We thoroughly enjoyed engaging and sharing our learnings with this group of young and enthusiastic individuals. We find that such workshops are great platforms for engaging with peers from different organisations.

A big thank you to all our wonderful participants for making this a successful session!    

(IDEX cohort 2011; Image Courtesy IDEX)

‘The IDEX fellowship is a 10-month program that offers professional, cultural and social immersion into the field of social enterprise for college graduates interested in launching a career in the sector. Fellows are strategically placed to work with entrepreneurs to develop a blueprint for change. Fellows work in enterprises that span across five focus areas:

• Market Knowledge & Insights
• Strategy & Operations
• Business Development
• Innovation & Sustainability
• Impact Assessment & Analysis

The IDEX program was launched in 2010 by Gray Matters Capital (GMC), a private operating foundation based in Atlanta GA (Founder, Bob Patillo). The foundation first identified a need in the marketplace to invest in the ecosystem of supporting services and businesses. This would help deliver financial services to the world’s underserved with greater scale and expanded social impact. The IDEX fellowship is a key program component in GMC’s mission to transform the lives of the poor by researching and co-creating initiatives with partners to build sustainable, replicable business models.

With an initial focus on Affordable Private Schools (APS) in Hyderabad, 2012 will see this program expand to two other cities, Bangalore and Mumbai, to include Social Enterprises under its purview. Relatively new to this sub-sector of development, IDEX began looking for partners to assist in the fellow management process. Enter Atma.

Since its founding, Atma has hosted over 120 volunteers from 29 countries. Skilled volunteers are one of the four basic services provided by Atma to its partner organisations. Atma’s goal in building the Volunteer Program was to support partner organizations by providing much needed services, while also providing volunteers with incredibly relevant and challenging work experience opportunities in a supportive environment, both personally and professionally. Through a combination of local and international volunteers, this program aims to identify, nurture and harness talented human resources.

Collaborating with IDEX (GMC) seems only natural at this point. They are two different programs with one common goal-to positively impact the development sector through an exchange of experience and expertise.

Combining our talent pools to create a common cohort of intelligent, sensitive and courageous change-makers is a unique opportunity. IDEX’s expertise in the area of affordable private schools can compliment Atma’s knowledge of NGOs to create a mutually rewarding experience.

Atma has engaged over 120 volunteers since our founding in 2007.

Check out the pictures below:

(Image Courtesy: Reality Gives)

During his one-week visit in India, His Royal Highness, Prince Andrew, Duke of York came to see Dharavi, one of Asia’s biggest slums. He came to learn about the benefits and challenges of industry, the issues related to vernacular medium schools in Mumbai, and how art programs are allowing children to explore themselves and their worlds in Dharavi.

The Royal Highness chose to visit Dharavi with Reality Tours and Travel, an ethical tour company to learn more about the strengths and issues of the slum community as well as to see the impact of the social programs run by Reality Gives, its sister NGO. Since 2006, Reality Tours and Travels has run educational tours through Dharavi to break down negative stereotypes about its residents and raise social awareness. Eighty percent of its profits go towards Reality Gives, an NGO founded to provide social services requested by the community. Reality Gives is an Atma partner providing services in education and extra-curricular activities such as arts and sports with the goal of personal and community development for the residents of Dharavi.

Summer Starr,Executive Director at Reality Gives said,“We spoke with Prince Andrew about our art program and our work English support for vernacular schools.It was an honor to host the Prince and explain the work we are doing to raise social awareness about Dharavi as well as the work we are doing in the community.”

A huge congratulations to Reality Gives from Atma on a successful Royal visit.

To learn more, visit the Reality Gives Blog.

