Rockstar thinkers to explore intergenerational leadership in the nonprofit sector.
Welcome our 2016-2017 CTS Fellows!
This year, CTS partners with The Philanthropist to welcome a new cohort of six superb fellows to the 2016-2017 CTS Writing Fellowship! This year’s cohort is a diverse and talented group representing a variety of nonprofit subsectors and areas of expertise. We have fellows from diverse sizes and subsectors of nonprofits, from the government, and even from a funder. Each one brings a unique set of perspectives and experience to the table that will shape their exploration of intergenerational leadership issues in the nonprofit sector. Please welcome these rockstars with us!
2016-2017 CTS Fellows: (l-r) Alyssa Lai, Miranda Hassell, Tka Pinnock, Daniel Moore, Sujin Chang, Heather Keachie. Read their bios.
We began our journey together on Sunday, June 12th with an orientation retreat, hosted jointly by CTS, the Ontario Nonprofit Network, and The Philanthropist. In true CTS Fellowship style, the dialogue around intergenerational leadership, mentorship, working collaboratively, and the nonprofit sector as a whole was lively, thoughtful and inspiring.
Throughout the day, we discussed challenges we faced when it comes to intergenerational leadership in the nonprofit sector. A couple questions to ponder included:
Why do many workers in our sector make assumptions based on people’s perceived age or generation? What opportunities and barriers exist into the nonprofit labour force for individuals who have been marginalized?
What power dynamics exist in the working relationship between individuals across generations?
What historical and cultural precedents exist for strong intergenerational connections?
Part of our work in this fellowship is acknowledging, unpacking, and tearing down the stereotypes we all hold of one another based on age and generation. This includes understanding our purpose as staff members, our expectations of a workplace, our styles of communication (technology, tone, and time), and the opportunities for development and advancement for emerging leaders in the nonprofit sector. At CTS, we strive to practice what we preach--this year’s fellowship is no exception! Each fellow, an emerging leader in the sector, will be paired with a more experienced professional from the non-profit sector to co-author articles for The Philanthropist. These articles will be published in 2017. Our fellows are seeking a collaborative process that emphasizes humility and listening and values dialogue and a thoughtful and valuable end product, all to generate conversation throughout the sector.
