CSR Minute: Cloud Peak Energy Youth Emergency Services;Tiller’s Social Action Survey

Corporate Social Responsibility News: Cloud Peak Energy Gifts Youth Emergency Services; Tiller’s Social Action Survey

Moms Against Climate Change Ottawa Interview

New Book for Kids featuring Lu and the Earth Bug Crew Keeps it Green and Keeps it Fun

The new children’s book Lu and the Earth Bug Crew Zap the Energy Spikes is making its way into hearts, homes and retail stores across the nation. Written by Derek Sabori and illustrated by Steven Riley and Mark Adams, the books about Lu and his friends are intended to reel kids into an active and healthy lifestyle that focuses on conservation, environmentalism, being a good friend and having fun doing it all!

Social Sharing and Volunteering: How Are Volunteers Spreading Opportunities?

With so much talk about Facebook Causes, we’ve already seen fundraising go viral. Can volunteer engagement do the same? At what level will volunteers share their service activities with their social networks?

A few months ago VolunteerMatch added the popular ShareThis application to our service. Now that we have the first reports of how our Web site visitors are using ShareThis, some of the findings may surprise you.

Social Sharing and ShareThis

ShareThis is a free sharing tool that makes it easy for users to share content via social networks and social news sites. ShareThis also offers plain old email as an option for sharing – although across the Web, ShareThis clickers have been choosing this less and less often.

VolunteerMatch added ShareThis as an option on our volunteer opportunity pages so that a user who is about to sign up to volunteer can share their interest with their friends on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, MySpace, etc.

The obvious benefit to tools like ShareThis is that they give our visitors the power to help increase the discoverability of organizations and their volunteer opportunities.

How Are Volunteers Sharing?

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CSR Minute: September 18, 2009 – Lexus Chooses Visible Light Solar Technologies; Time Magazine’s Values Poll; U of Tenn’s Frat Charity

Corporate Social Responsible News:Lexus Chooses Visible Light Solar Technologies; Time Magazine’s Social Values Poll; U of Tenn’s Frat Charity Event

Living Cities’ Distinguished Urban Fellows Release Two Key Papers Addressing Education Reform & Homeless in America | 3BL Media

The plight of the homeless in America, and the need for public school reform are at the heart of two separate compelling Reports issued by Living Cities – a result of their Distinguished Urban Fellows program launched in 2008.

Despite decades of calls for reform, America’s public education system remains the target of sharp criticism for failing to adequately prepare young people for higher education and the jobs of the new economy. But there is hope, as evident in the report, “Transforming Urban Public Education through Education Entrepreneurship.” Written by former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, the report argues that the energy and innovation needed to transform America’s public schools must come from the outside – from talented and dedicated entrepreneurs with ideas that produce results.

In his paper, Peterson makes a strong case that the source of change in U.S. public education must be America’s mayors in partnership with philanthropists and education entrepreneurs. He lauds the record of charter schools, plus the achievement of organizations such as Teach For America, which has brought well-educated younger people eager to teach in today’s classrooms, especially in underachieving urban schools. The ultimate goal of entrepreneurs like Peterson is to bring the innovation, urgency, flexibility and focus on educational outcomes that characterize charter schools and their allies to traditional public schools.

The second Report, titled  “A Human Connection”: How Portland, Oregon Made a Big Dent in Chronic Homelessness” is written by former Portland, city commissioner Erik Sten who says that policies to reduce homelessness, although well—intentioned, treaded water for decades because the architects of those policies did not consider the perspectives of the homeless themselves.

Using Portland, Oregon. as an example, Sten describes a plan known as “Home Again” which gave a voice to the homeless and bridged a human connection that didn’t previously exist. As a result, a dedicated team of officials rethought their policies, and spawned a new program that has reduced the number of its chronically homeless by 70%.

Neil Kleiman, Director of Policy and Research for Living Cities, says, “The Distinguished Urban Fellows program and these two resulting Reports are a critical knowledge component of Living Cities’ approach. The idea behind them is that the Fellows bring real-world governing and executive experience to help shape Living Cities’ agenda to transform America’s cities into engines of opportunity.”

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW: Bart Peterson and  Erik Sten

Save Honduras’ first environmental themed radio program, “Agua de Ángel”

In the wake of the Honduran military coup in June, several radio stations and other media outlets have come under attack, which has resulted in the cancellation of many broadcasts, including Media Impact’s radio soap opera about healthy environmental practices.

Now, the show is off the air and PCI-Media Impact is determined to bring it back using GlobalGiving’s Global Open Challenge, an online fundraising platform where individuals and organizations can make contributions to help innovative development projects of their choice.  Media Impact has until Friday, September 18 to raise $4,000 from at least 50 donors to ensure a spot on the GlobalGiving site and support the commercial rebroadcast of Agua de Ángel.

Time is running out; There are 9 days left in the Global Open Challenge and Media Impact only needs $931 from at least 10 donors.

Please help us reach this goal by making a $10 donation today. Support rural Hondurans’ right to clean, safe drinking water!   www.globalgiving.com/3732

via 3blmedia.com