For the first time in our history, Hands On Network welcomed representatives from all eight of our International Affiliates. Seventeen International Affiliate representatives from the following organizations joined our conference:

Hands On Fellows

This year we augmented the traditional conference workshops with a series of conversations led by thought leaders. These Hands On Fellows represented leaders from government, corporate, communities of faith, and non-profits and their small-group discussions covered a variety of topics relating to our civic change movement. Hands On Fellows led intimate conversations for up to 10 people during the dine-around and workshop sessions.

New Member Training Program

The New Member Training Program (NMTP) was piloted in Boston with over 50 participants from 30 organizations, including our eight international affiliates. The NMTP also welcomed some new staff of older affiliates, so the room held a diversity of perspectives and experiences. The three-part training program provides an overview of Hands On principles, project management and volunteer leadership development, and will be a standard offering for incoming affiliates going forward.

Community Town Hall: Building a Service and Civic Change Movement

The Saturday Community Town Hall session gave participants the opportunity to share personal, organizational and network-wide hopes and dreams for the service movement and to envision an even greater impact for our communities and the world.

We co-created recommendations to transform the civic sector, revitalize our democracy and catalyze our country’s citizens. The recommendations that came out of the session will be shared back with participants and with leaders and policy-makers in order to put our ideas into action. Additionally, Hands On Network will continue to work with those that participated in the “Going Deeper” session to put these ideas into action in our own Network.