Posts Tagged ‘civic engagement’
Boots on the Ground: City Year London Launches
The positive impact created by City Year corps members across the nation (and beyond) is about to get bigger and better.
Next month marks the launch of City Year London – the 21st City Year corps and the organization’s second international location (City Year South Africa was launched in 2005). 50 young people – City Year London’s inaugural corps members – will spend ten months working in schools as tutors, mentors and role models, while also receiving valuable training and support themselves. City Year London will serve in primary schools in Shoreditch and in communities across London.
London Mayor Boris Johnson will be on hand for City Year London’s opening day celebration on September 27th, which will kick off with corps members performing physical training (PT) outside City Hall at 6:30 pm (City Year PT is an inspiring sight, if you have a chance to watch it).
As a longtime City Year partner and supporter, Timberland is excited about the UK expansion of the City Year team and their efforts. Our best wishes to City Year corps members in London and around the world as they embark on a powerful year of community service, leadership development and civic engagement. For more information, please visit CityYear.org.
Many CAREing Voices. One CAREing Movement.
Yesterday on Capitol Hill, over 800 caring, compassionate and energetic citizens joined together under the orchestration of CARE (the largest international non-governmental organization) to have their voices heard in the fight to end global poverty. I was honored and thrilled to be a part of this amazing exercise of our democratic process. Individuals from all walks of life, representing all 50 states, met with their state’s members of Congress to ask them to take legislative action in the fight against poverty. These are folks that took time away from work and endured the expense of their travels to ensure their voices were heard and that action is taken.
Even more amazing: the 8-year-old from Maine that took time out of school and raised the funds to cover her expenses to be there by selling lemonade. She did a research project in school about the issue of child marriage – that 60 million girls under the age of 17 are currently in forced marriages to men twice their age and subjected to abuse and neglect, with no opportunity to change their situation. Deservedly, this research left her very alarmed and she wanted to know what was being done about it – which lead her to discovering the CARE organization and their efforts to address this issue and other critical issues.
This is an annual event that CARE organizes, and each year the event grows in remarkable size; their first event seven years ago consisted of 24 citizens, and grew to roughly 500 last year and an amazing 840 this year. While CARE has been a long-time partner of Timberland, implementing programs to improve the lives of workers in our factories, I realized yesterday that what we do with them is just a small slice of their work, focus and impact. Meeting by meeting, state by state, each and every House of Representatives and state senator’s offices met with the CARE constituents from their states that traveled far and at great expense to be in Washington to advocate on behalf of the world’s poorest individuals, in hope for a better future for all.
Learn more about CARE and their national conference at www.care.org. Hope to see you on Capitol Hill next year.
Colleen Von Haden
Senior Manager, Code of Conduct
Timberland
