Category: Acrchives

Check out everything from the first three years of Project Kinect

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Project Kinect at Work: Carts for Community

Screen Shot 2015-08-05 at 11.31.24 AMWe are in our second year of the Carts for Community Internship Program. This program is a workforce incubator created to teach teenagers from economically challenged communities in Madison food safety, food management, small business, and entrepreneurial skills. In it’s second year, the internship will go from four students to ten students, add on community partners including REAP Food Group and University of Wisconsin food services department. We will also be working with Second Harvest Foodbank, Sysco Foods, and Let’s Eat Out. 

The project could not be done without the help of our other partner, Briarpatch Youth Services. Together, we are so excited to launch our second year of this five year development and sustainability goal. 

However, THIS CANNOT BE SUCCESSFUL WITHOUT YOU!

Carts for Community has launched their crowdfunding campaign to raise the money still needed to accomplish these summer endeavors.  Please give today to help bridge Madison communities for a better future. Carts for Community is using the Generosity platform which focuses on helping nonprofits with their community engagement work. 

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A little more about Carts for Community:

Carts for Community, INC is a new non-profit organization created by Christine Ameigh, founder of Let’s Eat Out! and owner of Slide food cart and her partner Jessica Wartenweiler, owner of Curd Girl food cart. Their vision is to use local food as a vehicle for community building, place making and economic development.

MISSION

Carts for Community seeks to affect social change through food.  We are currently seeking funding for two of our programs: our community dinner program and our youth workforce development program.  

COMMUNITY DINNERS

Food is a unifying force that brings people together across age, income and culture.  Our organization hosts community food cart dinners as a way to bring people together across cultural and economic divides and create a sense of place and gathering spot in Madison communities where few such places exist.  The Wisconsin Council on ChildrenScreen Shot 2016-06-02 at 10.36.37 AM and Families recently released a study that says “Many African-Americans live in geographically isolated neighborhoods in and around Madison that lack basic infrastructure, including a major employer, church or social gathering spots.”  In addition to providing a social gathering spot for people to connect throughfood, we also offer free children’s programming, live music, free local produce, and meal subsidies to neighbors in need, so that cost isn’t a limiting factor for participation.  The ultimate goal is to decrease food insecurity while increasing community cohesion.  

The 2016 food cart community dinners will take place in three Madison food deserts (South Park Street, Allied Drive, and the Meadowood neighborhood) which the USDA defines as low-income communities that lack ready access to healthy food.  The dinners will take place from June 13th-August 4th for a total of 24 events, eight in each of the above neighborhoods. The projected number of people that will be impacted by our events is at least 2400. We also employ two people from within the community as community ambassadors who work on the ground at each of the events engaging children and families in activities.

Partnerships with community groups, the City of Madison, neighborhoods resource teams and faith communities are  key to our success.  We’ve consulted extensively with other organizations to position our program for the best chance of success. Our goal is to establish partnerships with 8 different organizations and have each organization provide a different activity or service at all 3 locations for one of the 8 weeks our program is operating.  By working together we can avoid duplicitous efforts and increase the number of people we are serving. Last year’s collaborators included: REAP Food Group, MSCR, Madison Public Library, Mothers In The Neighborhood, Budget Bicycle Center, Madison Fire Department, and the Madison Police Department.

Please take 5 minutes now and give to this amazing project! 

Even more information…. 

More about our work with Carts for Community and Let’s Eat Out.

Cap Times article about this year’s internship program. 

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Video of the Week

Connecting is so important.  This video really shows the different levels that we impact ourselves while connecting with others.  It is something to be conscious of as we move forward with the time we spend breathing air with other people. Happy Monday!

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Causes We Love: Gender Identification

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Recently my dear friend, co-host, business partner and non-sexual life partner wrote an Open Letter to Ru Paul.  It was a great vehicle to share some honest and truthful thoughts on language used to reference the Transgender community.  More importantly, the article expresses the relationship in the LGBT community and how often, the LGB are not respective of the T.  It is a letter that also reveal vulnerability.  Here is a teaser…

I would like to express my frustration with your show.  I have, over the years, enjoyed the show mostly due to the fact that so many of friends have participated in it one way or another. At the current time I am just exhausted.

