[COMM-ORG] vote for ideas for change
Discussion list for COMM-ORG
colist at comm-org.wisc.edu
Tue Dec 30 16:20:43 CST 2008
[ed: to learn more about the change.org competition referred to in
Cheryl's message below, you can go directly to http://www.change.org/ideas.]
From: "Cheryl Honey, Community Weaver" <wecare at familynetwork.org>
President-elect Obama has promised to pledge his support of Community
Weaving America if it receives the most votes on the Change.org website.
Our goal is to generate 5,000 votes by December 31st. That's right 2
days to generate 5,000 votes for an initiative by the people, for the
people - so please don't hesitate to take 1 minute out of your busy
schedule to vote for Community Weaving America on the Change.org
website. Just follow the simple instructions below. Keep an eye on our
progress at www.familynetwork.org over the next few days. We can do this
- YES WE CAN!
We submitted a proposal to the Obama-Biden Transition Team for Community
Weaving America: Transforming Our Future Together. This exciting
initiative mobilizes Americans through a call to action to be Good
Neighbors. Over the past 15 years, hundreds of Americans have signed up
to be Good Neighbors at www.familynetwork.org and started Family Support
Networking in their schools, faith-based communities, businesses,
organizations and neighborhoods. It would be an honor to serve in the
Obama-Biden administration as the Director of the Community Weaving
America Initiative to bring peace and healing to our nation and restore
pride in America. Community Weaving America reunites citizens by weaving
a new social fabric of community. We live in exciting times and
American's want to pitch in and help! In 2006, Community Weaving
generated over 175,000 volunteer hours valued at $2.6 million, on a
budget less than $25,000. The pioneer of Community Weaving, Cheryl
Honey, received the Jefferson Award, the mini-Nobel Prize for Public
Service for developing a poverty reduction model that creates a more
civil society through Community Weaving.
Community Weaving America www.communityweaving.org a unique approach to
community organizing that connects people together into a grassroots
safetynet that functions interdependently with formal systems. It is
designed to restore the culture of "community" and create a voice for
the people through a reciprocal feedback loop between the grassroots and
systems. The initiative is a resource for people to find what they need
and become less reliant on public services. Our vision for America is to
inspire citizens to realize their potential, restore pride in America,
bridge peace between people, increase citizen involvement in democracy,
foster an interdependent relationship between government and the people,
and re-weave the fabric of community to create a more caring, just and
civil society.
The Community Weaving America Initiative recruits, trains and mobilizes
citizens from all walks of life to address human needs such as
addiction, health, crime and violence, poverty, homelessness, mental
health, prisoner reentry and at-risk youth. Community Weaving America
builds a social infrastructure to build and bridge social capital and
engages citizens to be more responsive and responsible to conditions
impacting their lives. It is an alternative to assistance programs that
encourage a psychology of entitlement. The web-based technology
developed by Good Neighbor volunteers at www.familynetwork.org enables
people to sign up for free as a Good Neighbor and pool and share
resources, find what they need, post activities. publish alphabetized
resource directories and rosters, share great ideas and compile activity
reports to measure levels, frequency and types of engagement activities.
The materials developed for the great ideas is shared at no cost
enabling the innovations to be easily replicated in other communities.
Local businesses list the resources they are willing to share at no/low
cost to make services and information more accessible.
Our elected officials and community leaders needs data to make tough
decisions. They need to know the level of commitment people are making
to change patterns. Community Weaving measures change to keep public
officials and the grassroots informed. The approach offers the Obama
administration a solution to reduce demand on public services through
civic engagement activities sprearheaded by the people, for the people,
to restore liberty and justice for all.
On a large scale, the data collected provides indicators of the ways
citizens are taking responsibility for what they care about to leverage
sustainable change and improve their quality of life. These indicators
inform leaders where to allocate limited resources to safeguard against
unnecessary government spending and duplication of programs. Community
Weaving bolsters efforts to restore peace and enable reconciliation in
communities torn apart by the polarity of their sub-cultural
differences. The County Wide Community Forums,
http://www.countywidecommunityforums.org/aboutus.html the first
citizen's initiative passed into law in King County, Washington is a
useful method to create a reciprical feedback loop between local leaders
and community members.
We must ask the people what they need to be EMPOWERED to meet their own
needs and solve problems impacting their communities. Can we provide
them the means to achieve their dreams? YES, WE CAN! Community Weaving
can be deployed as a countermeasure to budget cuts that will impact
federal programs and services. This administration need not face
absolute social chaos due to budget shortfalls. Americans are capable of
managing through turbulent times and committed to turning this nation
around.
You have the power to decide if this is what you want for the future of
our country - neighbors helping neighbors to weave a new grassroots
safetynet! Are people ready to help one another? Are you willing to lend
a helping hand to a neighbor in need? We can transform our future
together by tapping our collective capacity to creatively address the
challenges facing our nation. YES WE CAN!
We live in exciting times! Let's speak up and show them what we can do
to transform our nation! This is what Obama is asking of us...to help
one another and serve others.
Cheryl Honey is prepared to serve as an advisor to the Obama
administration to oversee the Community Weaving America Initiative.
President Obama needs our help to deal with the problems facing our
nation. More information about Community Weaving is located at:
www.communityweaving.org or email wecare at communityweaving.org or call
206.240.2241.
