It was my pleasure to contribute an article to The Philanthropist special edition on youth in the non-profit sector. The introduction to this edition states in part “In discussions with adults and youth knowledgeable about the not-for-profit sector, it became evident that conventional ways of thinking about philanthropy and civic engagement may not work for many young people in the contemporary context.”
I fully agree and I hope that my contribution will be of help in some small way to compel a shift in non-profit practices. These are challenging times, and we desperately need bright young minds to join us. While they will always have other choices in life, non-profit organizations have it in their control to make many relatively simple changes that will at the very least eliminate impediments to youth engagement.
I welcome your comments on the article.
Social Change and a Welcoming Environment for Youth in the Nonprofit Community
Wellar, K. (2013). Social Change and a Welcoming Environment for Youth in the Nonprofit Community. The Philanthropist, 25(2). Retrieved from http://thephilanthropist.ca/index.php/phil/article/view/968
About Keenan Wellar
Starting in 1997, Keenan Wellar has served as Co-Leader and Director of Communications for LiveWorkPlay, a charitable organization based in Ottawa that helps the community welcome and include people with intellectual disabilities, autistic persons, and individuals with a dual diagnosis to live, work, and play as valued citizens.
LiveWorkPlay was honoured as the Ottawa Board of Trade and Ottawa Business Journal’s Best Ottawa Business Awards as the best Ottawa Non-Profit of 2019 and was the recipient of the Canadian Association for Supported Employment (CASE) 2020 Wiltshire Award of Excellence in Supported Employment as the top service provider of 2020.
As both a professional spokesperson and volunteer advocate, Keenan supports change locally in the Ottawa area community, as well as provincially as a founding member of the From Presence To Citizenship initiative, nationally in partnership with housing, employment, and other advocacy organizations, and worldwide via Inclusion International and other allies.
Keenan makes frequent media appearances, mainly as a spokersperson for LiveWorkPlay, but is also called upon for commentary about local sports as an avid fan who closely follows the Ottawa RedBlacks and Atletico Ottawa, as well as general news commentary. After many years as regular panelist on the 1310 News Talk Power Lunch with Mark Sutcliffe (Mark is now the Mayor of Ottawa) in fall 2022 Keenan became a monthly regular on the the 580 CFRA Morning Live (Saturdays) Weekly Rundown Panel with Andrew Pinsent.
Keenan has a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics from Carleton University as well as undergraduate degrees in History and Education (Ontario Teacher Certification) from the University of Ottawa and many professional certifications such as Public Sector and Non-Profit Marketing (Sprott School of Business) and Certified Governance Trainer (BoardSource).
Keenan is a founding member of the Carleton University Alumni Mentor program and has supported more than a dozen students making their way from academics to the world of work. Previous volunteer efforts include more than 10,000 meals delivered with Meals on Wheels Ottawa, three years as Focus Area Champion of United Way East Ontario, and two years as Provincial Advisor to People First of Ontario. He is currently serving as a member of the Public Services and Procurement Canada Accessibility Advisory Panel and as Co-Chair of the Freedom From Harm sub-committee at the Council for Community Living Ontario.
When not working and advocating, Keenan enjoys back country camping, kayaking, and nature photography with his wife Julie.
Keenan Wellar 
Keenan,
I really enjoyed reading your article in the special edition of the Philanthropist. You share some great insights and advice. As someone who has been dubbed by some as an “emerging leader” (oh how I loathe the term – makes me think that I’m still covered in fetal vernix), I think that it’s important for us to consider and recognize our own biases (both those in the “established” and “emerging” crowds) as well.
I remember a time when I was setting up my laptop for a workshop session that I was facilitating when the conference hostess started panicking a few minutes before the start time and asked me If I knew where the speaker, Rose Lee, was. She had assumed that I was the IT guy setting up the computer for her. When I flipped my lanyard over and she realized that I was Lee Rose, she was quite surprised, first that I was “so young,” and second, that I obviously wasn’t a woman.
I’ve also been guilty of these kinds of assumptions. I once was too quick to assume that someone who has been in her job since 1978 (that’s longer than I’ve been alive!) wouldn’t “get” what I was talking about – that she was too set in her ways, that there was no point in trying to explain something to her. Only she wasn’t. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by her openness and acceptance of me and my ideas, “emerging” or otherwise, and her willingness to help me make connections to others in the sector – leveraging relationships built over those 32 years – that have proven to be invaluable to me on my own career journey.
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At age 44, I am at an interesting in-between stage, where in some quarters I continue to be touted as “the young guy” with the “fresh ideas” while on the other end of things I am now enjoying similar types of situations as in your story Lee – young people assuming someone else must be the presenter who is talking about social media or youth engagement.
As you point out this is definitely not an issue of age itself. Just because younger people were born into the digital age doesn’t mean they were born with other skills essential to leadership, whether in the non-profit or other sectors. And it doesn’t mean that lots of veterans in the field were not engaged in a social change approach long before the first email was sent. They’ve merely incorporated modern possibilities into their thinking and continued to shine.
But sad to say I have run across quite a large number of executive directors in established organizations that are unapologetic in their resistance to making any changes that would result in a more welcoming and productive environment for younger workers and volunteers. Fortunately it’s a big world out there and it’s easy to find like-minded individuals and organizations that not only share a social change perspective, but have come up with many superior practices that have challenge my own status quo. I’ve learned to seek those people out.
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Reblogged this on The pleasures of volunteering .
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