Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
All good things must come to an end..
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi
This semester my macro-practice class worked on a week of community interventions for Break The Silence, Stop the Violence Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault against women awareness week. It was filled with four events that helped to spread awareness on violence against women. These events included The Clothesline Project, Take Back the Night, Telling Amy's Story Video, and The Vagina Monologues. For each event to be successful there was much process to be put into each one, and then to bring them all together to make the week a success.
Throughout this semester and being a part of this week I have learned much about what macro practice is, how organization, structure, communication, dedication all come into play when it comes to putting macro practice into work. For a project this large you would think that "divide and conquer" would be the best way to approach it. But in this case that may not be the best idea. Because it is important to remember that this project will be all put together at some point to make it a finished project, it makes it more difficult to have too many opinions, and to many ideas all at once, which may not piece together so easily in the end. So it is important to keep in mind that if the work is divided, you must still communicate with one another to stay on the same track. To divide and conquer this project the three macro practice classes each took on separate roles and within those classes had a communicator between the three. Therefore this making it easier for the communicator to let their own individual classes know what needed to be done and give us updates. The communicator for each class played a huge role in how successful the communication between the three classes was.
I feel that the biggest part in this week was the dedication it took for all people involved to make it a success. Dedication is defined as the quality of being dedicated or committed to a task or purpose. Being committed is something I feel this group reflected. Dedication also takes time and energy. Two things that most of us are running low on these days. But we pushed through it with the motivation from one another and our advisors. We were reminded everyday how much of what we were doing was helping the projects go on their way. We were able to look to each other for support and to express any feelings of doubt, stress, concern, or excitement. With the help of one another we made it through.
"It is much easier (at least in the short run) to just focus on one or the other and that is what most groups do. Groups of people have very strong tendencies toward focusing just on their commonality or just on their differences. "
I feel that this quote captures what this group did well. We learned how to balance each other out. Throughout our individual classes, and all three classes combined there was a large amount of differences and similarities about ideas and feelings for this project. We all learned how to open up to a difference or how to defend a similarity. It was a hard task, but I feel that without learned how to do so we wouldn't have been so successful. It was more difficult for some compared to others, but i feel it reflected in our work how well we did.
Look forward at future macro classes, my advice to these future macro practice classes is to stay calm, and get organized. Make lists of what worked and what didn't work for us. Take into consideration any new or old ideas that may be given or used. An event like this never turns out the same twice. It is important to keep an open mind and go with the flow. Allow yourself to reflect on each piece of the project and what your learning. Look at the bigger picture of things.
As this semester began I always thought of macro practice to be about policies, procedures, and laws. I never considered it to be based around communities, but to be focused on a much larger scale. I've learned that it is so much more than that. Macro practice is about awareness, experience, and larger scale support systems. Being in a community you have this entire support system around you. Each person brings a different story and experience to the table that you can learn from. As for myself I've learned and accepted the fact that I am an important part to the community or multiple communities I am involved in. People learn from me as much as I am learning from them. I never gave myself much credit before. Although I am intimidated by many things, especially working with groups I have learned how to work with this feeling and get through it. I am only a small and minor part of this world, but what I'm working towards achieving is impacted by my part in community and world. A few examples of how I see and consider myself as an activist are explained greatly from "Active Being! Clarity From the Remastered Tools 101 Participants"...
....Active being is being okay with making mistakes, having compassion for yourself and others, not being perfectionist, sharing works-in-progress.
-Gandhi
This semester my macro-practice class worked on a week of community interventions for Break The Silence, Stop the Violence Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault against women awareness week. It was filled with four events that helped to spread awareness on violence against women. These events included The Clothesline Project, Take Back the Night, Telling Amy's Story Video, and The Vagina Monologues. For each event to be successful there was much process to be put into each one, and then to bring them all together to make the week a success.
