Partners for Paradigm Shift

At the heart of the work of Social Artistry™ is partnering with organizations that share similar visions and goals. In partnership, the difference we are able to make is multiplied in ways we could never accomplish alone.

If your organization recognizes in our Foundation’s Social Artistry™ work a common purpose, vision, or goal, then we invite you to explore with us what we can accomplish together. Email: peggy@jeanhoustonfoundation.org.

Following are examples of work with our partners:

UNITED NATIONS
In our goal to reach 100 million people with innovative leadership training we partner with the UN on specific issued-based challenges utilizing the skill sets developed within the programs to create comprehensive, enduring and whole-systems changes.

During 2002-05 work was launched in developing countries with the International Institute of Social Artistry™ (IISA) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). These trainings produced innovative leadership to address the United National Millennium Development Goals in the following countries:

INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS (ICA)
The human capacities approach used by the Jean Houston Foundation works well with the Institute for Cultural Affairs approach that focuses on the external dimensions of community development. Current work with ICA Nepal is a good example.

In July 2008 a 10-day training was conducted in Kathmandu for 30 trainers from Nepal, Bangladesh, and India. This was a pilot of our leadership training in an international setting and a continuation of the development of the 30 trainers, who were already employing the Social Artistry™ approach in their community work across their countries. This work interweaves with the ICA presence there. A training has been requested for early 2009 in Kathmandu for 200-300 participants. The ICA Nepal center in Kathmandu is becoming a Social Artistry™ training center for Asia as more work is done in India, Bangladesh, Tibet, Taiwan, and China. They have an initiative to train 5,000 people in the next 2 years.

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ARTISTRY™ (IISA)
IISA was established by Dr. Jean Houston in 2003 to provide an international teaching/learning community for training and supporting social artists around the world. IISA is partnering with ICA Nepal on a pilot mini-grants program for projects developed by Social Artists. These micro grants have supported more than 30 projects nationally. These grants are making possible the application of Social Artistry™ to the transformation of education and the empowerment of deprived youth through information technology. Other projects focus on community development work, agricultural training for rural women and the mobilizing of people for pollution control.

UN HABITAT and CITYNET
Social Artistry™ trainers worked with Red Cross, UN HABITAT and CITYNET colleagues in Nepal to train leaders from 12 Asian nations, including Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesian, Viet Nam and the Philippines, which has resulted in an effective network with mayors and regional directors.

LEAD AFRICA
In August 2008 the Jean Houston Foundation joined with Lead Africa (African governance consulting firm) in Tanzania to deliver Social Artistry™ and rights-based advocacy training to 25 governance participants, most of whom are district mayors or chairmen. The leaders were from Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. This stimulated requests for more extensive work in these countries. Following this training, there was a 2-day training and planning meeting in Kenya for the continued development of Social Artistry™ and governance work in this part of Africa.

EDUCATIONAL PARTNERS
A Masters in Leadership in Social Artistry™ (MLSA) was developed by Dr. Houston, her associates IISA, and delivered through the Graduate Theological Foundation in Mishawaka, Indiana and ended in 2008. It has become a model for academic training in Social Artistry™ for many other educational institutions.

Programs generated by participants in MLSA are a testimony to the effective application of Social Artistry™ in many fields:

The next MLSA program is available through Wisdom University. Also under consideration is a Foundation accredited program based in Ashland, Oregon.