We had decided to join this Habitat For Humanity build because of the location. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw there was a build opportunity in Cluj-Nopoca, Romania. When I was Mayor and a councilmember, we had a number of opportunities to host delegations from Cluj in East Lansing. It was a perfect combination [...]
Book Review
I had three different people recommend the book, The Confession of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. It was incredibly well written and a compelling read. The book highlighted the work that Mr. Perkins did in the 70’s and 80’s in the field of international aid and development.
He outlined the formula [...]
On May 10, there will be a global event occurring called Pangea Day. Pangea Day was developed by the talented filmmaker, Jehane Noujaim. In 2006 she won the prestigious TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Award for the concept. Simply- she wanted to build international understanding and tolerance through the medium of film. Now two years later [...]
While I was in Panama at the International Association of Voluntary Efforts (IAVE) Conference, I met the director of the End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign. In 2000, 189 world leaders signed the Millennium Declaration and agreed to meet a set of benchmarks called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs.)
The overarching goal is to eradicate extreme poverty. [...]
Many of you know that I was hoping to be selected to attend the Jimmy Carter Work Project with Habitat For Humanity in New Orleans during the second week of May. Patrick and I both put our applications in via the web. We had contemplated contacting a few of my contacts with Habitat For Humanity [...]
April 3, 2008-International Association of Voluntary Efforts International Conference
One of the people I saw yesterday from my past nonprofit life was Mei Cobb, who now works for United Way of America. We worked together for a number of years on volunteer center development through Volunteer Centers of Michigan and the Points of Light Foundation. She [...]
In order to provide a more real time update on the conference for my nonprofit friends, I will post the blogs about my hiking in Patagonia next week.
April 3, 2008-International Association of Voluntary Efforts International Conference
First full day
Last summer, I began to let my national network of nonprofit colleagues know my plans for my international [...]
I was asked by the current director of the Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement at MSU to blog about my reflections as a student leader with the Center as part of their 40th anniversary program.
I am pleased to join the voices offering congratulations to MSU’s Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE) on [...]
The Families
The families that lived in the Habitat houses were a great grounding force for me. My trip has the potential to see things at a very surface level. Tourism in general puts the focus on sites and we often miss the human element of the people who live, work and play in the communities we travel [...]
One of the cool things about international volunteer opportunities is that they often combine some level of sightseeing with the volunteer component. Of course, the volunteer pays for the extra curricular activities. On our trip we had three things planned for us by our team leader- a trip to Mt. Arenal/La Fortuna, a riverboat trip [...]