Throughout this semester and being a part of this week I have learned much about what macro practice is, how organization, structure, communication, dedication all come into play when it comes to putting macro practice into work. For a project this large you would think that "divide and conquer" would be the best way to approach it. But in this case that may not be the best idea. Because it is important to remember that this project will be all put together at some point to make it a finished project, it makes it more difficult to have too many opinions, and to many ideas all at once, which may not piece together so easily in the end. So it is important to keep in mind that if the work is divided, you must still communicate with one another to stay on the same track. To divide and conquer this project the three macro practice classes each took on separate roles and within those classes had a communicator between the three. Therefore this making it easier for the communicator to let their own individual classes know what needed to be done and give us updates. The communicator for each class played a huge role in how successful the communication between the three classes was.
I feel that the biggest part in this week was the dedication it took for all people involved to make it a success. Dedication is defined as the quality of being dedicated or committed to a task or purpose. Being committed is something I feel this group reflected. Dedication also takes time and energy. Two things that most of us are running low on these days. But we pushed through it with the motivation from one another and our advisors. We were reminded everyday how much of what we were doing was helping the projects go on their way. We were able to look to each other for support and to express any feelings of doubt, stress, concern, or excitement. With the help of one another we made it through.
"It is much easier (at least in the short run) to just focus on one or the other and that is what most groups do. Groups of people have very strong tendencies toward focusing just on their commonality or just on their differences. "
I feel that this quote captures what this group did well. We learned how to balance each other out. Throughout our individual classes, and all three classes combined there was a large amount of differences and similarities about ideas and feelings for this project. We all learned how to open up to a difference or how to defend a similarity. It was a hard task, but I feel that without learned how to do so we wouldn't have been so successful. It was more difficult for some compared to others, but i feel it reflected in our work how well we did.
Look forward at future macro classes, my advice to these future macro practice classes is to stay calm, and get organized. Make lists of what worked and what didn't work for us. Take into consideration any new or old ideas that may be given or used. An event like this never turns out the same twice. It is important to keep an open mind and go with the flow. Allow yourself to reflect on each piece of the project and what your learning. Look at the bigger picture of things.
As this semester began I always thought of macro practice to be about policies, procedures, and laws. I never considered it to be based around communities, but to be focused on a much larger scale. I've learned that it is so much more than that. Macro practice is about awareness, experience, and larger scale support systems. Being in a community you have this entire support system around you. Each person brings a different story and experience to the table that you can learn from. As for myself I've learned and accepted the fact that I am an important part to the community or multiple communities I am involved in. People learn from me as much as I am learning from them. I never gave myself much credit before. Although I am intimidated by many things, especially working with groups I have learned how to work with this feeling and get through it. I am only a small and minor part of this world, but what I'm working towards achieving is impacted by my part in community and world. A few examples of how I see and consider myself as an activist are explained greatly from "Active Being! Clarity From the Remastered Tools 101 Participants"...
....Active being is being okay with making mistakes, having compassion for yourself and others, not being perfectionist, sharing works-in-progress.
Radical self care is the foundation of active being for me. When I take good care of me, I do good work. Such simple things like drinking enough water, cooking good meals, praying, putting on lotion.
Active being is listening to myself and listening to my community and physically putting my body where it needs to be.
As I've worked through this semester and with this community project I've learned these things about myself. I will take what I've learned and bring it with me into my next experiences. In 5 years I hopefully will remember the great impact this project made on not only me, but all the individuals who helped and attended these events. My knowledge about violence towards women has grown and I hope it has done so for others as well. It makes me proud to be a women. And I have learned to give myself respect first and hopefully will receive the same respect back.
For future students who will cross the same dilemmas and paths when it comes to learning and being a part of community work. I leave you with this. Take time for yourself. Don't stress the little things. To go with the flow. Don't forget to take your time with your duties of the class and your everyday life. Make lists, lots of lists. Make a visually appealing outline of what you need to get done, and mark each task off one by one. And most of all keep motivated, you will get through it. So be who you are and be who you want to be. And keep in mind that you can create change.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Aid-Based vs. Community-Based Approaches
Most people automatically think that "doing something is better than nothing". But here I have learned that it is much much more than that. In fact that sometimes doing something can make another something worse. It may not help out the problem or conflict at all and might actually help feed the problem. Sometimes the attempt to help doesn't actually help make a positive change or help to create the progress of change, but it may just be progressing the awareness of the problem.
