Still Broken: New York State Legislative Reform

Still Broken: New York State Legislative Reform is the 2008 update of the Brennan Center's 2004 and 2006 reports on the New York state legislative process. The report finds that the legislative process remains broken, and offers concrete recommendations for reform

Talking with the dead: spirit mediumship, affect and embodiment in Stoke-on-Trent

While Spiritualism has attracted much attention in other disciplines, geographers have largely ignored it. However, we agree with Holloway (2006 Enchanted spaces: the seance, affect, and geographies of religion Annals of the Association of American Geographers 96 182–7) that Spiritualism presents conceptual challenges that make it worthy of more attention. As Holloway suggests, the themes of affect, embodiment and materiality are particularly helpful in exploring religious experiences. The focus of this paper is on the practice and experience of spirit mediumship in a Spiritualist setting. In mediumship, a specific challenge is to materialise and embody spirit such that spirit communication feels personal and rings true. For us, this suggests that mediumship is routinely successful both because it can produce accurate messages, which are judged empirically, and also because it produces what we call affectual truths, which are judged tacitly on whether they feel right or not. To account for this, we introduce the idea of intermediumship to describe interactions in the space in-between the medium and the congregation. It is through this space in-between that the affects associated with mediumship emerge, are experienced and are verified. Rather than seeing spirit communication as somehow enchanted or extraordinary, we assert that talking with the dead is predicated on the ordinariness of the experience: that is, that talking with the dead is emblematic of affect and embodiment in everyday life

Oliver Ranch Science School Complex & Wild Horse and Burro Facility: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending December 31, 2005

Executive Summary Activity highlights during the first quarter of Year Two include the following actions toward task agreement deliverables: Agenda and minutes prepared and distributed for two core group meetings Historical curriculum 100% completed Cultural curriculum 100% completed Night sky curriculum 50% completed Green Building curriculum 25% completed Communications/Outreach Plan revised and prioritized RRDLC newsletter under final review by BLM state offic

Oliver Ranch Science School Complex & Wild Horse and Burro Facility: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending December 31, 2005

Executive Summary Activity highlights during the first quarter of Year Two include the following actions toward task agreement deliverables: Agenda and minutes prepared and distributed for two core group meetings Historical curriculum 100% completed Cultural curriculum 100% completed Night sky curriculum 50% completed Green Building curriculum 25% completed Communications/Outreach Plan revised and prioritized RRDLC newsletter under final review by BLM state offic

Lessons From the Field: Becoming Strategic: The Evolution of the Flinn Foundation

Describes the foundation's process of becoming strategically focused -- setting goals, defining metrics, implementing and communicating changes, partnering for greater impact, and measuring progress -- and the challenges and criticisms it faced

President\u27s Message on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Last spring I announced that we would take time this year to focus some of our thinking and conversation on the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion. There are many reasons for us to direct our efforts to this topic: the changing demographics in our society and the need to provide a welcoming environment to a diverse student body, faculty and staff; our responsibility to prepare students for living in diverse communities and working in diverse workplaces; and our desire to prepare citizens who will be sensitive to social injustices and motivated to right them. In addition, we cannot dismiss recent student survey results that indicate a general disappointment in the opportunities on campus to interact with diverse peers. [excerpt

Progression skills module 3: Getting ahead – strategies for success

Progression skills modules are designed to support schools in delivering practical pupil workshops to help focus gifted and talented (G&T) or potential G&T pupils to aim high and achieve their best. This module helps pupils to begin to establish goals for their future, and learn to coach each other on tackling barriers and challenges. Comprises: teacher notes, slide presentation, & pupil handouts

Coordinating Collaboration to End Homelessness: A Mid-Point Learning Assessment of the Reaching Home Campaign and Opening Doors, Connecticut

In Connecticut, the Partnership for Strong Communities (PSC) and a group of advocacy organizations, government agencies, and community providers are leading a campaign to end homelessness in the state. Guided by the vision that "No one should experience homelessness," the Reaching Home Campaign and Opening Doors—Connecticut (the "Campaign") emphasizes housing as an essential platform for human and community development. The Campaign brings together a broad spectrum of partners representing diverse sectors to collectively build the political and civic will to end homelessness. In just three years, the Campaign has already achieved remarkable success advocating for and securing over $300 million in funding for programs to end homelessness and to create permanent supportive and affordable housing. Among its many accomplishments, the Campaign conducted the state's first study of youth experiencing homelessness and released the Opening Doors for Youth plan to end youth homelessness. The Campaign is also closing in on the goal of ending homelessness among Veterans, as well as launching a pilot program to connect families receiving rapid rehousing with employment supports and implementing a successful pilot that identifies and connects frequent users of emergency departments at hospitals to housing and supportive services. To support the Campaign's work at this important juncture as it moves past planning and towards implementation and sustainability, the Melville Charitable Trust—a private foundation and longtime partner of the effort—approached The Building Movement Project (BMP) to conduct a mid-point learning assessment. One goal of the assessment was to help the Campaign take stock of its internal structures and processes. Another goal was to share insights on what it means to coordinate collaboration, given the growing use of "collective impact" as a strategy to address social problems