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