As an expat living in Buenos Aires, and editor of La Vida Idealist, a community blog that aims to support idealistic adventurers in Latin America, I come across a lot of people who want to volunteer abroad but don’t know where to start. Like Renee Tetrick from Chicago, IL, USA for example:

Please tell us about a time in your life when you wanted to take action on any issue, but did not.
I am extremely interested in global issues and have always wanted to travel abroad to explore and volunteer in another country (or countries). I have always dreamed of traveling to South America in the hopes to learn about the culture and people, as well as to serve in anyway I could. I am personally passionate about education, literacy, community engagement, and youth development.

In the example or examples that came to your mind, what stopped you? What got in the way?
What stopped me… money, logistics, responsibilities, commitments, language barrier, and even fear. I felt daunted by saving the money and gathering the resources I would need for flights, lodging, food, transportation, etc. I was confused logistically about what which country, which cause, which organization, and what time of year, how long, etc. And I felt tied to my current responsibilities and commitments (apartment, family, job, etc). Additionally, not knowing the language would prove to be difficult and scary. And ultimately fear held me back.

What would have helped you at that point?
Creating goals and mapping out a plan for myself could have helped me. And by connecting with organizations within the region that need volunteers and need support with service projects. I would need to find a way to save money and take the time and make the effort. But I don’t want to dream anymore, I want to be an idealist (a practical dreamer) and turn my visions into reality. I have made a commitment to myself to save the money I need, to take the time, and to take the risk, whether it is for a few weeks, a few months, or a year. Now all I need to do is connect to people and to turn my plan into action!

My immediate reaction after reading her survey response was to tell her: You are not alone!

Taking that first step can be challenging. In fact, this was the main reason why we created La Vida Idealist. In addition to giving people a better sense about what it means to engage with local communities in Latin America, we wanted to answer the daunting questions that almost always arise when contemplating packing your bags and transplanting yourself to a new culture.

If your thoughts are similar to Renee’s, also try checking out our International Volunteerism Resource Center to get started. Or, if you can, stop by our Global Volunteering Fairs (this week in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, then later this month in Chicago and Los Angeles) to learn about the myriad of available opportunities around the world.

If you’ve already ventured into the world of international service, please leave a comment and tell us about your experience. How did you transition from imagining yourself in a faraway place to actually traveling there and taking action?

We sent out our survey about turning good intentions into action on January 11, the day before the earthquake struck in Haiti. Many of the people who filled out the survey on or after January 12 talked about wanting to help the people there, but were not being sure how to go about it. Some common themes we heard:

• I want to donate money, but I don’t know which organization to trust to use the money most effectively.
• I don’t have money to donate, so I don’t see how I can help.
• I have very little time to volunteer and can’t neglect my other responsibilities.

We’ve since addressed some of these themes on the Idealist.org (see The Long Road to Recovery – and How You Can Help and Helping Haiti – Things to Consider) and will continue to do so as we learn more.

In the meantime, we wanted to share this response from Alice Gallmeyer, an English teacher in Le Moule, Guadaloupe.

Please tell us about a time in your life when you wanted to take action on any issue, but did not.
Yesterday, I decided that I was so moved by the mess in Haiti (I’m in Guadeloupe, not too tremendously far away geographically or culturally) that I wanted to set up camp in front of the local mall and attempt to raise money to send to an microfinance organization which works with Haitian women. I was really excited about my idea and started to brainstorm how I might logistically make it happen.

What stopped you? What got in the way?
Then, of course, “reality” dawned on me and I remembered that I’m in a new and still somewhat unfamiliar place where such a fundraising effort might not be culturally appropriate, and even if it were, I wasn’t sure how to go about getting the appropriate permissions. (Where is the “front office” of any mall, anyway? With whom do I talk? How on earth will I get support? In the event that none of my friends here support me, do I really have it in me to sit around by myself all day asking strangers for money?)

What would have helped you at that point?
…I had an organization set to which I hoped to send my donation pool, but I needed help raising the money in the first place. If there were any sort of fundraising coordinator or nonprofit/NGO advisor around, that would have been wonderful. That’s wishful thinking, though; perhaps with another eager soul as uninformed as I, I would have proceeded; at the end of the day it’s possible that reciprocated passion and dedication were the most important things I lacked.

Does anyone have ideas to share with Alice? Answers like hers remind me of the power and potential of this network, and of how much work there is to do.

We’re still reviewing the 470+ responses to our survey about turning good intentions to action. If you’re enjoying the excerpts and want to read the raw data in more detail, you can click here and select “browse these responses” on the top right-hand corner.

Here is another response, from Reuben Grandon in Iowa, USA:

Please tell us about a time in your life when you wanted to take action on any issue, but did not.
When I was a teenager, my neighbor Brian committed suicide due to mental illness. I wish there had been a way that the community could have offered him support and prevented this loss. And I wanted to help honor his life afterwards. I bought a poinsettia in his honor at our church that winter, but he deserved much more. While suicide is often frowned upon, this was an opportunity to glorify Brian’s life and positive impact; to educate the community; and to build a network of support for other community members.

