MLK- Day of Service at Bridges Outreach - In Pictures

REENTRY FILM SERIES SCREENING AT BRIDGES OUTREACH ON MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY OF SERVICE

Voices of Hope Productions is pleased to be screening the Reentry Film Series on Monday, January 17th as part of a Martin Luther King - Day of Service at Bridges Outreach, in Summit New Jersey.

Youth and adults will come together to participate in various volunteer activities, including wrapping books and gifts, making quilts for sheltered children, sorting donations and toiletries, making brown bag lunches and creating a letter writing campaign.

Bridges began in 1988 with just one suburban couple. Today, Bridges’ Outreach includes over 1,500 kind and caring volunteers delivering over 100,000 bagged brown lunches, 40,000 breakfast bags, literally tons of clothing and toiletries and other necessities each year.

Their special program is called the Bridges' Run, where they visit with street friends. At each Run stop, volunteers distribute clothing and toiletry items, serve soup and a beverage, and ensure that every street friend who visits the truck receives what they need. Most important, volunteers mingle with Bridges' street friends and share conversation. The bond established during the Run has enduring value for both volunteers and street friends.

Bridges' staff is responsible for scheduling and managing more than 160 Runs each year, reaching out to 500 to 700 homeless friends every week, in Newark, Irvington and New York City.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day of Service
at Bridges Outreach
Monday, January 17, 2011
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
120 Morris Avenue
Summit, New Jersey

Film screening to begin at 11:00 am with discussion to follow.

Directions or for more information


The Reentry Films Series includes three short films: A Failed System, Nowhere to Go and Healing Justice: Transformed Lives. The American Friends Service Committee and Voices of Hope Productions joined forces to support, through the medium of film, community groups and policy organizations devoted to men and women returning home after incarceration. American Friends Service Committtee and Voices of Hope Productions encourages you and your organization to use each of these films with the FREE accompanying screening guide and advocacy toolkit to further your organization’s goal of developing thriving communities and productive lives of dignity.

BOOK | THE AMERICAN WAY TO CHANGE

Last week was National Volunteer Week, but as far as I'm concerned volunteerism is a year-long effort. With that in mind, I found that Shirley Sagawa's offers a compelling argument about the responsibilities that nonprofit and political leaders need to take in working with individual volunteers in changing the nation's most pressing social problems. Her approach offers a refreshing nonpartisan point of view.

"Our nation faces crises in nearly every important aspect of American life—struggling students, poor health, climate change, and limited economic opportunity to name a few. Many people look to government to solve these problems. But while government has an important role, none of these problems can be solved by government alone. In fact, none can be solved without the committed efforts of the American people, taking action on their own or in concert with others.

Service is the American way to change America. Unfortunately, service—by volunteers and national service participants—is often left out of the public problem solving tool box. It is time to get serious about solving the problems that are holding us back as a nation by making it possible for ordinary citizens to play a part."

~The American Way to Change- How National Service and Volunteers Are Transforming America~

Shirley Sagawa's book, us through the stages of "powering life" transitions and describes how, through service and political activism citizens can help transform the United States. Sagawa also addresses that nonprofit organizations do not often employ strategic measures to effectively engage volunteers for compelling "citizen engagement outcomes". Sagawa goes on to explain, "Lack of civic discourse leaves citizens vulnerable to negative campaigns, and partisan polarization leaves policy progress stalled."

Ordinary citizens must be encouraged to come forward and serve. Sagawa is correct in stating that philanthropists, nonprofit organizations and political leaders need to promote and encourage community service. It's not appropriate for citizens to constantly blame government, corporations and nonprofit organizations for the nation's inequities without stepping forward to be part of the solution. Armchair activism and charitable donations are fine, but they are not the be-all-end-all for a vibrant democracy.

But, Sagawa believes that nonprofit leaders should think of volunteers as "important partners in achieving their mission". They also need to recognize and address each person's strengths, interests and motivations for serving, and respect and support them in attaining their goals. Political and nonprofit leaders should truly empower ordinary citizens to take part in problem solving and change. By promoting volunteerism and providing an outlet for intelligent and skilled individuals to take part in the nation's societal solutions human capital and public dollars can be utilized effectively as well as furthering the real characteristics of a democratic society.

