In November 2010, Ellen Irie, along with other experts from the fields of leadership development and service, will participate in a week-long “study tour” in Israel convened by Masa Israel Journey. Masa Israel Journey is a joint project of the Government of Israel and the Jewish Agency for Israel and serves as an umbrella organization for over 160 long-term Israel service experiences (e.g., gap year programs, study abroad experiences, internship and volunteer opportunities). During the study tour, Ellen and other participants will meet with service program staff and participants, talk with Israeli policymakers and exchange challenges and best practices for developing leaders through service programs.

BTW is a proud sponsor of The National Equity Project’s launch event in celebration of their new name and expanded scope. The event, which will explore the relationship between community and school change, includes a panel discussion and networking opportunities with a range of Bay Area leaders including Tony Smith, Superintendent of Oakland Unified School District; Sandra Fewer, San Francisco School Board member; Victor Diaz, founder of REALM Charter School; Cesar Lagleva, Marin Community Organizer; and Michelle Espino, Leadership High School Teacher. Angela Glover Blackwell, President & CEO of PolicyLink will be the Keynote Speaker and Moderator.

Kim Ammann Howard’s work on evaluating leadership supports was recently highlighted by the Leadership Learning Community. Read more about Kim’s work on leadership development evaluation.

BTW is now on LinkedIn. Connect to us!

BTW Managing Director Lande Ajose and Kristi Kimball, Education Program Officer at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, to present at the 14^th annual Grantmakers for Education conference, entitled “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Fulfilling the Promise of Excellence and Equity,” held in New Orleans, October 27-29, 2010.

Their session, “Measuring the Immeasurable: Building Grantee Capacity for Evaluation” will present the highlights from the newly published monograph Measuring the Immeasurable: Lessons for Building Grantee Capacity to Evaluate Hard-to-Assess Efforts. The session will allow participants to hear from the funder, an evaluator and a grantee about how this approach to evaluation capacity building, and a newly developed tool, enables grantee organizations to reflect on and improve their work.

BTW is proud to announce the launch of a new Web site! Designed and developed by Mission Minded (www.mission-minded.com), the new site features updated information about our firm, our service offerings and the expertise we provide our clients.

And it’s not just a new look. Powerful new tools will enable users to sign up for email updates, subscribe through RSS feeds and share content through social media tools.

We’re especially excited about our new “Ideas” section. BTW will use this area to share information about best practices, provide downloadable versions of our reports and post the dates and locations of upcoming presentations.

Welcome!

BTW Managing Director Lande Ajose recently participated as a reviewer for the Walmart Foundation’s America Works Initiative.

America Works grants support innovative regions around the country that align local workforce systems with employers, educational institutions and nonprofits. The aim is to transition low- and moderate-income displaced workers into family-sustaining employment.

Twenty-two regions sought funding and the Walmart Foundation awarded a total of $3.4 million to seven nonprofits for workforce development efforts.

Kim Ammann Howard, BTW’s Director of Evaluation & Organizational Learning, was invited to share her experience with evaluating networks at the recent convening of the Network for Network Funders.

This group of funders from across the U.S. participated in the community of practice to learn about their colleagues’ experiences working in and through networks.

Using BTW’s evaluation of the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI) as a case study, Kim spoke about how the opportunities and challenges in evaluating networks differ from more traditional assessments.