Blog

I felt honored to be part of the Creating Space Design Team with an amazing group of leadership development funders, delivery partners, network and movement builders and racial justice champions. I was eager to learn from the team about how to create an event that would deepen our learning about the ways in which our approaches to supporting leadership for racial justice need to shift.  I did not have to wait until me met in New Orleans to begin learning. I was struck by the fact that some of our conversations were filled with questions that people creating leadership development programs should also be asking, e.g. how would we honor the whole person and multiple ways of knowing; what does it mean to assume good intentions and look at impact; how do we hold space for courageous conversations; how are we thinking about power and whose knowledge is privileged; and how do we build authentic community?
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December 6, 2017

10:00am Pacific | 1:00pm Eastern

Last month June Holley presented on the importance of Network Governance and Structures. We were introduced to a plethora of examples, but did not have much time to dig into some of the models. Join us on December 6th for 90 minutes of hands-on virtual practice where you will be able to talk and get ideas from other networks. June with be accompanied by Tracy Kunkler of Circle Forward Partners and Steve Waddell, who will share some resources about governance models and processes for networks.

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By Clare Nolan, Engage R+D

My name is Matt Bond and I am Director of Network Strategy for the DentaQuest Foundation. About five years ago, in a crowded room at the National Oral Health Conference, I met a guy named Gary Harbison. As a foundation employee, I’m accustomed to having lots of funding conversations. As a network strategist, I’m interested in connecting with and bringing in like-minded people to the network. Back then, we were in the early stages of network development, so my work had a  heavy focus on a small core group of members. Gary was not among them. Nevertheless, we got to talking. I learned that Gary is a photographer(although his wife is the real artist behind the shots), he loves Glen Miller (who I now have on my iPod and am listening to as I type),
and he still has one of those wooden record player sets that is more of a piece of furniture than a sound system. We exchanged contact information, and I promised to stay in touch.

Three years later, the oral health network was burgeoning and it was time to expand. We designed a series of meetings to bring together people from across the country to develop a set of  comprehensive, national goals to improve oral health. Gary represented his state of Missouri at the first Midwest regional meeting. A year later, he began partnering with other network members to tackle major state and national policy issues. In 2016, he participated in a national  convening on Medicaid where he gained knowledge and skills pertinent to advancing this goal in his home state. This year, Missouri included extensive dental coverage as a standing part of its Medicaid benefit, ensuring that thousands of citizens have access to oral health services.
A big part of the credit for this success went to the Missouri Coalition for Oral Health for its advocacy efforts and influence. And the Executive Director of the coalition is none other than Gary.

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