Listen to an interview with Shirley Sagawa

DONATE A USED BIKE | Pedals for Progress (P4P) Bike Drive

When:
Saturday, May 30th
12:00 to 3:00

Where:
The Grove West
Shrewsbury, NJ
exit 109 off the
Donate and Enter to win
a *new* Beach Cruiser
~~~~~

What a great idea! Pedals for Progress is putting unused bikes to good use in the developing world. For many families in developing countries, a bicycle is as important to their well-being as your car is to you. Too often, though, these families don’t have a bike and must walk everywhere. A bike from P4P changes this almost overnight. Instead of walking at three or four miles per hour, someone can pedal a bike at 10 to 15 miles per hour. Destinations that were once hours away are easily within reach. These could be new opportunities for employment, schools, health facilities, markets—just think about all the places you need to get to in the course of a week. With no public transportation and no car, what would you do? Bikes have been sent to Nicaragua, Ghana, Moldova, Sierra Leone and Guatemala to help people take part in their local economy. Over 118, 000 bikes have been donated since 1991.

Please donate only 2 wheelers, without rust and no tricycles. Flat tires and in need of some repair are accepted. Pedals for Progress also collects sewing machines, which have been distributed in El Salvador, Uganda and Jamaica, as well. Only sewing machines in working condition are accepted.

Pedals for Progress is a nonprofit organization based in High Bridge, N.J., that has collected bikes to send overseas for the past 18 years. David Schweidenback, president of Pedals for Progress, referred to the recycling chain of the bikes as a "transfer of wealth between nations." Learn about the NJ Based non-profit charity, Pedals for Progress, the world's largest recycler of used bicycles. Bikes and donations are tax deductible. It takes $28 to ship one bike overseas, so please include a $10 donation to defray shipping costs.

Summer Collection Schedule for bike drives around the state.
Review their current partner locations
Organize a Pedals for Progress Bike Drive in your community.

PRODUCT PLACEMENTS IN PROGRAMMING WILL OVERTAKE 30 SEC SPOTS

And they'll be sneaky about it.

It looks like NBC takes the cake for tops in product placements. NBC also owns Bravo, so you will see in the chart below that NBC Universal has 8 out of 10 of the top program product placements in 2007. In a rare combination of corporate sponsorship and all-out advertising, on New Years Day, musician Seal performed live on, “The Music of Seal on Ice,” (NBC) while Gold Medalist skaters performed for the crowd with proceeds going to the nonprofit organization Autism Speaks. On a side note, Bob White, Autism Speaks co-founder, whose grandson is autistic, is Vice Chairman of General Electric and served as CEO of NBC for 20 years.

There were quite a few corporate sponsors, one of which was Musselman’s applesauce. The show was quite effective in interviewing the skaters and their families about their Musselman’s healthy snack choices. The show itself was rather odd, but I love Seal and continued to watch in awe while the advertising and promotion machines were seamlessly integrated both in program content and the “traditional” commercial advertising. According to one blogger who was at the “live” event, Seal actually went backstage for 5 of the songs while the skaters performed to canned Seal music, yet the broadcast showed only the Seal live performance. Keep your eye out for more product placements and less 30 minute spots in the future.

TOP 10 MOST EFFECTIVE PRODUCT PLACEMENTS OF 2007

1.TYSON - Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC)

2.Sue Bee Honey - The Apprentice LA (NBC)

3.Soft Scrub - The Apprentice LA (NBC)

4.KRAFT - Top Chef (Bravo)

5.Propel Fitness Water - Workout (Bravo)

6.Smart Mouth - The Apprentice LA (NBC)

7.NEXXUS - Shear Genious (Bravo)

8.Second Life - The Office (NBC)

9.Visa - What Not to Wear (TLC)

10.Kenmore - Top Chef (Bravo)

Source: Hollywood Reporter

VOICES SELECT | GREATER GOOD MAGAZINE: NEW SOURCES OF HOPE

