Make Social Change A Reality

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 .

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 .

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 you, like many, would like to do more to serve local and international communities through volunteerism, but don’t have the money to travel or lots of time to commit, I recently came across another great way of contributing – right from your own computer! The UN has launched the United Nations Online Volunteering Service . This great service connects online volunteers with organizations working around the world for sustainable human development. According to the site: ‘Volunteers contribute their skills online to help organizations address development challenges. Organizations collaborate with online volunteers over the internet to strengthen the impact of their development work.’ You can search on the site for volunteer opportunities by your own skills , topics you are interested in such as education or health, or by a region of the world. A quick search on the site gave me multiple opportunities to contribute my skills very easily over my computer. I chose to search by my own s...

On January 16, the American Red Cross celebrated Martin Luther King Day with a National Day of Service , calling on citizens everywhere to volunteer their time to the ARC's many initiatives. Every year, the ARC helps tens of thousands of people cope with the aftermath of disaster and prepare for future emergencies. Local Disaster Action Teams are often first responders to natural and man-made disasters, such as the recent plane crash in the Hudson river . In 2007, I was certified as a disaster action team member in the Washington DC metro area and can personally certify that the American Red Cross is one of the most effective and efficient humanitarian organizations in the country. Volunteers are on-call to respond to emergencies where they provide services such as sheltering, grief counseling, tracing services , and first aid . They have chapters in every state and almost every city, which you can easily find through their website. If you are looking for an established organiza...

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...

In the strategic planning process, the management team and leaders of any business and/or social venture must ask themselves three important questions: 1) Where are we now? 2) Where do we want to be? 3) How will we get there? I think the same applies to blogging, which is why we at the Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project have taken some time to come up with our own blog strategy for Making Social Change A Reality . In creating this blog strategy, we’ ve come up with a set of goals and objectives to accomplish over the next year that will not only create greater awareness for our organization and this blog but also to ensure we are expanding to new markets and advocating on behalf of the very people we believe will benefit from our programs and services. Here’s a list of some of things we’ll be doing throughout the year: 1) Expanding our base of discussion topics to include various social issues that are of concern to the GLOBAL community 2) NETWORKING with writers and bloggers already e...

Don’t have the time to head down to the community center? Is the nearest soup kitchen 45 miles out of town? Never fear – there are a million and one easy ways to volunteer, often right from your own home! GIVE a Little Bit Put a jar at home or the office, for loose change. Instead of buying something for yourself, donate that which would have probably gotten lost in the couch cushions anyway. Companies can give back to the local community. Parents, get your kids involved. Teach them about giving to others by choosing a charity together. GET a Little Are you an online shopper? Register with GreaterGood or iGive to donate a portion of your spending to charity. Zine fan? Good magazine is a socially conscious reader that donates your entire subscription fee to the charity of your choice. THINK Green All of this talk about global warming and carbon footprints keeping you up at night? You know the drill. Turn your thermostat down a couple of degrees, or wash your clothes w...

As the year ends and the New Year approaches, I start to think about my New Year’s resolution from last year (exercise more, take time to read). I realized that if I set my mind to something, I generally do it. I accomplished both of my New Year’s resolutions from last year, so for this year, I decided to include a new one that I know I can accomplish… volunteer ! Moving to a new city and having a new job has given me the opportunity to spend some free time volunteering with different organizations. It wasn’t hard and the reward is meeting new people, learning a new place and helping to raise awareness for issues that are important to me. The other great thing I realized about volunteering is how contagious it is. I mentioned to some friends about some of the volunteering efforts I was apart of, and immediately they were interested in participating too. I soon found out that I could afford to give some more time to other organizations looking for volunteers. So one thing I am go...

