UPDATES

After many months of careful consideration and consultation, One Square World (1SW) is delighted to announce we have built a partnership with community members of Ile-a-Vache, Haiti, committed to achieving sustainable development for all community members. While the issues facing the Ile-a-Vache community are dynamic and numerous, 1SW looks forward to working alongside community members and helping to provide increased capacity and resources to help them to realize their goals, which include having better access to potable water, jobs and a voice in upcoming government development efforts.  

The 1SW team recently visited Haiti and met with community groups on Ile-a-Vache. Among other things, the organizations listed schools, technological investment and potable water as areas in urgent need of development.

1SW will be working groups of youth and women to develop relevant systems thinking, leadership, entrepreneurship and job skills as well as support local access to internal and external resources needed to bolster their own sustainable development.

Our very next phase of the project will occur this July during which volunteers with entrepreneurial and leadership skills will hold a leadership camp in conjunction with the existing Elevate Haiti  volunteer program. We invite you to attend – contact andrea@onesquareworld.org for more information.

We at One Square World are excited to announce our best update yet: the launch of our two pilot communities! The first, on Haiti’s Ile-a-Vache is a community building project which seeks to work with local groups to take development into their own hands. The next, the Global Urban Community Garden Connection, is a globally focused initiative, which seeks to unite and network grassroots organizations using urban community gardening to achieve food security.

More on these exciting new projects will be posted in the weeks to come but in the meantime, both can be found here.

Exciting things are afoot at 1SW and frequent visitors to the website will have noticed some changes to reflect this. For the sake of navigability, we’ll review these here:

First, the Apply page is gone! Not really, though. We just moved it under the newly renovated Contact page. To be clear, if you, your organization, or your community, is interested in exploring the 1SW approach and learning more about how it can work for you, please apply here. We are always looking for new partners.

Next, there’s a whole new page! The 1SW Communities page is where you can find background information on our pilot communities. This page will be updated to reflect significant events and progress made with our pilot programs.

As for periodic updates on the nitty-gritty of 1SW pilot programs, continue checking in here on the Updates page, where information will be posted more frequently and with increasing regularity.

On a final, somewhat related note, allow me to introduce myself as the newest member of the OneSquareWorld team! If at all interested, you can find my bio here.  

Individuals donate money hoping that money will make a difference for an organization, movement, or idea that is important to us.  We invest money hoping that that money will not only be there when we need it, but will grow at a rate as fast or faster than inflation.  What if it was possible both to make a difference for a cause and to keep or increase your savings?  This is what “Social Impact Investing” hopes to do.

Microloans, such as those administered by the Grameen Bank, are perhaps the easiest model to understand.  Small business people can get well-needed loans for equipment or business start up, a sewing machine, for example, and in a short period of time the business owner is ready to pay the loan back.  It is more challenging to understand how funds invested in environmental causes or in hunger alleviation could make a financial return.

Social bonds work by recognizing that there is a real return in social and environmental improvements, such as reduced incarceration rates, reduced hospital bills, reduced need for water treatment, increased ecosystem services, etc.  3.1 “In a social bond, a government agency sets goals to fix a problem, and taps an outside expert to enlist a nonprofit to meet the objectives and raise money from private and philanthropic investors to fund the initiative. The government only repays investors if the program succeeds. If a program designed to reduce hospitalizations, for example, achieves its goal, investors will be paid with the money saved on patient care.” 3.2  Additionally, consideration of environmental and social factors can improve any stock’s longterm growth. 3.3

As a fan of metrics, I am encouraged by attempts to develop common frameworks for measuring and reporting performance of such bonds.  These include Global Impact Investing Network’s IRIS (standardized metrics describing social, environmental, and financial performance of an organization) and B-Analytics’ GIIRS (standardized scoring system for investors to benchmark and compare social and environmental performance of various funds and companies). 3.4

One Square World is a registered non-profit investigating social-bond opportunities while completing pilot projects in several communities!  More on the pilots in a future blog!

Further Reading:
3.1 Brest, P. and K. Born. “When can Impact Investing Create Real Impact?”  Stanford Social Innovation Review.  Fall 2014. Available at:  http://www.ssireview.org/up_for_debate/article/impact_investing

3.2 Agovino, T. “New Funding Tool Could Spur Nonprofit Innovation.”  CEOWorks: News.  15April2014.  Available at: http://ceoworks.org/new-funding-tool-spur-nonprofit-innovation/

3.3 Cohen, R. and M. Bannick.  “Is Social Impact Investing the Next Venture Capital?”  Forbes Magazine.  20Sept2014.  Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/09/20/is-social-impact-investing-the-next-venture-capital/




3.4 World Economic Forum Investors Industries.  “From the Margins to the Mainstream: Assessment of the Impact Investment Sector and Opportunities to Engage Mainstream Investors.”  Section 4.4, “Double Bottom Line”.  2012. Available at: http://reports.weforum.org/impact-investment/4-challenges-that-institutional-investors-face/4-4-double-bottom-line/

One Square World is focused on building communication within communities and improving the ways that neighborhoods relate internally and externally.  We love to see healthy, strong villages, neighborhoods, and towns that are resilient in the face of challenges. 

Does this mean that we aren’t interested in environmental issues or in physical health of the residents of these communities?  Far from it!  In fact, we are convinced that by working to improve social relationships, we are actually also working to improve physical health and the ability to address environmental issues.