Kony 2012 and Pray the Devil Back to Hell are two videos that give examples of an aid-based program approach and a community-based program approach for advocacy of change. The Kony 2012 video stems from the "Invisible Children" organization that was created by college students at the time who became aware of the children army created by Joseph Kony. He would kidnap and abduct children and create them into his army. They were forced to kill, even sometimes their own parents. Many african children lived in fear of being abducted and forced to serve under Kony. These children became aware to a group of college students who were abroad studying in Uganda. From that point they decided that they needed to do something about it. Create change and capture Kony is their goal. To do so they decided they needed to make Kony more famous and well-known. The Invisible Children organization has recently made an awareness video that was streamed on YouTube and shared through many other social networks. It has drawn much attention from supports and critics. Some criticisms that have been made on the Kony2012 video are that because these creators of the video are just spectators as to what happened and is happening under Kony that they aren't promoting the right change. They have been criticized to portray the concept of the "Invisible Children" wrong and not use the funds to help create this change. It was said that ...
"Invisible Children has turned the myopic worldview of the adolescent -- "if I don't know about it, then it doesn't exist, but if I care about it, then it is the most important thing in the world" -- into a foreign policy prescription. The "invisible children" of the group's name were the children of northern Uganda forcibly recruited by the LRA. In the group's narrative, these children were "invisible" until American students took notice of them." -Solving War Crimes with Wristbands
So it brings thought to the idea and concept of this aid-based program where a group of people got together and wanted to make a change. They wanted to advocate for these "invisible children" and help to create change wherein as they might have just created more awareness. But who is to say that this awareness they've created hasn't helped in the least bit? Who gets to make assumptions as to where the money raised goes and that it doesn't help create hope and faith to those who are affected and have been a part of the invisible children population.
On the other hand, a community-based approach takes the actual people of a community who are facing a problem or crisis and use one another to advocate for themselves and create the change. This type of approach gets much more support as compared to an aid-based program because people see it as non-condraticing when it is the people themselves who know and have experienced these crises and typically have the best say and experience in how to create such a change that is needed. A quote from the video "A Day Without Dignity" states,
"If you need to do something tangible, start it in your own backyard."
This is a strong quote that can be looked at by a couple of different angles. First it supports the community-based approach in a way that it claims to make something your own if you want to make it real you must start with your own personal experience. Second if your beginning point isn't something you can call your own then making it a concrete thing may not be a reasonable goal.
What has stood out the most to be potential problems with aid-based approaches is that they lack the personal experience in a crisis or circumstance that they are advocating a cause for. But they also lack the support that is needed to create the change that they are striving for. Change is something that can be made when people come together to create it. Aid-based programs exist because there are people out there who believe that they can make a difference and have the courage to try and do so. "Badvocacy" isn't something that they feel they are doing. They have a goal and they do what they can to reach it. This occurs no matter the amount of support they may have at the beginning, middle, or end of their journeys. They aren't hoping to create more of a problem, but strive to make a small impact that could eventually have a snowball effect and continue to further then make a larger change.
Compared to the Pray the Devil Back to Hell video the Kony 2012 video is to grow support and give awareness to what these individuals have learned and what they are hoping to advocate for. The Pray the Devil Back to Hell is more of an inside look and personal experiences of individuals who have been affected by the crisis. It offers more incite and personal experience and allows the viewers to see and feel the true emotions that these individuals have felt. It expresses the community-based approach very well and shows us that when a community comes together like they did it helps to create the change and support stronger and more effectively.
