The Coalition on Richer Diversity (CORD) takes an inclusive approach to helping new Canadians and long-term residents integrate into Newfoundland and Labrador society.
On its website homepage, CORD writes, "We respect, appreciate and are excited about what you have to offer - be it a little or a lot!"
It seems to me that CORD understands something essential about building alliances and networks - that a diversity of contributions and levels of commitment can strengthen those networks.
In their excellent book The Networked Nonprofit, Beth Kanter and Allison Fine write that networks are stronger when they include people and organizations with both strong and loose ties to the network. If a network contains only the most gung ho supporters, then there is a danger that it may form into a clique that is hampered in its ability to reach out and expand its influence. If a network contains only those with loose ties, then there is a danger that nothing will get done.
Social justice networks must look to their periphery for expansion, write Kanter and Fine. It is the people on the periphery who have connections with contacts who might not be connected directly with those at the core of a network.
Social media is a great way to keep in touch with friends, but its true potential for change lies in its ability to help people build new relationships and expand their networks.
CORD activists Jose Rivera and Maria Callahan have experienced first-hand the power of social media both to solidify old relationships and build new ones.
Jose Rivera been helping immigrants and refugees adjust to life in Newfoundland and Labrador for the past nine years. He is the executive director of the Refugee and Immigrant Advisory Council (RIAC), one of the partner organizations in CORD.
Mr. Rivera says social media have made a significant impact on his organization's ability to pursue its goals of helping refugees and immigrants adjust to life in Canada and to advocate for their issues. He says Facebook in particular has enabled his organization to reach more people more quickly.
For example, Mr. Rivera credits Facebook with increasing attendance at its summer multicultural fundraising event. He says that about 25 per cent of the people who found out about it did so through Facebook.
Social media have helped RIAC reach more people in its awareness raising campaigns and in its calls to action.
He also says that social media enables RIAC to be more proactive than reactive. The organization is able to find things out much sooner and is, therefore, able to act before opportunities have passed.
Rivera says social media have enabled RIAC to get in touch with old contacts such as clients they have helped, interns and allies from years ago.
"In the past, you just lost them," says Rivera.
Maria Callahan, the research and fundraising coordinator with RIAC, says social media has been an essential part of CORD's operations since it was formed in 2007. That year, she was involved in a project with a group of new Canadian high school students and still keeps in contact with many of them through Facebook.
"I'm still friends with almost all of them," says Ms. Callahan.
Anyone involved in NGOs and volunteer organizations knows that people come and go. They move away for work or just get busy with other things. Thanks to social media, however, they need not leave the family. And you never know when they might be able to do that little something that will make a big difference for the organization.
Like Mr. Rivera, Ms. Callahan says Facebook makes it easier to find volunteers for any given event.
"You don't have to pull their arms to get them involved in things," says Ms. Callahan.
CORD and partners such as RIAC provide a range of services to refugees, immigrants and long-term residents - everything from finding furniture for them to helping them navigate bureaucratic red tape to obtain a driver's licence.
Mr. Rivera says the next step in its social media plan is to establish a clearinghouse of information that is useful to anyone adjusting to life in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Being able to easily gather and share information through social media has been extremely beneficial to the coalition and its clients. In the past, said Mr. Rivera, the individual organizations were in silos. Now, social media have enabled them to break out of those silos. They can more easily draw upon the collective knowledge and contributions of core network partners and reach out to those on the periphery, who might nonetheless have something valuable to offer.
Please note that any feedback may be used in a study into the use of social media for development. Please see my Disclosure of Study.
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