Tag: Build Community

Join a Credit Union
Community Activism · Read, Educate Yourself, Prepare · Vote with your Dollars

Join a Credit Union

otycd

This OTYCD article originally appeared in February 2018.

 

Join a credit union and leave traditional for-profit banks behind.

 

Are you sick of banks? We at OTYCD don’t blame you, and we’d like to suggest an alternative: a credit union.

 

A credit union is a non-profit member-owned cooperative. It exists to help people manage their money instead of making a profit off of them.

 

Fees tend to be lower and customer service far better than at traditional banks. Credit unions generally offer free checking accounts and do not charge you if your balance falls below a specified amount.

 

Credit unions are often more community-oriented as well, and concerned with helping, supporting, and building the local community in a wide variety of ways–offering small business loans, providing financial education, sponsoring local events, and even offering scholarships.

 

There are drawbacks to credit unions. They generally offer fewer financial products than banks do. Their ATM networks aren’t as broad as those of traditional banks, which means you might pay fees to use machines that don’t belong to the credit union (but ask about this–many credit unions reimburse a certain number of withdrawals per month). Credit unions aren’t as abundant as banks, and you might have trouble finding one near you that you can join.

 

Regardless, it’s an option worth exploring, especially if you’re fed up with the banking system and fed up with being treated like a cash cow.

 

 

Read these articles about credit unions and their pros and cons:

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/credit-unions/the-benefits-of-a-credit-union-vs-a-bank/

https://www.moneytalksnews.com/9-reasons-why-credit-union-better-than-big-bank/

Credit Unions vs. Banks: How to Decide

 

 

See MyCreditUnion.gov’s explanation of credit unions:

https://www.mycreditunion.gov/about-credit-unions/Pages/How-is-a-Credit-Union-Different-than-a-Bank.aspx

 

 

See Wikipedia’s list of credit unions in the United States and find one near you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_credit_unions_in_the_United_States

 

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the button on the upper right of the page. And tell your friends about the blog!

Learn How to Help Military Families Thanks to Operation We Are Here
Community Activism · Stand Up for Civilization · Stand Up for Norms · Thank You Actions

Learn How to Help Military Families Thanks to Operation We Are Here

otycd

Learn how to help military families through the Operation We Are Here homepage–a detailed collection of resources for military families and those who want to show support.

 

Operation We Are Here is a gratifyingly broad and comprehensive collection of resources for military families, veterans, and people who want to ease their burden. It includes links and info on programs you’ve heard about and several you haven’t.

 

Its Toolkit page, which is aimed at people who want to help the enlisted, their families, and veterans, provides information about programs such as Free Cakes for Kids, which ensures that low-income military families with children don’t have to choose between spending their limited funds on a birthday cake or a birthday gift.

 

It also mentions Cleaning for Heroes, a nonprofit that provides free house-cleaning services to disabled or elderly veterans; several programs that train service animals for vets and the military; ways for lawyers to donate their legal services; a list of businesses run by veterans and military spouses; programs that help the military community vote; and a metric ton of programs that distribute used items–musical instruments, DVDs, cell phones, clothes, board games and video games, you name it–to military folk.

 

There’s an entire section of the site devoted to books of interest to the military community and its supporters, with subsections on PTSD, marriage, caregiving, veteran employment, and loss and grief.

 

And there’s a sidebar on the right of the webpage with seemingly acres of resources.

 

A note: The Operation We Are Here webpage is the project of a non-denominational Christian ministry, but the individual resources listed may or may not reflect the same Christian beliefs.

 

 

See the Operation We Are Here webpage:

http://www.operationwearehere.com/index.html

 

 

See its ‘About Me’ page, which includes a ‘Statement of Faith’:

http://www.operationwearehere.com/AboutUs.html

 

 

See its ‘Toolkit for Military Supporters’:

http://www.operationwearehere.com/Toolkit.html

 

 

See its ‘Book List for the Military Community and Supporters’:

http://www.operationwearehere.com/BookLists.html

 

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the blue button on the upper right or checking the About & Subscribe page. And tell your friends about the blog!

 

 

Follow Operation We Are Here on Twitter:

@OpWeAreHere

 

Like it on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/OperationWeAreHere

Need to Protest? Are Your Feet Itching to March? Check Out Resistance Calendar
Community Activism · Marches and Protests

Need to Protest? Are Your Feet Itching to March? Check Out Resistance Calendar

otycd

Feeling the need to protest? Are your feet itching to march? Just want to know what else is going on? Pull up the Resistance Calendar site and see what’s happening soon near you.

 

The Resistance Calendar lists a wide range of events–not just marches, protests, and rallies.

 

It’ll show you phone-banking events, canvasses, town halls, organization meetings, postcard-writing parties, block walks, interfaith gatherings, brunches, lectures, even bowl-a-thons.

