Capacity Building

Honestly, in July, I had no idea of the concept of “building capacity”. But today I am getting to see some results. All it took was almost blinded diligent work in the first couple of months as a VISTA. It began with surveying email news blast tools (I know it’s very low tech work) and finally choosing Constant Contact (sorry VR peeps). In December, I set up workshops for the assistant staff at Community Partners so that they could get familiar with the tool. Then I “prairie dogged” (as one staff member puts it) around to see if any of them needed any help. Then first week of January came and the assistant staff was set with a new task: get the word out to our constituents that our CEO/President will be speaking at an evening event. They use the tool and skills they built to email blast our constituents and as a result, the event was completely booked. This has never happened to the third party entity who was organizing this event!

Currently I am working on managing CCTPG’s database by tidying it up. Last month, I created my first podcast (the very famous Dan Strangl is in it); I hope to improve significantly on this new acquired skill (especially on my reporting voice). I hope to do more of these audio podcast and get involved with video podcast, that way I can build more capacity by helping our Communications Team create their own.

In terms of policy, we are involved in the Internet for Everyone campaign and the Digital Inclusion strategy for the City of Los Angeles. These are both very exciting policy issues that I hope to get more involved in.

Half way to the end of this program, I am feeling good about the energy I have placed in this organization. Happy New Years, Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Happy Obama’s Inauguration Day!