Tag: Challenges

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WorksFuture (Our Workforce Recover Initiative)

By way of background the vision started in 2014 after I resigned from work in 2013 to embark on a study sabbatical. This led to a second degree in Theology, Media and Communications, and an MBA. Healingsprings is a volunteer Jed organisation which started as a means of using skills and knowledge from my course in community organising and empowering people within my local community to be change makers.

After completion of my MBA in 2018 I took a break from Healingsprings fellowship as a result of personal challenges and work commitment. The vision was revived in June this year with our first online conference: Origins and Beyond (https://hopin.to/events/origins-and-beyond). Origins and Beyond is a bi-monthly online event which features a talk on a topic, panel discussions and Q & A from members of the audience. Our next conference is schedule for Saturday 15th August (https://my.demio.com/ref/gZZbuCMrLYrkjja8). These events produce by-products like blogs, newsletter, podcasts, and videos. Other products includes our TED-Ed programme for teenagers.

In response to the present pandemic and the global skills challenge we launched WorksFuture our workforce recovery initiative, and your involvement will be pivotal to its success. For example:

  • Our new website will serve as a repository for artefacts from our events and a space for partners, volunteers, and subscribers to find further information about our programmes and to make donations. 
  • Our partnership in Sierra Leone with NGOs working with young people to reduce brain drain, youth unemployment, and the skills gap serves as a blueprint in addressing the unique challenges in other developing countries

We desperately need a Sponsorship Manager. A key part of this role involves securing sponsorships from private and corporate partners for the training of our volunteers via online providers like Coursera. And we are also exploring funding opportunities to ensure that volunteers that excel on our programme progress onto paid employment with us.

There are also volunteering opportunities for graphic designers, bloggers, social media managers, project managers, teachers, and event managers. Our target is to have all these posts filled before the end of 2020. Then scale up operations in 2021 with a view to addressing the Digital Divide — especially in Africa.

 In the meantime:

  • Register if you have not done so already for our next conference and feel free to share with likeminded people
  • Follow the Healingsprings fellowship page on Linkedin Page

Our core working hours are 10am – 3pm (Mondays to Fridays), except for events that might fall on weekends. Most importantly roles are project based and volunteers work remotely. As well emails, we also use collaborative tools like MS Teams, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, G Suite, Google Hangout/Meet in planning, organising and managing projects.

Speak soon!

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#spiritualintelligence

Social Constructionism

Social constructionism is a theory of knowledge in sociology and communication theory that examines the development of jointly-constructed understandings of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality.

Some brilliant examples of social constructs are captured in this statement by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

“I am Nigerian because a white man created Nigeria and gave me that identity. I am black because the white man constructed black to be as different as possible from his white.
But I was Igbo before the white man came.”

Points to note:
1. Nigeria: an institution created by colonialism 
2. Blackness: an idea that justified slavery abc racism in modern times

Among others, the job upon us includes the demystification of myths, exposing pseudoscience, and deconstructing social constructs; especially those that do not serve the progress and harmony of humanity.

This is purely an intellectual exercise which epitomises leadership in the 21st century, because we are where we are today because of the strongholds of these ideas.

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‪Fertility rate: ‘Jaw-dropping’ global crash in children being born (BBC)

Clearly religion gave legitimation to suffering in the past, and in its absence people are increasingly concerned about why children should be born to suffer.

Even though wealth has increased globally (let’s leave the question of distribution for now), and we are living longer, data also shows that we are less fulfilled and unhappier. Scholars even argue that we now suffer from poverty of aspiration.

A more religious society is definitely not the answer because it justified inequality and strengthened most of the social norms like patriarchy, homophobia, racism etc., that we are currently contending with.

Can gainful work provide new meaning and a heightened sense of purpose? Isn’t it time we rethink the nature and outputs of work?

#ideas #debate #meaningfulwork #innovation