blogging as a tool for empowerment

Blog wordle (image via mashable.com)

This week I lead a workshop about the joys of blogging for the staff of Girls Action Foundation/Fondation Filles d’Action. The non-profit, which advocates for empowering young women and provides resources/networking, is dealing with the challenges of implementing an organizational blog.

While I am no professional blogger or social media guru, I’m enthusiastic and passionate, and I truly believe in the power of blogging to connect people, create conversation and build community. I’m also very familiar with the unique challenges which overstretched, overworked staff at non-profit organizations face with blogging, after my experience editing and blogging for ascent magazine. The irony is that these organizations can benefit enormously from the free marketing and outreach opportunities that blogs and social media provide.

So I started off the little 1.5 hour workshop by telling the lovely GAF ladies about the evolution of it’s all yoga, baby, and the joyous community that I’ve discovered through the blog. Then I lead them through a 15 minute writing exercise, based on the amazing comic articst/novelist Lynda Barry’s excellent book, What It Is. Based on Lynda’s suggestion, I made a “word bag” composed of keywords that I pulled off GAF’s website – like “girls,” “empowerment” and “leadership.” And some that weren’t, such as “Lady Gaga,” “crush,” and “sexting.” Each woman pulled a word from the word bag and had to write about it continuously for 15 minutes, without removing her pen from the page.