Stories & Inspiration
Read below to see all the amazing ways the Mozilla community shared, gave, engaged, created, and collaborated during the week of September 14-21, 2009, by using the Internet to make a difference in people's lives.
People from all over came together to make a difference in their local community, and helped fellow public benefit organizations gain from the open Web. Thank you for taking part in Mozilla Service Week. Thank you for joining the cause - you made a difference.
Communications for Immigrant Rights Organization
The Hispanic Liaison is a community based, non-profit organization founded in 1995. Our mission is to foster cultural understanding between Latinos/as and other residents of Chatham County, and to empower Hispanics to overcome the challenges they face as immigrants and find their voice in the community.
This year is a critical year for immigrants rights advocacy and for fund raising, and for both these we are needing help with the communications tools of our organization. This can include helping us evaluate and improve our database, improve the use of our social networking sites, and helping us to maintain an engaging and visually attractive website.
Your help with any of these would be greatly appreciated! Related Link
Spreading Firefox and Preventing Animal Cruelty
I am the webmaster for a non for profit state organization in the state of Indiana I volunteer my time to work and run the website. I support the SPCA and donate to the SPCA and ASPCA. PREVENT ANIMAL CRUELTY. if you check the site you will see Firefox badges on every page! the SPCA is the voice of the animals. Every little bit helps. I work 10 hours or so a week on the site sometimes more. It really is a great feeling to know you have hopefully made a difference. Related Link
Project Seres - social & environmental equality
The climate is changing, the evidence is all around us. Sea level rises, changes in rainfall, increased drought and famine. It's alarming. Yet most alarming of all is that the worlds most vulnerable citizens will be the first and hardest hit. For these individuals, climate change threatens their very existence. From farmers in the highlands of Bolivia to women selling textiles in Guatemala - their lives, their families, their future is under threat from climate change. Tragically, they are not even aware that this threat exists.
But we are, and we can make a difference. Project Seres fights against the injustice of cilmate change, working towards social and environmental equality for all. We work at a grassroots level, empowering people through education and helping at-risk groups to build resistance to the threat of climate change. We use simple, sustainable solutions, providing people with the tools to help themselves, and working together to create positive change, for life.
The project is currently looking for an experiences web designer/graphic designer to work with our programmer and get the website live! This will be the central point of communication from the project back to our international community, and is a vital step in the project progress. Please help us to get started! Related Link
Volunteerism Needs You, Drupal Developer!
Hands On Greater Buffalo, powered by WNY AmeriCorps, is a non-profit organization that seeks to mobilize community volunteers to positively impact the Western New York community.
We presently use Drupal to host a basic volunteer sign-up site at www.handsongreaterbuffalo.org. However, my limited experience with Drupal has really hindered what could evolve into a much more robust, simple, and rich experience for the volunteers interested in serving.
That's where you come in!
We are looking for an experienced Drupal developer to help build the future of volunteer outreach in Buffalo, NY and the surrounding area.
Check out the video for a taste of what we do and get in touch. Thank you for your time and consideration. Related Link
School Garden Program Seeks Web Designer & Developer
Urban Sprouts is looking for a volunteer web designer and CSS/HTML web developer (ideally the same person) to update the design and improve the UX (usability, information architecture (IA), and user interface) of the blogspot website. Experience with working within the blog environment is a plus.
We would also like consultation on upgrading the blog site to a easily manageable and updatable website with the blog component integrated and featured.
Improving the blog site will help expand our online presence, provide better access to information, and streamline the online donorship and volunteer sign up process.
Urban Sprouts is a school garden program that serves low-income youth from San Francisco’s under-served neighborhoods. By cultivating school gardens in San Francisco’s under-served neighborhoods, Urban Sprouts partners with youth and their families to build eco-literacy, equity, wellness, and community.
Our gardens help students become more engaged in school and connect with food, the environment and each other.
Thanks to Mozilla Service for offering volunteer support!
A Quote from one of the students:
“I want to be eating more greens EVERYDAY, and less sugar. I plan on sharing my knowledge about nutrition with my parents and brother.”
