our global garden of joy Hi 👋 I’m Jasmine, founder of The Bloom. We have a phenomenal selection of social impact resources this week for you to bloom & forward to your friends!
"supported with love by Algbra" "supported with love by Algbra" supported with love by Algbra
Welcome bloomers, Here is your our summary of our newsletter this week: 🌱The Bloom's unconventional social impact career fair Feb 8 🌱Caribbean climate journalism award 🌱Leadership fellowship for women in social impact with love & light, Jasmine Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of The Bloom to your inbox with top social impact jobs, uplifting stories, and global resources. Sponsor a newsletter! We're looking forimpactful organizations to sponsor The Bloom to bring even more connections, resources, and opportunities to our global community.
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fresh soil
We are hosting our first ever fully online SOCIAL IMPACT CAREER FAIR! Note that these organizations are not hiring – the point of this career fair (it's unconventional😉) is to help you network with organizations ahead of their hiring 🌟
🌍 Amanda, 2X Global 🌱 Career journey: I’m a communications strategist and former journalist with 20+ years of experience across the media, finance and international development sectors. The throughline in my various roles has been my ability to identify and tell a compelling story. I love storytelling! I’ve worked with the U.S State Department during the Obama administration, the Caribbean Development Bank and Scotiabank (Bank of Nova Scotia) as well as local media.
🌱Current role: I’m currently the Communications Lead at gender finance organisation 2X Global where I get to merge my expertise in communications with my passion for empowering women and girls. My role is strategically manage our communications platforms, media relations and member communications to advance the field of gender finance and specifically to bring attention to and partners for 2X Global’s work to make finance more gender smart.
🌱Questions you hope to answer in The Bloom's career fair: I guess the age-old ‘how did you get to where you are now’ as that will allow me to illustrate how a career path isn’t at all linear. Questions about the evolution and increasing influence of digital media and social media in communications are also welcome.
🌍 Caroline, Ban Ki Moon Centre
🌱 Career journey: Deeply motivated by feminism, I moved from where my Bachelor in International Administration would have brought me to Gender Studies and got involved in UN Women Austria as a volunteer. My first job in Diversity Management in the biggest Austrian bank united these two worlds, but I was still looking for another approach in work. That led me to the NGO world and today I would describe myself as feminist that consultants on gender, inclusion and its intersections with climate.
🌱Current role: I work at the Ban Ki Moon Centre, an NGO that focuses on the SDGs where I'm supporting the Women & Youth Portfolio since over a year. My position changed from Program Associate to Program Officer in 3 months and again to consultant only last month. Throughout these changes in responsibility-level, the content of the work didn't change: I manage two perennial projects of which one is an online Training on women Leadership in climate Adaptation and the other one a Campaign for the Empowerment of women smallholder Farmers.
🌱Questions you hope to answer in The Bloom's career fair: I know many People in the Bloom want a Transition from previous roles to social Impact, hopefully my story can inspire ideas on that. Furthermore, I'd like to talk About the changes inside an Organisation. After many conversations and convincing, I was able to take my job from Austria with me to Barcelona, and I'm happy to share on that as well.
RSVP to join our Unconventional Social Impact Career Fair to meet Caroline & Amanda! The event is fully online on February 8, you will find all the details under "Community & Networking Events" in our social impact careers platform – apply for sponsored membership if you need financial support following the same link 🥰 💸
Mastercard Strive EU Innovation Fund: EUR 4.5 million in grants available for digital and data-first solutions that support small businesses in the EU. International Trans Fund: Up to USD 25k for Trans-led organizations whose work exists to benefit the trans community.
Climate Tracker Caribbean’s Journalism Awards: This competition is open to journalists, writers, photographers, videographers, and multimedia creators from the Caribbean region, eager to contribute to climate change and environmental conservation discourse.
🌳 Fellowships
Millennium Leadership Fellowship: Fellows complete a comprehensive, 8-month leadership curriculum, executive coaching, and access a range of Atlantic Council events. Female EdTech Fellowship Europe: For female ed-tech founders to grow their businesses. SOAS Centre for Pan-African Studies Virtual Fellowship: Postgraduate students and early career researchers based in institutions in Africa. This program is linked to SOAS ‘Pan-African frontiers and identities: the remaking of Africa in the world’ project. Stanford Fellowship for Asia-Pacific Researchers: Three visiting fellow positions are available, with one of them specifically dedicated to research on the Philippines. Fox International Fellowship at Yale University: Graduate student exchange program between Yale and 20 partner universities. Fellows are selected for their potential to become leaders in areas of social impact. African Peacebuilding Network Individual Research Fellowship: Applications welcome from African scholars, researchers and policy analysts working on conflict and peacebuilding issues at universities and research institutions; or regional, governmental, and nongovernmental agencies or organizations based in Africa. Women's Impact Leadership Fellowship: Executive coaching, peer-to-peer forums, and much more – the program is designed to increase the leadership capacity of the next generation of women leaders in social and environmental change.
community garden
What is your “official” professional role and field?
