Hi all,

Well our group is trying to revive itself for now. This is a wiki that user-generated so that we can all share info.

http://siliconvalley.wikia.com/wiki/Idealist.org_Silicon_Valley

Trying to get offline and so stuff offline, of course. So we are in midst of planning a big meeting for Sept. I think once our group feels as if we are a community (once we all know one another in the group, this will allow us to facilitate and be more effective) How have all of your meetings been going? What are some ideas/best practices that you can share?

Hi Cindy & everyone,
This is a great idea! So in LA we've been doing a lot of different things. We now have an official "steering committee." we decided that we wanted to continue with the loose structure and encourage the members of the network to start coming together around topic areas and form sub-committees. This way, they have more discretion over what they want to do, what directions to take, etc. We've also been talking & working behind the scenes with our website. right now, we have a google group that's really all over the place. A couple of our members thought that we should survey our network to come up with a list of areas of interest to build on and structure our website a little more. So we opened another account and the steering committee has been working on developing more of a strucutred approach using our survey data. We hope to launch the new google group site in the next couple of months.
We have our next meeting on September 8. The format for our meetings were pretty established from the February meetings so it basically looks like this: Introductions, then featured guest speaker (either by specific topic area or project) then open forum for ideas, projects, etc, followed by informal networking. Our numbers have steadily been growing so it's really exciting to see where this will lead!
How about the rest of you? What's going on in your neck of the woods? Love to hear your sucessess & ideas!
Karen

Chicago has been on a bit of a break. Everyone's busy ya know! But numbers on our lists (google group, facebook group, idealist group) have been growing nonetheless, so we're looking to get back cracking in the Fall. People are generally posting their events and news on our google group (groups.google.com/group/chicagoidealistnetwork), which is cool.

We applied for a little citizen-centered grant through the Case Foundation to put a little moolah in our pockets (well, not OUR pockets...), so we'll see how that goes. The idea was that we would faciliate a long-term forum project where community members would propose innovative ways to re-engage young people civicly and connect them with veteran do-gooders- all about countering the cultural force that has been telling us to not get involved in our communities. We would support proposal groups in this project and coordinate public access, exhibitions, and forums around their ideas.

We're also discussing the idea of pushing a wider initiative to reachout to other cities and encourage them to start official 'groups'. We're hoping all the current group leaders can chat about this possibility and join in the fun. Drop me a message here or through email (dmarques(at)swyc.org) so we can grow the email listserv on this idea.

Best,
dave in chicago

Just in case you are interested, or bump into anyone else with interest...

American Self-Help Group Clearinghouse
http://mentalhelp.net/selfhelp/ or www.selfhelpgroups.org
our American website provides:
- a keyword-searchable database of over 1,200 national, international, and model self-help support groups for most any specific illness, disability, addiction, bereavement situation, parenting, caregiver concern, abuse, or other stressful life situation;
- listing of local non-profit self-help group clearinghouses worldwide
http://www.mentalhelp.net/selfhelp/selfhelp.php?id=859
- suggestions on how to start either a community and/or online mutual help group;
- information on research of self-help groups - to see a summary of the more rigorous outcome research studies, you can see a copy of the chapter from the last 7th Edition of our Self-Help Group Sourcebook at:
http://www.chce.research.va.gov/docs/pdfs/KyrouzHumphreysLoomis2002.pdf
- and a registry for those trying to start new national or international support networks that don't yet exist in the world.
For information on national, online, or model groups, those outside New Jersey can also phone our national helpline at 973-989-1122 (8:30am - 5pm Eastern, weekdays). The last hardcopy edition of the Self-Help Group Sourcebook (the 7th Edition) was published Fall, 2002. But more updated and complete group information is available simply through the search engine at our American website.

However, if you would like to receive a complimentary copy, just let me know where to mail it to you.
Best to you in your continued good works,

- Ed


“One of the most important capabilities of community self-help groups is that ordinary people can develop such groups in their local communities when none exist, and subsequently their group usually serves as an extraordinary resource to many in that area for several years. I still find it amazing that to start a group, a person doesn't need a grant, an agency, or even an office - just the inspiration and a few other people who share their experience and hope. What significantly helps in providing such inspiration is a person's knowledge of an existing national organization or a model group, which can provide them with basic information so they don't have to ‘re-invent the wheel.’ "
- E. Madara, "Mutual Aid Self-Help Group Developments” Community Psychologist, 39 (3), Fall, 2006, p. 21.