pam Eddinger, President, Bunker Hill Community College
Paul Grogan, President and CEO, The Boston Foundation
Amanda Shabowich, Youth Voice Project Peer Leader, Youth Voice Project
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24: 8:00am – 10:00am ET
Complementary or in Conflict? Community Organizing and Collective Impact
One potential pitfall that collective impact initiatives face is not meaningfully changing the systems and power dynamics that create persistent inequities in a community. How can collective impact initiatives both work “inside” systems to improve coordination, while also working “outside” the system to change the system and disrupt power dynamics that exist? Marshall Ganz, a pioneer of grassroots organizing over the past five decades, will share what the collective impact field can learn from decades of research and practice into effective community organizing, social activism, and community change.
Melody Barnes, Aspen Forum for Community Solutions
Chekemma Fulmore-Townsend, Philadelphia Youth Network
Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School
Marjorie Parker, JobsFirstNYC
Marc Philpart, PolicyLink
THURSDAY, MAY 25: 12:15pm – 1:30pm ET
The Future of Collective Impact in Turbulent Times
Leaders across the collective impact field will reflect on the future of collective impact in today’s often polarized environment. Given the level of uncertainty in public, private, and nonprofit sectors today, how should cross-sector partnerships adapt to meet society’s most complex challenges? In what ways can collective impact funders, backbone teams, and other community leaders navigate potential shifts in federal, state, and local priorities? How will community engagement, equity, leadership, and other collective impact priorities potentially evolve during these turbulent times?
Featuring:
Steve Patrick, Aspen Forum for Community Solutions
Kat Allen, Communities That Care Coalition
Tawanna Black, Northside Funders Group
Heather Peeler, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
Ursula Wright, FSG