Social Impact Social Media

Founded in 1988 the charity whose volunteers once built hiking trails, worked in libraries, and did myriad other tasks, has overhauled its service program to focus on a single mission: improving graduation rates in struggling public schools. The transformation was tied to a Johns Hopkins research study worked on by Robert Balfanz, brother of City Year's President  Jim Balfanz. According to the Johns Hopkins study the high-school dropout crisis is concentrated. Roughly 12 percent of the country’s high schools account for 50 percent of the students who don’t graduate. Says Robert Balfanz,  “It all sort of clicked in my mind,” he says. “They can give us a team of 10 to 15 corps members who are trained and focused and are in the building 7 to 7.” If each volunteer works with 15 students who show warning signs that they might drop out, he says, “we can now reach 150 to 200 kids a day with that constant nagging and nurturing.” The math and English tutoring and the vo...

Their music is a message in action.  Bread Over Bombs is an activist rock band that uses 100% of profits from music CD, LP and downloads sales to feed people in crisis around the world.  Through their work with the LA Regional Food Bank Bread Over Bombs has already provided more than 10,000 meals.  With the release of their new self-titled  album available on www.amazon.com  and iTunes purchases and support, which translate directly to meals to feed people in crisis, are spreading internationally. CD’s are even available at Tower Records in Japan.  And Glasgow SE Foodbank in the United Kingdom is giving away the album with every donation.  You can check out their album review on AMN- the Australian Music Network.  The music is a blend of timely and relevant messages with great music. The initiative started with Founder Brad Mitchell long ago. He began volunteering at the age of 7 alongside his grandmother in an Arizona charity-fund...

The concept was invented by Professor James Tobin of Yale University. The movement started in the UK and spreading  to  25 countries including the H.S. The Robin Hood Tax initiative is a collaboration and partnership between many nonprofit organizations, politicians and activist volunteers in countries including England, Canada, the United States, Spain, Mexico, Norway, Germany, The Netherlands and more. The idea is to turn our global financial crisis into an opportunity to provide funds to address gender equality, climate change, international maternal healthcare.  The thinking is-  as result of the financial crisis  created by  hedge funds, banks and other financial institutions  these issues have gotten worse.  An example from Britain is that according to an IMF report as a result of the global financial crisis 1 in 5 British families has to choose between food or paying for heat. Now think of conditions in  impoverished developing c...

Los Angeles resident Owliya Dima, a former immigrant herself,   along with her daughter Meymuna   are founders of the Tiyya Foundation. Their premise is that for the most part residents of American immigrant communities are often preoccupied with helping others overseas.   Having lived the experience of   transitioning to American life Owliya and her family created the Orange County based nonprofit. The Tiyya Foundation helps not only provide basic necessities to refugees and displaced American families the organization also helps families with the transition to become active participants in society. Services for clients include English as a second language coaching, homework tutoring, a community soccer program to help children with their transition and volunteers that help families navigate social and civic processes. The ultimate goal is to foster self-sufficiency.   Through a partnership with the University of California Irvine Tiyya ...

The Southern Rural Black Woman’s Initiative (SRBWI), founded in 2000, works in 77 counties across the Black Belt regions of Alabama and Southwest Georgia, and the Delta in Mississippi. SRBWI is focused on meeting the needs of unemployed and underemployed Black women using advocacy, self empowerment, capacity building, technical assistance and public education activities so that low income women become advocates for themselves and others.  The organization’s mission is to support and facilitate the capacity of women to take responsibility for their own personal and economic lives. SRBWI, through outreach programs, engages women in advocacy and policy initiatives to redirect local, state, and federal resources to help ensure women’s full access to economic and social justice.  SRBWI also helps build links between women’s groups focused on this common goal.  They also have an economic and community development agenda for women which includes workforce develo...

Roughly 9 years ago while her mother was recovering from cancer Yael Cohen over heard the phrase "fuck cancer," said in passing.  It resonated with her... that and the fact that her generation... Gen Y has been left out of the cancer conversation because they are not the target demographic most susceptible to the disease. But Yael thought "We've taught our parents about technology. We've talked to our parents about watching their cholesterol. Why aren't we talking to them about saving themselves from this disease? While the organization started out raising money and awareness by selling t-shirts with that explicit phrase-- and a PG version,  F___Cancer, the organization has grown to much more than t-shirt sales. The mission and message of Fuck Cancer is to promote early detection, prevention and awareness by engaging Gen Y'ers to engage their parents in "the cancer conversation." The organization's event-based truly approach to re...

Carmel Judd is Rising International's Founder & Executive Director. In 2002 she gave up the successful business she owned and ran for 20 years to start Rising International, the first non-profit to use the home party business model to contribute to solving poverty.  Rising International sells crafts made by the world's poorest people - women. In addition, Rising trains under-employed women in the U.S. to run their own Rising Home Party businesses. Today Rising works with women in 27 countries, focusing on areas of the world where it's the hardest to be alive as woman.  To hear Carmel tell the story of Rising International use this TedX link (and share it with your social networks) http://www.tedxsantacruz.org/ Encourage your social connections to get involved--- send them to www.risinginternational.org