I am the Content and Community Coordinator at The Bloom, thrilled to say that. My role involves nurturing the community in a way that is centered on connections, joy, learning, and growth. It’s an honor to be at service in a community dedicated to flourishing.
What is your unofficial role and field?
I am a community crafter - I seek to build spaces of connection wherever I go. There is magic in these encounters, and that's what propels me. Alongside this, I design experiences to intentionally bring these moments to life. I am embarking on a journey to learn more about the power of celebratory cultural rituals and collaborative art of living and co-creating.
How did you get to where you are today in your career?
Doing a lot of soul-searching. Looking back, it was a self-directed learning approach to a field I didn't even know existed. My journey led me to engineering, theater, design, and finally, learning, community building, facilitation and experience design. Which, from my perspective, intertwine to weave a space of meaningful connection and life-experience.
The common thread that connected all these points was the enthusiasm for the discovery of what our species can create, with the purpose of making the world and the human experience better, more fulfilled, and enriched with meaning. In engineering, it was inventions that could, technologically, improve the world. In theater, the impact of culture and the expression of emotions in our lives. In design, collaborative creations and co-design that invite society to participate in necessary changes. And now, I dedicate myself to and am enthusiastic about the creative field of flourishing that occurs in individuals when in community—it's truly beautiful.
I could feel when I was getting closer to what my soul was calling for. I listened, trusted, and took the next step.
Your relationship to “social impact”: has it evolved since you began your career?
Social impact has always been intertwined with what I do; for me, it's a matter of responsibility towards life, nature, and society. You learn to see the necessity and importance of this. My maternal family, for example, comes from small farmers. When you become aware of the system we are part of and the injustices surrounding us, it's impossible not to see and not to take a stance. In this case, the struggle for subsistence and nutritious food as a right to human dignity.
As a soulful community crafter, involvement in community has always stood out for me. Projects like Transition Town have been essential to my understanding of how my field relates to social impact.
I worked for three years at Impact Hub as a community leader, where I witnessed numerous impact initiatives flourish and positively transform the lives of many people. Recently, I became a Warrior Without Weapons, a Brazilian program focused on developing young leadership and community engagement. This experience became a pivotal moment for me, igniting the flame of compassionate transformation in my heart, which I believe is essential for building a more just world.
Podcasts?
Coming Out Pod - Listening to diverse personal stories of self-discovery and coming out was essential for my self acceptance. We are the stories we know. Tears and laughter guaranteed.
Accounts I follow:
@cacadoresdebonsexemplos - A Brazilian couple who threw themselves into the world to 'hunt for good examples' - they have already collected more than 6 thousand good examples. It's an Instagram account that fills me with hope and joy.
@elosbrasil - The Elos Institute is responsible for the Warriors Without Weapons program - they bring a unique perspective on impact, involving a way of seeing the world based on affection, gaze, and dreams.
Books?
Calling the Circle by Christina Baldwin - It changed my perspective on conversations and connections. It was a book I randomly pulled from a library shelf on my 20th birthday. It changed my life, and I still carry its impact with me to this day.
The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer - A sensitive book about the development of the skill of asking. It's an excellent read on trust, both in others and in oneself. Meet and grab a virtual coffee with Letícia on The Bloom ☀️
grow new roots
🌟 Employer Partner Spotlight
Fresh Life is an award-winning social venture in Nairobi, Kenya, providing safe sanitation services to urban informal settlements since 2011. Their non-sewered solutions benefit nearly 245,000 residents daily, removing 20,000 tons of waste annually. Recognized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Fast Company for their innovative contributions and diverse team of over 400 employees. Check out their positions below in The Bloom's job board.
Email team@readtobloom.com to feature your organization and job openings to 40,000 diverse and talented bloomers around the world. Warning: spicy sidenote comments might appear when we want to *extra* express how much we love these job openings 🌶️ ASIA + OCEANIA 🇮🇳 Business development associate – Sistema.bio 🇵🇭 Migration worker training landscape market research – Fair Training Center
🇹🇼 Regional assistant (Asia-Pacific) - Reporters Without Borders 🇭🇰 Conservation officer, oceans conservation – WWF
🇧🇷 Fundraiser - Amigos do Bem AFRICA + MIDDLE EAST 🇳🇬 Project coordinator, digital/data projects - GAIN Chief editor - African Women in Media 🇰🇪 Multiple roles – Fresh Life 🌶️such a cute website, learn about their project even if you don't apply to the roles! Junior creative lead – Instill Education
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Our meme of the week: 📰 News & updates Google March 2024 core update is done: It actually finished on April 19th but Google didn't tell anyone until one week later. Google Publisher Center to