Aid-based and community-based approaches can be applied to what I'm learning and doing mostly when it comes to advocating for my clients and for the company I've been interning at. One day we did lobbying at the State House in Boston to ask for more financial support for the Head Start programs. But what made this difficult was that, as Family Advocates, were were asking for more financial support for the teachers of Head Start. This seemed very difficult considering that most of the people who were there to ask for support were not even teachers. I feel it would have been more easy for us to be advocating for ourselves. But this is a challenge that comes with advocating for change. I learned that I am not always going to be advocating and learning about things I'm mostly interested in and things I am experienced in. And I will need to learn how to help create change for others but first need to educate myself as best as I can for those who need to the help to be advocated for. Learning about these two types of approaches has broadened my thought process a great amount when it comes to macro-practice social work. All semester I've been learning how to work together most sufficiently and the difficulties it comes with.
Both of these approaches have their pros and cons. And there will always be criticisms about the way people advocate for change.Truth is what I've learned most is that there isn't one best way to do something, or one type of person to do it, but its the combination of beliefs, support, faith, courage and the different people to put all you can into something to make it what you believe it to be. And no matter how big or small the change or impact of something may be, there is always the drive to keep on trying.
Kony 2012 and Pray the Devil Back to Hell are two videos that give examples of an aid-based program approach and a community-based program approach for advocacy of change. The Kony 2012 video stems from the "Invisible Children" organization that was created by college students at the time who became aware of the children army created by Joseph Kony. He would kidnap and abduct children and create them into his army. They were forced to kill, even sometimes their own parents. Many african children lived in fear of being abducted and forced to serve under Kony. These children became aware to a group of college students who were abroad studying in Uganda. From that point they decided that they needed to do something about it. Create change and capture Kony is their goal. To do so they decided they needed to make Kony more famous and well-known. The Invisible Children organization has recently made an awareness video that was streamed on YouTube and shared through many other social networks. It has drawn much attention from supports and critics. Some criticisms that have been made on the Kony2012 video are that because these creators of the video are just spectators as to what happened and is happening under Kony that they aren't promoting the right change. They have been criticized to portray the concept of the "Invisible Children" wrong and not use the funds to help create this change. It was said that ...
"Invisible Children has turned the myopic worldview of the adolescent -- "if I don't know about it, then it doesn't exist, but if I care about it, then it is the most important thing in the world" -- into a foreign policy prescription. The "invisible children" of the group's name were the children of northern Uganda forcibly recruited by the LRA. In the group's narrative, these children were "invisible" until American students took notice of them." -Solving War Crimes with Wristbands
So it brings thought to the idea and concept of this aid-based program where a group of people got together and wanted to make a change. They wanted to advocate for these "invisible children" and help to create change wherein as they might have just created more awareness. But who is to say that this awareness they've created hasn't helped in the least bit? Who gets to make assumptions as to where the money raised goes and that it doesn't help create hope and faith to those who are affected and have been a part of the invisible children population.
On the other hand, a community-based approach takes the actual people of a community who are facing a problem or crisis and use one another to advocate for themselves and create the change. This type of approach gets much more support as compared to an aid-based program because people see it as non-condraticing when it is the people themselves who know and have experienced these crises and typically have the best say and experience in how to create such a change that is needed. A quote from the video "A Day Without Dignity" states,
"If you need to do something tangible, start it in your own backyard."
This is a strong quote that can be looked at by a couple of different angles. First it supports the community-based approach in a way that it claims to make something your own if you want to make it real you must start with your own personal experience. Second if your beginning point isn't something you can call your own then making it a concrete thing may not be a reasonable goal.
What has stood out the most to be potential problems with aid-based approaches is that they lack the personal experience in a crisis or circumstance that they are advocating a cause for. But they also lack the support that is needed to create the change that they are striving for. Change is something that can be made when people come together to create it. Aid-based programs exist because there are people out there who believe that they can make a difference and have the courage to try and do so. "Badvocacy" isn't something that they feel they are doing. They have a goal and they do what they can to reach it. This occurs no matter the amount of support they may have at the beginning, middle, or end of their journeys. They aren't hoping to create more of a problem, but strive to make a small impact that could eventually have a snowball effect and continue to further then make a larger change.
