My Background

I should probably start by saying that two things motivate me. I love to be helpful and I love to fix stuff. I am a big goofy Boy Scout with a tendency to tinker. While I like to fix stuff, I really don't like to fix people--have always felt that it's arrogant and ineffective anyway. I do like to fix systems. Over the last 12 years I have worked with a couple of groups that have tried to help the poor. The first was a group in Lexington, KY that distributed food and clothing to the needy of that community. For the last 8 years, I have worked with a group that prepares meals at the mission in Woodland, CA.

With both of these organizations, I have seen the groups grow and had a chance to meet the people volunteer with these programs and those who avail themselves of these programs. With this experience, I have seen a number things that work and a number that don't and spent a good deal of time thinking about the problem of chronic poverty. I have also heard (mostly on NPR) of a number of other people that are doing related things that seem to work.

The Goal

In this section of my wiki, I am going to post some of the ideas that I have heard so that I don't forget them and write about some of the ideas that I have had as to how to run a charity that serves the needy as well as ideas as to how to address various aspects of poverty and chronic poverty. Hopefully in the future these ideas will begin to solidify into something useful.

• Important ideas and observations about running a Charity
• Statement of some of the major issues surrounding poverty
• Tidbits that don't have a home yet
• Specific ideas that I have heard about solving various apects of poverty

  • Harlem Children’s Zone

  • A grocery store style Food Bank

  • Giving Circles

  • Urban Gardening/Urban Farming

• Stories related to outreach and social justice