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The Meaning of Social Change

All around us, there are changes happening; the calendar changed from 2008 to 2009, a new president was elected, and for many us, we have decided to do things differently and make changes in our diet, our lifestyles, or in our overall well being.


Social change is something that I plan to be involved with this year in many different ways: volunteering, reading, attending events and sharing ideas. Social change means different things to different people. To me, social change means being involved in making things better for your community. Doing something instead of just saying something. Raising money instead of just donating to a cause. Working with others to make sure that the change we desire is attainable.


I have been involved with a variety of organizations that make social change a focus of their organization. This is important to me because I am a firm believer that through social change and helping each other and supporting one another, we as a people can right all the wrongs in the world from war, homelessness, poor education and global warming.


Making social change a reality is not going to be easy, in fact, it’s going to be hard and take a lot of work. But as we saw with the election of our new president, if enough people support what they think is right, and do what little they can as individuals, we can begin to make things happen.


What does social change mean to you?


Written by Matthew Reid, volunteer blogger with the Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project. A native New Yorker, Matthew now lives in Boston and works for a math curriculum development company.

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