Aid-based and community-based approaches can be applied to what I'm learning and doing mostly when it comes to advocating for my clients and for the company I've been interning at. One day we did lobbying at the State House in Boston to ask for more financial support for the Head Start programs. But what made this difficult was that, as Family Advocates, were were asking for more financial support for the teachers of Head Start. This seemed very difficult considering that most of the people who were there to ask for support were not even teachers. I feel it would have been more easy for us to be advocating for ourselves. But this is a challenge that comes with advocating for change. I learned that I am not always going to be advocating and learning about things I'm mostly interested in and things I am experienced in. And I will need to learn how to help create change for others but first need to educate myself as best as I can for those who need to the help to be advocated for. Learning about these two types of approaches has broadened my thought process a great amount when it comes to macro-practice social work. All semester I've been learning how to work together most sufficiently and the difficulties it comes with.
Both of these approaches have their pros and cons. And there will always be criticisms about the way people advocate for change.Truth is what I've learned most is that there isn't one best way to do something, or one type of person to do it, but its the combination of beliefs, support, faith, courage and the different people to put all you can into something to make it what you believe it to be. And no matter how big or small the change or impact of something may be, there is always the drive to keep on trying.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Community Interventions
As part of the publicity team I was put in charge to post flyers around the East side of campus. I posted flyers all around the Burnell area, and throughout Moakley, Hart, and ECC. I also posted some flyers in bathroom stalls and in numerous stairways. I could use more and continue to post them in other places as well. I am going to post a few flyers at my internship and send one out to each of the classrooms to inform the staff here about what will be going on. I have also emailed other schools who have taken part in these events asking for some feed back on what worked well for them and any advice they could give. I have unfortunately only heard back from one person so far, but have recieved some helpful information. I am hoping to hear back from at least one more contact person on their thoughts about their personal experiences for putting together these events. And if there is anything further that I can and am allowed to do as for publicity I am open to ideas on what to do!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
DSNI & Holding Ground
After reading about the DSNI and watching the Holding Ground video I have been able to apply more concept and meaning to community projects. The Holding Ground video explains from the beginning about how a community that was at it bests, slowly fell down to its worst. And in between the best and worst times it explores what the community and its residents had to do in order to improve their living situations. The sacrifices that the community as a whole had to make in order to restore the Roxbury area are outstanding accomplishments. The population in this community included immigrants of Spanish, Cape Verdian, and Portuguese families which were the ones being affected most by the falling of this community. They moved here to better their lives and continued to struggle in poverty. Just because these people are struggling doesn't mean that they should be living in the filth that their neighborhoods were made of. Their neighborhoods and blocks were filled with dumbing of others garbage which made the living unbearable and unhealthy.
It was time to make a change and clean up the neighborhood and make it a livable place like it use to be. Fraser and Kick highlight the importance of growing poverty in Understanding Community Building in Urban America by identifying three forms of organizing community. "Persistent urban poverty is not new on the American landscape. Indeed, Fisher (1996) posits that issues of poverty have motivated three primary forms of organizing neighborhood community in the United States since the 1800s. As a necessary preliminary to subsequent discussion we summarize these forms next, respectively labeling them as “social work,” “neighborhood main- tenance,” and “political activist” approaches." As social workers we learn to be activist and advocates for our community and for those of less fortunate. We support oppressed populations and take something little and make it bigger and better.
The planning and rebuilding of a community is much easier said than done. Throughout the video it showed that in order to be successful there needed to be many supporters financially, physically, and emotionally. Without working together as the government and the community residents and representatives then the ideas and solutions wouldn't have been as successful. They learned that you can't go into a community and tell them what needs to be changed and how its going to happen. You must first get the opinions and ideas from the community itself to devise a plan of action that best suites the needs. This quote from Myles Horton explains a good point of view on working with a community.
