Photo Share - Helping a Community Refugee Organization Succeed |
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August 12th, 2005 - 02:03PM |
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Photo: Danielle Pack/International Rescue Committee From Danielle Pack, technical assistance advisor for the IRC resettlement program’s Project SOAR, which works to strengthen organizations founded by refugees, for refugees: On June 10 and 11, I traveled to the Pan-African Association (PAA) in Chicago. I met with members of PAA’s newly-formed board of directors. What struck me most was the diversity of these board members: a social work professor at Loyola University, a human rights lawyer who grew up in Uganda and Rwanda, a church pastor with a large refugee congregation who spoke in a deep, spiritual voice about his commitment to refugees in Chicago. In this picture, five of the board members are participating in an interactive capacity building game created by Project SOAR. The goal of the game is to introduce community-based organizations to good practices and effective board member selection. The PAA board members were asked to choose 9 out of 15 profiles of board candidates. For almost two hours, the group discussed each candidate, exploring the strengths each one could bring to the board. The game revealed how individual biases can get in the way of fair board recruitment, and our training reinforced to the board members that the organization’s best interests must come first. I look forward to staying involved as PAA’s board of directors engages in this same strategic thinking process to recruit new members. Posted By: Kathleen Sands | Refugees in the U.S. Permalink |
