July 26, 2012
Erik Badger

With the school year over, summertime provides a great opportunity to convene our partner school leadership teams as well as many members of our broader network. Taking advantage of this, last Thursday we held a day-long partner school meeting which was immediately followed the 11th Annual Open Space gathering. The partner school meeting had representatives from all 6 schools as well as the Children’s Academy. Topics of discussion ranged from general remarks about how the school year went to the details of creating annual financial reports using spreadsheets and the potential utility of using Grameen Bank’s Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) to gauge poverty among families the schools serve. For a full activity report on this meeting, click here.

Thursday night began the Open Space meeting. This year’s theme was focused on social business: “What is the role of churches, schools, and grassroots organizations in the development of social enterprises as a tool for sustainable development based in community participation?” Over the two and a half days, over 60 people participated in small group sessions to address topics such as: “What conditions and practices need to be in place for a team to be high-performing?”; “Steps and strategies for community development”; and, “How to make social enterprises function well?” There were a number of participants who were new to Open Space as well as many who had been using it for years. Afterwards, notes were shared online via a list-serv.

Both of these meetings were very productive and helped further our aim to promote inclusion, voice and democratic practice in Haiti. We are very grateful to the Vista Hermosa Foundation for their role in making both these important meetings possible.

Pictures from Partner School Meeting

Pictures from Open Space Gathering

*For more partner school meeting pictures, click here.

*For more 11th Annual Open Space gathering pictures, click here.