If you've ever considered becoming an adult literacy tutor but have to make a decision, listen to one volunteer's story of why he got involved. Remember, the decisions you make can change many lives. Literacy Volunteers of Rensselaer County

This post was written by Chanelle Carver, founder of Literacy 'n' Poverty Project , activist, volunteer and consultant for socially conscious organizations. I virtually volunteer writing articles for a website called Collective Lens that " promotes social change with your photos. Upload a photo and help bring awareness to important issues around the world. You can inspire others to become involved ." They're also participating in Blog Action Day 2008 and posted a short blog with some GREAT photos on behalf of those who can't help themselves. I encourage you to go check it out. The Many Faces of Poverty

Rounding out the last of the Millennium Development Goals are goals seven and eight, Environmental Stability and Global Partnership . Both of these goals are so much more specific than the previous six, Goal 7 including four targets and Goal 8 including five, that it would be impossible to examine them exhaustively in such a short space. Therefore, let’s examine one target per goal. For a more detailed look at these aims, please visit the website for the United Nations, www.un.org. To ensure environment sustainability, target three aims to, “halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. “ One Step Forward: Thirst Relief International is an international nonprofit organization that works with local groups to implement safe, potable water facilities in communities all over the globe. With projects in the Congo, Amazon, Kenya, and many more countries, Thirst Relief provides funding and serves as project mana...

From July 7th to the 9th, government officials from the United States, Canada, France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan convened in Hokkaido, Japan for their yearly meeting at which they evaluate numerous world crises and decide which disasters are most worthy of their largesse. Despite all of the hype, this great meeting of the minds neglected to deliver much in the way of long-lasting solutions and instead turned into a display of impeccable skill in the arts of avoidance and escapism. However, the Big Eight and their invited guests were not the only voices heard during those hot July days. Not far from the G8 in Toyako, over 220 Japanese NGOs came together for the People’s Summit in Sapporo and Rusutsu, the location of the media center. They convened to debate and make policy recommendations uninfluenced by those governmental perspectives molded by vested economic and strategic interests. Thanks to media coverage of the People’s Summit, NGOs were able to put extensive pr...

Since my time teaching GED classes with Columbia University’s Community Impact program has ended, many of my students have already taken the exam once or even twice. Some of them passed and successfully graduated the program; others still struggle with particular subjects or the exam as a whole. The experience of guiding and leading these people through this process was not only rewarding but also self-defining . In our last session, few of my “regular” students showed up mostly to say goodbye and wish each other good luck with the hope to meet again under circumstances that will allow us to get to know each other. These past months offered incredible insight to a person’s ability not only of self-conservation but also to reclaim the quality of life that everyone deserves but not everyone receives. Life is pretty hard in some parts of the world, but what is harder is the lack of drive, goal, purpose and dream. All my students are everyday people that merely try to better themselves and...

What a fantastic time to volunteer! Not only because our times demand it, but also because the human soul needs it! The GED classes at Columbia University’s Community Impact program continue and the semester seems to be progressing amazingly. After spring break, my students came back refreshed and ready for new adventures! And by adventures I mean learn how to write a winning GED essay! Now, that’s a challenge…!!! Mid-terms were uneventful and went by smoothly. The new focus of our class was how to become more efficient GED test-takers and learn new test-taking techniques and of course….practice, practice, practice…!!! At the beginning of the semester, I underestimated how valuable doing activities in the classroom would be. Having very few students returning their completed homework, it hit me that the only way to help them practice everything we learn in the classroom, was to actually have them do homework in the classroom. It is sad to admit I failed to convince them that homework w...

Welcome all to this new venture! The soul and spirit of this whole new undertaking, Ms. Chanelle Carver, a bright young lady with a vision and marvelous ideas deserves a standing ovation not only because of who she is but also for her inspiring efforts to include as many of us as possible in the dialogue for Adult literacy and Poverty. I, myself, got inspired and so I try everyday to veer my everyday activities towards the solution of this problem. That is how I decided that my contribution to this effort would be through community service. “I was really nervous on my first day. Having no experience, whatsoever, teaching in a classroom, I felt like a fraud.” To be more precise, I started volunteering at Columbia University’s Community Impact Program as a GED teacher and on Wednesday, February 6th I met with my new class. I got the idea that by chronicling the experience of teaching this class, I may be able to convey my ideas and concerns or issues I may stumble on and ask our readers...