Archive for November, 2008

Cunningham Farms specializes in gourmet sweet potato butter made from organic potatoes and apple cider. It goes great with a variety of foods or their gourmet sweet potato pie. Cunningham Farms is a community oriented company that was founded with the socially responsible vision of providing jobs for families of low-income areas. The farm is also is a member of the Appalachian Spring Cooperative . Read more about their vision of social equity on their site.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOzqc0Y6AZs[/youtube]

This short video Julie and I made received a warm response at the 2008 Baltimore Bioneers Conference. Thanks to all the photographers for some amazing imagines of our fair city and to Andrew Grimm for writing and performing the score.

Living Legacy Development LLC is a 100% Environmentally Friendly Cleaning and post-construction service catering to businesses, residents and schools in the Baltimore area. Owner, Erica McCoullough is a former Baltimore city schoolteacher who developed Living Legacy after receiving unfortunate news about the death of a former student, which was simultaneous with the fortunate birth of her son. It was then that she realized the incredible need to provide alternatives to city youth that thirst for socially responsible job opportunities that would also be sensitive to community/family pressures and support ambitions of higher education. Continued

It was an exciting weekend at the 2008 Baltimore Bioneers Conference, held at the Maryland Institute Collage of Art. Julie and I were able to screen our video first thing Friday morning to open the event. A short 8 min. animated slide presentation of the transition from some of the issues Baltimore faces, socially and environmentally, as a post industrial city, combined with inspiring solutions that are cropping up all over town. I’d like to thank everyone for the positive response and we hope to upload a version to the website as soon as we can.
Some personal highlights from the conference came from a keynote by mycologist and author Paul Stamets, and two breakout sessions on Urban Agriculture as Urban Economic Development and Visionary Green Design and Development.

Read more about each one… Continued

Baltimore ReStore is part of Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity developed to generate funds for more projects. "Providing quality products at discount prices to preserve our environment and keeping valuable items out of our landfills." You can find building materials, plumbing, flooring, cabinets, doors, windows, tools, furniture, lighting and more. Located in East Baltimore behind Johns Hopkins Bay View at Eastern Ave and Kane Streets . Find a list of other salvage centers in the surrounding area here .

We at GOforChange are thrilled about the new leadership that will be coming into Washington in 2009. We are overwhelmed with gratitude to the millions of people who helped Obama’s campaign, voted for him, and otherwise brought about this historic result. Words fail us and we are just basking in the feelings of relief, hope, pride, and optimism for the future.

Obama is so inspiring because he embodies this thought by Thich Nhat Hanh : "Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what is the use of seeing?" Obama answered the call and now makes the tremendous sacrifice of leading our country forward. He is also realistic — he can’t do this by himself. He needs all of us to work with him and with each other — even when we disagree.

President-Elect Obama is someone who knows the value of forging community out of conflict.  For more thoughts on his vision, see our previous post from his visit to Maryland back in February.

Baltimore Civic Works was developed out of Baltimore’s branch of Americorps in 1993. Their mission is to build a future for the cities youth through community service and skill development. From basic literacy instruction to job-training for entry level careers in the field of environmental technology. Hundreds of AmeriCorps members mentor its students by transforming abandoned lots into parks and gardens, and by leading neighborhood clean up, rehab projects, and after school programs.

The city and it’s youth not only benefit from this program but the AmeriCorps members receive a modest living allowance and educational award. Don’t have a GED? You can get one as a member. Sign up today.

You can also get involved by checking out Civic Works Cool Roofs Program. Thanks to a grant from the Maryland Affordable Housing Trust the program has applied living roofs to a number of low-income homes.