Ideas into Action Part 1

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
Not all ideas or visions are equal. Some never get beyond the ‘motherhood and apple pie’ stage - good ideas that unleash no energy for change. Others transform the world.

Let’s take an issue, come up with some immeadiate, relevant and concrete action ideas and then decide what actions we might take alone, together with others, or with an organization. If we begin with the big issue of homelessness, we can take a smaller bite by focusing on homeless families. What are the impacts? Children in families that are homeless don’t make friends because of impermanance. Children have trouble in school because they don’t have access to study space and routine. Constant relocation creates stress within the family. What is the issue? Families are homeless because they can’t afford to rent or purchase a safe/suitable apartment or house. Low income families stuggle with high food and transportation expenses. Saving for a damage deposit or downpayment seems impossible. There is a lack of affordable housing and the inventory isn’t growing even though there are more low income families.

Possible solutions;

-temporary low cost housing

- subsidized transition housing

- housing families in non-housing arrangements (like church basments)

- increase inventory of affordable housing

- increase low wages so families can afford housing

- offer to house a family in your home

- ?

What else can you think of? Don’t discount any idea at this stage and don’t just look to what is being done by others. With all our best efforts, there are families sleeping in tents, cars and parks in every major city - so - we need to look to the future, rather than the past for real solutions.

In the next blog, we will apply the IRC test and choose an action. In part three we will look at what others are doing and then find a way to turn our ideas into action.