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Community Stories

Rehabilitation, Empowerment And Leverage of Defiled, Abused and Devastated Youths & Women (REAL DADY)

African Community Teams Support (ACTS) is a charity organization that defends, rehabilitates and empowers victims of violence, marginalization and exploitation, helps them make peace and live harmoniously through formation of socio-economic community networks and teams.

Spark MicroGrants - Spark MicroGrants – Global Initiative, with Headquarters in New York

Spark MicroGrants created a dynamic model for community organizing and granting, working with enthusiastic local facilitators who want to help an impoverished community that they know of and care for. The local facilitator organizes community meetings, asks the community to define their most pressing social problem, comes up with ways to solve that problem, and implements the best one with funding from a MicroGrant.

Prescription Drug Awareness

In 2008, Gladwin county had 3 deaths related to drug overdose, and in 2009 that number doubled to 6 deaths. After two years of increasing numbers of deaths from drug overdoses, Ten Sixteen Recovery Network hosted dinners for local law enforcement and the medical community to discuss the issue. The events helped generate specific action steps to raise community awareness of the issue.

Memory Box Workshop for HIV/AIDS Affected Children

The South Coast Hospice for Psychosocial Care Memory Box Workshops  are 5-day sessions with a Counseling Psychologist, two Social Workers and two Caregivers. They are offered to children affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa, and special emphasis is placed on memory work, with modules dealing with family stories and family trees, and memory boxes which the children can decorate, and use to keep stories, photos, and other mementos of their deceased parents and their past.

A Low-Income Entrepreneurship Program in Philadelphia

The Empowerment Group’s Entrepreneurship Program trains low-income entrepreneurs in the skills they need to create sustainable businesses in the city of Philadelphia. The group helps educate individuals on the benefits of community businesses: self-employment, additional jobs for low-income individuals, and increased commercial activity. Their program attempts to address poverty issues in the struggling communities of Philadelphia.

An Original Play Educates Communities About Mental Illness

Breakthrough Club, in Wichita, Kansas, planned a unique approach to educating communities about mental illness through a reader’s theatre presentation. The content was developed by a local playwright who used the life stories of Breakthrough Club members as his inspiration. The event was held at the Century II Mary Jane Teall Theatre, one of the largest in Wichita, Kansas. Professional actors played the roles of persons with mental illness, it was directed by a local, well-known director, and the event was videotaped for future distribution.

Community Gardens in Helena, Montana

The Growing Community Project (GCP) works with stakeholders to build community gardens in order to increase food security in Helena, Montana, as well as to strengthen their neighborhoods. GCP aims to work with low-income populations, giving them gardening space and teaching them gardening skills so that they may take control of the quality of food they and their families consume. Currently, GCP manages five gardens and over 60 gardeners in Helena. Almost half of the gardeners stated in 2009 that their community garden plot allowed them to save $15.00/week on food.

Engaging Women of Color in Ending Disparities in Breast Cancer Detection and Treatment

Breast cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death among African American women; diagnosis is 10% lower among African American women than white women, but mortality rate for African American women is 37% higher. This disparity is attributed to later-stage detection and unequal receipt of high-quality medical treatment. Gilda’s Club South Florida, a free cancer support community for all, is trying to address this healthcare disparity issue.

Providing Clean Water to Villages in Kenya

Majaso Human Development (MAHUDE) is an NGO working in Kenya to provide the local villages with clean water. Since open water sources typically are more susceptible to being contaminated, polluted, or depleted by evaporation, they decided the first step to reducing water-borne illness was protecting the springs that serve as the main water supplies for villages.

Gardening Toward a Healthier Community in Riverside, California

My Neighbor’s Garden/Our Healthy Fridge (MNG/OHF) is a service provided by the Community Settlement Association (CSA) in Riverside, California. MNG/OHF’s goal is to improve the overall health in the Eastside neighborhood community. CSA promotes a healthy lifestyle by providing fresh produce, exercise programs, and cooking and nutrition classes. CSA’s clientele is predominantly Hispanic (87.5%) and extremely low income (76.8%).

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