Feel Good Friday - Five Year Anniversary

Hello friends, today we're celebrating the FIVE YEAR anniversary of Feel Good Friday!!

Whether you've started reading this blog recently or you've been following the entire time, I'm happy you're here. I'm also thrilled to say, even though I post a new story every week, there are still plenty of people and organizations in the world doing good work and I'm going to keep sharing what I learn with you.

This week I thought it would be fun to look back at the most viewed posts for each year. Let's go!

2012 - Tess Felix
The first ever blog on November 30, 2012, was about this Stinson Beach artist who uses plastic washed up on the beach to create her art. Beautiful work and makes you think twice about using that straw the waiter just gave you.
http://www.heymissk.com/2012/11/feel-good-friday-tess-felix.html

2013 - Wheels for Humanity

It's the United Cerebral Palsy program that brings wheelchairs, and motorcycles modified with wheelchair platforms, to people with disabilities in developing countries. One of their success stories is a young Indonesian woman who got a modified motorcycle and then became an outreach officer for Wheels.
http://www.heymissk.com/2013/08/feel-good-friday-sri-lestari-and-wheels.html

2014 - WriteGirl
What do you get when you partner teen girls with professional writers in a mentoring program? Creativity, critical thinking and leadership skills. All that and dozens of anthologies. Write on!
http://www.heymissk.com/2014/05/feel-good-friday-writegirl.html

2015 - The Plastic Bank
Plastic banks in Lima and Haiti let people trade the plastic they gather from their neighborhoods and beaches for money, goods and services. That plastic is then recycled and sold as "social plastic" to companies who want to participate in the reduction and reuse of plastic while also empowering the people who collected it.
http://www.heymissk.com/2015/03/feel-good-friday-plastic-bank.html

2016 - Southern Poverty Law Center
For over 40 years the SPLC has been monitoring hate and extremist groups, training law enforcement, providing expert analysis for the media and shutting these groups down through exposure and lawsuits. The also have a program for schoolchildren called Teaching Tolerance and focus on children's rights, immigrant justice, LGBT rights, economic justice and criminal justice reform. No wonder they were the most viewed post of 2016!
http://www.heymissk.com/2016/11/feel-good-friday-southern-poverty-law.html

2017 - Save the Children
This year's top post was about the work Save the Children is doing to support people in Puerto Rico affected by the hurricane in September. Disaster relief is only one of the ways they help. There are also programs focused on literacy and early education, global heath and nutrition and child protection.
http://www.heymissk.com/2017/09/feel-good-friday-save-children.html

Thank YOU for being a part of Feel Good Friday. Your comments, likes and shares make me feel good about telling these stories and helping them gain a wider audience. See you next week!

Feel Good Friday - Showing Up for Racial Justice

The reason I started writing these Feel Good Friday posts in 2012 was to focus on good work being done as a counter to all the negative events that dominate the news. Some weeks are harder than others to find the good, but I always do.

Given last weekend's white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, VA and the murder of Heather Heyer, I'm going encourage you to read my November post on the Southern Poverty Law Center to see what they're doing to combat hate groups. Next, let's talk about today's organization, Showing Up for Racial Justice.

As explained on their Facebook page, Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) "is a national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves White people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability."

Why the focus on whites? SURJ "believes in collective liberation -- and that none of us can be free until we end white supremacy. SURJ's role as part of a multi-racial movement is to undermine white support for white supremacy and to help build a racially just society."

In order to realize this goal, SURJ employs three core strategies:

• Delegitimize racist institutions
• Fight for a fair economy that refuses to pit communities against each other
• Shift culture (meaning the underlying beliefs folks have about people and the world) in a way that undermines support for white supremacy

These strategies are used when organizing community events and providing resources on topics such as direct action, fundraising, working with the media and facilitating meetings. There are chapters throughout the United States, including one in the San Francisco Bay Area, and if there isn't one near you - you can start a new chapter.

If you've been looking for a way to turn your anger into action, I recommend you attend a local event, volunteer your time or donate your money. You can also show your support on social media by liking the SURJ Facebook page and the SURJ Bay Area Facebook page. If you want to make a difference on Twitter, you can follow @ShowUp4RJ and @surjbayarea. It's time to show up.

Feel Good Friday - Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect

It's Feel Good Friday and once again time to highlight an organization that is standing up for people under attack. Today, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect.

You may already be familiar with the organization as they've been making recent headlines for stating that President Trump's remarks condemning anti-Semitism haven't gone far enough. You can watch a rather animated CNN interview from Tuesday with Executive Director, Steven Goldstein, here. The following day he acknowledged Vice President Pence for traveling to St. Louis to clean Jewish graves desecrated in the recent surge of anti-Semitism.

The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect was founded in 1959 by Anne Frank's father. Their mission is similar to other civil rights organizations I've recently profiled on Feel Good Friday, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. As explained on the website, "Through educational programs and grassroots organizing, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect calls out prejudice, counters discrimination and advocates for the kinder and fairer world of which Anne Frank dreamed." (Anyone needing a quick Anne Frank refresher can read more about her here.)

What's different about the Center is that, "it uses the diary and spirit of Anne Frank as unique tools to advance her legacy and to educate young people about the consequences of intolerance and the need to work toward a world based on mutual respect." Educational programs include traveling exhibits, workshops for educators and live performance programs for K-12 schools and any community organization who would like to see the words of Anne Frank come to life.

There is also an essay contest for middle school students (with a chance to win a trip to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam) and the Spirit of Anne Frank Scholarship Awards which are given out annually to "students who have proven themselves exceptional leaders in combating intolerance, prejudice and injustice in their schools and communities." Applications are currently being accepted through March 17th.

As with all Feel Good Friday organizations, if you like what they do you can support their work by volunteering your time, donating your money and liking their Facebook page.

Their Twitter homepage @AnneFrankCenter focuses on the current campaign to support refugees, "America denied immigration to refugee Anne Frank. Open your heart to refugees and immigrants today." #SaveEveryAnne

Feel Good Friday - Southern Poverty Law Center

I try to avoid discussions of politics on Feel Good Fridays because I want this space to focus on the good works being done by people around the world. That being said, the rise in hate crimes only days after the outcome of the U.S. presidential election is what inspired this week's organization.

Once again, we celebrate the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). If that's ringing a familiar bell it's because we profiled their school-based program Teaching Tolerance in this post last month. Today we're focused on what they do to fight hate.

As stated on their website, "we monitor hate groups and other extremists throughout the United States and expose their activities to the public, the media and law enforcement." There is an interactive map of the 892 hate groups in the U.S. so you can see where they can be found.

In an effort to bring these people to light and to justice, SPLC maintains a extremist files database of prominent extremist organizations and individuals and explains their ideologies. They also "publish investigative reports, train law enforcement officers and share key intelligence, and offer expert analysis to the media and public."

So what does all this monitoring and tracking do, besides make you depressed realizing how much hate is out there? As the SPLC explains, "over the years, we've crippled or destroyed some of the country's most notorious hate groups - including the United Klans of America, the Aryan Nations and the White Aryan Resistance - by suing them for murders and other violent acts committed by their members or by exposing their activities." That's what happens when you tangle with a law center!

In addition to fighting hate and teaching tolerance the SPLC has programs focused on children's rights, immigrant justice, LGBT rights, economic justice and criminal justice reform. You can click all these links now or you can wait... this may not be the last time we turn to the Southern Poverty Law Center on a Feel Good Friday.

Support this important work with a donation and by liking the SPLC Facebook, the HateWatch Facebook page following them on Twitter @splcenter.