DoSomething.org Launches DoSomething U

I'm so excited I can barely type. Yesterday, an amazing resource became available for all the current and aspiring do-gooders of the world: DoSomething U. Started by the organization DoSomething.org, this website is another tool through which they "help young people rock causes they care about."

The mission of the site is to help individuals passionate about social change make their ideas a reality. In that vein, the site is full of articles on topics categorized by seven "majors" ranging from activism to technology to human resources.

On the site you'll also find videos on various topics. Each week DoSomething U will release a new one on a different topic. Here are a few to get you started:

• How to Tell a Story Through Video - As someone with little to zero (closer to zero) video media skills this was a great intro to me. And if you haven't heard of Andrew Jenks, he's pretty cool. Google him.
• How to Create a Strong Brand - This one is particularly interesting to me because over the last week or so I've put a lot of thought into how to begin branding the non-profit I work with right now. As a business person, I truly believe in the value of branding for organizations, and not just in the private sector.
• Overcome the Fear of Asking for Money - No matter what kind of organization you intend to start, the money has to come from somewhere. If you're anything like me, it's better to start getting over that fear sooner than later!

So now that DoSomething.org has provided yet another reason to stop putting off any program and venture ideas we may have, how long will it take for you to get started?

Let’s Talk About Something We Take For Granted: Water

You probably see that glass of water pictured above and think nothing of it. You probably turn on your tap to fill up your own glass at home without wondering where it came from. If you are anything like how I was (and sometimes still am, to be honest), you purchase a bottle of water without thinking about what that means for society at large. Well, Blog Action Day 2010 seeks to change that.

Blog Action Day 2010 and the Global Water Crisis


Blog Action Day is a day dedicated to a particular cause or issue that affects people all over the world. This year’s issue is water, and it is being written about today by bloggers from all over the world – 143 countries to be exact. The goal is to educate and inform as many people as possible about the global water crisis.

Water is one of those resources that is easy to take for granted. I mean, the earth is made up of about 70-75% water. Who would ever think that there could be a global water crisis? But there is. Here are some stats:

• 1 in 8 people lack access to clean water. That’s about 1 billion people across the globe.
  
• Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.
  
• Every day 4,000 children younger than five years old die from preventable, water-borne diseases.
  
• The UN predicts that one tenth of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation.
  
• In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking for water. Time spent walking and resulting diseases keep them from school, work and taking care of their families.
  
• It is believed that water could be a major cause of war in the future. Some scholars believe that the conflict in Darfur is affected by the water crisis.

The Commercialization of Water


Think about this for a second: Is it or is it not ridiculous that we pay for packaged water? On average Americans consume about 200 bottles of water per year. This has enormous impact on our environment due to the petroleum required for production, the harmful carbon emissions, and the amount of waste produced. Then there is the whole ridiculous issue of the privatization of something that is a public resource. Companies such as Nestle enter the severly under-regulated bottled water industry and make billions of dollars by forcing their way into communities and bottling their water. These communities are often left helpless and unable to fight these large corporations, leaving them particularly devastated in situations like droughts when bottling doesn't stop. The reality is that about a third of bottled water actually comes from tap. So when you weigh the benefits against the costs, it just doesn't add up.

The documentary Flow (trailer shown above) was eye opening for me. It highlights the growth of the bottled water industry, how it affects communities across the globe and, most importantly, its effect on the water crisis. If you want to learn more about the issue, I recommend that you check it out.

Making a Difference Today


Like with anything else, change doesn’t come over night. Making an impact on the global water crisis will take time. But it requires a concerted effort by everyone to affect the change we need to see.

While this issue is still pretty new to me, I've started doing a lot of reflecting on my own water habits. For instance, I have always regularly purchased bottled water because of its convenience (grab one, put it in my purse and go). Now that I’m more aware of the issue, I am working to change these habits. I won’t lie and tell you that I absolutely never buy bottled water. But I’m taking baby steps by doing my best to avoid being in situations where I need to buy bottled water.

What other habits can we adopt?

• Take shorter showers: The average person aparently uses over 100 gallons of water per day. You can save up to 25 gallons of water a day by just cutting 5 minutes off your shower time.
• Turn off the tap: Turning off the tap while you’re brushing your teeth or shaving can save about 8 gallons a day.
• Sweep instead of hose: Don’t hose down your driveway or sidewalk. Use a broom!
• Landscape wisely: Climate-appropriate plants need significantly less water.
• Slow the flow: Replacing showerheads with low-flow models and putting inexpensive aerators on faucets can cut water use by up to 20 percent.

