One Street News

January-February 2016

Vol. 9, Issue 1

  1. Ukraine Campaign Planning Project Helping Reunite Country
  2. Campaign Planning Is a Valuable Tool for Nonprofits
  3. Resources – Google Groups Direct Add is Back
  4. Hot Topics - Solving Social Equity for the Bicycle Movement

Ukraine Campaign Planning Project Helping Reunite Country

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

Over the years I’ve conducted many campaign planning workshops and offered campaign planning coaching to organization leaders who call or email. But I was not prepared for the simple email I received three months ago from one of the leaders of the Kyiv Cyclists’ Association.

Viktor had attended a few of my campaign planning workshops in Europe. He was asking me to help him and his colleagues offer such workshops in Eastern Ukraine as part of a USAID-funded project to reunite his country through positive bicycle and sustainable transportation campaigns. Wow. I’ve always boasted that the bicycle can solve all the world’s problems. Here was the pinnacle of that claim captured in a few sentences on my computer screen.

At first, the idea was for me to come over there to present the workshops, but it soon became clear that the timeframe of the three workshops wouldn’t fit that plan. The only choice was for me to transfer my experience to Viktor and his colleague Ira so that they could teach the workshops themselves. I captured some of that enlightening experience in my blog post highlighted in the next article.

Ukraine-workshop-Kharkiv1 2The first two workshops in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk have wrapped up with outstanding success. Take a look at some of the photos from those workshops here. Both Viktor and Ira are ecstatic about their new expertise for conducting these complex and intense workshops especially as they’ve watched their attendees realize the significance of what they’ve learned.

The Kharkiv workshop drew 14 leaders of eight nonprofits from that area. The Dnipropetrovsk workshop drew 13 leaders of six nonprofits. Here is the simplified list of campaigns to result from those two workshops:

Kharkiv:

  • For a new bicycle path along Prospekt Nauky
  • For pedestrian zone in the historic center of Kkarkiv
  • For a new trolleybus line on Vulytsia Sumska
  • "Metro for all": public transit accessibility for people with sight disabilities

Dnipropetrovsk:

  • For wheelchair accessibility, easy access to public transit and bicycles during a forthcoming renovation of Pryvokzalna Ploshcha in Dnipropetrovsk
  • For zero road deaths on Vulytsia Dniprovska in Pavlohrad
  • For wheelchair accessibility of the streets in Kryvyi Rih
  • On integration of electric transit system and bicycles in Kryvyi Rih

This weekend, Viktor, Ira, and team will conduct the third and final city workshop in Zaporizhzhia. They’re expecting a similar turnout of enthusiastic campaign leaders. We’ll then plan for the final event of this phase of the project: a gathering of these campaign leaders in Kyiv in early April where they will present their finalized campaign plans.

We expect the Kyiv event to become a springboard for next steps in this project. If all goes well, we’ll follow these campaigns to their completion and then leverage them for even more positive change in this country that is hungry for positive outcomes. What a great project! I’m honored to be a part of it.

Campaign Planning Is a Valuable Tool for Nonprofits

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

For my recent post, Campaign Planning Is a Valuable Tool for Nonprofits, in our Cures for Ailing Organizations blog, I emphasize why campaigns are necessary for most nonprofits to achieve their missions. I offer some good and bad examples of successful campaigns, but our work with the Kyiv Cyclists’ Association in Ukraine is of course the main inspiration. Enjoy!

Resources – Google Groups Direct Add is Back

In our November 2015 E-newsletter we recommended a few listservices that allow administrators to add emails directly without sending an invitation.

Thanks to an alert reader, we’ve learned that Google Groups, a free two-way email listservice, has added this option back to their offerings. We’ve since had the opportunity to test a Google Group listserv with a local nonprofit and can now recommend it.

Google Groups is a very basic service, but should work for most bicycle organizations to connect their members with each other. If you find that you need more features, one of the more complex (also costly) options listed in our November newsletter should work well for your needs.

Hot Topics - Solving Social Equity for the Bicycle Movement

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

As I’ve pointed out in a few posts to our Defying Poverty with Bicycles blog, the term “social equity” has caused rampant confusion and even fallouts within the U.S. bicycle advocacy movement. Several weeks ago I decided to tackle the confusion and try to bring clarity to this term which should be a rallying cry rather than a point of contention.

My blog post, Solving Social Equity for the Bicycle Movement, attempts to make that shift. Please let me know if I missed any important points by leaving a comment at the bottom of the post