Date Archives → July 29, 2010

Reflections From The First International CrisisCongress

CrisisCongress Photo Courtesy of Taylor Davidson on Flickr


Back in January, when the earthquake happened in Haiti, I felt like I do in all catastrophic disasters. Sick to my stomach. Human suffering is always hard to see, but for me, I’ve always been really sensitive to the suffering of others, and my whole life these instances had left me feeling like what could I do to help. Me, only one person.

As I’ve grown into my activist and humanitarian roles, technology has helped me find a place where I feel like I belong in the response. It’s not my primary profession, per say, in life. But it is a place where I feel like I can make a difference.

How?

Sometimes, from using our voice. Our voice online has the ability to multiply and make a bigger impact. Using your voice on the internet (and this could be Facebook or your own blog) is a way of standing up for what you believe, asking questions, and seeking answers.

That’s what happened to me in January. The earthquake happened and I turned to the Internet to see what the response would be. I had heard of Transparency Camps happening last summer, but only pieces, as I had been in the Philippines on my Kiva Fellowship. I had heard more about CrisisCommons from friends like Alex Rose and Chad Catacchio and with my incessant need for information learned more about the Camps. I started to see them pop up around the country and people were reaching out to me, since I now lived in New Orleans, asking to connect with people who had been instrumental in the response for Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and wondering when there would be a CrisisCamp in New Orleans.

From the bottom of my cause-filled activist heart, you could say this is how I was roped in to creating CrisisCampNOLA.

I was helped by Robert Fogarty, who himself has a nonprofit focused on evacuation techniques called Evacuteer.org and by Barrett Conrad, who leads up a monthly developer event in New Orleans and could tap into those networks to get developers to attend.

So I had Alex and Chad rooting me on, and Robert and Barrett partnering and helping shoulder the load, and the local New Orleans community donating space (LaunchPadNOLA), food (Naked Pizza) and press/promotion (New Orleans Tech) and all of the pieces were coming together. But more than all of that, all CrisisCamps would be remiss not to mention Heather Blanchard.

Heather’s passion for creating CrisisCamp and moving CrisisCommons into a viable entity were never far off from the overall goal of having a successful campaign.

We held CrisisCampNOLA, we invited local Haitians to come and tell their stories and we built a local response and also helped on the national scale. It was, by all means, a success.
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A Creative Society Is A Prosperous Society!

Once a week this summer, come back to The Causemopolitan to read a guest post that will inspire you right up out of your seat to get involved and give back in a special series called Cause It’s Summer! Featured bloggers will be sharing their own reflections and stories, tips and resources, and perspective on philanthropy, social entrepreneurship and their own cause-filled life. This week welcome Ryan Fix, who shares his journey to create Pure Projects and what defines creativity and prosperity in his world, and how you can use those values towards your own projects. This is one you don’t want to miss!

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A creative society is a prosperous society! In some ways, we all seek to define creativity and prosperity as it means something different for each of us. My creativity has tended towards the curatorial process and my current application typically involves the fusion of creativity, innovation, sustainability, social & environmental awareness, and values-driven business principles. I define prosperity through a perspective of abundance versus scarcity. Therefore, prosperity for me is simply a state of mind that has an outward effect on my external environment.

For some time now, I have operated from the perspective that creativity is the most powerful access point to our own truth; a truth that ultimately links all of humanity and life in general. This creative flow manifests differently for each of us. Painting, music, cooking, writing, entrepreneurship and so on; it’s all creativity. It connects us with that conscious that links us all.

It is through the creative process that I become more conscious and ultimately more compassionate for all life that is linked by consciousness. In essence, it is by tapping into my creative flow that I resonate with the universal truth that ‘we are all one.’

From here there is no avoiding that what I must seek is a common good for all humanity. I must find harmony between self-interest and altruism. This is the seed or truth that drives the statement: A creative society is a prosperous society!
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Help St. Bernard Project Commemorate the 5th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

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This post was originally published as an email to supporters of the St. Bernard Project. For more information you can visit their website, or follow them on Twitter (@stbernardproj) or make a donation. SBP was named in May as the first beneficiary of The Giving Project and you can also find them in the list of New Orleans nonprofits I support in my blogroll.

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Dear Friends of SBP,

August 29, 2010 marks the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the incredible devastation that still plagues the greater New Orleans area.  August 29, 2010, however, also marks the beginning of the largest and most enduring charitable response in our country’s history. At the St. Bernard Project, we are grateful for the help of 24,000+ volunteers and thousands of funders who have enabled SBP to rebuild homes for more than 300 hardworking, home-owning families. We appreciate our partners and supporters who have helped us open and successfully operate the only free mental health clinic in the area. And, we are enthusiastic about creating jobs for veterans in residential construction. In this letter, we ask for your help to make sure that the 5th Anniversary is commemorated by action and meaningful efforts to solve solvable problems.

While much progress has been made, for too many clients, the 5th anniversary means just another summer waiting to move back into their storm-devastated home. Today, despite our best efforts, nearly 1,000 families own homes but are still living in FEMA trailers because they can not afford to rebuild. Another 6,000+ families who own homes cannot afford to rebuild.  Mental health problems plague the community and post-Katrina rental prices have increased to the point of being unaffordable.