Of course, communities that can mobilize are better able to respond to unwanted development or depletion of natural resources. (2.1)  Beyond that, resiliency is the ability for a community to react to a disturbance:  environmental, social, or economic.  This is a very important metric for communities in the face of the unpredictable natural and human climate changes of 21st century.  Certainly, improved communication improves resiliency, as neighbors rely more on each other and less on outside help. (2.2)

There are also lots of initiatives to tackle increasing poor health, obesity, and sedentary lifestyles.  Could these issues be related to relationships? (2.3) If you are spending more time in your house, are you spending less time learning to understand your neighbor’s difference or the importance of your local environment, and spending more time on your couch?  Some studies have found that obesity may lead to social marginalization (2.4)... perhaps it works both ways.

Do you see any other connections?  Want to comment on these?
Let us know in the comments!
-- Cyndy Carlson, PE, PhD

 (2.1) Ratner, B. D., Center, W., Halpern, G., & Kosal, M. (2011). Catalyzing collective action to address natural resource conflict (No. 103). CAPRi Working Paper.

(2.2) Folke, C., Carpenter, S., Elmqvist, T., Gunderson, L., Holling, C. S., & Walker, B. (2002). Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations. AMBIO: A journal of the human environment, 31(5), 437-440.

(2.3) Jung, M., Bigman-Galimore, C. A., & Viswanath, K. (2014). Contextual effects of community mobilization and communication capacity as a positive factor for self-rated health status: a multi-level analysis. International journal of public health, 59(2), 289-299.

(2.4)  Apolloni, A., Marathe, A., & Pan, Z. (2011). A longitudinal view of the relationship between social marginalization and obesity. In Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction (pp. 61-68). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

 

Here in New England, we’re recovering from massive amounts of snow, resulting in snow days, parking bans, and unsolicited interactions with neighbors while uncovering cars and shoveling sidewalks. I’ve heard great stories of folks shoveling each other out, but also stories of nasty fights over parking spaces. Which made me ask myself: Have I said hello to my neighbors this week?  Have I had anyone on our road over for dinner?  Did I give the elderly couple downstairs a Christmas gift?  Fewer and fewer of us in the United States seem to know our neighbors well (1.1, 1.2).

We read and hear more and more about efforts towards capacity building, community development, neighborhood improvements, social capital… But are any of the theories translating into real change?  It’s disheartening when we see examples of community tensions everyday (1.3).  That said, studies have shown that neighborhoods that are tightly connected recover faster and easier from disasters, so why wait until a disaster to connect?

Ok, maybe YOU know and love your neighbors, and personally aren’t experiencing anything that could use any improvements that you can see when you open your door.  “Neighborhood” is something to which we all have a personal connection, and many of our own personal experiences conflict with ‘scientific’ findings of increased isolation.  But there are always way to create deeper connections, to the people around us, the nature, the history of our place.   

We believe improving local connections and relationships makes an incredible difference in strength of our neighborhoods (1.4)  What is one way you can make a deeper connection to your community today?
.
We invite you to join us in the discussion!  Start by commenting below!
And, say hello to someone today!
-- Cyndy Carlson, PE, PhD

(1.1) Putnam, R. (1995). Bowling alone. Journal of democracy, 6(1), 65-78.
(1.2) Sander, T. H., & Putnam, R. D. (2010). Still bowling alone?: The post-9/11 split.Journal of Democracy, 21(1), 9-16.
(1.3) Allebeck, P. (2013). Social capital: much discussed, somewhat controversial, but more to do. The European Journal of Public Health, 23(1), 1-1.
(1.4) Labonne, J., & Chase, R. S. (2011). Do community-driven development projects enhance social capital? Evidence from the Philippines. Journal of Development Economics, 96(2), 348-358.

Things are heating up at 1SW and we're looking for an amazing intern, ideally in the Boston area. 

Please see details below and share far and wide! 

Thanks! 


Communications and social impact intern/volunteer 

One Square World, a new social enterprise supporting hyperlocal collaboration and community development is looking for an intern to support the organization’s startup phase, especially around marketing and social media. 

Responsibilities include: 
Help to create and manage social media 
Help to keep board, advisors and other stakeholders and communities updated. 
Update website. 
Support executive director and board around messaging and community engagement 
Support executive director and board with administrative duties such as setting up conference calls, etc. 
Opportunities to develop community engagement and education programs 


Requirements: 
Excellent writing and communications skills. 
Experience with social media for businesses and/or non-profits 
Experience with website management 
Experience with office/business administration 
Knowledge and/or interest in international development, business development and/or community development. 
Committed to sustainable and regenerative development 
Must be willing to make commitment (3 months to one year, 10 to 16 hrs a week). 
Small stipend available.
Can work remotely.

Apply with cover letter and resume to andrea@onesquareworld.org

One Square World has joined collaborators in the Boston area to create an additional challenge to the City of Boston's Living With Water design competition. We believe that we can use this opportunity think about climate change in a way that will help us to envision and create a more regenerative and community-led way of living with each other and with nature. Join us!

Download the full challenge below.  Contact us to host a collaborative charette. 

Our team is delighted to introduce you to One Square World (1SW), supporting community-powered social and environmental change around the world. 

Cyndy and I have been working behind the scenes since 2011 to put together a program that authentically helps communities to determine and implement their own development. In early 2014 we set out to put together an incredible board and advisory council and we are finally set to launch programs in 2015! 

Please take a look around the website to find out more about our program, why 1SW is important and most importantly, how to get us into your community!

Sign up for updates! We'll let you know as soon as we have our first pilot communities and take you along on our journey. You can also follow 1SW on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. 

Donate! We've bootstrapped our way here and now need your support to unfold programs with impact. Please consider supporting us now!

Submit your neighborhood as a pilot community and benefit from our hands-on support. 

Thank you for joining us. 


Andrea Atkinson
Executive Director, One Square World