Being a “Professional Hoper”: Building an Ethical, Reflective & High Impact Career in the Social Impact Sector

PCDN helps changemakers and changemaking institutions around the world advance careers & ecosystems of impact. They launched their PCDN Career Impact Series to help you gain the tools, insights and inspiration to advance your career. They leverage PCDN’s leadership team’s four decades of diverse expertise and frequently invite leading innovators, troublemakers and builders to share their career paths and tips. They do this every week for free.

Join them every week on Zoom for a highly interactive session and come with any questions, your challenges, or favorite tips regarding careers.

This Career Chat is supported by the Brandeis University Graduate Program in Conflict Resolution and Coexistence, which offers a practical, skills-based curriculum that prepares students to become responsible, peacebuilding practitioners in conflict areas around the world (scholarships are available). Learn more

The Rotary Peace Fellowship is also a sponsor of the PCDN Career Chats. Are you an existing or emerging peace leader looking to take your career to the next level? You might be eligible to receive full funding to pursue a MA or professional certificate in peace & conflict studies. Learn more about Rotary Peace Fellowships at www.rotary.org/peace-fellowships.

When: They will be online at Noon Eastern Standard time every Thursday for the foreseeable future as long as there is interest from their community.

Their Session on March 11 at noon EST features Grace Boone, Being a “professional hoper”: Building an ethical, reflective & high impact career in the Social Impact Sector

Grace has more than 5 years experience in domestic and international social impact and development work. She currently is a Program Manager at CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, one of the world’s leading organizations working on innovation, learning and fostering locally led peacebuilding and development around the world (full bio below).

Grace will share her experience working at the forefront of ethical peacebuilding and development practices.  In particular she will discuss key emerging trends in peacebuilding and development sectors, what is working well, the challenges and the essential need to engage in internal and organizational reflection in order to embody the change they want to see. She will discuss how to develop the skills to advance a career in this sector, the pros and dangers in engaging in challenging work and her key lessons in ethical careers.

As with all PCDN Career Chats, there will be substantial time for open discussion and questions on building a career of impact.

Why is PCDN doing this?  Because they are dedicated to helping changemakers at all stages access the tools, resources and information to advance careers of impact. Plus, PCDN.global was created to help as many people as possible around the globe and they’re even more committed to service this trying period.

How do I sign up? Click on the registration link on their site. Once your registration has been approved, you will receive information on how to participate.

How do I participate? Each week they will be on Zoom  Participants will receive information via email about how to login. You will either need to download Zoom on your computer, tablet/smartphone (they recommend using the app to be able to have a more engaging experience) or you can call in via phone via the numbers provided.

Is there any cost to participating? No, their goal is to help as many people so it is free.

Can I participate when I want? Yes, all you need to do is register. Then you can join in whenever you have time. These are designed to be drop in chats.

How can I ensure my questions are addressed? While they will make an effort to address as many questions as possible, they cannot guarantee they will be able to get to everyone. Questions can be posted at anytime in the Social Change Career Helping Line or free to drop them an email at info(at)pcdn.global

Where else can I go for help? PCDN offers a number of ways they help their community for free including

  • they highly recommend joining their free Social Change Career Helping Line. This is the world’s first free, peer and expert sourced space for building careers of impact. Members (to date they have 3900 members from over 140 countries) can get support and share their own insights 24/7.
  • They also produce the Social Change Career Podcast featuring some of the world’s leading changemakers & innovators who share their journeys to building a career of impact. They cover diverse sectors from peacebuilding, social entrepreneurship, tech and social change, impact investing, humanitarian relief, startups and more. Each episode includes in-depth actionable advice for changemakers.
  • Subscribe to their newsletters and get the world’s best curated content (including jobs, fellowships, funding, events, news & inspiration) connected to the SDGs and all things impact) in your inbox.
  • Read their Career Series. They have hundreds of posts on building a Career of Impact that you can access for free (and they continue to add more content).
  • Check out their Opportunity Board Find jobs, fellowships, internships, funding, trainings, events and more in nearly every corner of the world.

What happens if I need more support in my career journey? They do offer very affordable career coaching that includes customized one-on-one coaching to help you get from passion to hired. They are uniquely qualified as they have over four decades of combined experience in the social sector, have conducted groundbreaking published research on building careers of impact, have built NGOs, social enterprises, worked & consulted at leading academic institutions, NGOs and conducted programming, evaluation and impact work in multiple sectors.  They’ve also hired many people, mentored hundreds of people around the globe, and also had successes and of course some real failures (quitting jobs, working for organizations that run out of funding and more).  If you have questions get in touch or setup a free 15 minute exploratory chat.

Will sessions be recorded/viewable later?

They are recording many of the sessions to be viewable later (they will let people know prior to each session if it will be recorded).  If you have a sensitive question that you would like them to raise in the session anonymously drop them an email with your request at info(at)pcdn.global.

What are you doing to help ensure the security/privacy of participants?

To help ensure security they are having people register and provide some basic info prior to the session.  Only those who have registered can participate. If you have a sensitive question that you would like them to raise in the session anonymously drop them an email with your request at info@pcdnglobal.org

Bio

Grace Boone is a Program Manager at CDA and is driven by the desire to shift the international development system to be more accountable to communities most affected by aid. She works alongside people most affected by conflict to inform conflict-sensitive policy and practice. From 2018-2020, Grace managed the Stopping As Success (SAS) collaborative learning project which advocates for locally led development by using evidence from 13 countries to inform responsible INGO transitions. She also works on the nexus of climate change and conflict, locally led peacebuilding, and conflict-sensitive funding practices for donors.

Time: 12:00 PM EST

Location: Virtual

Date: Thursday, March 11, 2021