Please pass this along to your friends, family and colleagues and let
them know why you encourage them to vote for Community Weaving America.
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
"The more resourceful we are among ourselves, the more valuable a
resource we become to our families, our communities and our world!"
Cheryl Honey
ONLY TAKES 1 MINUTE TO VOTE FOR COMMUNITY WEAVING AMERICA: Transforming
Our Future Together *
Note: In order to Vote for the Community Weaving America Initiative you
must be registered on the www.change.org website
Voting instructions if you are NOT registered on the Change.org website:
1. Go to www.Change.org website
2. Click on "Join Today" button on right hand column of Change.org
homepage.
3. Fill out the Registration form (Email address, Name, password) and
click Submit button. (Confirmation email will be auto-sent to your email
box.)
4. Return to your email box locate confirmation email and click on the
confirmation link (or cut and paste link into your browser)
5. This confirms your new registration and leads you back to the
Change.gov webpage (You will already be logged in by this procedure)
6. Click on "Ideas" in right upper corner of the Change.org homepage
7. Type Community Weaving America in search box on right side of webpage
and submit
8. Vote by clicking on Vote (Blue two-toned square) in upper left hand
corner (The number in the box will increase by one and turn brown after
you vote)
9. Scroll down to the end of the page and post a comment if you are so
inclined.
Voting procedure if you ARE registered on Change.org, but not signed in:
1. Go to www.Change.org website
2. Click on "Sign In" link in upper right hand corner of homepage. (If
the "Sign Out" link is showing then you are already signed in - skip to #4)
3. Login by entering email address and password and select Submit
4. Select "Ideas" in upper right hand side of webpage.
5. Type "Community Weaving America" in the Ideas Box and hit enter to
start search (or click on grey looking glass next to ideas field to
start search)
6. At the top left side of the Community Weaving America webpage you
will see a two toned square box with the number of votes in the box.
7. Click once in the box to vote for Community Weaving America (The
number in the box will increase by one and turn brown once your vote is
recorded).
After voting, if you wish to add a comment, scroll all the way to the
bottom of the page (it's a long page) and enter your comment in the
Comment text box. Don't forget to click the Post Comment button afterwards!
That's it! You have now voted and posted your comment for Community
Weaving America on Change.org
Please vote today and pass this along to your family, friends and
neighbors. You have the power to make Community Weaving America an
initiative for the people - by the people in the Obama Administration!
The more resourceful we are among ourselves, the more valuable a
resource we become to our families, our communities and our world.
For more information contact:
Cheryl Honey, Founder & Director
Community Weaving America
wecare at communityweaving.org
www.communityweaving.org
www.familynetwork.org
206.240.2241
* Varies depending how quickly the auto-response sends confirmation email.
Newspaper Articles:
March 2, 1996 "A substitute for welfare: Is volunteerism a better way?"
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=2316872&date=19960302&query=A+substitute+for+welfare%3F+Volunteer+help+a+better+way%3F
February 8, 1997 "Bothell volunteer grew her group into 800 pairs of
helping hands" by Jack Broom
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=2522877&date=19970208&query=Bothell+volunteer+grew+her+group+into+800+pairs+of+helping+hands
April 6, 2007 5 Jefferson Award Winners honored
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/310588_jefferson06.html
April 5, 2007 Jefferson Award, Cheryl Honey: A weaver of neighborhood
networks http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/310305_honey05.html
Spring, 2008, Yes Magazine: People we love
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2308
Television:
New Attitudes, Lifetime Channel (1998): (7 minutes)
http://www.familynetwork.org/FSNvideo.wmv
Community Weaving Powerpoint Presentations:
www.grassrootsandgroundwork.nwaf.org/Materials/Community%20Weaving/Community%20Weaving.ppt
http://www.grassrootsandgroundwork.nwaf.org/Materials/Community%20Weaving/Community%20Weaving%20%20-%20Start-up%20Overview.doc
Articles:
Beyond Theory: Civil Society in Action (published by Brookings Institute)
http://www.brookings.edu/articles/1997/fall_civilsociety_solo.aspx
Center for Substance Abuse Technology
http://casat.unr.edu/docs/CommunityWeaving.pdf
USF Collaborative Article on CW
http://www.usfcollab.usf.edu/newsdetail.cfm?newsID=73
Community Weaving: Creative Solution for the New Century
http://comm-org.wisc.edu/papers2007/honey2.htm
Community Weaving: Past, Present and Future
http://comm-org.wisc.edu/papers2007/honey1.htm
"A Guide to Capacity Inventories: Mobilizing the Community Skills of
Local Residents"
http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/publications/community/capinv.html
Individualized Tailored Care
http://cecp.air.org/teams/prospectors/bothell_washington_individualized.asp
Cheryl Honey is the recipient of the following awards:
Jefferson Award, Overall winner, Washington State, 2007
Giraffe Award, The Giraffe Project, 1995
Ambassador for Peace, International and Interreligious Federation for
World Peace, 1996
Excellence in Leadership, International and Interreligious Federation
for World Peace, 1997
Daily Points of Light (Feb. 8, 2006), Points of Light Foundation 2006
http://www.pointsoflight.org/awards/dpol/winner.cfm?AwardNum=3134
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