Skip to main content

Dignity for All: Discovery University


The past week, I have been thinking a lot about my own background and why I do the work I do; teaching about nonprofits and helping nonprofits get stronger to fulfill their mission.  I love everything I have the privilege of doing.

Today, I read about an interesting partnership which brought three aspects of my own life together: faith, education, and service.  The University of Ottawa is partnering with the Ottawa Mission, a homeless shelter, St. Paul University, and First Baptist Church to offer "Discovery University".  This experience is a true partnership where non-credit courses are taught by university professors and all textbooks and course materials are provided at no cost to the students.

From the press release, "the courses are real gifts of hope that will enlighten the life of many individuals".  This is faith in action.  This is social justice in action. This is service in action.  I am a proud alum of the University of Ottawa and everything about this initiative speaks of the attention to supporting dignity in others.

I hope it spreads!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Thank You Letter to Libraries

“The public library is a center of public happiness first, of public education next.”  ―  John Cotton Dana ,  A Library Primer  (1903) .  Libraries have been, and will likely always be, a large part of my life.  My library at Holy Name Catholic  School was my first volunteer experience, at the age of 10.   By volunteering in the library, I could come to school early before the other students arrived, and sort and shelve books.  I remember feeling peaceful while my classmates arrived on buses and on foot, filling the grounds outside.  At the first bell, the silence would end, and I would have to go to my classroom.  I started a classroom library in 7th grade, complete with our very own card catalog.  On weekends, I would go to the Pembroke Public Library , finding a quiet corner usually on the second floor and escape in books, the outside world fading away to barely a hum.  I spent many hours in that Public Library ...

The Art of Nonprofits According to Pablo Picasso

I lead two nonprofit workshops this week; one on the use of technology and one on how to communicate your impact.  I always begin my workshops with a similar theme: understand your organization and take a serious look at your values, vision, and mission.  Once that is clear, you can more clearly identify the goals and actions to take your organization where it needs to go.  Seems simple but in most cases, these are extremely hard conversations to have and even harder to reach consensus. As I was leaving my Forefront workshop in Galesburg, Illinois, I drove past a construction crew working on a house and had to capture the image.  The signs read  "Every action of creation is first of all an act of destruction " by Pablo Picasso .  Genius and true! If you want to build strong buildings and organizations, you first have to tear them apart, see what you're dealing with, come up with a plan for improvement and then build it. This also reminds of nonprofit...

The Long Distance Race: Building Career and Personal Resilience

This past week or two, I have been listening to several interviews with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Chief Operating Officer and author of the bestselling " Lean In " book. She has cowritten a new book called " Option B " following the death of her husband, just released this week.  I have the book and I can't wait to read it!  But beyond the book, she is calling for a movement, for all of us to build resilience and help others build theirs.  She and her co-author have created a nonprofit organization called OptionB.org to provide tools to build resilience.  Visitors can share their own personal stories, join online support groups and find information from experts. Of course we can all use some support if we faced with difficult circumstances or choices, sometimes because of something we have pursued but other times simply because life happens. Life is beautiful in all of its complexities and riches, and sorrow and disappointment as well. They are all learni...