Currently the world is facing unfamiliar circumstances, including youth unemployment. In these  uncertain times, traditionally standard principles are changing. For example, resilience is being discussed instead of strength, risks are being recognized instead of approaches normally viewed as “safe,” and “system” is replacing a previously long list of objectives. People are becoming more disobedient instead of remaining compliant, with people paying more attention to practices rather than to theories. Simply put, a “platinum revolution” has completely changed our lifestyles over the past two decades.

In the following short essays, four leaders from the World Class Education and Talent Development Strategy Team share their thoughts and personal experiences on how this set of strategies can drive progress in Greater Philadelphia.

It’s early evening, and Alicia, a young woman of Columbian descent, walks into a communal yard space in one of Rotterdam’s toughest neighbourhoods. She’s an outsider; so all eyes are upon her. From her bag she starts unpacking items – a small stove, an omelet pan and a wooden spoon. Then she crouches and starts setting things up.

According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, recently conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control, more than six out of ten Philadelphia high school students report that they have used drugs or alcohol at least once in their lives – one in five before the age of 13.  Over 40 percent of city high schoolers drop out before graduation, and daily truancy rates approach a similar percentage in many of the city’s schools.

With the digital age enabling us to share globally—resulting in an explosion of creativity—Knight Foundation began to seek the best ways to harness innovative ideas and help them grow. First in media, and now in the arts, Knight now taps into the wisdom of the crowd, offering funding for ideas through open contests.

This fall, Philadelphia City Council took a significant step to improve the business climate for small and locally-based businesses, including the thousands of artists, freelancers, designers and other creative types who lend such vibrancy to the city’s creative economy. Council implemented historic reforms to the business privilege tax (BPT) that will provide targeted relief for small businesses and locally-based businesses, including craftspeople, who sell goods outside of the city.

Out-of-School Time (OST) programs are often viewed as a way to supplement students’ education, particularly in disciplines, like art, that are under-represented during the school day. However, OST programs operate in a world of competing demands for time and resources. In the City of Philadelphia OST network, the solution to this problem is Project-Based Learning (PBL).

Nick Stuccio’s career in the arts began with an intensive study of classical ballet at Skidmore College, where he also earned a degree in Biology. His dedication to the form led to an apprenticeship with the Pennsylvania Ballet and eventually a position as a corps member with the company where he danced for eight years. At the Ballet, Nick danced under the artistic direction of Ricky Weiss, Christopher d’Amboise and Roy Kaiser. Nick retired as a dancer and began producing full-time in 1995. He co-founded the Philadelphia Fringe Festival (now the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe) in 1997 and that same year was named “Person of the Year” by the Philadelphia Weekly.

Many Americans, it seems, lack in-depth knowledge about the origins of their basic liberties. Numerous surveys and reports reveal that few Americans can name the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment, and fewer still understand what they mean.

Last month, PHILADANCO was the first American company ever to perform at Dance Fest Skopje in Skopje, Macedonia. According to the feedback cited above, it appears PHILADANCO not only made history, but expanded its fan base beyond the more than 100,000 diverse audience members who attend PHILADANCO’s roster of 50–60 performances each year.

As Philadelphia welcomes the Pennsylvania Public Health Association’s annual meeting to Philadelphia, we are fortunate to have so many from the public health community together to reflect on some of our collective accomplishments, explore the public health challenges that lie ahead, and strategize on how best to meet those challenges and improve the health of all Pennsylvanians.

The challenges facing the U.S. healthcare system have increasingly come into the public eye.  At a high level, clinicians, politicians, patient advocates and payers are striving to improve the system. However, navigation of the diverse goals and priorities for each stakeholder group can cloud a vision of greater access, higher quality and lower costs.

Our healthcare system is increasingly requiring a more educated workforce to meet the demands of an aging and sicker patient population, an influx of advanced technology, care moving into the home and community and the advent of healthcare team configurations. Nurses, as the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, can play a critical role in providing patient care and care coordination across the healthcare continuum.

Alzheimer’s is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease that destroys brain cells, affecting a person’s memory, personality, mood, body function and behavior. It affects men and women, as well as all racial and ethnic groups. It is always fatal. Across the nation, an estimated 5.4 million people are living with the disease, touching one in eight people older than 65.

When we manage the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors in these crisis-centered times, the focus often is “of the moment.” Keeping up with what is directly in front of us can be all-consuming. However, as difficult as it is to step off the typical daily treadmill, if our sector is ever to advance beyond the crisis du jour, its future also needs our immediate attention.

My plane landed at 4:30 a.m. on a Sunday. I was starting a new adventure in a foreign land, which is not so atypical from my recent vacations, but this trip was not a retreat. I was in Santiago, Chile to complete a five-week volunteer business advisory project for an emerging market entrepreneur in the academic software sector as an Ernst & Young Corporate Responsibility (CR) Fellow. This was going to be one of the biggest challenges I faced in my career to date. Not only was I helping a dynamic business achieve its goals for growth, I was adapting to a different culture, learning the nuances to doing business in an emerging market and finding ways to engage and energize a diverse management team.

Over the past several years a favorite topic of many books, articles and even webinars has become the issue of next generation leadership (see, for example, Erickson 2010; Chronicle of Philanthropy 2009; Harvard Business Review 2010). While we speak of the next generation we must remember that the current leaders are mostly Boomers and can and should play a major role in moving the nonprofit and philanthropic sector to its next level. There is a role for conversations about how those who are currently in leadership positions can prepare themselves and their organizations, and make room for the next generation of leadership to ensure the continued growth and professional responsiveness of the nonprofit and philanthropic community.

As baby boomers begin to retire, leaving many leadership positions vacant, there have been discussions taking place across the country regarding succession planning and leadership development. Philadelphia has been very active in conducting such discussions and often includes the role of diversity in succession planning and leadership development conversations. Groups that have held intergenerational focus groups include, but are not limited to, Independent Sector American Express NGen Fellows and the National Urban Fellows. Conversations around succession planning are pertinent for nonprofit, public and private sector entities; however, the following article focuses on succession planning and leadership development in the nonprofit.

Early in my career, I specialized in corporate CEO succession planning as a consultant with the Hay Group. We would begin the process by determining where an organization stood in its life cycle—emerging, maintaining or harvesting—as each stage requires a different type of leader with different skills and abilities. Once we knew the current phase of the organization’s life cycle, we could create a model for the right type of leader to address the challenges of that phase. We assessed members of the senior management team to identify the internal candidate best suited to address those challenges. If no one matched the profile, we looked for outside candidates who did. That’s what you do when you have an organization with deep pockets.

Management consultant Peter F. Drucker famously taught us all to ask, “What business are you in?” The question was designed to prompt thinking beyond the simple surface answer (such as “book publishing”) to a deeper one (such as “providing information” or “creating entertainment” or “leading dialogue on important topics”). The deeper answers allowed corporations to break out of the confines of traditional thinking and to position themselves more broadly as their industries underwent technological or market changes.