Politics aside, it’s about rebuilding prosperity

The airwaves are filled with politicians talking about how to revive the country’s economy, and here in Ohio we are certainly seeing and hearing more about their views, since we’re a swing state with lots of electoral college votes. And, you may be pretty tired of hearing that rhetoric already, as I am. What I’m not tired of hearing about – and am, indeed, looking forward to more conversation about – is the many ways that Ohio philanthropy is engaged in building prosperity. That’s the focus of the opening morning of our annual conference in November, during a session titled From Poverty to Prosperity.

I’m excited about it for two reasons. First, we’ve lined up about a dozen philanthropy leaders to talk about six strategic pathways to prosperity:
Creating Wealth
Engaging Community
Improving Community Health Status
Community Revitalization
Reinvigorating Traditional Education
21st Century Career-Tech Education

During conversations on each topic, conference attendees will learn about these key initiatives, about the roles philanthropy plays, what they’ve learned and how their work might be taken to other parts of the state.

And that leads to the other reason I’m looking forward to this session: we’ve done away with the old talking heads panel of experts and are instead using a model of “peeragogy” where we recognize and engage the knowledge of everyone in the room.  A recent blog post by Jeff Hurt on this topic explains peeragogy as being rooted “in the deeper reflection that occurs when peers exchange ideas, thoughts and insights on specific topics.” A new format will engage everyone in the room, turning all into collaborative experts who have knowledge and experience to share, with deeper learning emerging as a result.

Our use of peer-based learning is evident in this year’s conference, from start to finish. It’s just one of the ways we’ve redesigned our premier, statewide convening into a truly 21st century conference.