Hillary and I have been looking for a great magazine of real giving and I think Greater Good might just fill the bill. I usually don't look at or read what I perceive as junk direct mail campaigns. This time I opened up the bright sunny package and began reading the appeal, "For too long studies of human emotion have focused on the roots of violence, aggression, and selfishness rather than kindness, compassion, and love. Scientists have charted the "fight or flight" portion of our nervous systems, but they're just starting to map out the pro-social brain. We know more about anger than compassion, more about causes for divorce than what makes long-term intimacy."

I was immediately compelled to further investigate the magazine and what I found is that it's from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. According to Co-editors, Jason Marsh and Dr. Dacher Keltner, the Greater Good, "fuses ground-breaking research with inspiring stories...on human happiness, virtue and well-being." Here's the best part, "it explains how to convert the research into action." Greater Good is tailor-made for my interests and clearly speaks to me.

They are now on their 7th issue and the website is terrific, with podcasts and a lot of great information.

SEEDS OF PEACE: ANNUAL CONCERT OF PEACE

On Tuesday, September 11, 2007, at 7:30 pm Musicians 4 Harmony is hosting their Sixth Annual Concert for Peace at the Symphony Space (95th Street at Broadway) in New York City. This year, Musicians 4 Harmony has elected to donate the proceeds from this concert to Seeds of Peace. The concert will include performances by legendary pianist Claude Frank and master Chinese pipa player Wu Man, in addition to many other talented musicians who will appear in this special event.

Seeds of Peace develops and empowers young leaders from regions of conflict to work towards peace through coexistence and conflict resolution. Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has graduated over 3,000 teenagers and young adults from several regions of conflict and has reached several thousand more in their communities through initiatives such as the International Camp in Maine.

Tickets are on sale now ($35, $75, $125 including reception afterwards) at 212-864-5400 and all sales will go to Seeds of Peace.

HOW TO FUND A MILLION DOLLAR DOCUMENTARY iDEA

Well I have to say some people are very creative fund raisers. And there aren't many of them around. It took me some time to read and understand what Nirvan Mullick is doing with his 1-Second Film and this young guy is pure genius. Let me boil down what he's doing. First, Nirvan is a social entrepreneur. He's great with technology and he came up with an idea on how to create a social network that's interested in using art, technology and film to give back.

Now here's the genius part. While living in LA he began hitting the streets to pitch his 1-Second film. His pitch: for just $1 anyone could be a producer of his film. What's the film you ask? 1 Second of large-scale art murals that had been created at an event at CalArts in 2001, with 90 minutes of credits. The credits will include the story of the making of the collaborative effort and all the money donated will go to the Global Fund for Women.

My guess --it wasn't easy because most people would say 'What?-No!" or ignore him and just plain walk away. How different was he than a bum on the street? But then he ran across George Clooney and 1-Second Film history was made. Using well known advertising and sales techniques and lots of roll-up your sleeves attitude, apparently Nirvan lit the ground afire and starting pitching celebrities at places like Sundance. Meanwhile it might help to be at Sundance and win an award which can than give you the credibility to even talk to all these celebs. The celebs laughed at his idea, but some chalked up 100 bucks and more! And on camera to boot! So Nirvan now has a Foundation, he's made over $170,000 and he's raising money for a bus and road trip to pitch to Oprah.

The best part is that this is a huge coalition collaboration. Every person who gives a dollar gets to have a "Producers" profile on the website and there's now over 7000 of them. If you're feeling ambitious you can also submit your own film, create art, etc.

Back to the genius part. Website, 7000 people, $170,000, each producer can raise money on the site, rub elbows with celebrities and feel like they're part of something great and BIG. The only thing odd is that the charity doesn't have any reference to the project on their website. There's also 5 phases so this kind of social networking fun/fund raising could go on forever and gains momentum every day.

All I can say is "Geez why didn't I think of that?"