exchange 1: Leading from the Pack
The inaugural exchange
Presenters: Joel Bolnick (Slum Dwellers International) and Thomas Bledsoe (Housing Partnership Network)
Place: AHI Conference Room, 38 Chauncy Street, Suite 600, Boston, MA 02111
Date: March 20, 2009
Printable flyer here.
Leading from the Pack: Peer-Group Networks as Change Agents
Networks have emerged as among the world's most promising new approach to making change in affordable housing and urban development globally. Networks are self-organized, self-managed adaptive clusters of similarly-motivated peer entities each operating in a distinct geographic market but across a similar intellectual and business space. Rather than a top-down approach that big institutions know best, the network approach emphasizes experimentation and interactive learning that encourages insight, sharing, and rapid evolution, without creating resource competition among members. Slum/Shack Dwellers International and the Housing Partnership Network are widely-recognized leaders in this movement: the Housing Partnership Network throughout the United States, and Slum Dwellers International across the global south. Each of these networks has moved beyond simple idea exchange to provide practical tools and services that help their members address their biggest challenges. Their two principal executives compared and contrasted their respective experiences. |
Previous Exchanges: 1: Leading from the Pack: Peer-Group Networks as Change Agents 2: The Community's Role in Complex Urban Redevelopment 3: Lucky You: Dealing with Legacy Inventory 4: Local Autonomy vs. State Controls in Urban Planning |
Global South
Joel Bolnick, Secretary of Slum/Shack Dwellers International, a global network of over 25 national federations of savings cooperatives of the world's poorest urban dwellers. Using a $10,000,000, three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, SDI has created the Urban Poor Fund International, a self-managed revolving facility of risk capital to undertake nation-changing demonstration projects in their countries.
Global North
Thomas Bledsoe, Chief Executive Officer of the Housing Partnership Network, a peer network of nearly 100 of the leading non-profit housing enterprises in the US with strong track records in development, financing, and management. Its members have developed or financed more than 500,000 affordable homes and the Network has created pooled structures for insurance, financing and group buying to enhance their performance.
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