Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Bread & Jams
Bread and Jams is a self-advocacy center that offers at-risk and homeless individuals who are 18 and older assistance in finding services, housing, and employment.
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Constructing Awareness: Canstruction Competition Builds 25,000 Pounds of Food for the Greater Boston Food Bank
What do Conan O’Brien, Mr. Potato Head, and Garfield have in common? They were all at Bunker Hill Community College earlier this month, raising 25,000 pounds of food for the Greater Boston Food Bank. Bunker Hill Community College hosted the 15th annual Canstruction Design and Build Competition, in which architecture and design firms build giant…
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Connecting the Dots: Social Media Delivers Food Pantry to Homeless Family
It was a Tuesday night in Reno NV, on the 13th week of this project, when I first met Elaine and Paul. They run a food pantry for veterans called Hands of Hope. I had looked at their website early that afternoon, and I was curious about the program. I noticed that their motto was…
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New York Homebase Program: 7 Questions Which Need to be Addressed
Social research programs have been conducted for centuries. Basic data collection procedures such as taking the census were reported in religious documents like The New Testament over two thousand years ago. By the nineteenth century, research questions had became so subtle and detailed that increasingly complex analysis strategies were developed to process the data. John…
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For Jack Powers: This Should Have Been An Elegy
Go mad. Commit suicide. There will be nothing left. After you die or go mad. But the calmness of poetry. —from A Poem Without A Single Bird In It by Jack Spicer. My wife, Mary Esther, is a devout Catholic who goes to Mass regularly even though she hates the patriarchy of the church. When…
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Support Spare Change – The 2010 Fall Appeal
Dear Friend, As a loyal supporter of our mission and the empowerment work that we seek to realize, it gives me great pleasure to describe to you the recent successes that the Homeless Empowerment Project and Spare Change News have enjoyed. Over the course of the past six months, we have accomplished several important milestones.…
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Mental Illness and Stigma: How Far Have We Come?
Mental illness was once, and to some extent still is, a taboo subject that most people feel uncomfortable talking about within familial or societal spheres. However, because of the superfluity of media coverage and cinematic portrayals of people afflicted with mental illness, it has gone from private whispers behind closed doors to public dialogues. However,…
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Somerville Homeless Coalition 5k: A Race in the Spirit of Community and Caring
On the morning of October 2nd, runners stretched out on the sidewalk outside Johnny D’s Restaurant, all the way to the Davis Square T station in anticipation of the 15th Annual Somerville Homeless Coalition 5k. The weather was sunny and breezy and spirits were high as runners were called to the starting line. After grabbing…
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Worcester Edition Debut
Stakeholders involved with the Worcester Homeless Action Committee (WHAC) and the Spare Change News, Worcester Edition at the project’s kick-off event in October 2010.
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Getting online: Website Aims To Make Homeless Visible
Mark Horvath is a nationally renowned housing advocate who has been highlighting the stories of homeless people across the United States using short interviews which he records and posts online at invisiblepeople.tv. Horvath’s concern in initiating his interview project was a conviction that homeless people had been “invisible” for much too long. His goal was…
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