Check out the pictures below:

(L-R) CHILDReach Graduation;  Farewell to Atma Founder Hayley Bolding

(L-R) CHILDReach thanks Atma for the partnership; RASCI workshop for FMCH staff

Pre-partnership Workshop for New Resolution India

(Image credit: Sankalp)

The development sector has undergone tremendous changes over the last decade. However, this is noticeable in India now more than ever. The annual Sankalp Summit, initiated in 2009, is a collaborative platform bringing together social enterprises, impact investors, policy makers, and other market makers. Atma had the opportunity to attend this summit last week organised over two days at the Taj Lands End Hotel in Mumbai. Discussions ranging from the importance of impact investment, the role of social entrepreneurs in the development sector, capitalism and the need to “reimagine it” exemplified changes in India’s perceptions about the role of development.

Social development is no longer charity. Donors today invest in social enterprises and expect outcomes, social and/or financial. According to a report by Bain & Company, Inc. (Indian Philanthropy Report 2012) there has been a significant rise in “new generation donors who show greater interest in making donations through formal channels to established NGOs, rather than giving money to a local religious institution or setting up their own informal projects as their parents might have done. Many next-gen donors have been educated overseas and want to adopt Western practices that favour more structured ways of giving, with a focus on outcomes.”

This change in attitude has paved the way for forums such as the Sankalp Summit to come about with their “corporate” styled networking platforms. The summit is, in all fairness, a fantastic meeting point for thinkers, investors and investees from the development sector. April 12^th and 13^th saw debates and sessions focused over five sectors: Agriculture, food & rural businesses; Clean energy/technology; Education & vocational training; Health, water & sanitation and Technology for development.

Experts from across these sectors participated in the discussions making them educational, inspirational and meaningful.150 impact investors and 400 social entrepreneurs came together to focus and debate over these five high impact sectors. Participants made the most of this networking opportunity with the more fruitful conversations taking place during lunch and tea breaks. Claiming to be the largest collaborative platform in India, this forum has started a trend of sorts.

Some critics fear that the non-English speaking social entrepreneurs will not find a place amongst these “professional” groups. The term was often used to mean a Harvard or Ivy League graduate working in the development space. This sentiment was vocalized by Harish Hande, Founder and Managing Director, SELCO, when he remarked that these forums largely catered to the English speaking population. Reservations about the new crop of Ivy League graduates who may not have sufficient knowledge about conditions at ground zero were a subtle undercurrent observed at this summit. However, it may be pertinent at this point to acknowledge the rise in volunteering and fellowship initiatives. Many organisations today, provide volunteers with the kind of hands on experience required to gain a deep understanding of “how things work”. Atma has a similar volunteering program that allows graduates or mid-career professionals of varied backgrounds to work with NGOs involved in education. This exchange of expertise and experience is crucial to the growth of people and organisations involved.

This new diverse group of individuals comes with new perspectives and solutions to tackle developmental issues. Forums that bring them together into one room are tremendous learning opportunities. How we use these opportunities will determine the success of forums like Sankalp 2012.

Reality Gives is an Atma Partner organisation that works to support and connect projects to improve the quality of life for people in their communities. Reality Gives currently works in Dharavi, running a Youth Empowerment Program for young adults and a progressive kindergarten for children.

Reality Gives has taken over the English classes at Kala Kila for standards 1 and 2. In place of the regular BMC English classes, Reality Gives teachers are teaching English to about 250 students in total.

“Our English programming has been designed to make learning active and experiential. At Kala Kila, we have adopted the Marathi syllabus and qualitative evaluation processes based on Right to Education norms and are seeing great results. It has been a great journey for our teachers in the teaching-learning process and we have managed to enrich the syllabus in ways that engage the students.” Summer Starr, Reality Gives Executive Director

Reality Gives is looking to expand their community interventions and will be taking on Standard 3 at Kala Kila as well as Standard 1 at a local Urdu school in the next academic year. Reality Gives’ goal is to mobilize resources and quality educational programs for more children and young adults. Working in conjunction with the BMC and local schools will provide that opportunity, allowing Reality Gives to scale their programs across the many existing schools in the Dharavi area and reach out to exponentially more children.

In the afterglow of Atma’s 5th Anniversary party at Blue Frog, we are reflecting on the collaboration that it takes to pull off NGO events. It’s easy to put on an enormous event with a big project budget and an extensive, skilled team to work with. What if you had to host a concert without spending a rupee?

