Good morning everybody,
Our group received a request for assistance with mortgage payments and/or electric bills this week. While we don't have any monetary funds at this time, I would like to open up a virtual discussion about how we could solve these issues locally. If you know of existing groups or programs in place to solve these issues, please post them here. If you have ideas about how we ourselves could be of service, please post those as well.
To get you started thinking, I will post some of the ideas folks have come up with so far:
I had one thought, which was that Chris and I could unplug things and turn down the heat, lose the cable tv, etc. and then "adopt" a family to help with their electric bill. Riverside for Change families could decide to participate on a household basis, and maybe single folks could partner up to "adopt" a family. We'd be helping the environment and our neighbors.
Holly put forward that The Jacksonville Urban League has housing counseling programs, for buying homes and for finding subsidized housing. http://www.jaxul.org/
Anybody else have ideas?
Casie SimpsonRiverside for Change
Hey everybody,
Max Wood and the Young Democrats have alerted me of the need to contact city council and urge them to vote "no" on the $750,000,000, 35-year no-bid contract to give Trail Ridge over to Waste Management. All you need to do is e-mail cityc@coj.net. Let them know, briefly, that you'd like the Trail Ridge bid to be open, competitive, transparent, and fair. Ask them to vote "no" on the mayor's contract proposal. The e-mail can be as short as a couple of sentences. You can even copy my letter below and change it as you see fit!
Bringing this contract down would establish a mighty precedent: Jacksonville residents will not tolerate any more no-bid contracts.
Example:
Dear City Council Members, As one of your constituents, I urge you to vote "no" on the no-bid Waste Management contract for Trail Ridge. In these tough economic times, it seems both unethical and irresponsible to approve a $750,000,000 contract without opening the bid to other vendors. Jacksonville residents deserve a competitive, transparent, and fair bidding process for all contracts — especially one of such magnitude. Thank you, Casie
Steve shared this article with me "Obama Isn't the Only One Being Inaugurated on Jan. 20th" (printed by The Huffington Post), and with our upcoming service event it seems so fitting that I would like to pass it along.
If you're intrigued at all by the idea of swearing into the service of our country with Barack, I urge you to sign up and participate in the Riverside & Second Harvest partner for Change event on the 17th. A great way to kick off your commitment to the community in 2009!
Since two of our team members (thanks Juli & Steve) have shared the article "A Craigslist for Service" with me (printed by The Huffington Post) I will pass it along. There are several relevant and thought-provoking ideas that connect with Saturday's discussion.
New Beginnings
Riverside for Change met for the first time on December 13, 2008 to discuss how we could enact Barack's vision by working as a positive force in our local community. We gathered in small groups based on issues most important to us and explored ways that we might use our available resources to improve folks' lives in nearby neighborhoods.
Key Findings
As the groups joined together to discuss our findings, several key issues and avenues for action emerged. If you're interested in reading more about this discussion, please view the complete post.
01 The Economy | 02 Education | 03 Healthcare | 04 Energy
Planned Service Event
Our service event will take place in early January. We will plan a food + donations drive in Riverside and then serve folks at a local pantry. We will use existing community networks we have ties to in order to have as large an impact as possible. More details to follow. If you're interested in being included in our project, please email casie.simpson@gmail.com.