 

It lets you search by date and lets you filter by location from a range of five miles to 500. You can add events as well.

 

It’s so comprehensive that you can look at your own calendar, find the emptier dates, and check Resistance Calendar on those dates to see what it’s got to offer then. Even if you don’t RSVP, you’ll get a good view of what’s happening near you.

 

 

Visit the Resistance Calendar homepage:

http://www.resistancecalendar.org

 

 

Like Resistance Calendar on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/resistancecalendar

Join a Credit Union
Community Activism · Read, Educate Yourself, Prepare · Vote with your Dollars

Join a Credit Union

otycd

Join a credit union and leave traditional for-profit banks behind.

 

Are you sick of banks? We at OTYCD don’t blame you, and we’d like to suggest an alternative: a credit union.

 

A credit union is a non-profit member-owned cooperative. It exists to help people manage their money instead of making a profit off of them.

 

Fees tend to be lower and customer service far better than at traditional banks. Credit unions generally offer free checking accounts and do not charge you if your balance falls below a specified amount.

 

Credit unions are often more community-oriented as well, and concerned with helping, supporting, and building the local community in a wide variety of ways–offering small business loans, providing financial education, sponsoring local events, and even offering scholarships.

 

There are drawbacks to credit unions. They generally offer fewer financial products than banks do. Their ATM networks aren’t as broad as those of traditional banks, which means you might pay fees to use machines that don’t belong to the credit union (but ask about this–many credit unions reimburse a certain number of withdrawals per month). Credit unions aren’t as abundant as banks, and you might have trouble finding one near you that you can join.

 

Regardless, it’s an option worth exploring, especially if you’re fed up with the banking system and fed up with being treated like a cash cow.

 

 

Read these articles about credit unions and their pros and cons:

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/credit-unions/the-benefits-of-a-credit-union-vs-a-bank/

https://www.moneytalksnews.com/9-reasons-why-credit-union-better-than-big-bank/

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/credit-unions-vs-banks/

 

 

See MyCreditUnion.gov’s explanation of credit unions:

https://www.mycreditunion.gov/about-credit-unions/Pages/How-is-a-Credit-Union-Different-than-a-Bank.aspx

 

 

See Wikipedia’s list of credit unions in the United States and find one near you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_credit_unions_in_the_United_States

 

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the button on the upper right of the page. And tell your friends about the blog!

Support Sandy Hook Promise, an Organization Created by Newtown Families
Common-sense Gun Laws · Community Activism

Support Sandy Hook Promise, an Organization Created by Newtown Families

otycd

Support Sandy Hook Promise (SHP), a nonprofit created in part by those who lost family members in the December 14, 2012 attack on the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school.

 

SHP is actually two organizations.

 

The SHP Foundation‘s stated mission is “to prevent gun-related deaths due to crime, suicide and accidental discharge so that no other parent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of their child.” The foundation achieves these goals “by educating and empowering parents, schools and communities on mental health & wellness programs that identify, intervene and help at-risk individuals and gun safety practices that ensure that firearms are kept safe and secure.”

 

Its educational programs include its Know the Signs guide, which teaches how to spot when someone might be at risk of harming themselves or others.

 

The SHP Action Fund is devoted to enacting “sensible gun violence prevention laws, policy and regulations at a state and federal level, in the areas of mental health & wellness and gun safety that result in the reduction of gun-related death and injury.” It does this by “engaging, organizing and mobilizing our national base of Promise Makers and Leaders at a state and federal level.”

 

Among the bills the SHP Action Fund supports is H.R. 4909, the STOP School Violence Act, which would provide grants to implement programs that draw on, and act on, the knowledge reflected in the Know the Signs guide.

 

 

Visit the Sandy Hook Promise homepage:

https://www.sandyhookpromise.org

 

 

See its ‘Get the Facts’ page:

https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/get_educated

 

 

Become a Promise Leader, a committed supporter who upholds and pursues SHP’s goals in your home community:

https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/promise_leaders

 

 

Donate to Sandy Hook Promise:

https://action.sandyhookpromise.org/donate_page/foundation

 

 

Like Sandy Hook Promise on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/SandyHookPromise

 

 

Follow it on Twitter:

@sandyhook

 

 

Buy Sandy Hook Promise merchandise:

https://store.sandyhookpromise.org

 

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the button on the upper right of the page. And tell your friends about the blog!

Check Out the U.S. Vote Foundation, Which Tells You Everything You Need to Know to Cast a Ballot
Elections · Voting Rights, Fighting Voter Suppression

Check Out the U.S. Vote Foundation, Which Tells You Everything You Need to Know to Cast a Ballot

otycd

Check out the U.S. Vote Foundation, an impressive one-stop shopping center on how to cast a ballot, whether you’re at home, overseas, or in the military.