Please send your resume/portfolio to:
Sanaz Ebriani
sanaz[at]urbansprouts[dot]org Related Link
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is answering Mozilla's call for participation by hosting an online help desk via our IRC channel.
The CC help desk is a place for experienced members of the CC community (staff, Jurisdiction partners, and community members), to come together to share their collective expertise with those that are new to CC and need a little, or a lot, of guidance.
The CC community will be providing help with the following topics:
* General CC help
* CC technology (ccREL and software projects)
* Where and how to publish CC works
* Where and how to find CC works
* CC in education and science
Related Link
Getting Local and Taking Action - Micro Website Redesign
New York ACORN, a grassroots group of 20,000 low- and moderate-income families working for social and economic justice, is looking to leverage its traditional neighborhood organizing strengths - personal contact, door-to-door canvassing, leadership development, and locak social change campaigns - by using online tools.
One pilot project is to integrate a local community website into its civic engagement work. This site would provide action-oriented links around local community issues, ranging from improved city services to fighting against problems with pay and hours from local employers. Additionally the website would include links to various services of interest to community residents such as free tax preparation, tenants' rights workshops, and benefits screenings. Finally, the site would include a means by which local residents could interact with their local ACORN organizers and with themselves through forums and blogs.
New York ACORN has set up a rudimentary version of this using a Drupal system and is looking for a volunteer who can help take it to the next level both in terms of look and feel and in terms of integrating the action tools within the site so the site is oriented to helping people take action rather than as an information recepiticle. Related Link
Web Page Needed for Teacher Resources
The Canyonlands Field Institute provides school groups from around the country the opportunity to learn about and experience the unique desert environment of the Colorado Plateau. Our school trips and field camps demonstrate and educate on the principles of sustainable practices and foster student connections to the Colorado Plateau through hands on exploration and educational activities outside of Moab, Utah.
We are looking to strengthen these educational programs through a web page which provides resources and lesson plans so teachers may introduce their students to topics such as the desert ecosystem, land management and water conservation issues before they come. The web site will also include follow-up activities for students to complete once they have returned home. Our hope is to help students and teachers weave the lessons they learn about the environment and sustainable practices at our field camp into the fabric of their everyday lives through interactive training tools on this web page.
Related Link
Teaching IT to Laos' youth
I am a volunteer in the Social and Economic Developers Association, Laos (http://seda-laos.org). For two months I have been teaching IT to local young Lao people.
For some, it is the first time they have had any training on how to use computers; many people cannot even complete basic tasks like creating simple documents.
Laos is a very poor country; 75% of the population live on less than $2 a day. There are very few opportunities for young people to gain a good education or to have good jobs. Having basic IT skills is hugely important for finding work, and for helping Laos to develop economically.
I am working with an organization that is dedicated to empowering Lao people to find long term solutions to poverty. Teaching people how to use computers is a way to build the skills necessary for Laos' young people to help build a brighter future for the country and for themselves. Related Link
Need a New Website and Logo Redesign for ‘A Better World’
‘A Better World Foundation' Needs a New Website and Logo Redesign…
When we began this endeavor during the planning of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, we knew it would take years to create a fully-fledged and operating nonprofit. Although that has not yet happened, it has not prevented us from doing professional work with dozens of nonprofits on 5 continents.
In order to reach a much larger audience and officially launch, we need a polished, professional website and an updated logo design. Our website was so outdated that we took it down last year and simply left a static page (www.abetterworld.org), which still generates a fair amount of response.
We would be pleased to provide you and/or your company with recognition on our website and in our press announcements, as long as we use your designs (which will be a minimum of 4 years). It is our preference to be able to move the site to our pro bono host, yet we may consider moving the site if the hosting is pro bono or for a very small fee. In addition, we would like the ability to be able to update text, images and graphics through Contribute or another editing tool.
If you would like to know more about our founder and president, visit www.linkedin.com/in/patrickschoof
We look forward to working with you! Related Link