Working Together For Positive Social Change

According to a recent study commissioned by Edelman PR, a majority of people desires to actively work together with businesses, brands and government to create enduring positive social change. Take for instance the recent BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  While BP and the federal government are at work attempting to cap the well, literally an army of possible solution providers has come forward to pitch ideas and concepts to aggressively rid Gulf and shoreline of oil. As of the date of this blog entry, as many as eight thousand individuals and organizations have come forward with proposed solutions. Many of us know of the recommendations proposed by celebrities like James Cameron and Kevin Costner, but few know of proposals like the SQUID device. Regardless of the end outcome and solutions for the BP oil spill disaster, crowd sourcing is an unprecedented development that taps in to the collective genius of people.

Community Projects

Another example of crowd sourcing for positive social change is from Healthy Living Marketing client, Pepsi, and the brand’s Refresh Project. Pepsi is spending a reported $ 20 million in 2010 to fund local community projects created and voted on by the public. According to Dori Molitor of WomanWise, the Pepsi Refresh Project is a fine example of not only connecting with the brand’s “consumers as individuals, but also as communities who work together to make the world a better place.” Molitor refers to this as “me, we, higher purpose”. According to Bonin Bough with Pepsi, the Refresh Project goes far beyond social media and is “about building a social engagement platform that can take the brand beyond one that you know and love to being the brand that is aligned with your passions and enabling you to move the world forward. It’s not only funding passions and projects, the Project has created a forum where people are coming together, sharing ideas and letting their voices be heard on a broader platform.” To date, the Project’s website, RefreshEverything.com has generated more than three million unique visitors, one million registrations, and more than five million votes since the program’s launch in late January 2010.

What other problems can crowd sourcing help solve in the immediate future, where many potential assets go unutilized? One could be the redistribution of 95 billion tons of food wasted each year in the U.S. to help feed the hungry and malnourished. Another could be the continued deterioration of the U.S. education system.

If you would like to learn more about Healthy Living Marketing and Web 2.0 technologies made available for brand equity enhancements, please contact us at (301) 378-0384.

Founded in 2007, Back on My Feet is a nonprofit organization that promotes the self-sufficiency of homeless populations by engaging them in health and running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem to help rebuild their lives. Back on My Feet does not provide food nor does it provide shelter, but instead provides a community that embraces equality, respect, discipline, teamwork and leadership.

Back on My Feet is much more than just utilizing running as a discipline to follow; it is a comprehensive socially responsible program that offers connections to job training, employment and housing, but these benefits are not free. Program participants, known as ‘Members” earn the opportunity to move forward in the six month to nine month program by maintaining a 90 percent attendance rate at the morning runs three days a week. For many Members, support from the group is key to getting back on their feet.

The organization is the brainchild of Anne Mahlum, 29, a North Dakota native who founded it in Philadelphia. Since then, one thousand Members have gone through the program with nineteen finishing marathons as a demonstration of their commitment to rebuild their lives. Not only has the Philadelphia chapter of Back On My Feet flourished, but there are now active chapters in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Boston. Plans call for a Chicago chapter later this year.

Commitment To A Healthy Community

Back on My Feet started when Mahlum, who studied at American University, was between jobs and would jog by a homeless shelter. She began to develop a rapport with the men outside on the corner. What started as waves and smiles from a distance became more intimate as they developed a comfort level with one another. And one morning a simple idea stopped her in her tracks. With a call to the shelter and support from the community and the media, Philadelphia’s first Homeless Running Club was “up and running”. Says Mahlum, “the first run took place on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 6 am…and now 3 years later, we are operating in 4 cities. It’s pretty amazing. Running is such a beautiful metaphor for life. Life is about choosing different roads and our program teaches the importance of choosing roads filled with opportunity, hope and happiness.”

Mahlum goes on to say “Back on My Feet envisions a community where all members have the support and motivation required to move towards self–sufficiency. Every major city has a homeless problem and while providing food and shelter are very important basic needs, something is missing. We work to rebuild, revive and re-energize individuals. It is only when we have self-respect, self-confidence that we are truly able to move forward. Back on My Feet focuses on helping our members find a road of happiness, hope and opportunity, which includes a stable job and a place to live. This is our goal and we will get there one step at a time.”

Back On My Feet plans to expand to 10 more cities by the end of 2011.

If you would like to learn more about Healthy Living Marketing and social responsibility campaign development, please contact us at (301) 378-0384.