 

Founded in 2005, the U.S. Vote Foundation is a private, non-profit, nonpartisan organization based in Delaware. Its website offers state-specific voting information for all 50 states as well as U.S. territories–ID requirements, eligibility requirements, election dates and deadlines, etc.

 

It can help you request an absentee ballot, and help you figure out what to do if you’re overseas or serving in the military. And it can help you find the contact information for your local election office. And if you’re stuck, you can consult the Voter Help Desk.

 

 

See the U.S. Vote Foundation’s website:

https://www.usvotefoundation.org

 

 

See its Register to Vote/Absentee Ballot page:

https://www.usvotefoundation.org/vote/voter-registration-absentee-voting.htm

 

 

See its State Voting Requirements & Information page (which includes territories as well):

https://www.usvotefoundation.org/vote/sviddomestic.htm

 

 

See its impressive spreadsheet that details voting methods and options in all American states and territories:

https://www.usvotefoundation.org/vote/state-elections/state-voting-laws-requirements.htm

 

 

Consult its Voter Help desk:

https://www.usvotefoundation.org/voter-help-desk

 

 

See its Who We Are and What We Do pages:

https://www.usvotefoundation.org/who-we-are

https://www.usvotefoundation.org/what-we-do

 

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the button on the upper right of the page. And tell your friends about the blog!

 

 

See its Study Abroad and Vote! Toolkit:

https://www.usvotefoundation.org/Study-Abroad-and-Vote-Toolkit

 

 

Donate to the U.S. Vote Foundation:

https://www.usvotefoundation.org/donate

 

 

Like it on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/USVote

 

 

Follow it on Twitter:

@US_Vote

 

Help These Comfort Dogs Help the Victims of American Tragedies Such as The Shootings in Sandy Hook, Florida, Las Vegas, and the Boston Marathon Bombings
Community Activism · Good News · Stand Up for Civilization · Stand Up for Norms · Vote with your Dollars

Help These Comfort Dogs Help the Victims of American Tragedies Such as The Shootings in Sandy Hook, Florida, Las Vegas, and the Boston Marathon Bombings

otycd

Help an Illinois-based Lutheran church program that supplies comfort dogs to victims of American tragedies, such as the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School in Parkland, Florida, the concert shooting in Las Vegas, and the Boston Marathon Bombings.

 

The Lutheran Church Charities’ K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry debuted in August 2008. The dogs help victims of tragedies by giving them something relaxing and joyful to concentrate on. In the course of playing with the dogs, victims find it easier to talk about what happened to them–an act that some survivors struggle with.

 

The team of comfort dogs features Golden Retrievers. Many are named for characters who appear in the Bible. Lutheran Church Charities states they have more than 130 trained comfort dogs helping people in 20 states.

 

The church never charges for visits from its comfort dogs. It relies on donations to underwrite the program.

 

 

Meet the dogs on the LCC K-9 roster and find their individual Facebook pages:

https://www.lutheranchurchcharities.org/meetthedogs-165459-953204.html

 

 

Donate to cover the travel expenses for the LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs’ trip to Parkland, Florida, following the Valentine’s Day 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School:

https://give.idonate.com/lutheran-church-charities/lcc-k-9-comfort-dog-travel-expenses-parkland-florida?utm_source=Social&utm_medium=Twitter

 

 

Donate to the general fund for the LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs Ministry:

https://www.lutheranchurchcharities.org/give-lcc-k-9.html

 

 

See the main page for Lutheran Church Charities, which created and maintains the comfort dogs program:

https://www.lutheranchurchcharities.org

 

 

See the LCC K-9 Crisis Response page, which features photos of events the dogs have responded to, and the people they’ve served:

https://www.lutheranchurchcharities.org/cr.html

 

 

Request a site visit from the LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs:

https://lcc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/366/responses/new

 

 

Request an emergency visit from the LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs:

https://lcc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/1148/responses/new

 

 

If you live in Northern Illinois or near Grand Island, Nebraska, you can become an apprentice comfort dog trainer:

https://www.lutheranchurchcharities.org/volunteer-k-9-apprentice.html

 

 

Meet the team who trains the comfort dogs:

https://www.lutheranchurchcharities.org/trainers.html

 

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the button on the upper right of the page. And tell your friends about the blog!

 

 

Like LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/k9comfort/

 

 

Follow it on Twitter:

@K9ComfortDogs

 

 

Shop the LCC K-9 store, which has a stuffed toy Golden Retriever and a coloring book that features the comfort dogs:

https://www.lutheranchurchcharities.org/store.html

 

 

Read a CNN story about the LCC K-9 comfort dogs’ visit to survivors of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida:

https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/15/health/iyw-orlando-comfort-dogs-trnd/index.html

 

 

Read an NBC Miami story on the LCC K-9 comfort dogs’ visit to MSD students in Parkland,  Florida:

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Therapy-Dogs-Help-Those-Mourning-After-Parkland-Shooting-474885453.html