You can also take a stance and support the cause in other ways:

• Sign the petition on the right side of my blog under "Support Blog Action Day."
• Donate to organizations that are working hard to increase access to water like NICEF and Charity:Water.
• Fundraise either on your own or with the use of tools provided by organizations like Charity:Water.

We can all start somewhere. And while I recognize the urgency of this issue and the need for all of us to eventually move from taking baby steps to making large scale changes, awareness is the first and most important step to affecting the change we want to see.

Photo Source: Live Earth

Statistic Sources: Change.org, Global Water Challenge and Charity:Water

The Cultural Academy for Excellence Kicked Off Its 15th Year With a Bang

Me and CAFE's newest board member, Melissa Johnson
Last Saturday the Cultural Academy for Excellence (CAFE), a local non-profit, kicked off its 15th year in operations with the fundraiser Folklore on the Greens. It was an extremely successful event that, as a board member and a 2004 graduate of the program, I am still giddy about!

The Cultural Academy for Excellence was birthed in the basement of a woman named Lorna Green who was determined to find a way engage with the youth in her community. The idea to develop this arts-in-education program stemmed from her desire to utilize the steel drum, an instrument developed in her native country Trinidad and Tobago, as a tool to help students excel in school. It didn’t take long before her idea took off; within a few years the program had grown way beyond her basement’s capacity.

With her passion, she turned what was originally a small endeavor into something that has made a lasting impact on the lives of the youth it reaches as well as the local community it serves. It was only fitting that we started our yearlong celebration of our accomplishments with such an unforgettable program.

Folklore on the Greens was held at the home of CAFE's Executive Director, Lorna Green. It was a lovely fall afternoon perfect for entertainment and mingling with both old and new friends. The afternoon's lineup included a diverse and absolutely amazing group of artists. Among the performances there were two that particularly stood out for me. The first was the folklores told by Dr. Merle Collins accompanied by Abby Charles with interpretive dance. Both the story and the storyteller were captivating and the dancer kept our attention with her graceful moves as she brought the story to life (shown on the left). The second was the performance by Akua Allrich. She literally wowed the crowd with her tributes to Nina Simone and Miriam Mikeba, a South African singer. When she was done performing, not only did she receive a standing ovation, but she was also spontaneously given a necklace by the Ambassador of Senegal to the US, Fatou Danielle Diagne, out of appreciation for the tributes to Miriam Mikeba. (The picture to the left shows Ambassador Harriet Elam-Thomas, Akua Allrich, and Ambassador Fatou Danielle Diagne.) Overall, the event was incredible. Before the night was even done, the raving reviews were pouring in.

Just like so many other nonprofits, CAFE is fighting hard to provide quality programs despite various cuts in funding as a result of the recession. Folklore on the Greens was our first attempt to truly step out of our comfort zone of fundraising through concerts featuring our very own students, particularly our award winning Positive Vibrations Youth Steel Orchestra. For me, it was extremely exciting to see how successful we ultimately were as I know it will only get better each year.

For more information on CAFE, visit our website at www.cafeyouth.org. For more information on our concerts and other events, "like" us on Facebook, check out our calendar of events or - even easier - feel free to email me!

Lighting the Flame: The Black Girl Project

Lighting the Flame is a series dedicated to recognizing the efforts of organizations that work to empower women and girls across the world. These organizations keep families and communities alive by ensuring that the flames of these women and girls are fully lit and prepared to shine as they begin to tap into the power within.

This weekend I attended a screening of a documentary entitled The Black Girl Project, a film that tells the stories of eight young black women living in Brooklyn, NY. Inspired by her prior experiences working with them and her frustration with the extremely limited perspectives of black women represented in the media, Aiesha Turman set out to produce something that would highlight the experiences of these young women.

With little film experience and even less of budget (she emphasized during the discussion that it was “zero” lol), Ms. Turman produced a piece of work that greatly contributes to the conversation about what it means to be a black girl in America. Her choice of documenting the lives of girls in Brooklyn was interesting as it drew attention to the ethnic diversity of the region as well as diversity within the black community, which is overlooked far too often. As a black girl myself, I'm hyper aware of the media’s failure to show the diverse perspectives and backgrounds of black women. We are consistently bombarded with the same portrayals that don’t reflect the vast majority of us. As one girl put it, we’re either the "bougie", successful black woman who forgot where she came from or we’re the ghetto baby-mother on the block. This film seeks to fill that void.