"To me, it's essential that you start where people are. But ifyou're going to start where they are and they don't change, then there's no point in starting because you're not going anywhere. So while I insist on starting where people are, that's the only place they could start I can start somewhere else. I can start where I am, but they've got to start where they are. But then if you don't have some vision of what ought to be or what they can become, then you have no way of contributing anything to the process. Your theory determines what you want to do in terms of helping people grow. So it's extremely important that you have a theory about it that helps you decide."(Horton & Freire)
In the Hardina article Linking Citizen Participation to Empowerment Practice: A Historical Overview there is a passage that I think is great to apply to community working. "The primary purpose of community organized practices is to acquire power for members of oppressed groups. They define empowerment in individuals as 'confidence, control, decision, authority, influence, autonomy and self trust.'." This is a great explanation of how giving power to the community members themselves will able the biggest change to happen. Once again it is supported that the importance of community involvement in planning and action makes the largest impact and progression in change. In doing so builds trust and relationships as well as bringing ideas together.
The DSNI organization was created to help bring a community together and make change. To this day those part of this organization are working together to continue to make the lives of those who need it better. They are striving to sustain community development and to continue progression.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Change Agents
Education
and experience are two things that can never be taken away from an individual.
Many people work hard to learn what they know and deserve what they can achieve
by hard work. Throughout history there
have been many social activists that have made an impact on society today.
Though it may not be known by many who these individuals are or what they have
done, it may affect their lives everyday. These people have gone through many
experiences and challenges to learn what they know and to make the impact that
they have. There is much we can learn from them and follow their guidance to
achieve what we believe may be right.
Wangari Maathai and Will Allen are two activists that I feel have made
such a great impact and can teach us a lot about how to make change happen.
Wangari Maathai was born on April 1,
1940 in Nyeri, Kenya. Her family lived in a mud-walled five-bedroom structure.
Her parents were farmers and raised cotton, coffee, and tea. Wangari came to
the United States in 1960 after receiving a scholarship to study here. She
graduated in 1964 with a B.S in biology from Mount College, then earned a M.S
in biological sciences in 1966 from the University of Pittsburgh, and then
continued on to get her Ph.D in anatomy in 1971 from the University of Nairobi. With her extensive knowledge and education
Wangari became a well-known and loved activist and advocate for poor women and
human rights. In 1977 she started the Green Belt Movement, which has made her
nationally well known and looked upon as a great inspiration.
Wangari focused her work on poor
women who were primarily responsible for gathering firewood and provide this
staple to their families. Due to the degradation of the surrounding forests,
the collecting of the firewood became difficult. Wangari became aware of this
issue when she returned to Kenya, and this is when she decided to become an
environmentalist and advocate for these women. Deforestation is a commonly
known issue that has been on the rise. And even though women’s rights have come
a long way since much earlier years there is still struggle for the authority
of women.
“African
women’s influence has become even further removed from their original
decentralized tribal lifestyle through the concentrations of authority in
bureaucratic national legislatures constructed on Western political standards
(Gordon, 2001). Thus, even into the twenty-first century, the African women
continue to be marginalized socially, economically, and politically.” (Kirkscey,
p.12)
To help make an impact on the
bureaucracy and decline of African women tribal lifestyles, Wangari created the
Green Belt Movement. This organization was created to help prevent the decline
in nature and the causing effects of global warming and the rapid changes in
climate. This organization plants trees to help preserve the natural wildlife
in Kenya and hundreds of international locations. Their mission is to “mobilize
community consciousness-using tree planting as an entry point- for
self-determination, equity, improved livelihoods and security, and environmental
conservation.” The Green Belt Movement plants trees in hopes to empower
Africans, especially women and girls, and to nurture their leadership and
entrepreneurial skills as well as other women. They hope to continue to
advocate internationally for the environment, good governance, equity and
cultures of peace. Wangari received the Nobel Peace Prize as the first African
women to receive such an honorable award. She has made an impact on many
individuals and is known for her strong wisdom and sense of change. (Greenbelt
Movement). It is sad to report that Wangari has recently passed away, but her
organization and contribution to society continues to live on and impacts lives
everyday.