Don’t get me wrong, I do understand the drag culture very well and first hand but I find the show’s constant use of offensive terms to be deplorable and unacceptable.

To read the entire letter and learn more about this phenomenal woman, check out Dinamartinez.com.

To donate to the work that Dina is getting done to better assist her in her efforts of advocacy in the LGBT community, check out her Go Fund Me.

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Clinton School All Over the Map

Last week there was an article by the Arkansas Times that discussed my class and all of our summer projects.  It shared this map and just looking at it is pretty amazing.  These people have become my family and to just get a glimpse of what they will accomplish is extraordinary.

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Here is the link to the entire article.  Arkansas Times

Here is a bit more on my project:

With the rise of refugees entering the city of Johannesburg from Zimbabwe over the last twelve years, Paballo ya Batho has had to spread already limited resources among a much larger group of homeless people.  The increased demand for resources did not allow for any strategic thought on how to handle this rise of need.  In 2006, with the help of local lawyers, Central Methodist Mission and Paballo ya Batho was able to stop the city of Johannesburg from moving poor people out of the inner city.  The success of stopping this city decision is fantastic but there still needs to be systemic change in order to better meet the needs of the homeless population while empowering them to reclaim their position in the community.  By conducting assets mapping, best practice work, and program capacity measurement, insight may help develop future project decisions thus meeting the needs of the homeless community.

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Current Kinecting: Hurricane Sandy and the Rockaways

Thank you to everyone already helping out with the relief from Hurricane Sandy.  In Queens in Long Island there is a place called the Rockaways that has been devastated.  Unfortunately because of geography, local politics, damage and debris, clean up is not happening as efficiently and with a sense of urgency as it needs to.  Temperatures are dropping and residents are without the tools to get through this.  Below is a list of links for you to help or share.  If you have links to add, please add them in comment boxes.

Right now, Project Kinect is in contact with local leaders in the Roackaways to get food, water and tools to them out of Little Rock, AR.  If you are able to assist with this endeavor, please email me at gregg@projectkinect.com.

*If you donate money, Project Kinects asks that you first make sure you are donating to an organization that will be giving the procedes directly to those who are in need of relief.

 

Most immediate right now are: Please contact Project Kinect with any information on donations of the following goods

                             Work Boots: Mens sizes 11-14

                            Batteries

                             Blankets

                             Water 
Here are some additional needs that are most urgent.

Links for Further Assistance 

 

 

 

 

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Life By Me

A while ago a friend of mine introduced me to this website where people answer basic questions of life.  What is the meaning of life?  What makes you happy? When do you feel most authentic?  These are all questions that I could really relate to since I began Project Kinect.  This website gives you an opportunity to read and relate to other people’s lives.  It is a new form of connecting that needs a little more exposure as we continue to move forward in this technologically invasive era of communication.  This form allows people to share their stories and for the most part, not recieve the feedback or any effects from their stories.  Not having that reciprocation is selfless in a way because there is nothing coming back to pet the ego of the person who is sharing.  Even though comments can be left, the person sharing does not get immediate satisfaction because they are not sitting directly with the reader.   This in result gives the reader a complete objectivity on what they are reading as well as a blank palate to see how the reading affects them personally.  This response is then free of judgement that may otherwise be brought if another party was sitting there waiting for a response to what was just said.  Bottom line; this is a great way to connect with a stranger while doing a self check on personal beliefs and feelings.

Life By Me asked one of my best friends to sit down and share some of her beliefs, thoughts and personal story.  This is just a portion of the interview and if you would like to read the article in its entirity, then check it out here at Life By Me.

Getting to a safe place where I can be vulnerable and connect with people is very meaningful to me. When we connect with each other we’re really connecting with God, because God is inside of you and God is inside of me. I truly believe that when we connect with each other and when we connect with God we can change the world for the better. I want to facilitate that

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A Word From Tuscaloosa

For those of you who haven’t been following Project Kinect, or missed it, last June a few of us went to Tuscaloosa to help with the tornadoes clean up after the earth shattering tornadoes went through on April 27th, 2011.  One of my other outlets that I sometimes post in is my CNN iReport and last week I received this message.  It was so wonderful receiving this email and getting confirmation that Tuscaloosa is on the upward end of these disasters.  It is one thing to read this in the news and see tidbits in social media outlets, but to actually get to hear it directly from a resident is fantastic.  Thank you for this email.

