Innovation of the Week

In this week's Innovation, we recognize
Civic Enterprises.

“Today part of every leader’s job, whether in business, government, or the social sector, is to help people see the full value of what they contribute.”

This year we commemorated the first September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. More than ever, our nation is engaging in programs and services integral to community-based problem solving.

In addition to the initiatives being launched through President Obama’s change campaign, many solutions to our most challenging social problems are being generated by individuals - veterans and non-military citizens.

From our relationship with The Mission Continues, we learned the importance of saying "thank you" to our veterans for their service, but it is also important to tell them "we still need you."

Less than one percent of the U.S. population serves in the military, yet the leadership skills and life experiences that our veterans possess are valuable in helping to strengthen our communities. So how can America’s civilian population form a deeper connection with returning veterans? Efforts are emerging in the social sector to build military-civilian relations through the common ground of civic service.

Civic Enterprises is a public policy firm that helps corporations, nonprofits, universities and governments develop and spearhead innovative public policies to strengthen our communities and country. Using research and policy analysis, Civic Enterprises helps organizations design social programs of greater impact (Recently, it published a guidebook to help communities address school dropout rates.).

Now Civic Enterprises is conducting a national survey of OIF/OEF veterans to better understand how veterans serve our nation after they leave the military. With its research, Civic Enterprises will help develop cross-sector collaborations that engage veterans in volunteer work in ways that match their leadership skills.

Mary McNaught, Chief of Staff of Civic Enterprises, says, "Many veterans engage in civic service: they volunteer with at-risk youth, provide disaster relief, work with poverty issues, and stay connected with wounded warriors. It is critical that our nation helps veterans find meaningful opportunities to serve again. This both engages the incredible skill set veterans have and provides communities with the critical supports they need."

A national campaign to increase service opportunities and elevate service as a core ideal and problem-solving strategy in American society, Be The Change recently started focusing heavily on veterans. Ross Cohen, Director of Civilian-Military Partnerships, helps bring the talent of veterans to volunteer efforts around the country. Organizations that are part of the coalition, like Big Brothers Big Sisters, learn about and engage veterans and military families in large-scale service efforts.

In the case of Big Brothers Big Sisters, they - with a generous grant from the T. Boone Pickens foundation, have begun a robust program of engaging service members and veterans as "Bigs" for military-family “Littles,” with an emphasis on those who have a deployed parent or parents.

Be the Change and Big Brothers Big Sisters are working together to both identify new pools of willing veterans for the program, as well as to determine pathways to making the programs as effective as possible, such as the best contacts to make on a military installation, within the Pentagon, etc.

On November 11, Be the Change will be unveiling the initial cluster of partnerships under the umbrella of the ServiceNation Civilian-Military Initiative at a public event in Washington, DC.

Leader to Leader Journal Excerpt
How to Put Our Differences to Work, by Debbe Kennedy
No.52, Spring 2009

1. Making diversity a conscious priority for explorations, collaborations, and teams to generate new ideas for innovation.

2. Getting to know people and their differences as a day-today
practice; building skills and knowledge of who and when and how to tap into the best talent.

3. Enabling rich communication in every setting and using it as
a strategic tool for discovery, exploration, and influence.

4. Holding personal responsibility as a core value, which inspires,
enables, and influences new levels of trust in others
and reaches across boundaries.

5. Making mutualism the final arbiter for all decisions, generating
win-win-win results so that everyone benefits; no one is harmed.

The Leader to Leader Institute, established in 1990 as the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, furthers its mission by providing social sector leaders with the essential leadership wisdom, inspiration and resources to lead for innovation and to build vibrant social sector nonprofit organizations.

It is this essential social sector, in collaboration with its partners in the private and public sectors, that changes lives and builds a society of healthy children, strong families, decent housing, good schools, work that dignifies, all embraced by the diverse, inclusive, cohesive community that cares about all of its people.