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2001 in Review

As the year ends, it's appropriate to look back at our projects and the opportunities we created. In 2001, Vesper Society conducted a total of nine projects. Five of the projects were international in scope. Two projects were national in that they included participants from throughout the United States. Two projects were community-based, focusing on Alameda County and the Bay Area.

Although the nine projects addressed different critical issues and involved different activities, all used Vesper's basic methodology of identifying and convening people of good will, providing training and support, and encouraging them to move into action.

Two projects, "Faith-based Leadership in Health and Human Service Organizations (ELI)", and "Community Health Leadership" focused on health. The projects convene leaders from health care organizations and teach them to integrate values into their work as managers. A range of strategies including face-to-face meetings, audio conferences, and online learning are used in teaching leadership skills.

The "Cristiana Comunidad Mesoamericana (CCM)" project involves people from some 17 grass-roots organizations in Central America. The project provides training in leadership development for executive and middle level managers, as well as focusing on leadership training for youth. In the latter activity, young people from several countries are brought together and taught how to plan, organize and implement youth programs in their communities. They then return home and set up youth programs.

Six of Vesper's projects in 2001 were in leadership development. All essentially used the basic model of convening leaders, teaching them new strategies, and following up with these leaders as they form additional networks and implement what they have learned in their own communities.

" Network 21" is a multinational project that assists leaders in local organizations to use information obtained from new technologies to better serve their constituents. The project convenes people from multiple countries in a region, provides training, developed training centers to serve as a local resource, and supports them as they convene and provide training to others in their communities. Project activities in 2001 concentrated on Africa, South America, the Middle East and Central America.

" Europe-US Relations: Building Foundations for Stability, Security and Peace" was a two-session conference conducted in collaboration with the Loccum Academy in Germany. The first session, held in Germany, was a large conference that convened a cross-section of people for open-minded discussion. The second session, held in the U.S., brought young leaders together. They prepared a declaration in which they set forth an expanded agenda, once more concerned with assuring stability, security and peace at a global level.

" Faith-based Organizations and the Global Internet" was an invitational consultation that convened 21 selected individuals from around the world to address the question, "How is the Internet impacting convening, collaboration, and leadership in faith-based organizations in different countries and cultures around the world?" The agenda item they identified as most important is to encourage young people to merge their values into activities that are part of daily life.

" Young Leaders Online" implemented the recommendation to involve young people. The project convened eight young leaders from Argentina, Armenia, Burundi, California, Germany, Honduras, Palestine, and Poland to develop electronic tools to facilitate development of community in local contexts. They use the Internet to build online groups around issues of social justice in their own communities.

" ECUNET Leadership Training" encouraged the development of virtual leadership skills for ECUNET, an ecumenical network designed primarily for the needs of local, regional and national church leaders.

" Venture 21: Nonprofit Organizations Accessing Venture Philanthropy" provided information on venture philanthropy designed specifically for nonprofits. The project explained what venture philanthropy is in practice, and helped nonprofits assess their organization's level of interest. The project then moved on to the issue of access, explaining that although much is written about this emerging form of philanthropy, access for human service nonprofits is extremely limited.

Distribution of information about these and other Vesper projects was enhanced by the development and introduction of a new user-friendly web page.

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Vesper Society is a private operating foundation with programs in leadership, health, and Central America. Our mission is to create opportunities for individuals, groups, and organizations to apply moral and ethical values in decision making on social and economic issues.