Will Allen is an individual who has
also made an impact on society through his macro practice. Allen is known for
his foundation of the Growing Power organization. He graduated from the
University of Miami in 1971 with a B.A. He followed his college career with a
few years in professional basketball and then in the corporate marketing area
while working at Proctor and Gamble. (Jones, 2010). He created the Growing
Power program in 1995 and has since then been the CEO and continued reaching
out to communities sharing his encouragement and will to change.
Allen first created the Growing Power
program to help provide job opportunities for teens, and to also provide them
with the fresh vegetables and fruits for cheaper costs. (Growing Power, 2012) He
did this to make recognition of low-income families and their poor diets.
Unable to spend the extra money on healthier food, the option of the food he
was growing made it possible for these families struggling with poverty,
obesity, diabetes to be more available and affordable for them. (MacArthur, 2008) These products are produced
on Allen’s 2 acres of land in Milwaukee. This land is home to 20,000 plants and
vegetables, thousands of fish, chickens, goats, ducks, rabbits and bees. (Jones,
2010)
This program will continue to better the
health standards of all income level families. The accessible and affordable
products help to make people healthier and also help to make society as a whole
healthier. The way the foods are
produced in the greenhouses reduces the flow of processed foods from flowing
into the inner cities. It will help to continue keeping the air fresher and
help keep diets fresher. The program will continue to provide job and learning
opportunities throughout communities and other organizations.
These two community projects sparked my
interest the most because they not only affect the people but the environment
as well. I am a very strong believer in “going green.” Though I could be more
environmentally friendly myself, I am a huge advocate for cleaner communities.
Recycling and littering are two huge problem areas that I see everyday. It is extremely hard to teach people new
habits, like recycling, when they have never had to think about throwing a
plastic bottle away and instead putting it in the recycle bin. I truly get
upset when I see people liter and when I see trash on the streets. The little
amount of time it takes to dispose of something correctly will go a long
way. The problem with littering and
recycling is that most individuals don’t see it as much of a problem. Where the
trash ends up isn’t something we see everyday and are exposed to frequently. It
may be beneficial for people to see what littering and not recycling can do to
damage the environment.
Wangari Maathai and Will Allen have
opened my eyes to different ways that I never thought of on how to make and
impact. Both of their projects help to better individuals and society involved
and also helping the environment in the long run. Though their change occurs
over long periods of time, it still makes a huge difference in many lives. I
learned that you can take a simple idea like planting a tree or a vegetable
plant and making it grow and make its impact grow enormously. Taking a social issue or idea, giving it some
tender love and care, and it will eventually make a positive change and grow
into a healthy impacting change. I hope to make an impact on society and the
environment one day. Even if its just in a small community or grows to become
national, I hope to make something small grow into something hugely
encouraging.
References
Greenbelt Movement. (2012).
Wangari Maathai. Retrieved from
Greenbeltmovement.org
Growing Power. (2012). Our
history. Retrieved from
http://www.growingpower.org/our_history.htm
Jones, V. (2010, April 29)
Heroes; Will Allen. TIME. Retrieved
from
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1984685_1984949_1985243,00.html
Kirkscey, R. (2007).
Accommodating Traditional African Values and Globalization: Narrative as
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Foundation. (2008). 2008 MacArthur fellows. Retrieved from
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Potential Macro Practice Problems
As I'm learning more about macro practice there are three problems that have stood out to me that could be potential problems. These include not understanding the problem or goal well enough, there is no clear direction or communication within the group, and not having enough money to sustain the program or initiative.
Not Understanding the Problem or Goal Well Enough:
To fix a problem and come up with a goal it is extremely important to understand what the actual problem and goal are. We must first identify the problem and explore what it is that is making it a problem. Once we have identified a problem we must learn how extreme the problem is and what it is affecting. A great strategy to use to avoid this problem is a baseline. A baseline is a great way to start from the bottom and work your way up. You must first figure out what is happening in the first place by what factors are involved. Learning how frequently the problem is occurring and the intensity of each factor. Then use these factors to measure the changes of each problem. This is a good strategy to use because it allows you to see the changes more easily and to see how well you are progressing towards your goal.
