WElcoMe BAcK

Welcome back to school and to another great opportunity to make a difference in your life and the lives of others. This is our first meeting where we will review the purpose and actions of the Diversity Club and decide our direction for the upcoming year. Thanks for coming! We also want to wish the Diversity Club members that have graduated good luck in their new surroundings. May what you have done and learned from this group take you forward to new heights and adventures in making a difference!

Couleecap and Kiva

I was given the checks for the 2 organizations. Now, the delivery. Carlie or Sierra...can either of you post our media project? I want to meet with Kadie from Couleecap and talk with her about some of our ideas to connect poverty awareness, Couleecap and other high schools. It would be great to for her to see what we did. Post soon. Can someone help me connect with Amanda (one of our new members) with our blogspot?

Possible loans for KIVA

Today, I checked out KIVA again and here are a few people
who i think we should loan to...
~Queen Arebun
~Djiguiseme (I'espoir) Group
~Gaville Estares

check 'em out!

Follow up and all that...

1. We did a great job and I am very impressed with the quality of our work!
2. We will be meeting again this Thursday morning with recommendations for how to distribute our funds-Couleecap and Kiva
3. I hope that someone can upload photos from our homeless night event.
4. Did you see our photos in the County Line?
5. We might need a "facebook" account...based on research and reality
6. Do we need a party?
7. More recruits...It will be so sad and lonely when you all leave!

WOW!

This has been a GREAT week!
Thank everyone, especially our fearless leader, BUCKBEE!

Budgeting for Poverty

View this short presentation to see how far a family of four living at the poverty line can survive
http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/tour.htm

Local Resources and Contacts

First Call for Help
Great Rivers 2-1-1 Home Page Dial 2-1-1 or (800) 362-8255TTY (866)884-3620Toll Free in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa Great Rivers 2-1-1, formerly First Call for Help, provides free, confidential community information, referrals and crisis line services 24 hours a day.


Domestic Abuse Shelters
Sparta Brighter Tomorrows PO Box 161 Sparta, WI 54656 Phone: (608) 374-6975 Crisis Line: (866) 346-0374 County Served: Monroe
Richland Center Passages PO Box 546 Richland Center, WI 53581-0546 Phone: (608) 647-8775 (608)647-6317Crisis Line: (800) 236-4325 TTY: (608) 647-2720 Counties Served: Crawford, Juneau, Richland, Vernon

Local Food Pantry Resources

Ontario, Norwalk, or Wilton Food Pantry
Community Baptist Church,
100 Monroe St., Ontario WI
337-4656
Please state your name, address, phone number and number in your household needing assistance. Assistance is limited to 4 times/year. The food pantry accepts donations of non-perishable food items and hygiene products. Please no outdated food. Please call 337-4656 to set up a time to drop off your donations.

Wilton Food Pantry
406 Main Street, Wilton
Community State Bank Basement
608/435-6406 or 608/435-6647

The Pantry is available to the Wilton, Norwalk, Ontario & Kendall areas. Open by appointment only. Call at least 24 hours in advance of need or donation.
The Pantry is supported by area churches & organizations Administered by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Wilton, Arlis Ballwahn, Pantry Coordinator. Facilities provided by Community State Bank, Wilton

Health Care
Scenic Bluffs Community Health Center
Scenic Bluffs Community Health Center provides a full range of medical, dental, optometric, chiropractic, and pharmacy services. They can also provide lab and radiology services, disease screening, and well child checks. They serve individuals and families in Monroe, Vernon, and La Crosse counties regardless of their abilities to pay. They offer a sliding fee scale for patients who do not have health insurance, have insurance with limited coverage or high deductibles, are unemployed or have an income level that makes it difficult to pay for health care services. For more information, please contact either of their two locations:

CASHTON - 238 Front Street, Cashton WI 54619, 608-654-5100

NORWALK – 200 West North Street, Norwalk WI 54648, 608-823-7853


Housing Assistance

Couleecap Central Office201 Melby St.Westby,WI 54667Ph: 608-634-3104, 1-866-904-4507
(for client use only)Fax: 608-634-3134
*Couleecap can also connect you with free or reduced clothing and emergency shelter
http://www.couleecap.org/

Habitat for Humanity
PO Box 2123
La Crosse, WI 54602-2123
Tel 608.785.2373
Fax 608.634.4239

Local Libraries
With a library card, you can check out books, DVD’s Music CD’s, and use computers for typing and internet access, all for FREE!

Norwalk Public Library
101 Railroad StreetP.O. Box 132Norwalk, WI 54648Phone: 608-823-7473Email: norwalkpl@wrlsweb.orgWeb Page: www.wrlsweb.org/norwalk

Wilton Public Library400 East StreetWilton, WI 54670 Phone: 608-435-6710Fax: 608-435-6190Email: wiltonlibrary@wrlsweb.orgWeb Site: www.wrlsweb.org/wilton

Ontario Public Library
313 Main StreetOntario, WI 54651Phone: 608-337-4651Fax: 608-337-4814Email: ontlibr@wrlsweb.orgWeb Page: www.wrlsweb.org/ontario

What can you do?