I appreciated how Ms. Turman started the film with some history of black woman as well as statistics on the current situation for our black girls, some of which we have seen far too many times before. She then moved into the most powerful part of the film: the interviews with the young women. The conversations flowed from girl to girl as each of them shared their perspectives on issues ranging from identity to family and from love and relationships to goals and dreams. Moments from the film that still remain vivid to me:

• The Haitian girl discussing her new-found pride in her culture after being teased growing up
• A young woman sharing how she was raped and later tried to commit suicide yet was told by her father that she didn’t really want to die because everyone knows that taking 13 Tylenol won’t kill you
• One girl stating that she began using bleaching cream at around seven years old because she hated her skin
• A young woman being called an insecure slut by her boyfriend and sharing that she can’t love herself unless she’s perfect, which she then stated is not going to happen

These are issues our young black girls are facing yet nobody seems to want to talk about. The Black Girl Project is changing that. I couldn’t agree more with what Jennifer Cooke’s review on the website states :

Initially, I would like to thank Aiesha for taking the time and pouring her effort, love and diligence into this project. I really think that a film like this can help jump start important conversations in our communities. Not only between parents and their daughters, but siblings, extended family and people who work within the community. There is an unspoken resilience that young women of color are expected to have. A theft of the wonders of youth and the beauty of innocence and that has to be resolved. These brave young women gave us insight into how much they had on their shoulders at such a young age. Thankfully they had (a) positive influence(s) which helped them negotiate feelings and challenges. I am certain that many other young women that see this will realize that they are not alone and come forth to seek their own support system and
embrace their successes.

After the film, Ms. Turman had a Q&A session with us. The documentary was an extraordinary undertaking on her part and was filmed over the course of about two and a half years. During that time, each of the young women were either just going off to college or were in the middle of their studies. She proudly announced that the majority of these young women will be graduating in May of 2011.

Not only has The Black Girl Project greatly contributed to a much needed conversation, but it has also given a voice to each of these young women and provided the support they needed for their lights to shine. Furthermore, it was extremely encouraging to hear that these women continue to pay it forward in their own ways now. To me, it doesn’t get much more powerful than that.

For more about the film, visit The Black Girl Project. Aiesha Turman's work on the film led her to start a non-profit called The Black Girl Project dedicated to "helping our young women and girls develop the skills the need to not only survive, but thrive in this new millennium". Check out the website to learn more about and support the organization.

Photo Credit: Black Girl Project's Flickr

A Place Where You Can Pay What You Want

I love when businesses venture out and commit to doing social good. Panera Bread, the soup and sandwich shop, is the latest company to gain my admiration. They have opened up a pay-what-you-want store – known as Saint Louis Bread Co. – in St. Louis, MO as a nonprofit model experiment. The motto: "Take what you need, leave your fair share."

My first thought was along the lines of, “what a ridiculous idea.” Having a background in business, I couldn’t imagine how something like this would work, far less during a recession. Yet, the community has proven initial critics like me wrong.

So what exactly is making this model work you ask?

An honor code.

Yep, the same honor code that some of us had to abide by in high school, requiring us to sign the top of exams and major papers to signify that we had not cheated. We all know that there were always individuals who cheated; however, the point is that the majority of students respected the honor code.

Likewise at Panera. There is an understanding that if you have the means, you will pay. There will always be those individuals who try to game the system (and there have been), however Panera has reported that on average customers pay 90% of the retail price.

Of course this great experiment hasn’t gone without some criticism. Neighborhood mom and pop shops are bearing a significant burden. As one store owner put it, “how do you compete with free?” I know I personally would become a very local customer to a store that is willing to provide me with food/service even when I am low on funds. It would be the first place I’d spend – and overspend – my money.

What I love most about this experiment is the change it offers for the community. Individuals with limited income are able to provide their families with food at a price they can afford. In the Economist article entitled “Sandwich Philanthropy” there is an unemployed gentleman who wrote a letter stating, “Thank God for the Bread Company,” because he is able to bring his kids in for a discounted snack every week.

The pay-what-you-want model also provides opportunities for those without any income to work in exchange for food. According to the New York Times, “About 15 to 20 of the roughly 60 meals it serves each day are given away to needy customers, some of whom wash windows, sweep or break down boxes for an hour or so in return.” This saves the organization from having to pay individuals for these services and allows the volunteers to feel as though they have earned their meals.

Lastly, any net income earned from operations will apparently be used to fund community programs. I can’t think of a single do-gooder who wouldn’t place this kind of shop high on their list of places to support.

Panera seems to be looking to expand this model based upon the success of the St. Louis pilot. While I’m sure there are some cities that this will work better in than others, I would really love to see this concept thrive.

Photo Credit