The Carold Institute celebrated the work of the five Alan Thomas Fellowship holders at a Forum in Vancouver on June 17, 2011 and presented the 2011 finalists for the $60,000 award.
Vancouver – Four Carold fellowship recipients participated in Four ways to build community, an open forum with a panel discussion followed by a reception, organized on June 17th to celebrate the Alan Thomas Fellowship. At the reception the Carold Institute introduced the four shortlisted finalists for the 2011 Alan Thomas Fellowship.
Each year the Carold Institute recognizes the importance of adult education, civil society, and the voluntary sector by awarding a grant of up to $60,000 to applicants wanting to take a year-long sabbatical to research and write on a project which advances citizenship and social change. A reception is held in a different city in Canada each year to celebrate the work of the Fellowship recipients and to disseminate information about the award. Two years ago the reception was held in Montreal. Last year a large gathering took place in Ottawa and this year, the reception moved to Vancouver.
Arpi Hamalian, the President of the Carold Institute, welcomed close to hundred Carold friends, supporters and leaders from Vancouver area voluntary organizations who were on hand to hear about the exciting work that our Carold Fellows and “Fellas” are doing, and to reflect with us on the questions and opportunities that are emerging from their individual and collective endeavors. The coincidence between our discussions and the events in Vancouver following the final Stanley Cup game only served to underline the pertinence of our reflection on how we build strong civil societies, on the role of youth and on the place of advocacy and citizen action.
Arpi introduced the four presenters on the panel with brief remarks about the focus of Carold on civil society, voluntary action and leadership for social change. The panel consisted of the 2008 inaugural recipient Penny Goldsmith of Vancouver, along with 2009 recipient Peggy Edwards of Ottawa, and 2010 recipients Paula Carr of Vancouver and Michel Venne of Montreal. Each presented and discussed the research projects they undertook during the year-long sabbatical initiated by the award of the Alan Thomas Fellowship. You can view details of their work by visiting the “Community Sp@ce” on the Carold website.
Peggy Edwards opened the forum event with a screening of her video on the advocacy linkages between Canadian grandmothers and African grandmothers confronting HIV/AIDS. This was the Vancouver launch of her video and Vancouver Gogos (Grandmothers to Grandmothers movement members) were present to show strong support and celebrate her work. View the video on Peggy’s web page at: http://www.grannyvoices.com
Penny Goldsmith, the co-ordinator of PovNet, an online anti-poverty advocacy network based in British Columbia, was the first recipient of the award in 2008. Penny showcased some of the “comics” type illustrations she is going to use in the book Humanizing Technology: the PovNet Story that came out of her work as a community fellow. Check out Penny’s webpage at: http://povnet.org.
The forum also showcased the two 2010 recipients. Paula Carr, past director of Collingwood Neighbourhood House in Vancouver, is exploring how not-for-profits work to create community within an intercultural neighborhood. Michel Venne, director of L’Institut du Nouveau Monde in Montréal, shared his study on how citizen participation and action contributes to social innovation. Unfortunately, Vincent Greason, the second award recipient in 2009 was unable to attend the forum in Vancouver.
Following the presentations of the panel members, Mark Selman, a Carold Board member and Chair of the Fellowship Committee moderated a two-part discussion. He invited the panelists to first tell the audience about how their work contributes to the shaping of civil society and/or voluntary action. The audience was then invited to comment or ask questions. In a second round, the panelists were invited to describe how their work informs the development of leadership for social change. A second round of lively comments and question and answer period followed their responses.
Mark then introduced the four finalists for the 2011 Alan Thomas Fellowship who were present during the reception following the forum: Colleen Dawn Kelly of Surrey, BC; Gauri Sreenivasan of Ottawa, ON; John B. Cox of Dartmouth, NS; and Mark Langlois of London, ON.
The Past President of Carold, Michael Clague, offered words of thanks and congratulations, and Michael Cooke, Vice President and Treasurer of Carold summed up the afternoon panel discussion reflecting on the words of Roby Kidd: “Learning is being, becoming and belonging.”
Arpi noted the presence of Martha Okot Thomas, the daughter of Alan Thomas who had come from Victoria BC to attend the panel and reception. She then thanked the local organizing committee (Mark Selman, Michael Clague, Barbara Clague, Penny Goldsmith and Paula Carr) and the guests, and invited all present to the reception in the adjacent room where guests and panelists and Carold Board members continued to enjoy lovely small group discussions of the issues and engaged in lots of networking among old friends and new. All members of the growing Carold family who attended the panel discussion and the reception were once again energized to continue our individual and collective efforts in upholding the vision of Carold and moving forward the legacy of its founders.