I just viewed your iReport of your last day in Tuscaloosa. Couldn’t help notice
how emotional you were, it was a very trying time, and continues to be. I
understand how you would think how the relief resources were letting people
down. No doubt, some victims fell through the cracks, but that was a catastrophe
that we haven’t seen on that scale in a century. I am NOT making excuses, living
here, however, I saw how the churches and just regular folks, like yourself came
and helped out. With the official relief organizations, they were lacking, but
the community and people from all over the country did their best to pick up the
slack. Hopefully you’ve followed the progress we’ve made since last June. There
are dozens of Facebook pages you can find info on. Most of the debris has been
clear, but it still twists my gut to drive through the affected areas. As the
mayor finally admitted, you couldn’t have picked a worse path, it cut through
some of the poorest sections of town. I just felt compelled to message you and
let you know that things have progressed, but no one will ever be the same after
that terrible day. I’d like to say thank you for coming down and helping and
documenting, the news networks took off when the EMS contained them to a small
area so they couldn’t go into the worst areas and film the dead bodies, which is
just disgraceful, on the reporters’ part, those are people’s family and friends.
All they seemed to be concerned with was the death toll, which is still
inaccurate for reasons I won’t get into. I took pics and video, and I still
haven’t been able to bring myself to watch it, was born and raised at DCH
hospital, the one you could see in the background, I balled like a baby when I
saw the destruction had been done. Check out Facebook, though, there are many
pages that show what good has been done since.

Here is the video that she was responding to.

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Monday Spotlight: Tornado Relief

Last week, in the matter of just a few days we experienced as many tornadoes as we sometimes see in an entire year.   This takes a lot of help and organization to clean up and so I wanted to set this Monday toward getting some of this information out there.  In the next few days I will set up a full-page here on Project Kinect for all this information by location with detailed information but for right now, this is what I can get out there. As said in today’s Washington Post, FEMA is just getting prepared to provide tornado relief so maybe this can begin as a conversation with everyone on how to expedite this procedure and not see what we saw in Tuscaloosa, Alabama last spring.  In this, I am including the states involved with the majority of the devastation last week.   

Region 4 out of Atlanta: Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee

Telephone Numbers:
Main Number: 770.220.5200
Fax Number: 770.220.5230

Mailing Address:
Federal Emergency Management Agency
3003 Chamblee Tucker Road
Atlanta, GA 30341

Media Inquiries: 770.220.5226

Region 5 out of Chicago:  Illinois, Ohio, Indiana

Mailing Address                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         536 South Clark St., 6th Floor
Chicago, IL 60605
(312) 408-5500

Media Contact

Mark Peterson
Email:  mark.peterson2@dhs.gov
Telephone:  312-408-4469

  • As far as right now, I have only seen one facebook page for any of the cities but here is one for Northern Alabama

 

 

  • If you’re a college student and you want to do something impactful on your spring break, here are some ways to volunteer.

*Relief Spark: By far what I think is the most incredible disaster relief organization I have seen.  Many people find volunteer opportunities with a church but if you are without a church, Relief Spark is a great place to share your gifts.  They are already setting up camps throughout the south and midwest.  Check out their facebook page.

*Disaster Assistance with the Church of Christ: We worked with Mike and his kitchen on wheels in Tuscaloosa.  They have plenty of work to do and you definitely get to see your impact when working with them.  They just arrived in Southern Indiana today. 

This is just a start but if people are coming up with questions on what to do now that things are destroyed or if people want to help , then here are some beginning points.  Like previously mentioned, I will have a much larger working page later this week.  If you have any information that you would like to contribute to it, please email me at gregg@projectkinect.com.  If you need extra help and need assistance otherwise on finding answers that have not been answered yet, i.e. free medical assistance, legal aid, water safety, paperwork help or anything else not listed, then also email me at gregg@projectkinect.com and I will make phone calls, research and help find those answers. 

WE ARE ALL INVOLVED!!!

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