Social Impact Social Media

I have always been a big fan of spoken word and the art of storytelling. I look forward to platforms like the MOTH.org and TED.com because they give us a chance to get outside ourselves and literally jump into the experiences and perspectives of so many others.  Spoken word and story telling are ways of connecting in an intimate way with other individual's lives. I've always come away from these listening experiences with a greater appreciation that we ARE all connected. The StoryCorps ("storycore") mission is to collect as many American stories as possible from all walks of life.  StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit.   Since 2003  they have collected over 45,000 stories with over 90,000 folks participating.   The storyteller gets a copy their story to share. The stories are also preserved  in the American Folk Center at the Library of Congress.   These stories ranging from couples talking about how they met, families of immigrants sharing experiences 

Nationwide, according a report from Children Uniting Nations, as of 2014 463,000 American children live in foster care. California has a larger number of children in the system than any other state based on a 2009 AFCARS report. facebook.com Generally at age 18 these young adults are considered “emancipated” and “age out” of the foster care system.  According to an article by John Kelly Editor-In-Chief of the Chronicle For Social Change and the Alliance for Children’s Rights, the number of young adults in California staying in the system for extended foster care up to age 21 has more than doubled since 2012 from 2,000 to over 5,000. The fact is whether at age 18 or 21 these young adults exit the system and then what? The answers are in the data from WELIFTLA and Alliance for Children’s Rights . ·          The stats for those exiting without any sort of housing have varied from 30 – 65% depending on the year ·          50% of those aging out in Los Angeles County don’t g

voyagela.com Light Bringer is a Pasadena California based nonprofit with signature events including the Annual Chalk Festival- the largest street painting festival in the world and the annual Pasadena Doo Dah Parade –a spoof on the Pasadena Rose Parade. The organization is credited with opening the first young artists’ Room 13, an international network of self-sustaining young artists driven creative studios, to the U.S.A. To date Light Bringer is credited with spearheading the opening of five Room 13 young artists’ studios in the greater Pasadena and Los Angeles County area and the momentum of more Room 13 studios opening across the country. lightbringer.org Other studios are now open in Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina and Indiana. A recent display showing in Pasadena’s Public Library was inspiration for a Room 13 to start in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Room 13 studio model is based upon four pillars of learning: philosophical inquiry, creative expression, recipr

Generations Group Home works with adolescent and pre-adolescent males who are in primary need of specialized services for abusive behaviors.  Located in Fountain Inn, South Carolina Generations Group Home was founded in 1991 by Kathleen Reynolds.  Kathleen was compelled and challenged by former SC State Senator Nell Smith' outreach to put an end to the generations of troubled children who were growing up in locked residential institution. There was an obvious need to address the increasing number of “system’s kids” emerging into society. Many of them troubled and abused teens that frequently disrupted foster placements and traditional group care acting out the violence they experienced. Most alarming was the terrible cycle of sexual abuse that was being repeated by these boys. Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse issues had to be addressed to stop this cycle. Generations currently is made up of three campuses... Horizons currently with 20 residents, Bridges with

For 27  years this nonprofit writers program  through Middlebury College and Phillips Academy, in Andover, MA has not only been teaching writing skills but changing lives of the children of Lawrence, MA - a former mill town. The program not only leads to children gaining the skills and confidence to pursue college but has resulted in inspiring many to become community leaders. andover.edu Workshops are entirely student led and the "writing leaders" are children that have gone through the program themselves, and the same ages as those they mentor. "Writing leaders" receive mentoring and training from public school teachers. More than 600 children have participated in the program and most have gone on to complete college. Quite an accomplishment, according to Edwin Santana, who became an instructor in 2004,  in a community where almost half the students drop out of high school. The Writing Leaders program is only one facet of Andover Bread Loaf - a nonpro

Their mission is to produce clear, objective stories that give the public and decision-makers the information they need to navigate the heat and emotion of climate and energy debates.   Having won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 it is very clear that they are accomplishing that goal on an ongoing basis.   Inside Climate News is a non-profit, non-partisan news organization that covers clean energy, carbon energy, nuclear energy and environmental science. They have grown from a founding team of 2 to staff of 18 including 7 full time professional journalists bringing experience from news organizations including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal.   Currently their media partners include The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker, NBC News, The Weather Channel and WHYY public television. In addition to their 2013 Pulitzer the organization has won a 2018 Edward R. Marrow Regional award, 2018- Business Editors And Writers awa

Kiss The Ground is a Los Angeles based nonprofit started six years ago by restaurateur Ryland Engelhart sitting in his living room with friends including Co-Founder Finian Makepeace. Kiss The Ground’s goal is to change agricultural and farming using soil-nourishing techniques focusing on ecosystem regeneration to build and restore healthy soil, water, atmosphere and communities. Their fundamental premise is fighting and reversing climate change based on “soil carbon sequestering,” a process that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in soil. This works as a contributing solution to reducing atmosphere greenhouse gases. Soil regeneration is nothing new. It has been used by many indigenous cultures and communities around the world for centuries. In these communities they have long used farming practices built on a regenerative stewardship relationship with the earth. A core mission of Kiss the Ground is to bring these practices and this thinking into mainstrea

Founded by Linda Hess in 2009 South Pasadena-based Urban Harvester is a nonprofit solving multiple problems to the benefit of grocery stores, restaurants, food pantries providing services for the hungry and those in need of a healthy meal. According to the US Department of Agriculture 1 in 6 Americans go to bed hungry every night. Data from The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates that 40% of the food produced in the United States is discarded each year. Enter Urban Havester. In 2017 the organization rescued 175,000 meals providing food donations representing  $800,000 in savings for nonprofit organizations. They have partnered with organizations like Costco and Pepperdine University to reduce food waste. And in 2019 they are still going strong and making a difference for homeless and disadvantaged communities. To learn more or to donate to support their good work visit www.urbanharvester.org

Sierra Leone Rising, formerly known as The Kposowa Foundation, is a 501c3 non-profit organization that was formed in 2006 by co-founders, Sarah Culberson and Hindo Kposowa to  build and restore much needed educational facilities, provide safe clean drinking water, solar electricity and agricultural development in the village of  Bumpe Sierra Leone. The nonprofit’s plans have grown broader over time. Bumpe  was selected because Sarah, adopted and raised by a white family in the U.S., traced her natural family and heritage there. Visiting Bumpe to trace her roots Sarah discovered human suffering and need that she could not turn her back on. The Bumpe high school, once a renowned boarding school with an enrollment of over 600 students from as far away as Nigeria, was destroyed by R.U.F. rebels during Sierra Leone's 11-year-long civil was from 1991-2002. The Civil war also caused serious and grotesque human rights violations to many people. Thousands of Leonean peopl