CoLAB Planning Series® workshops have been facilitated since 2002 and have served over 1740 participants in nonprofits and academic institutions. Learn the keys to creating engaging and creative connections using methods that build on asset-based community development, appreciative inquiry and other methodologies. We will experiment with a short demonstration of how quickly you can get to know what’s most important to the mysterious colleague sitting next to you. (45 minutes)
About Bess de Farber
Bess de Farber holds a Master of Nonprofit Management from Florida Atlantic University and is currently the University of Florida Libraries’ Grants Manager. She previously served in the same position at University of Arizona Library. de Farber has provided grantsmanship instruction to nonprofit and academic professionals, artists, and university students in the past 28 years, and has led efforts to secure millions in grant funding for nonprofits and academic libraries. Her research interest is asset-based collaboration development. As a certified professional facilitator through the International Association of Facilitators, she created the CoLAB Planning Series®, large group processes, for individuals and organizations seeking new and innovative collaborative partnerships and relationships. This process has served more than 1,700 individuals and 600 organizations since 2002. Since joining the George A. Smathers Libraries in 2008, she and a team modified the CoLAB sessions into two-hour Collaborating with Strangers workshops serving students and faculty. In 2013 she traveled to Seattle to train librarians in these facilitative processes for workshops at the University of Washington Libraries. de Farber has served on grant review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, Education Foundation of Palm Beach County, Arizona State Technology Research Initiative Fund Awards, and The Children’s Trust (Dade County). As program officer for the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties and the Palm Beach County Cultural Council she managed funding programs for arts and culture, human and race relations, and social services.
