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Day of Engagement

The Day of Engagement is a Member benefit  designed to complement and improve the formal experience of the Summit by connecting the issues discussed during the Concordia event with high-impact social alliances. These learning experiences highlight public-private partnerships in action. The activity-oriented format offers participants an attractive platform to network and visualize their individual role in achieving a social impact.

2019 Concordia annual summit

The 2019 Annual Summit Day of Engagement took place in collaboration with Envolve and the Lit.Bar. Envolve is a global entrepreneurship support organization that seeks to cultivate the next generation of business leaders through the provision of education, resources and regional awards. The Lit. Bar is a female owned, independent wine bar and bookstore, operating as the only indie bookstore serving the Bronx and born out of community demand. On the day, participants listened and learned from a panel of regional social enterprises regarding their experiences navigating the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Following this panel, participants then listened in on a series of pitch presentations, where they had the opportunity to evaluate and provide feedback. Following the pitches, Envolve proceeded to announce the winners of its New York City challenge. The event concluded with an informal reception with a live performance at Beatstro, another locally owned business.

2018 concordia annual summit: Upwardly Global

At the 2018 Annual Summit, Concordia hosted two separate “Day of Engagements”. The first Day of Engagement showcased Upwardly Global’s (UpGlo) partnership with Starbucks, which materlizes the company’s commitment to hire 10,000 refugees by 2022. UpGlo is an internationally recognized, nonprofit organization with a mission to eliminate employment barriers for skilled immigrants and refugees and integrate this population into the professional U.S. workforce. On the day, participants engaged in a series of mock interviews with refugees and migrants from the UpGlo community, expertly designed to emulate a real interview with the purpose of increasing the candidates’ confidence, skills, and interview techniques. Over the course of the day’s activities, participants enhanced their cross-cultural communication skills, which included coaching, providing feedback, and interview methods.

2018 concordia annual summit: consensys

The second Day of Engagement at the 2018 Annual Summit was co-hosted with ConsenSys, a company that has a transparent commitment to partnerships through its ability to create simplified and automated decentralized applications to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions and exchanges. Blockchain technology is transforming how society interacts with the structures of everyday life, whether it be economic institutions or government systems and has the potential to redefine and decentralize payment systems, data privacy, legal systems, social issues, and many more. Participants engaged in an interactive, learning experience, namely Blockchain 101, where they learned from premier blockchain experts about all new technology jargon, mechanisms and most importantly how to implement it into their current work.

2018 concordia americas summit

The 2018 Americas Summit Day of Engagement took place at Biblioseo, a creativity and social entrepreneurship lab for youth ages 8-19 that aims to reduce dependency on social assistance in their communities. The organization is located on the outskirts of Bogotá and is focused on helping the community of Ciudad Bolívar. Biblioseo’s mission is to educate children, young people and at-risk youth to become  social leaders and entrepreneurs through the design of spaces and experiences that stimulate their ability to dream, create, and innovate so that they can devise creative solutions to the problems of their environment. This Day of Engagement provided a personal, hands-on, immersive experience for Concordia members, by highlighting how public-private partnerships create impact in Colombia through the lens of young social entrepreneurs.

To watch a video recap of the day click here (in Spanish).

2017 CONCORDIA ANNUAL SUMMIT: Americares

Concordia partnered with Americares in the 2017 Concordia Annual Summit to bring a special, inclusive Day of Engagement to the Summit community. Americares is a health-focused relief and development organization that responds to people affected by poverty or disaster with life-changing medicine, medical supplies, and health programs. For nearly 40 years, the organization has responded rapidly to the needs of local partners and their communities in more than 90 countries around the world.Over the course of the two-day Summit, Summit attendees created 1,000 first aid kits for Americares to deploy in its hurricane response efforts. Directly following the Summit, the kits were sent to Houston for distribution to victims.

2017 CONCORDIA annual SUMMIT: Fortune Society

Focused on the issue of criminal justice reform, this Day of Engagement took place at the Fortune Society, a non-profit social service and advocacy organization whose mission is to promote alternatives to incarceration, and support individuals as they reenter society. Finding gainful employment is one of the chief obstacles faced by the formerly incarcerated. The Fortune Society provides employment services to equip this community with the skills necessary to obtain employment and thrive in the workplace. Through Job Readiness workshops, participants are taught how to network, excel in interviews, answer difficult conviction questions, and create a resume and cover letter. Concordia Members conducted a mock Job Readiness workshop with Fortune Society clients and learned about an impactful partnership with Bloomberg LP.

2017 CONCORDIA Europe SUMMIT in athens

Concordia Members enjoyed two engagement opportunities during the Concordia Europe Summit in Athens. Each one touched on issues related to the refugee crisis, economic opportunity, and youth engagement. The first was a guided tour of Athen’s Partnership, a non-profit organization that supports poverty alleviation, improved health, access to education, and community development in the City of Athens by leveraging the resources and know-how of both the public and private sectors. Members then visited a facility operated by HOME Project to meet a group of unaccompanied refugee children from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan residing in Greece. After hearing their stories of escape and recovery, the entire group prepared and shared a meal together.  Both HOME Project and the Athens Partnership demonstrated innovative collaborations that engage local governments, non-profits, and the private sector to address systemic challenges facing at-risk communities. 

2017 Concordia americas summit in bogoTÀ

The day following the Summit, participants had the opportunity to see firsthand how art, culture, and the environment are all interwoven into the Colombian peace process, connecting real partnerships back to the Summit conversations from the day earlier. Tackling issues related to peace and stability, conservation, and youth engagement, Conservation International Colombia has partnered with local communities and nonprofits to restore the once violence-prone and environmentally degraded Chingaza-Sumapaz-Guerrero corridor to its original natural beauty. CI Colombia believes that investing in the country’s biodiversity connects inhabitants to their country, with positive outcomes for the peace process. Participants had the opportunity to learn about partnerships to improve market access for small shareholder farmers, walk along the Las Delicias ravine, and enjoy a presentation on coffee sustainability by Koffie Tapp.