Having No Clear Direction or Communication:
Working with a large group makes it difficult to have good, understandable communication. It makes it hard to understand the direction each person is going in and making sure everyone is on the same track as one another. Communication is a very important factor when it comes to macro practice. Some ways to prevent unclear directions and communication is by using VMOSA. This is a vision, mission, objectives, strategies, and action plans. This helps create a basic plan so that everyone can follow it together. Once these steps are created every part of the group can move forward from this beginning point. Another great way to help keep clear communication is to designate leaders. Any ideas and thoughts should be brought to the leader and they should be the one to pass along the thoughts, ideas, or any other important information to the rest of the group. This is helpful because when too many people are putting their input in at once it can become confusing and overwhelming for other parts of the group.
Not Having Enough Money to Sustain the Program or Initiative:
To start any program or project it is extremely important that you know where the funds are coming from to make the program successful. Every program will need some type of funding to be able to sustain itself and to continue its progress. Some problems that you may come across while beginning and maintaining a program are the fundings. Where are you getting them from? How much do you have? How much do you need? Or running out of sufficient funds. Some ways to avoid these types of problems are to market with outside resources. Types of marketing are image-building, friend-raising, membership development, community relations, political activities, and citizen education. When it comes to funding you can't particularly go around asking for money. It is important to sell your program and make it appealing to those who are available to help. The reason it is important to do so is so you can obtain more resources to enable you to survive, to gain valuable insights on the community your working with, and to gain a better focus on the current resources that are available. To obtain these initiatives you must make it aware to the community that the group or program exists and share what it does, make everyone in the community like your group/program, and to then convince them to support the group. There are many different obstacles and tools you can utilize to complete these three tasks but they vary from each community and each project.
Not Understanding the Problem or Goal Well Enough:
To fix a problem and come up with a goal it is extremely important to understand what the actual problem and goal are. We must first identify the problem and explore what it is that is making it a problem. Once we have identified a problem we must learn how extreme the problem is and what it is affecting. A great strategy to use to avoid this problem is a baseline. A baseline is a great way to start from the bottom and work your way up. You must first figure out what is happening in the first place by what factors are involved. Learning how frequently the problem is occurring and the intensity of each factor. Then use these factors to measure the changes of each problem. This is a good strategy to use because it allows you to see the changes more easily and to see how well you are progressing towards your goal.
Having No Clear Direction or Communication:
Working with a large group makes it difficult to have good, understandable communication. It makes it hard to understand the direction each person is going in and making sure everyone is on the same track as one another. Communication is a very important factor when it comes to macro practice. Some ways to prevent unclear directions and communication is by using VMOSA. This is a vision, mission, objectives, strategies, and action plans. This helps create a basic plan so that everyone can follow it together. Once these steps are created every part of the group can move forward from this beginning point. Another great way to help keep clear communication is to designate leaders. Any ideas and thoughts should be brought to the leader and they should be the one to pass along the thoughts, ideas, or any other important information to the rest of the group. This is helpful because when too many people are putting their input in at once it can become confusing and overwhelming for other parts of the group.
Not Having Enough Money to Sustain the Program or Initiative:
To start any program or project it is extremely important that you know where the funds are coming from to make the program successful. Every program will need some type of funding to be able to sustain itself and to continue its progress. Some problems that you may come across while beginning and maintaining a program are the fundings. Where are you getting them from? How much do you have? How much do you need? Or running out of sufficient funds. Some ways to avoid these types of problems are to market with outside resources. Types of marketing are image-building, friend-raising, membership development, community relations, political activities, and citizen education. When it comes to funding you can't particularly go around asking for money. It is important to sell your program and make it appealing to those who are available to help. The reason it is important to do so is so you can obtain more resources to enable you to survive, to gain valuable insights on the community your working with, and to gain a better focus on the current resources that are available. To obtain these initiatives you must make it aware to the community that the group or program exists and share what it does, make everyone in the community like your group/program, and to then convince them to support the group. There are many different obstacles and tools you can utilize to complete these three tasks but they vary from each community and each project.
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