Beginning in October 2009, the District has imposed a $ 0.05 fee for plastic shopping bags provided at retail. The goal is not to raise revenue per se, but to reduce the number of discarded shopping bags that go into the Anacostia. Before the tax was imposed, 47% of the trash found in the Anacostia came from plastic shopping bags.

Needless to say, the $ 0.05 fee is having a big impact. Managers at D.C. stores that sell food or beverages say the effect has been dramatic with many reporting 50% or more reductions. One Safeway store in the city’s Northwest area reports a falloff of more than 6,000 bags a week, about half of its former volume. Since the program’s inception, the number of plastic bags handed out by supermarkets and other establishments has dropped from the 2009 monthly average of 22.5million to just 3 million this past January. Clearly, the fee has succeeded in reducing plastic waste and, better yet, generated $150,000 for the clean up of the Anacostia.

We first learned of the Anacostia and the struggles that the watershed had when we began working with Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on behalf of our client, PepsiCo. The organization is a group of concerned area citizens who work to protect and restore wetlands along the river. Given the tidal flow of the Anacostia, and its urban location just two miles from the U.S. Capitol, the area has been described by some as the “toilet bowl” of the District.

D.C. joins other large cities across North America who are learning tolive without plastic shopping bags. In support of Toronto’s goal to achieve 70 per cent waste diversion from landfill, retailers in the City of Toronto are required to charge a minimum of five cents per plastic shopping bag requested by the customer at checkout beginning last June 1. San Francisco has skipped the per-bag fee and has banned plastic bags all together. Los Angeles followed their lead, first imposing a $ 0.25 fee per bag for customers, and then approving a total ban that will go into effect in July 2010. Of the 25 cents assessed per bag, 7 cents go to stores and 18 cents goes to fund recycling and anti-pollution programs in the State of California.

Plastic bags are recycled at less than 33% the rate of paper bags, and make up the largest source of litter in our oceans, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

If you would like to learn more about Healthy Living Marketing and social responsibility campaign development, please contact us at (301) 378-0384.

With care to not over-simplify the problems and causes at hand, ponder the perfect storm of recent developments that are causing people to consider (and reconsider) their own personal responsibility for their own health:

Let’s Move America – led by First Lady Michelle Obama, this new program “promises to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation” by giving parents the support they need, providing healthier food in schools, helping children to be more physically active, and making healthy affordable food available in every part of the country. Needless to say, these are amazingly lofty goals, but for the moment at least, the most successful element to come out of this now three-month old initiative is the resounding voice of recognition that we as a whole society have a real problem. For the public masses, recognizing that there is a problem and keeping it high profile will work to awaken people to their consumptive choices and behavioral habits.

Government Regulation – at both the federal and local level, while some may take issue with the tactics, it’s clear that government is taking action to help curb our out-of-control and unsustainable consumption. From increasing soda and snack taxes, to food traceability legislation and caloric content disclosures in restaurants, government clearly is taking the opportunity to “facilitate” a greater understanding of our food intake and the impact it has upon society. Even larger cities are now in the midst of considering or actually placing zoning restrictions that ban unhealthy food sales in underserved neighborhoods. And don’t forget the efforts to greatly improve school nutrition.

Industry – even the food & beverage industry is getting behind the movement. From salt reduction and elimination of high-fructose corn syrup at the producer level, and with the public’s eye on improved healthfulness of food, improvements are being made.

Local communities – grass root organizations are seizing the opportunity and gaining momentum in the fight for healthier communities. Urban farming and programs like the one in Baltimore that gives greater access to healthy food items are just two examples of many that have sprung up across the country.

With all of this activity (and more) underway, the most important element in the equation is the commitment and discipline required from individuals – be it as a parent or a single person who accepts the call to action and personal responsibility to make improvements in their own lives. In a recent study of American adults conducted by the International Food Information Council, the majority of respondents (80%) are in the process of changing how they eat, and of those, 48% are doing so for improved health and nutrition. Only 13 percent cited the economy as the reason for their change.

Research also shows that Americans increasingly believe that their food and beverage choices can positively impact their health.  With 85% interested in learning more about foods that can provide benefits, the public is ready for actionable advice that addresses a host of issues, from weight management to immune function and how to improve their overall health and well-being.

If you would like to learn more about Healthy Living Marketing and social responsibility campaign development, please contact us at (301) 378-0384.