#3links

[dropboxes4sale-blog]

#dropbox for sale # gay

[slimjenkinz]

@Regrann from @carolinaoddfellows - “A leading principle of our Order is its firm hope in the future…looking forward to the time when love, not fear, shall rule the human breast…the #GrandUnitedOrderofOddFellows makes no discrimination.” –Charles H. Brooks.... Born in Paducah in 1859, Brooks grew to embody the very definitions of brilliance and success. He began teaching at age seventeen, and by the age of twenty-three had been appointed the principal of the Runkle Institute, one of the earliest state supported high schools for African-Americans in Kentucky. Seeking bigger challenges and opportunities, Brooks left Paducah in 1889 and moved to Washington D.C. to work in the Pension Bureau Office. While in D.C., he not only completed his degree in bookkeeping, but also entered law school at Howard University. Such was the respect for his character, that upon graduation from law school in 1892 he gained admission to practice before the Supreme Court of the District. Brooks served the #OddFellows for ten years, and followed that career by operating his own real estate and insurance firm in Philadelphia. He stayed socially active with organizations like the National Negro Business League and the Reliable Mutual Aid and Improvement Society. Brooks died in 1940 at the age of 81 and is buried beside his wife in Oak Grove Cemetery, back home in Paducah.....https://mclib.net/blogs/history/?p=573 #kentuckyhistory #Oddfellowship #3links #flt #GUOOF #guoofof #blackhistory -

[caravanstudios]

Three Links: Food to kids, gardens to meet, and on not designing for everyone

Low-income kids face a wide summer nutrition gap.

"According to California Food Policy Advocates’ (CFPA) analysis of California Department of Education (CDE) data, over 84 percent of those who benefitted from school lunch programs in 2011—more than 2 million children—did not use summer lunch programs. And the data show that this summer nutrition gap is widening. While the number of children eligible for free lunch has increased in California over recent years, the number of children participating in summer nutrition programs has plummeted. CFPA’s analysis shows that over the past ten years summer meal participation has decreased by over 50 percent."

Which begs the question: What's getting in the way of the summer nutrition programs and how do we increase participation?

Seeking Serenity in a Patch of California Land 

"The garden, on the scraggly outskirts of town, is one of seven in Fresno created for immigrants, refugees and residents of impoverished neighborhoods with mental health money from the state. At the Slavic Community Garden, Ukrainian refugees persecuted for their religious beliefs in the Soviet Union now grow black currants for jam, dill for pickles and soups, and medicinal calendula flowers from Ukrainian seeds.

The thinking of community leaders and health professionals is that gardens can help foster resiliency and a sense of purpose for refugees, especially older ones, who are often isolated by language and poverty and experiencing depression and post-traumatic stress. Immigrant families often struggle to meet insurance co-payments, and culturally attuned therapists are in short supply.

The budget, about $171,000 a year for construction and maintenance of the community gardens and adjoining meeting spaces here, is made possible by the California Mental Health Services Act of 2004, which put a 1 percent tax on personal income of $1 million a year or more."

Through the Generators, we are learning (and re-learning) that the interface matters: it may look like the front of an app but it also may look like a community gathering place. This is a terrific example of investing in a meaningful interface to services.

oh my god, don't make things for "Everyone."

"When you begin with 'Everyone' you’re just stuck: How do you make any honest decisions? How do you solve any real problems? You don’t. You start to invent people and you start to invent their problems and it’s amazing because those people and those problems line up almost exactly with what you’re building and how you’re thinking about it—imagine that. Lying to yourself is amazing for productivity.

Real audience is hard. Solving real problems is fucking bananas. But it’s the only way you make something that lasts, because you made something that someone actually cared about."

Sarah suggested the last paragraph as the Caravan Studios mantra. It's something we struggle with, and going through the Tinder Box, how do we avoid the impulse, the drive of scale, to make something useful to everyone and, in doing that, make something with merely theoretical usefulness.