COMMUNITY | IS | OUR | SUPERPOWER!
S. PATRICK KAHOZI INSITITUTE
The Board plans to establish and operate a web-hosted, issues-based blogosphere. Its open but guided environment will serve as a forum where expert insight, research, and open discussion around various matters will be presented and shared. The institute will become a hub whose particular attention to the myriad of 10 specific urban projects categories such as 1.) Arts & Entertainment, 2.) Community, 3.) Health & Wellness, 4.) Economic Development, 5.) Education, 6.) Employment, 7.) Faith Based, 8.) The Environnment, 9.) LGBTQ Affairs, 10.) Social Justice and 11.) Urban Events/Activities within urban communities. Project Briggs, Inc. plans to leverage web-based technologies and social media that will serve as the primary tools for information dissemination.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our primary focus is inside Urban communities. We’ll improve communication, education, awareness and support systems within these specific areas. We’ll engage through social marketing, fundraising, scholarship endowment and other direct activities. We’ll deliver well-designed leadership training to organizational leaders and executives; their support teams; and to any other interested individual responsible for providing urban project services and assistance to the public. By establishing ourselves as an organization of transparency, professionalism and integrity, Project Briggs, Inc. is well-positioned to solicit new funding from non-traditional foundations, corporations, and individuals.
Nonprofit Leadership Training
We will train new vanguards to improve the lives of people of all backgrounds. Each new leader will be well-informed and will become the public advocate for change in his/her community.
Coalition Building
We will connect ethnically and racially diverse minority groups. More importantly, we will forge alliances among minority and majority organizations; all with the ultimate aim of creating the cohesive strategies required to eradicate many challenges of our environment. We will actively discover new sources of social energy and funding for urban projects and advocacy, research, and direct services to the men, women—and particularly the many youth who need help. Project Briggs, Inc. pledges to keep allocate no less than 50% of the income from all its revenue sources to direct program implementation.
Description of Activities
Project S. Patrick Kahozi Institute for Urban Studies (SPKI)
This information-sharing venue is an institution envisioned by Project Briggs, Inc. It will be a web-based resource and training center for those working in within urban communities of color. The Institute will serve as a media resource for web-based and print articles, link to sites containing pertinent content, provide current interviews, information and statistics to bloggers and promote fundraisers, social events, seminars, and workshops that inspire healthy lifestyles and entertainment for people of color and those who support them. In addition, the S. Patrick Kahozi Institute's Leadership Academy will be established to provide training for individuals and groups just entering the field, as well as to those (currently in the field) who need refresher courses in service delivery, business practice and relevant core competencies.
Non-Profit Leadership Training
As many organizations adjust to the current economic climate, they often find themselves facing pressures from financial contraction, counterbalances by increasing needs for their services. But not only that, many have found that affordable, intra-organizational management training has become more difficult to find. Project Briggs, Inc. will offer nonprofit organizations with opportunities to refer staff/volunteers to a series of personal and organizational development seminars. These seminars will help them increase competencies, and will cover a wide range of topics designed to expose, educate and empower participants. They will leave with the knowledge and skills needed for successful nonprofit management. Competency training is a certification course, generally spanning 6 months. Instruction will occur at the designated Al Sura sites, on pre-defined, monthly training dates, and will also occur at the home organizations of institute attendees, under the supervision of Project Briggs, Inc. trainers thoroughly familiar with the area(s) under study. Applications for training will be taken in the fourth quarter of each calendar year; and classes will begin in January of the following year. Training will be completed in June.
Competencies
The competencies are organized into two major categories: 1.) Personal Development; for self advancement; 2.) Professional Development; the core of nonprofit management; 3.) Competencies are organized into several subheadings (see Appendix A); and whose order indicates a themed sequence of instruction (that is, moving from general to specific; or from simple to complex).
Knowledge vs. Skill
Competencies are classified as being either: 1.) Knowledge (something that someone should know); or 2.) Skill (something that someone should be expected to perform proficiently). Knowledge competencies are acquired by participating in Project Briggs-based sponsored Leadership Conferences. Participants may obtain skills independently (through practice in monitored coursework; on-the-job activities; individual mentoring; and student association activities). Skill competencies are generally identifiable through the use of verbs like research, demonstrate, develop, complete, conduct, exhibit, execute, utilize, and negotiate.
The Accreditation Board (Service Delivery and Programmatic Effectiveness Rating)
We will establish a committee of qualified experts who will become Project Briggs, Inc. Accreditation Board. The Board will use competencies, described in our Nonprofit Training curriculum, to review and evaluate the business acumen, as well as the clinical and professional practices of organizations providing services to urban communities. The Committee will develop a rating scale that accurately and succinctly describes each organization’s effectiveness in providing client care and other service delivery. Organizations that do poorly during our accreditation review will be given opportunities to enroll their staff/volunteers in leadership training, designed by Project Briggs, Inc. Following evaluation, each organization reviewed will receive a detailed “Road to Improvement” strategic plan. This plan will be individually tailored to help groups improve their ratings and achieve greater success in future accreditation reviews.
Coalition Building
We will take active responsibility for engaging various non-profit organizations in forming strategic partnerships and coalitions. Our goal will be to help groups work together; build consensus; and coalesce strategies for inter-agency resource sharing, learning opportunities, and service distribution techniques.
Expand Health and Wellness Funding
Project Briggs, Inc. is committed to helping non-profit organizations (especially those serving communities of color) to: 1.) Discover fresh sources of volunteers; 2.) Reengage and engage personal activism; and 3.) Renew the social energy required to better fulfill their missions. We will share information on the most current systems, as well as the most effective techniques being engaged (industry-wide) to expand well-needed services into new demographics. Our website, www.projectbriggs.org, will become a one-stop fundraising and events guide for anyone seeking meaningful ways to participate in, and contribute to, the cause.