Blog Action Day 2008�What will you do to fight poverty?
Blog Action Day 2008 is October 15. This year’s topic is poverty.
Last year, thousands of bloggers participated by writing about the environment, posting our articles en masse on October 15, 2007.
This year the format is the same in that all participating bloggers upload their posts on the topic of poverty simultaneously on October 15.
There is NO political agenda, and, regardless of those causes you may hold most dear, poverty is one of those issues that knows no boundaries and can be one of the precursors of those other causes that concern you. So, by involving the friends and family of all the bloggers who participate, this year’s Blog Action Day has the potential to make a difference to people affected by poverty worldwide.
Rather than sharing facts about poverty, my post on October 15 will be a collection of solutions to poverty (actual and proposed) collected from people I know.
So, then, let me ask you:
A. Do you know of an effort where you live that is successfully combating poverty?
B. Do you personally have a story to share about something you or you and a group of friends or family have done to fight poverty?
C. Do you have an idea for a project that would help eliminate poverty in your corner of the world? Share your idea, whether simple or complex, and ask for the kind of help you need to implement it.
Please send me your stories and, with your permission, I will include them in my post on October 15.
You can share your ideas by commenting or by emailing me at ktcosmos-at-LooseEnds-dot-net. In your response, please identify your location.
If you don’t want to be named, SPECIFY THAT PREFER ANONYMITY.
However, remember that if you are anonymous, no one can follow up with you to try to carry on the good works you envision.
To read more about Blog Action Day 2008, go here.
Speaking of this, here are some older related posts:
Pingback // October 16th, 2008 // 3:51 pm
[...] Speaking of this, here are some related posts from another time and place in Loosely Speaking: Blog Action Day 2008: What will you do to fight poverty? [...]
Comment // October 17th, 2008 // 7:35 am
I participated in blog action Day 2008 by pointing people to what I’ve been doing for the past 14 years to fight poverty in the Chicago region. I lead a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program that connects inner city teens with workplace volunteers in one-on-one mentoring and tutoring and group learning.
I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 so the city would have a master list of who does similar work, with an understanding of where these programs were in relation to each other, and to where they are needed (high poverty, high concentration of poor schools, etc.). I’ve been building and hosting this database of programs ever since, and using Geographic Information Systems software to show where the programs are, along with what businesses, churches, hospitals, and/or universities are in the same part of the city, and who could be helping such programs get volunteers, dollars, job training and technology needed to succeed in their mission.
If others outoline strategies like this, and we connect via blog exchanges, we can learn from each other, and draw more of the people who are not involved, into this on-going effort to end poverty through education and expanding the network of adult support available to kids in neighborhoods of high poverty.