“Together, We’re Better” (Part 2)
Here are some key messages that are a theme at this year’s Annual Conference:
- Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration!
- Reaching out to others broadens our impact.
- To be “better together,” we must practice mutual respect and tolerance.
These messages are almost common sense, right? Yes, but sometimes we work in isolation and forget to look outside our own goals or agendas.
As we know, celebrity involvement in an issue can bring important exposure and opportunities for education and support. There are 2,800 celebrities who have associated themselves with 1,700 causes. This morning, Geena Davis, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Mandy Moore spoke passionately about the causes they believe in and support:
Geena, Sheryl Lee, and Mandy continue to bring attention, resources, and change to the issues of gender balance in the media (reducing stereotyping and creating a wide variety of female characters for entertainment targeting children 11 and under); raising awareness of HIV/AIDS; and improving the health of poor and vulnerable people in the developing world, principally through social marketing of family planning and health products and services, and health communications.
How can high-profile individuals help sustain impact for their causes? They create change by using their social capital, finding and sharing data, and bringing together others (individuals and groups) to partner and collaborate with—another way to say, “Together, We’re Better.”
Laurel Lee-Alexander is director of grant programs at the Monterey Peninsula Foundation.
