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. 

Orgs We Love: Assist WI

Screen Shot 2016-05-03 at 11.46.17 AMIf you don’t know who Assist WI is, then we are excited to share them with you!  Assist WI is a nonprofit based out of Wisconsin Dells, WI and is the brain child of William Meissner. The organization was formed in Spring 2014 and operates as a project of the Families in Transition Support Network in the Wisconsin Dells area.

Assist WI’s main goal is to pair volunteers with families traveling to the area who have unique needs. Assist volunteers are available to accompany families on their adventures and act as an extra set of hands where needed while visiting this tourist destination. It is tScreen Shot 2016-05-03 at 11.45.09 AMheir mission to turn obstacles into opportunities and facilitate family bonding through inclusion of every family member. 


This summer, Assist WI has a lot of activities for people can get involved with!

May 17th, 2016: Assist WI is  facilitating an Adaptive Golf Clinic at Trappers Turn from 1-3pm!  The golf program portion will be taken care of by Jason Manke of Kalahari Resorts and our role is what we do best, making sure each participant can enjoy this learning experience!  Please contact Assist WI as soon as possible if you are interested in participating. 

May 25th, 2016: Kalahari Waterpark day for the Community Coalition on Transition of Adams/ Marquette Counties.  These students have joined Assist WI for many adventurous field trip days and they look forward to facilitating the day at this world class waterpark…AGAIN! If you’d like to help out with this awesome end of the school year trip, please contact Assist WI as soon as possible. 

July 7th, 2016: Annual Golf Outing at Trappers Turn   Please let Assist know if you have anything that you would like to see or contribute pertaining to the organization.  This event has a lot of volunteer opportunities prior and the day of the event including getting donations, signing up teams, logistics, and basic labor. Please contact Assist WI as soon as possible if you are interested in participating. 

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Orgs We Love: Step Up

Step Up: Equity Matters in the Workplace

By Sara Alvarado, Co-Creator

The path to creating a sustainable society that works for ALL people begins inside each of our own hearts and minds as we seek to understand our own biases and stereotypes.

Step Up: Equity Matters in the Workplace is a newly created organization that provides a community and has become a movement for people to learn and focus specifically on creating equity in the workplace. The Step Up team offers workshops and a book club with the promise of diving deep and being real. That means we agree to be vulnerable and keep our minds and our hearts open. 

The creation of Step Up came out of a group of people that wanted what didn’t exist. They wanted the environment to grow and learn about what needs to change in the business community. Using Dane Buy Local as a base for reaching out and Sustain Dane as a catalyst for bringing it all together, Sara Alvarado, Amy Kesling, Tania Ibarra and Haywood Simmons joined together on a path that has expanded beyond their imagination. The reach is far and wide and the meaningful connections and impact are a direct result of people showing up with the willingness to change. 

The goal is to increase diversity in our workplace, the board room, the executive and leadership teams and find solutions to create an inclusive, welcoming and thriving work environment for all. It isn’t just teaching people about cultural competency and inclusivity, it is about creating a company culture that embraces diversity in all aspects of its operations.

The Step Up community in Madison, WI, is a movement for change and when you join the community you will get invitations to the various workshops offered along with a book club invitation and updates from other members that showcase success stories, learning moments and resources. If you are looking for the real deal, read this pledge and hopefully you will feel the tug to be a part of the change. 

Diving into the process you will learn to create and engage in conversations about inequities in the workplace and our communities. You will learn how to listen with your hear, use empathy and focus on the importance of finding common ground while challenging each other to identify biases within ourselves and each other in a loving, non-judgmental manner. 

This is an ongoing practice of communication and engagement. It is crucial that we become conscious, confident, and humble to create lasting changes.

This is the STEP UP community!

There is no one easy solution to the massive racial disparities in our community. If there was, we’d have figured it out by now and we wouldn’t be here. But we are here, still, and we are not okay with that. Change doesn’t happen overnight, as we can see. Change isn’t happening fast enough. But change IS happening and you can be part of that change. You can make a difference. Join the Step Up movement to experience the change.

***The next Step Up event is Friday, September 19th, 2015, 8:30am-10:30am at the Urban League of Greater Madison (2222 South Park St). Here is more information on that event and the link to their Facebook page.

Find out more about Step Up at www.stepupforequity.com.

Orgs We Love: The Giving Net

Storytelling is still so important for cultural context and conveying messages to diverse groups.  The Giving Net‘s success is partially because they foster space for people to convene and tell their stories.  Through story telling, people learn, find common ground, are empowered, and social change can be created.

The Giving Net, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, was founded by Arkansas native, Andrea Price, in 2013. After growing up in the Delta, working throughout the South on community-based initiatives and on community development projects, she saw a great need for an organization that focuses on empowering citizens to have a voice in their neighborhoods, communities, state, nation and world. Thus, The Giving Net was born. The power to strengthen our communities lies within people who are connected to each other, informed about the issues that affect them and are willing to use their strengths for good. The Giving Net works to empower people and ultimately strengthen communities.

The Giving Net’s “doing” is designed to encourage citizens, of all ages, to give their time, talent and other resources to causes that strengthen communities. The Giving Net hosts a Radio Show where guests from around the world share their personal stories of service and civic action.

