Make Social Change A Reality

A few years ago some west coast techies sang Cumbia and came up with the idea to bring together lenders and borrowers without the insidious over-lording of a big bank by using the internet. All things progressive went into the idea, no double-dealing middleman, no high interest rates, no big down payments, and (best of all), no dead behind the eyes businessmen. Nope, the point with Person to Person lending was to reintroduce the social aspect back into financial transactions by linking together friends, family, and people of a generally similar mindset so that they could tell their story, give a little and get a little. Well, when Person to Person (P2P) lending debuted it was seen as a somewhat far out idea by gushy liberal progressives who had no idea how ‘serious’ financing worked. But, to their consternation, P2P lending has only become steadily more mainstream. In fact, the recent death rattle of the big banks and ensuing credit crunch, has driven average non-far out people to ...

This post was 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. I was a teacher for 5 years. Prior to teaching, I worked for a non-profit organization where we provided scholarships for students to attend college. And even before that position, after high school and through college, I was a summer camp counselor and volunteer/organizer for an after school tutoring program. I enjoy working with youth and feel that it is my responsibility to pass on knowledge that I have to others. Recently in the news, there have been many ideas floating around about how to “reform” the public education system and what is necessary. President Obama said education was going to be one of his top priorities to address and “fix” the problem of both teacher recruitment and student performance. Now as a former teacher, I support the need to recruit better teachers, obvious...

Bilaal Rajan, twelve year old author, fundraiser and UNICEF Children’s Ambassador is going barefoot for National Volunteer Week to raise awareness about global child poverty. What's his goal? “...to inspire one million children to take action and help create a more peaceful and caring world. I want kids to find their passion, get involved and make a difference in the lives of others.” Learn more about this inspiring twelve year old, the Barefoot Campaign, or purchase his manual , Making Change: Tips from an Underage Overachiever , at www.makingchangenow.com . You can also see a video on YouTube about this initiative from Rajan himself. Will you join Rajan and go barefoot this week to help raise awareness for less privileged children around the world? Have other plans to celebrate National Volunteer Week? Feel free to share stories about your National Volunteer Week celebrations in the comments. This post was written by Chanelle Carver , acting Editor for Make Social Change A Rea...

On April 20, 2009, Mayor Bloomberg launched NYC Service - a program to increase volunteer opportunities for the residents of New York City including youth enrolled in K-12 schools. ( press release ). While I no longer live in New York City, I travel to the area for work and social events (or just to hang out with friends and family) so I was wicked excited to hear about this new initiative. While many may have not-so-nice things to say about Mayor Bloomberg 's leadership or policy that should not deter us from recognizing the excellent work he is doing for the community. Even if it wasn't his idea, the city needs his leadership to move it forward. After all, he is mayor! Here's a video of the kick off event in Washington Heights. For more information, call 3-1-1 or visit the NYC.gov website . This post was written by Chanelle Carver , acting Editor for Make Social Change A Reality and Executive Director of the Literacy 'n' Poverty Project .

It’s National Volunteer Week and this year’s theme is Celebrating People in Action . This week is about recognizing all of you who volunteer with your local nonprofit, who organize voter registration drives and serve food to the homeless. It's about all of you that strive to Make Social Change A Reality . Every year, organizations around the country take this week to thank their volunteers and show the community just how much they value a volunteer’s time and contribution. Without them, the nonprofit sector as it is today would not survive. So we'd like to take a moment to thank all of the people behind the Literacy 'n' Poverty Project and Make Social Change A Reality . Our volunteers live in all parts of the country and donate countless hours of their time, skills and knowledge to help us fulfill our mission. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We'd also like to thank our readers for being socially conscious and following our blog. It takes many to make social change...

Naturally, when I saw this title " Lazy Altruism: 6 Super-Easy Ways to Do Good and Help Others ", I was intrigued to read the blog post. After all, it's not too often you see the words lazy and do good in the same sentence. And less often does being lazy result in a positive outcome . Well, not if you're a lazy altruist. After hearing by President Barack Obama's Call to Action for Americans to volunteer more, an Intent.com blogger was inspired to create this short list for "wide-eyed volunteer newbies...to dip your feet into the wonderful world of altruistic love" which include donating your hair and playing Internet trivia. Do you consider "lazy altruism" a method of volunteering? This post was written by Chanelle Carver , acting Editor for Make Social Change A Reality and Executive Director of the Literacy 'n' Poverty Project .

For the past year and a half, Make Social Change A Reality has focused on bringing awareness to social issues like adult literacy and education reform , poverty alleviation , and healthcare . But our goal is to do more than talk because as they say, talk is cheap. This blog aims to empower people to take action for social change. We aim not just to discuss social issues but also to create a community that actively participates in that dialogue sharing ideas and resources that can help each of us make social change a reality in our own unique way. Recent posts go into more detail about how you can make change, for example, through online volunteering , leading development efforts in your community, and advocating for women's economic justice . And now, we're looking to add to our team! For all you bloggers out there, consider joining Make Social Change A Reality's team by becoming our Volunteer Editor . A Call to Volunteer! We need a tech savvy, intelligent, and entreprene...

In follow up to our “ American Women and the Great Recession ” series, we here at Make Social Change a Reality wanted to give you some simple, yet important, things that you can do on your own to become an advocate for women’s economic justice and affect change ! So, where should you start? Well, there will be many opportunities in the coming year to make your voice heard and join the movement to create economic justice for women, and we have listed the top five…read on for more information and follow the links below to take action ! (1.) Get educated and know your facts. What are the issues, and what are the policy changes that need to occur in states and on the federal level to give women a better shot at economic equality? There are some fantastic organizations out there in the non-profit world that conduct research, gather information on women and families, and produce great resources on women’s economic issues and getting women and families out of poverty . Check out a few ...

“If the wars of [the 21st] century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water.” —Ismail Serageldin, former VP, World Bank, Newsweek, 1995. The 5th annual World Water Forum was held in Istanbul this past week to facilitate discussion of international water policy among corporations, NGOs, and international financial institutions in the context of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. Waiting to meet them were throngs of demonstrators holding banners reading “Water for Life, Not for Profit,” looking into the face masks of riot police three deep. Underlying the strain is the contentious issue of water privatization. In the 1990s governments began inviting private corporations to run their water infrastructure for a profit, the idea being that private enterprise would be much more adept and efficient than any government bureaucracy at getting the water to where it had to go. Unfortunately, many of these huge transnational corporations, a major player be...

President Barack Obama spoke before the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on March 10th , offering more details about his plans to improve education. In 2008, American students once again ranked below many of their international peers on standardized tests. The President built his campaign on the idea of change, and it is obvious that the archaic system of American education is in dire need of just that. The question is: what does good change look like? It starts with early childhood education. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act promises an addition $5 billion to Early Head Start and Head Start programs . While the money promised will help states fund new programs and improve those in existence, is it enough ? To make post-secondary education more affordable, President Obama has said he will increase the cap on Pell Grants by $500 . He has also briefly outlined a program that would do away with private lending for student loans, replacing it with a program run by the Educa...