Working on a new concept for helping get new community service organizations (CSO) going. It works like an incubator, so I am calling it the CSO Incubator. Brilliantly creative name, eh?
The idea is to create a formation template that includes the fundamentals for starting a CSO, then helping each founder to complete those steps through a mentor/mentee relationship. In practice it would work something like this.
Amos has an inspired idea of how to help Alzheimer patients and their families to cope with and live out the time of their disease. Amos wants to found a CSO that provides training and support functions through volunteers. Amos comes to the CSO Incubator and takes introductory classes that include the basics of communications, accounting, marketing, staff training, website management, and volunteer coordinating. Using the Green Arrow model of leadership development the class would give each founder a clear idea of what needs to be done and how they can get it done easily and economically. Each founder would leave the class with an actual plan in hand.
Going forward the CSO Incubator would work alongside this first generation of founders individually as a mentor/coach to help them stay on target, but the founder must be the one to do the work. The agreement between each founder and the CSO Incubator would include an obligation to return and mentor two other founders from classes of a later date. This will benefit many people. First, it benefits the new founders who get to have a guide who has recently gone through the very same process and experience instead of an instructor who has been teaching for a long time. Second, it benefits the mentor who gets to review the information again and learn it through the instructor's approach, practice leading and training skills in a guided process (CSO Incubator mentors would lead this as part of training), and build a new connection that may be helpful in the future. Third, it helps the CSO Incubator team to broaden its reach and scope of operations; allowing more and more founders to be served as the roster of available mentors grows exponentially.
In practice, Amos would first begin as a mentee, learning a substantial amount and making significant progress on his own CSO venture. Then Amos would attend a "Mentors Training" session and be matched with Barbara who is starting a Battered Women's support group CSO with satellite branches to be planted as the group grows. When Barbara completes her basics and has her CSO up and running, she will be trained on mentoring a new founder. Amos will stay on as Barbara's mentor and pick up Bryce who is building a network of trained babysitters.
Barbara is matched with Charlotte who wants to start a non-profit cleaning company that provides free or discounted cleaning services to cancer patients going through surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation treatments. Later on, Barbara is then matched with Cecil who is starting a Child Advocacy organization to provide oversight for the foster and adoption agencies in the region.
Eventually Charlotte is matched with Donald who is starting an online Directory of Services for medical and special needs patients and Cecil is matched with Darcy who arranges free dental exams for the homeless.
By the time the "D" level is complete fifteen CSO founders will be trained and functioning as both leaders of their own successful organizations and as mentors for the "E" level - all from Amos' agreement to be a mentee and then a mentor for two others. If the first CSO Incubator class has four founders, there would be sixty founders through only the "D" level of the CSO Incubator process. If each CSO serves five people that's 300 people served and the multiplying effect just grows from there.
Side note - CSO Incubator trainers would provide continued mentoring classes for the advanced mentor/mentee relationships and to maintain a high level of quality service to all founders. Also, the better and more experienced mentors will be allowed to lead mentor classes, broadening the CSO Incubator scope of available classes even more. Each founder is instructed to use the same legacy-growth model to grow their staff and volunteers.
The idea is to create a formation template that includes the fundamentals for starting a CSO, then helping each founder to complete those steps through a mentor/mentee relationship. In practice it would work something like this.
Amos has an inspired idea of how to help Alzheimer patients and their families to cope with and live out the time of their disease. Amos wants to found a CSO that provides training and support functions through volunteers. Amos comes to the CSO Incubator and takes introductory classes that include the basics of communications, accounting, marketing, staff training, website management, and volunteer coordinating. Using the Green Arrow model of leadership development the class would give each founder a clear idea of what needs to be done and how they can get it done easily and economically. Each founder would leave the class with an actual plan in hand.
Going forward the CSO Incubator would work alongside this first generation of founders individually as a mentor/coach to help them stay on target, but the founder must be the one to do the work. The agreement between each founder and the CSO Incubator would include an obligation to return and mentor two other founders from classes of a later date. This will benefit many people. First, it benefits the new founders who get to have a guide who has recently gone through the very same process and experience instead of an instructor who has been teaching for a long time. Second, it benefits the mentor who gets to review the information again and learn it through the instructor's approach, practice leading and training skills in a guided process (CSO Incubator mentors would lead this as part of training), and build a new connection that may be helpful in the future. Third, it helps the CSO Incubator team to broaden its reach and scope of operations; allowing more and more founders to be served as the roster of available mentors grows exponentially.
In practice, Amos would first begin as a mentee, learning a substantial amount and making significant progress on his own CSO venture. Then Amos would attend a "Mentors Training" session and be matched with Barbara who is starting a Battered Women's support group CSO with satellite branches to be planted as the group grows. When Barbara completes her basics and has her CSO up and running, she will be trained on mentoring a new founder. Amos will stay on as Barbara's mentor and pick up Bryce who is building a network of trained babysitters.
Barbara is matched with Charlotte who wants to start a non-profit cleaning company that provides free or discounted cleaning services to cancer patients going through surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation treatments. Later on, Barbara is then matched with Cecil who is starting a Child Advocacy organization to provide oversight for the foster and adoption agencies in the region.
Eventually Charlotte is matched with Donald who is starting an online Directory of Services for medical and special needs patients and Cecil is matched with Darcy who arranges free dental exams for the homeless.
By the time the "D" level is complete fifteen CSO founders will be trained and functioning as both leaders of their own successful organizations and as mentors for the "E" level - all from Amos' agreement to be a mentee and then a mentor for two others. If the first CSO Incubator class has four founders, there would be sixty founders through only the "D" level of the CSO Incubator process. If each CSO serves five people that's 300 people served and the multiplying effect just grows from there.
Side note - CSO Incubator trainers would provide continued mentoring classes for the advanced mentor/mentee relationships and to maintain a high level of quality service to all founders. Also, the better and more experienced mentors will be allowed to lead mentor classes, broadening the CSO Incubator scope of available classes even more. Each founder is instructed to use the same legacy-growth model to grow their staff and volunteers.
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