Atma’s UNITE! Concert at Blue Frog was held in recognition of our 5 year anniversary as an organisation. Over 400 people came out to celebrate 5 years of Quality Education with Atma.  Some of these people contributed in a bigger way, giving of their time and energy to allow the event to happen. Tara Humphries of BREED shared her thoughts on the importance of community collaboration and what was required to pull off an event at such a scale.

“UNITE! was an amazing success that literally personified the name of the event, by “uniting” individuals from various backgrounds to come together and support Atma’s cause in strengthening organizations and growing education.  While being an Atma volunteer and being heavily involved in the music scene in India, it was really exciting to see fellow musicians, fans, event organizers and music lovers both participate in and eagerly support this event with such enthusiasm.  Each artist, photographer, media person, radio spokesperson, sponsor, programmer, designer or fan that contributed some of their time was so happy to do so. This created a very positive resonating effect, even after the event. The event made it clear that the city and community of Mumbai is filled with people from all walks of life, all of whom are ready and willing to contribute to a cause. However, sometimes they’re not sure how to do so.  Atma has been hugely successful at reaching those people by bringing them together to support a cause. UNITE! was a perfect example of how they continue to find innovative ways to do so.”

Three bands, one venue, one press sponsor, one travel sponsor, one accommodation sponsor and ten volunteers made the evening happen, and made it a success.
Community collaboration towards a common cause is what made Atma’s anniversary event possible, and we are so grateful to each person and organisation who chose to celebrate 5 years of Quality Education with us.

Avanti Fellows is unique to Atma because they focus on supporting students in accessing higher educational opportunities. Avanti uses a fellowship system to help students from low-income homes in gaining the access and opportunity to study at India’s best undergraduate institutes.

Avanti Fellows receive free coaching for the IIT JEE (IIT Joint Entrance Examination) through Avanti’s coaching partners in 7 different cities. Each student is paired with a current IIT student and Avanti volunteer. Avanti volunteers act to support and mentor Avanti Fellows over a two year period through face-to-face meetings, doubt solving sessions and counselling.

To select their Fellows, Avanti engages over 150 student volunteers in 7 cities across India who work together to find, train and mentor bright students. This training and mentorship process allows some of India’s brightest disadvantaged students to clear competitive entrance exams and succeed during their time in college.

In 2011, over 3,000 students from over 400 schools across India took Avanti’s selection test. Of these students, 115 were selected as Avanti Fellows after a rigorous process that included one-on-one interviews with the students and their families.

Atma is excited about partnering with an NGO that focuses on higher education and works on the belief that every student should have the opportunity to access high quality undergraduate education, regardless of his or her financial background.

Current Partnership focus

In our first year of partnership, Atma and Avanti will look at researching and instating a fundraising model, which will lead to sustainable funding so that Avanti can create realistic growth plans.

Tools for marketing and communications will increase brand recognition and trust in Avanti’s programs throughout the wider IIT community. Atma has been working with Avanti to develop concrete messaging guidelines that will be used throughout Avanti communications, including their websites, upcoming brochures and other social media channels.

In order to identify the brightest students from low-income backgrounds, Avanti is aiming to expand their selection process to include more schools and more students taking their selection test. Atma volunteers will support this expansion by researching viable channels and potential partnerships with institutions, organisations and networks through which a larger pool of students can be reached. Atma and Avanti are also looking at how better documentation of Avanti Chapter and mentorship activities can be achieved, allowing current chapters to function more efficiently and helping to replicate chapters and programs in new locations. A mentorship manual and a chapter manual will be created to support each chapter and each Avanti Mentor in working consistently, and to their best capacity.

Atma is honoured to be working in partnership with Avanti Fellows: we are looking forward to being a part of their growth over the next three years.

These case studies provide an in-depth illustration of Atma’s intervention with specific Atma Partners, the outcomes from that intervention and the impact on both the organisation and on specific beneficiaries. We will be posting new case studies on a bi-monthly basis.

Check out our new Case Studies here!