 The Giving Net designs and facilitates conversations and action based planning sessions for

  • Local governments
  • Faith-based institutions
  • Educational institutions
  • Political candidates
  • or others seeking to use collective, citizen power for change.

The Giving Net shares information, ideas and stories about civic engagement via our BlogThe Giving Net host and co-host public programs related to civic life, philanthropy, justice and social change.

 Listen to Gregg Potter, Project Kinect’s Founder, on The Giving Net’s radio show.

Check Out Lifestyle Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with The Giving Net Radio on BlogTalkRadio

Orgs We Love: Sunlight Foundation (And CAH)

A few years ago, a card game came out of nowhere on the internet. This game, played similar to Apples to Apples, could only be printed off the internet.  For a weekend at a cabin, I printed the game on card stock and made it the most formal possible. Cards Against Humanity is now one of the most popular game among adults.  It can be purchased online and in stores.  The beauty of this game is that it uses humor to create an un-politically correct space where we, no matter who we are, can be on the same level and relate to one another.

A few days ago, How Is Cards Against Humanity Bribing Public Officials With Your Money came out.  This extremely humorous and honest blog post is brilliant. It makes some terrific references to some of our voted officials. One about Ted Cruz and net neutrality.  If you are not sure what net neutrality is, here is an article from the Hill better describing the current situation about net neutrality.

To see how this all leads to the Sunlight Foundation, you have to read the article.  It’s worth it.

Happy Holidays!!!

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Organizations We Love: Rescue SCG

Rescue Social Change Group has been working towards creating positive social change since 2001.  Based out of San Diego, they have done amazing work in focusing on major public health issues affecting young people.  The reason Rescue SCG has been so successful is because they do not work like most marketing firms, Rescue SCG focuses on changing behaviors. By changing the behavior of young people, Rescue SCG can make the world better.  This is the realm of Project Kinect and we are so happy to be sharing the same space with Rescue SCG.  For more, watch the videos below, check out their blog, and their Facebook.

Here are two campaigns that Rescue SCG created.

#GivingTuesday Sending Love Notes

Give $10 to the Norm:al Africa campaign on #GivingTuesday to send a love note from Africa.  This campaign is filtering money into three African organizations and two American organizations who focus on supporting LGBTQ communities.

Give $10 to send a love note from Africa.

Click on the link above and donate $10 to send someone special a love note.  If you send 3 love notes, you can still receive a t-shirt. T-shirt sales will continue for #GivingTuesday. When you donate, tell us the name of who you want the love note sent to and include an address.

Click here for the Norm:al Africa website and Facebook page.

Our shirts were recently on Bravo’s The People’s Couch. Shirt worn by Scott Nevins. 

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Organizations We Love: Team Rubicon

“Support our troops” is used so often.  Unfortunately, often as propaganda; propaganda for our government to make decisions to intervene.  Supporting our troops is to support those individuals with brave and unconditional passion, who go into any circumstance focused on protecting us and others who are harmed while hoping to make situations better.   Supporting them goes much further. Supporting our troops is not only while they are on active duty. Supporting them includes when they return to our country and need real assistance to live their daily lives.  As a country, we are not succeeding in supporting our troops when they come home to us.

Fortunately some organizations are setting strong examples of how to use the skills of veterans for amazing purpose.  Team Rubicon is a leader in this.  Team Rubicon is not only setting precedent for a great way of how to put veterans to work, but also what proper disaster relief looks like. Team Rubicon began after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti with six veterans.  Today is has expanded greater than most would have expected.  Click here for the full history.

This Veterans Day, Team Rubicon has set a goal to get 500 new monthly donors.  The History Channel will match the donations so anything you give will double.  This is an amazing campaign.  They are calling it ELEVEN11.

Please donate and support our veterans.

On this Veterans Day, honor them and support them.  Find out how you can directly assist and thank the veteran community.  It is a day about them, not  about feeding into corporate greed taking advantage of a day when people can shop, not about the government guilting us, and not a day about confusing supporting our troops and veterans with the decisions they had no role in making.

Organizations We Love: People for Bikes

Daily bike use is on the rise.  Biking is no longer just a luxury and a sport, but a necessity in many urban cities.  People for Bikes is doing an excellent job of making biking more convenient for everyone.  Whether it is for recreation, or you want to create and enforce protected bike lanes in your city, People for Bikes contains resources that can help you.

Created in 1999 as Bikes Belong, People for Bikes has now become a center for the biking community.  Our favorite feature on the website is the “Get Local” section.  In this space you can look at individual states and find a comprehensive list of biking resources in the state.  Project Kinect LOVES this because it brings people together with technology.

We leave you with this fantastic video that advocates for protected bike lanes.  Enjoy!

 

The Rise of Protected Bike Lanes in the U.S. from The PeopleForBikes GLP on Vimeo.

Orgs We Love: Girls Inc.

It is pretty remarkable that nonprofit and social change organizations are getting advertising spots during On Demand shows.  One of those organizations is Girls Inc. Girls Inc. inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold, providing more than 138,000 girls across the U.S. and Canada with life-changing experiences and real solutions to the unique issues girls face. It is backed by Oprah Winfrey and can be found through out the country.  One of its strengths is that it has a model where 88% of its expenses is for the participants.  Additionally, it is not associated with a larger organization so it does not discriminate where different chapters find their home.

Here is the ad that can be seen during On Demand television.