The opening session of the National Nonpofit Congress held in June in Washington, DC, kicked off three days of conference sessions bringing together the best ideas to promote the public sector.
Karrie Galloway, the Director of Friends of Guest House, shares the joys and challenges of helping recovering addicts to acclimate to society.
Former heroine addict, Jennifer McDaniel shares her heart-breaking story of being sexually abused as a child and kicked out of her home, leaving school without learning to read, entering the foster care system, becoming a drug addict and her ultimate path to literacy, a job and normalcy.
The format of the conference combined personal stories such as this one, with macro level sessions on issues and best practices affecting the public sector. On the last day participants broke out into statewide groups in order to form committees to continue the discussion during the course of the year. The conference concluded with all the statewide delegations assembling to share their plans for promoting the visibility and viability of the nonprofit sector in their states. Some, as I did, stayed in Washington, DC another day in order to participate in lobbying on behalf of a bill which would provide $25 million in funds for capacity-building for the nonprofit sector. The Nonprofit Congress reconvenes in May of 2009 in New Orleans.
RESOURCE: http://www.councilofnonprofits.org
Recommended Posts
NYU Professor Paul Light discusses how we need to change the perception of nonprofits. Read the summary of the speech he gave to the CT Association of Nonprofits: