Daily Writing Jan. 29th

My ideas have not changed for my two topics. Although Carmit makes some excellent points about environmental, I feel more passionate about violence against women. My peers arguments have made me more understanding about the environment and its huge role , but I am not convinced to change my mind yet. Tiffany described some great cause on effects for the environment such as trash effecting the water quality. Julianne also describes a great cause and effect for homelessness by saying if we help them, their overall quality of life will improve. Overall, each person in my group had great arguments. However, I agree on homelessness as an important issue as well as violence against women.

Cause and Effect

I would like to focus on homelessness and violence against women. I chose these two, because I feel very helpless about each issue, and I would love to make a difference. Seeing the people walking down the streets without homes, food, and any sort of income is very saddening and I hate that I can't afford to help. By helping them with these issues, we will be creating a positive effect; they will create a better life. Also, violence of women is a huge issue. Many women are being verbally and and physically abused and are not getting help. A lot of this is because they are too scared to live on their own. Giving them shelter, and help with children would allow these women to escape violence.

Questions that I will be asking are:

Homelessness:
1. What is the statistic of number of homeless people in st. pete?
2. How is this number compared to the national average?
3. What is the impact of homelessness?
4. How do people become homeless?
5. What is needed to help fix this issue?
6. What is being done already to fix the issue?
7. What gender is more common to be homeless?
8. The stereotype of homeless are that they are drug users and alcoholics. Is this proven true?

Violence Against Women:
1. What is the statistics of women being abused?
2. How is the number compared in st. pete, to the national average?
3. How does this abuse impact women?
4. Why don't women leave abusive relationships?
5. How does these relationships effect their kids?
6. What is needed to fix this issue?
7. What is being done already to fix the issue?
8. Is there are profile of men that abuse these women? Does it have anything to do with genetics?

Daily Writing Jan. 27th

At this point, what have you completed on your Civic Agency Profile project? What is working well? What is more challenging? What parts of the project do you still need to complete? How will you go about completing this work for the Friday deadline? How can you and your partner best address multiple tasks without overlapping?

I have done a couple profiles for various agencies. Using the websites are helping well. However my communication with my group and overall team could be improved. We did not divide the organizations so that we would not have multiple profiles for the same agency. I will get with my group over the next few days to better communicate which organizations we should do for the final copy and hopefully it will help address multiple tasks without overlapping by dividing the work evenly.

Daily Writing.

1.) Homelessness: Poverty and homelessness has been much more popular now that the economy is in financial hardship. I feel very bad for these people and would love to help. Working with soup kitchens, shelters and organizations helping the homeless would make a great change in the world. If we could get some people a place to stay and food to eat, it would change their lives.

3.) Protecting the environment: The environment has been negatively affected by how humans live. Global climate change is a big issue today, because the ice caps are melting. We are decreasing the diversity of plants and animals with our way of life. I believe that by cleaning the community of waste and litter, we will dramatically help with the health of the environment. Also, if we educate others and get more involvement, we will help as well.

2.) Ending Violence against women: Violence against women is a huge issue in society. Many battered women stay around the oppressor because they would have nowhere to go and feel that they are not independent enough. I believe that by giving these women and their children a safe place and counseling then they could walk away from the violence. We could help local shelters and provide the money for their living expenses as well as grief counseling.

Civic Engagement Fair

I learned many things from the civic engagement fair. I spoke with the Young Adult Ministry, Sierra Club, and Keep Pinellas Beautiful. The Young Adult Ministry works with other non profit organizations to meet the various needs of the community such as working with Salvation Army to help the less fortunate. They focus on Bible study and youth outreach and involvement as their mission. The agency represents young, faithful adults trying to make a difference. They are self-funded and also helped financially from their church. They seemed very nice, and I liked this organization. I also got information on the Sierra Club. Their mission is to protect the environment. They feel it is a need of the community to have a healthy environment to live in, so they plan outings and events to do so. They also do things like hiking and camping events to teach people about the environment. It seems like a really great group, but I feel that while teaching others about the problems is great, doing something is better so I would rather fund another organization. Lastly, I spoke with Keep Pinellas Beautiful. This organization is very fascinating. They administer litter cleanups such as adopt a shore, pond, etc. They have hotlines where people can call to report a littering problem in their area. They then do assessment of these areas and find someone to adopt them and take care of the problem four times a year. They are a subcontractor. They feel that it is a need of the community to have healthy, clean areas without litter. I thought this agency was very well informed, and interesting to hear about.

There is still more information that I would want to know. Although these organizations are fabulous, they don't attract me enough to want to fund their needs. I really want to help with something closer to my heart. I just want to feel more passionate about this experience. Also throughout the leadership program I have been working with Ocean Conservation, along with many other students participating in the program. Environmental agencies are great, but I want to do something different.

Organizations that I would love to get more information on are charities dealing with critical human needs, such as homelessness, cancer, or drunk driving. I have never seen more homeless people, until I came to downtown St. Petersburg. I am not financially stable enough to help them directly, but being able to donate to organizations that can means a lot to me. Also, everyone knows someone that has been affected by cancer, and I feel that it would be a really amazing experience to help them. Lastly, ending drunk driving is a critical need to the community because so many people get hurt if not killed by drunk drivers, and it really needs to stop. I would request for proposal to help this problem by discussing the problem and what the organization does to fix it. I would use their history on how they have affected the issue.

Moving Forward

In the past week, I have created the foundation that I will be needing for the leadership philanthropy board. In our leadership class, I wrote a paper about who I am, what I believe in, and how I am a leader. This has helped because in order to be a leader, I need to build a deep relationship with myself. Also, today I attended the Civic Engagement Fair. I have discussed with numerous non profit organizations about their purpose, how they are meeting their mission, how they are funded, and what they need to meet the needs of the community. I have considered some that I am interested in and also dismissed others. I have determined my area of interests already with realizing that I feel more passion towards helping humans than the environment. I know that I want to help with the health, happiness, and overall well being of the people in my community.

Semester 2

What are your expectations of the Civic Engagement Fair?
-My expectations of the fair is that there will be booths of many different non profit organizations. Representatives will be discussing their purpose and the main charity events. They will be encouraging others to help with their organization.

What do you hope to learn from this fair? What are some of the questions you need to ask the organizations at the fair?
-I hope to learn about the different non profit organizations in the st. pete community. I want to learn what issues are most significant to em, and what we can do to help. I need to ask the organizations what social issue they correspond with, whats their purpose, how they are helping, and what they need from the community to do so.