SPREAD THE WORD
Begin by talking directly with poor and low-income people, especially those involved in self-help, community-based organizations. Learning about their lives, the challenges they wrestle with, and the solutions they are working toward will strengthen any other advocacy you participate in. Share what you discover with those you know - and consider what more you can do to work with them.
Write a letter to your local newspaper, alerting the editors to the information you've learned about poverty in America, and what is being done to eliminate it. Refer to a related issue currently being discussed in your local newspaper or media, and include poverty statistics pertaining to your region or state. Visit www.census.gov to select a state and get facts on poverty from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Ask local reporters to cover the state of poverty in your community and the positive steps being taken to help those in need. Point them to the facts and figures contained in this Web site for background information.
Submit an article to the newsletter published by your church, synagogue, mosque or house of worship about poverty in your community, and about successful initiatives that are bringing long-term results. Learn more by reading about successful local efforts.

PROMOTE JUSTICE-BASED SOCIAL POLICIES
Follow local politics, and tell your local elected officials that you support policies aimed at permanent solutions to poverty in your community and your nation. Time and again, letter-writing campaigns have demonstrated that, when people combine their energies in a single purpose, the results are magnified.
Organize a letter writing campaign through your local community about an issue of local concern. If you volunteer or work with a charitable service organization, suggest that others who participate in that work get involved in advocacy on the issues that keep people trapped in a cycle of poverty.
Question candidates on their plans to address poverty in your state and nation, vote your conscience -- and hold politicians to their promises if elected.
Attend or help organize neighborhood meetings and public hearings and give testimony on programs and policies affecting low-income families in your community, sharing information you've learned about solutions for poverty in America.

TALK WITH ELECTED OFFICIALS AND OTHER POLICY MAKERS
Join a local advocacy group that urges elected officials to enact just social policies. Lend your support to organizations that work with people in poverty to bring about positive changes at the state and federal level. One such group is the Center for Community Change (www.communitychange.org), which helps low income people build effective organizations that can change their communities and public policies.
Learn how one organization helped low-income residents become active participants in the political process.
Organize site visits for local leaders and the media to witness first-hand those programs in your community that are successfully addressing the problems of poverty.
Stay informed about what Congress is doing to address poverty on a national level. Write or call your senators or representatives, asking what their stance is on pending legislation affecting low-income Americans. The more elected officials hear from voters about a particular issue, the more they take notice.
You can call anyone in Congress by phoning the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. You can send a letter to any senator by addressing your envelope to The Honorable (Senator's name), United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510, or to any representative by writing to The Honorable (Representative's name), U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515.
You can send e-mail to your Representative by visiting www.house.gov/writerep/; e-mails to your Senators can be sent by visiting www.senate.gov/.
Visit www.usccb.org/sdwp to find current information about issues pending in Congress that have an impact on the lives of poor and low income people .

PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING
Become a personal advocate for and with those living in poverty by developing more compassion in the way you talk to others about the reality of poverty in America. Such small changes, when multiplied, can lead to larger changes in the way society sees and treats people experiencing poverty.
Help those directly affected by proposed legislation to get involved. Through your local coalition, mobilize the very people experiencing poverty to contact officials at all levels of government. Volunteer to help with a registration drive in your local community. Most especially, encourage low-income families and the working poor to register and to vote.

check your digital communication sources

Just check your emails for my latest crank call.

Our Big Week!

Tuesday

Awareness Presentation, food and clothing collection, measuring waste

Wednesday

Visit our site and play "Free Rice", food and clothing collection, measuring waste

Thursday

Homeless Night, Teach-in with movie and community info distibution, food and clothing collection and measuring waste

Friday

Tally and distribute food and clothing collection, Tally and post food waste results, keep on working towards ending poverty, here and around the world.

YO YO YO!

Well I'm sorting through clothes this morning and boxing 'em up and preparing for an exciting week next week!!!
whoo-hOO!

just an update

Talked to Philis Munch, volunteer coordinator at Bethel Buttik in Westby.
She said DONATIONS WELCOME!
accept all clothings (nothing specific needed)
accepting all food too (cereal and canned fruit REALLY needed)
Someone will contact me if we(diversity club) can volunteer sometime!
hours are monday-friday 9-4, so we could drop off then maybe friday? (I could b/c of senior priv.)

BUCKBEE! who should I contact for Wilton's food bank?
and does Norwalk have one???
or have you already said something to them?

A shout out!

Hey Oh! I am here after school for Wednesday and Thursday + of course the Thursday morning rumble!!

A Big Week!

Any all chances for folks to stay after school this week and next would be greatly appreciated
1. The Presentation Board

• Data, data, data
• What does the data tell us to do?
• What we plan to do

2. Who is Adolfo Pérez Esquivel?
3. Coaster decorating
4. Circle Painting training!
Sending this all to you because you do check your email and you will then see this!
Spring has sprung!

