Acknowledgments Foreword Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Field Guide: Your Ladder to Reach Higher Chapter 3 Humanitarian Film Club Chapter 4 LinkedIn Influencer Blogs Chapter 5 Selected Essays from the Center for Global Initiatives Blog Chapter 6 The Psychological Impact of Globalization Chapter 7 Online Courses Chapter 8 Virtual Library Resources Chapter 9 Off To A Great Start Appendix I Detailed Contents of Curated DropBox Materials Appendix II Useful Links/Websites Appendix III Web Resources
“CHANGE THE WORLD.” It always struck me that saying that sounded a lot like grandiose hubris, or at best, a dauntingly overwhelming task. The utter impossibility of it seemed certain until I realized that it can mean helping one person at a time. That is a theme you’ll see throughout this book and our websites and our work. I have added some of my LinkedIn Influencer blogs/essays that I hope may be inspirational, also.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK The format of this book is inspired by Brian Eno’s A Year with Swollen Appendices, not so much the diary aspect but rather the overwhelmingly large collection of information in the various appendices. Additionally, this book is an “analog” version, if you will, of the content and links found at the CenterForGlobalInitiatives.Org website and the associated DropBox account.
Open-sourced Humanitarian Interventionism It’s long been my goal to make life easier for those working in humanitarian and volunteer endeavors, as well as those in need of help. Indeed, in one way or another, we all need help in one form or another. So, just about everything you find herein and on the center’s website, is free of charge, and a lot you could also find for yourself. What I've tried to do is speed up the search, vet what has been found, and then curate the results, making them as readily and easily available as I know how to. This is my dream of open-sourcing humanitarian work.
Current Content, For Pretty Close To Forever The reason for this “reverse engineering” is twofold. First, the amount of content and links on the center’s website may not always be apparent to the novel user. This book allows for near complete exposure to the functional tools and content that await the online user. Second, this book will never be out-of-date, in that when new content becomes available via uploads to the DropBox account, you’ll be able to read that as well. All you have to do is email me and ask to be linked (I'm at DrChrisStout@gmail.com). I curate the content constantly. You can also request being added to our mailing list via my email address as well if you’d like to be kept up-to-date on events and other relevant content. We welcome your joining!
But Wait, There’s More‌
Additionally, other essays from my work as a LinkedIn Influencer, my Center for Global Initiatives blog and elsewhere are reprised herein. I hope these may be inspirational or perhaps thought provoking and also provide some help in your work.
Last Piece(s) of Advice Through my research in The New Humanitarians, I learned that while most of the approaches of the organizations were different, they do share a number of commonalities. At the time they formed their entities, they were novel in their approach to dealing with the problems they address. They were not restricted with past ways of thinking or acting, nor should you be. They created innovative approaches to make something real and actionable from a concept and a vision, as can you. They developed practical approaches to solutions, some complex, some elegant, but are all robust and lasting, and replicable.