A quick note to let you know about some recent online discoveries we’ve found helpful and inspiring:
The Community Tool Box is a public service of the University of Kansas and is developed and managed by the KU Work Group for Community Health and Development together with national and international partners. It is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change. Think of anything related to project management and implementation that you would like to do (e.g. a baseline, quality management, strategic planning, etc.) – and there you go: high quality guidelines and tools at your fingertips. It literally offers thousands of pages of tips and tools for taking action in communities.
Using their free step-by-step designs and manuals, an organisation called Playground Ideas enables anyone anywhere to build safe and stimulating spaces for play using local tools and materials, and utilising local skills. According to their website they also offer a custom design and on-site support service – globally. Not only is this site a wonderful resource, we are VERY impressed with how well everything about their model and resources are presented and substantiated. For example, the “About Us” page features a detailed article as well as a great infographic designed to crisply and scientifically make the case for the value of play. A collection of talks and articles by leading scientists further supports the case. The playground design library will knock your socks off!
Recommended to us by a reader of our website, in this absolutely amazing Ted Talk, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie “tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding”. It is so deeply applicable to us in South Africa – we want to join the standing ovation that she received.
Lastly, these Ted Talks often are life changing – and the fact that they are presented so well certainly contributes to their power. For a while we believed that people doing TED talks are all incredibly talented speakers – and that is surely true in many instances, but now that there are about 2000+ talks, we are starting to think that there might be a secret to all this excellent speaking. In this blog TED presentation expert, Nancy Duarte, lets the rest of us in on those helpful little tricks of the trade.
If you have wonderful online discoveries that you think we should know about, please tell us in the comment section below!
