Update: Earlier I reported the CRC as the Del Mar event sponsor. From the Coast News, "The Alliance for Regional Services (ARS), a collaboration of North County agencies and philanthropic organizations that combine resources to provide better services for the homeless at a cheaper cost, hosted the event for the second year in a row."Councilwoman Barth and soon to be Councilwoman Shaffer are both involved in Community Resource Center (CRC) activities. Barth has put out a call to find volunteers for the Holiday basket effort and Shaffer just finished donating her campaign volunteers donations to CRC. Today I read about the recent event at the Del Mar Fairground to provide services to the homeless.
The CRC is a part of countywide efforts to go beyond charity. From an article last May in NCT:
"The group's main focus has been its winter homeless shelter program, but two weeks ago, alliance members held a workshop to expand its vision and mission.”
"How do we identify emerging needs and gaps in services, and create solutions for those?" Stump said the group also wants the alliance to be seen as an advocacy group for North County, becoming more strategic than reactive. “
At Our Mayor post, Hand Back the Keys to the Car, I wrote about public sentiment being likened to a thoughtless teenager, a brat when I read the article's comments. It is time to bring humanity back into our common cultural language. If we pay attention to the most vulnerable of our communities, we'll be able to identify and strengthen our resilience to the ongoing stresses for all: debt, disease, unemployment, mental health, family discord and political importance.Bureau of Labor statistics (though somewhat improved) aren't that wonderful in this long-running recession looks particularly bad for marginalized voters of color, women and teenagers. Most everyone, whether well off or struggling, knows someone whether a relative, co-worker or friend who is in some dire straights.
As a community it would behoove us to bring this reality into our discussions of local economic transitions. More minimum wage employment in national chain businesses are the death of communities. How do we wean ourselves off this desperate dependency? It's not a simple answer because the old models are broken.
The following video via Treehugger is a brain tease and a design highlight in looking at commerce and storefront design much differently.
When Curro Claret was commissioned by Camper to redo one of their Barcelona shoe stores, he decided to let a group of people in risk of social exclusion have a go at it. The result of this open design project is a very positive one. Together with Arrels Fundació, Curro Claret and the group of ex-homeless people designed and built a new shop interior almost exclusively from recycled materials.
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