Community Organizing Paper

Running head: FOOD DRIVE

Community Organizing

Name

Western Michigan University

Social Work 4600

April 15, 2009

Introduction

Today’s economy has put many families in tough situations. Many people have lost their jobs or have encountered pay cuts and can not afford the basic necessities needed to survive. There are many people in the Kalamazoo that are struggling to keep their families afloat. The local families are not the only ones struggling in the present economy crisis, local businesses and services are struggling as well. Donations to the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission and Loaves and Fishes have been on a steady decline over the past few months. People can not afford to donate as much money or items like they were able to in the past. In return this affects many people in the community. People who use these services are no longer able to receive as much help and they once were and people who never needed these service are now in need. This is a desperate time for many people in our community and this is why the other student interns and I that are placed within the Ninth Circuit Court decided to put a food drive together and give the donations to Loaves and Fishes.

What we did

The other intern and I did not know what we were going to do and how we were going to go about doing this project. After brainstorming through different ideas and having failed attempts at some of those ideas we heard about a food drive that was in the works. We thought it would be perfect for us to jump on board and help plan this event. After doing some research we found out that the moral boosters were the ones planning it. The moral boosters are an origination in the court that works at raising the moral of the employers within the court. They organize different events throughout the year that range from ice cream parties, Christmas parties, different fundraises and food drives. We decided that if we collaborated with the boosters and worked with them we would be more...