Hotel Room Reserved

Hotel Room is reserved. All the students in one room :) Same place as last year. About $30 per person. Meals included in our weekend program: all breakfast, all lunch and Dinner? Not the case. We will probably eat on the road up, pack a cooler of good food and have a pizza dinner Saturday night. So, maybe bring some dinero for the pizza and some incidental snacks that we don't bring on our own. I will bring the fruit and muffins. Oh, and the coffee...of course. Any other baked goods or snacky snacks for 5 member and 2 adults.

E-Alerts to members

Can someone? go under settings to email and then type in the members email address so everyone gets an update everytime someone posts? Is this for Miss Carlie, the BlogKeeperess? Also, needed: Char's email address too. I resent an invite to Leticia.

DATA Crunch...

We have our data...now we have to make sense of it. Get the local stats, compare with national stats and then...look at our local stats plus our own survey of attitudes and beliefs. Can anyone search netflix for poverty related films?

Cirlce Painting for Peace March 26th

http://www.circlepainting.org/
Check this site out for what will be happening on March 26th. Perhaps members of Diversity Club-including Sierra can be present this whole day to help the artist and learn the process to do again at another point for the Poverty Awareness Project. Just a thought. Great "clay day" today. We are in countdown mode. We may have to put in some after school crunch time after the play. Or before if possible.

clay-day update!

Talked to Miss Holte on Thursday re: getting clay and other supplies from her. She said that that would be absolutely fine for us to come and use her room/supplies/clay next Friday, March 13th after school(early-release that day)! I think i repeadly asked her about the price, but she didn't say anything, so we'll just have to find out about that later! Let me know what you think!

Meeting: Thursday February 12th

Possible survey questions:

1. Why do you think poverty is sometimes looked down upon?
2. What is the face of poverty?
3. Would you be interested in learning more about poverty in our area?
4. What do you think the best way of learning more about the face of poverty: a) homeless night b)videos c) assemblies/guest speaker
5. What's your attitude towar poverty?
6. List a few adjectives of what you think poverty is.

Success!!

We raised 600+ for the cause!! Thanks to all of you and the NHS. Also, a big thanks to the students, staff and community for helping us help others.

Morning Meeting!

Meeting Notes: 2/5
Gather Data
-Survey students
-Interview: Attitudes and beliefs
-Stats for local, national and global poverty
Raise Awareness
-Guest speaker
-Film showing and discussion (skidrow, waging a living...)
-Diversity Club presentation
-Homeless Night
-Van Challenge
-PSA
Fundraising
-Homeless Night-raise more
-Cappuccinos-sell more
-Kiva Microlending-get envelopes

Big Week "CALL TO ACTION"

All is set in place for next week! We need more help for game day, please. Mp3 Day too. On another note, can you, SD write your thoughts about the policy you outlined at our meeting? That would be great. See you all on Monday!

Local Family in Need-Let's Act Now!

An emergency meeting was held to brainstorm some fundraising ideas. The ideas were

1. Game Day in the Library
2. Coffee (Fair Trade) and Capuccino Morning
3. Jeans Day (for teachers)
4. IPod in Study Hall

Each of these would cost to participate. Our principal is open to all ideas and so is our Library Media Specialist. This Thursday's meeting will address this most immediate concern as well as our ongoing projects. Thank you all for participating.

"Change doesn't happen overnight. It starts small and gains momentum."

-Terri Trespicio

I HAVE ARRIVED

At last.
Thanx for the facebook reminder C.H. :)

PSA update!

Hullo fello friends!
As you all know, because of our most recent school closings, our most cherised
meeting was canceled on Thursday. So any whoolaggins, I just wanted to
update you, myself, re: our Public Service Announcement.
I spoke with the Larry Johnson himself (and yes many of you have even
watched from your own t.v!) and he told me a few things:

-15-30 seconds long
-We'd have to be a non-profit organization --(yes!)
-The announcment would have to be copied on a beta-sp, dvc-pro,
or a cd (possibly possibly possibly) for proper image/sound...
-Cannot garantee it to be aired/NO PROMISES, but we WOULD be
contacted if they liked it.
I told him about our goal:(to increase public awaremess: re local
poverty, ya know whether that may be through donating......) and
he thought it was good and uhhh...ya! that's about it.

**Oh! and just comment back if any ?'s!

Tomorrow's meeting notice!

IF our school calls a two-hour delay tomorrow, Thursday January 15th, our meeting will be held at 9:00a.m. (instead of 7:00)! O.K.? Ok!

We are all here...except E.K.

Once you are an author for this blog, you are granted administrative privileges which means that you can change the layout, color, font and edit posts. You can always add another post and comment on each other's posts with photos, video etc. For now, all we need are the updates from each group regarding progress with the PSA and our Kiva policy and goals. Enjoy.

Meeting 1/8

Club members met to outline our goals for the group this year. SD will be leading the KIVA initiative by forming policy and guidelines for microlending. EK, TT and CH will be leading the Public Service Announcement project. Ms.B agreed to get the web pressence up and running.