Just as hope and progress were gaining momentum (The New Orleans Saints won the Superbowl, we elected a new mayor, Treme became a national favorite) another threat emerged and inches closer to the Gulf shores — and the precious marshes that protect St. Bernard and New Orleans — with every passing day. As the Deep Water Horizon spill unleashes vast amounts of oil into the Gulf, residents who already lost their homes now face the loss of their livelihood and lifestyles.
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Daily Dose of Inspiration: The Changemakers Series

Once a week this summer, come back to The Causemopolitan to read a guest post that will inspire you right up out of your seat to get involved and give back in a special series called Cause It’s Summer! Featured bloggers will be sharing their own reflections and stories, tips and resources, and perspective on philanthropy, social entrepreneurship and their own cause-filled life. This week welcome Olivia Khalili, as she shares six stories of people and companies that are doing good in the world, despite all odds. The stories are inspirational, and also true testaments to the strength of the human spirit.

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Most of the time I forget to be inspired by myself.  Hang on, I’m anything but immodest, but that’s just my point. We’re comfortable with drawing inspiration from others, but don’t usually tap our own stores of experiences and learning.  So before I share some of the people and projects that inspire me, I’m taking a minute to silently include myself, to put to use the lessons learned from my life of gaffs and victories and tamed uncertainties—and I think you should do the same.

Much of my time is focused on using business to positively affect society. This puts me in contact with social entrepreneurs, homespun do-gooders, professional changemakers and many types in between. I’d like to share some of my favorite inspirations whom you might not yet have heard of, and offer them up as a potential inspiration for you too.

Philip Rosedale
Philip is the founder and CEO of Linden Lab (the maker of Second Life).  Every quarter, he sends his employees a quick questionnaire asking:

“Do you want to keep me or find a new CEO?  Over the last three months, did I get better at this job or worse?  Why?”

Voting is anonymous. Rosedale shares answers to the first two questions with the entire company. Overtime, as responses indicated that it was becoming increasingly difficult for Rosedale to improve, he tapped a successor (that was last fall; this past June he rejoined as CEO). I’m inspired by Rosedale because he routinely opened himself up for criticism.  He held the success of his company in higher regard than his own success and ego.

Joyce Lavalle
A sales director named Joyce LaValle left a copy of Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce on her CEO’s desk, which led to a complete transformation of the company and the industrial carpet industry as a whole.  Joyce works with Ray Anderson, the founder and CEO of Interface Inc. Hawken’s ideas inspired Anderson to commit his company to zero waste by 2020 and alter the methods and resources it uses to produce carpet. Interface is well on the way toward its goal and has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in waste, as well as increased sales by more than $1 billion.  Sixteen years later, Joyce heads the marketing for InterfaceFLOR.
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August 25 – CitizenGulf National Day of Action

Mark your calendars! Citizen Effect’s CitizenGulf project will become a National Day of Action on August 25th, in alignment with the week of the fifth anniversary of Katrina. The benefit — to be promoted by Gulf Coast Benefit — seeks to help fishing families find a new, more sustainable future by providing education resources for their children.

You Can Help Many

Catholic Charities of New Orleans is the beneficiary of all CitizenGulf National Day of Action donations. Citizen Effect will send 100% of donations, less credit card fees, directly to Catholic Charities to support education programs for fishing families.

There are three things citizens like you can do to help:

1) Attend or host your local event

2) Donate

3) Support Gulf Coast Benefit’s Pepsi Refresh project.

Donations can be given directly through the main CitizenGulf project page.

A Day of Action Means Jazz, Blues, Zydeco, and More


Events will be meet-ups at places that can accommodate the following: People, hurricanes, New Orleans themed music (i.e. jazz, blues, zydeco) and a local green or environmental expert who can say a few things about the oil spill’s impact on the marine environment and the Gulf Coast economies associated with it. Registration will be $10.

Social Media Club has signed on as a CitizenGulf project partner and will help Gulf Coast Benefit promote the CitizenGulf events. Cities that have already signed on to host events include Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York and Washington, DC. A full list of cities and details on how to register and participate will be available on the Gulf Coast Benefit web site no later than August 1.

We Are Actively Seeking Event Hosts, Sponsors and Attendees.

We are actively seeking hosts and sponsors to lead official events in many cities, organize Social Media Club local events and host unofficial awareness meetings. Email us at for more details.

Gulf Coast Benefit’s Pepsi Refresh project will be our third action, and will be open for voting on August 2 (stay tuned for updates). The week of the national day of action, Citizen Effect will also offer CitizenGulf opportunities for individuals to engage in their own citizen grassroots projects throughout the fall to benefit fishing families; education, healthcare, food, etc.

In addition to my support through The Causemopolitan and NOLAlicious, we have support from Zoetica and additional promotion partners for the national day of action include Andy Sternberg, el-studio.com, Live Your Talk, and Taylor Davidson. Thank you so much for everything you and our caring supporters have done to support CitizenGulf.

The project is now yours!