PolicyPitch picked up by SocialActions!

Beginning last week, Social Actions will aggregate your pitched ideas from the PolicyPitch platform!  This new partnership will increase exposure for our members and help connect you to people and resources that will further influence change!

Social Actions’ mission is to “make it easy for you to make a difference,” and does so by helping you find and share opportunities to change the world.

In their own words:

• First, we collect ways to get involved in the causes you care about from these 30+ action sources, including Care2, Change.org, DonorsChoose.org, DemocracyinAction, GlobalGiving, Idealist, Kiva, SixDegrees and VolunteerMatch.
• Then, we make it easy for you to find these opportunities by presenting them in a user-friendly search engine.
• We also encourage nonprofits, companies, and third-party developers to create online tools that help you share ways for others to take action on your website, blog, or mobile device

Check out the PolicyPitch partner page, or search for other opportunities to make a difference!

How to establish a community garden?

Anyone can do it through crowd-powered neighbor collaboration.  Parkway Partners in New Orleans has been doing it for 26 years.  Parkway’s mission is to empower residents to improve quality of life through the preservation, maintenance, and beautification of neatrual grounds, green spaces, playgrounds, parks, community gardens and the urban forest in New Orleans.  Among many other programs, Parkway works with neighborhoods to create community gardens.   Their process for turning the idea into reality comes in several steps:

1. Identify a vacant area and gather a group of interested neighbors. Select a representative to act as liaison with Parkway Partners
2. Contact Parkway partners and tell them about the project.  Gather data on addresses to the  buildings adjacent to the vacant property.
3. Parkway Partners begins the research necessary to identify the owner and obtain permission for its use.
4. Meet with neighbors to establish interest.  Schedule a meeting of interested neighbors.  Once a commitment to the garden is assured, select a project coordinator to schedule a meeting with a representative of Parkway Partners
5. Clean-up day is organized for the site once permission to use the property has been granted.
6. Make a Plan.  A garden plan is designed by the neighbors in conjunction with Parkway Partners and gardeners.
7. Raise funds.  Money must be raised from public and private sources to establish and maintain the site.  Often, the city department that manages parks will help with maintenance.
8. Finally, the framing is set in, soil is amended and the garden is planted!

More about Community gardens at the Neighborhood Partnership Network in New Orleans.