In the example or examples that came to your mind, what stopped you? What got in the way?
I was in high school so I feel my maturity level limited my outside-the-box thinking. Ultimately, I would say a lack of community involvement got in the way of creating higher levels of support for the family. I’m from a small town where everyone knows everyone, but when adversity hits, sometimes the community does not embrace, but rather turns cold. In this case, because of the circumstance, I feel the community was not accepting. I did not have a voice at this point in my life. Sensitive, but shy. Compassionate, but cowardly. Had I been approached by one respected community member, I believe we would have done more to honor his life. Further, the community could have benefited from an open discussion about suicide, through educating the youth, etc. There was none of that.

What would have helped you at that point?
Direct communication with members of the church and community I respect. Acknowledging openly what had happened. As I look back now, I’ve recently begun to think about establishing a memorial scholarship in his name. Even though it’s 8 years later…

I emailed Reuben to ask if I could share his story, and also asked him what he would need in order to get such a project off the ground right now. He tells me that he believes he now has the support to establish a scholarship—that a friend from college has done this, and working with that friend will make all the difference—but that the community is facing another tragedy as a result of a recent automobile accident, so he is going to hold off a bit longer.

This got me thinking about the old adage, “The time is always right to do what is right.” How do we strike a balance when there are always so many “right” things to do (support Haitian earthquake survivors; get a healthy meal on the table for our families; start a memorial scholarship in honor of one neighbor while mourning the fresh loss of another)? How do we keep the past, present, and future in perspective as we engage in so many types of community work?

First of all, thank you.

More than 450 of you took the time to respond to our survey. I’ve been reading through the answers, and I’m enlisting help from others on staff at Idealist because it’s taking me so long. I can’t help it – your replies are so thoughtful and heartfelt and I’m letting each one sort of wash over me. There is so much potential for this network.

Here’s just one of the hundreds of responses that resonated with me, from Samara Mcllroy from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia:

Please tell us about a time in your life when you wanted to take action on any issue, but did not.
I travelled overseas for the first time when I was 24 years old. In Thailand I visited an organisation that was attempting to stop the trafficking of young girls into slavery and prostitution. I was upset by the stories and very moved by their work. They were so grateful for my interest, and hopeful that I would be able to take my story back to Australia and publicise it for them (I worked in Administration for an NGO at the time). I took copious notes with every intention to try to write a report, article, something that may help. I never did.

What stopped you? What got in the way?
Despite the fact that I worked for an NGO that was in fact campaigning on the issue of trafficking of women, I didn’t feel important enough (just a lowly Admin Assistant – to make my voice heard). I felt too inexperienced, and basically too small for the task at hand. That anything I would do just couldn’t be enough against the enormity of the problem. Also, I wasn’t confident, or brave enough.

What would have helped you at that point?
A person, possibly a mentor or a coach? Not an organisation, which can appear faceless (you see, I already had one!) A conversation had at the right place, and the right time makes all the difference. With someone who believes in human potential and the possibility for transformation, and who is willing to have those conversations.

This suggestion—that a person would have made all the difference, not more money, or more time—is by far the most common theme of the answers I have reviewed so far. That’s what convinces me there is a need for this network of connectors and groups.

More soon! Thanks again.

On Tuesday, Ami invited everyone here to fill out a survey with three simple questions. In less than 24 hours, we have had hundreds of thoughtful responses, and we can’t thank you enough. Here is one from Henry in New York, NY:

Please tell us about a time in your life when you wanted to take action on any issue, but did not.
As a third-year university student, I wanted to start a very ambitious website that would allow students all over the world to network, work together, and publish collaboratively online. I articulated the plan, gained support from a number of professors, and even got summer research funding from two great universities, but ultimately the project stalled because I could not find a tech-savvy person to lead the project with me. It would be wonderful to have build or have access to a community where people can be matched with others who have the intense passion, in addition to the skill and experience, to take projects like this from the concept phase into reality.

What stopped you? What got in the way?
I couldn’t find a great programmer who was willing to become my partner and invest a considerable about of time and effort in the project. I tapped my university and friend networks and met with/talked to at least a dozen people with these skills (and many more potential connectors). However I think this proved to be too small a pool from which to draw. I needed to get this idea out to hundreds of potential programming partners, so that my chances of finding a qualified and dedicated person might have been higher. Certainly I take some personal responsibility for failing to find a good partner, but I was also aware at the time that I hardly knew how to search effectively.

What would have helped you at that point?
I would have been greatly helped by a larger network of potential partners or connectors. This network would have to be more than just a job board or website construction bidding site; it would have to be a trusted network of people who are looking for projects to genuinely invest and immerse themselves in.

We will share more of your answers in the coming days.

If you haven’t filled out the survey and would like to, please click here. Thank you!

Cross-post: This entry was written by Idealist’s Editor, Eric Fichtl, and appeared earlier today on Idealist.org.

On Tuesday, Haiti was struck by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and dozens of aftershocks. Initial reports indicate widespread destruction, with high casualties expected. Many survivors require immediate assistance with shelter, food, water, and medical attention.

The Caribbean country, sharing an island with the Dominican Republic, is already chronically impoverished and many of its people depend on foreign aid. In the aftermath of the disaster, the situation will grow more desperate.

Aid agencies, governments, and people around the world are mounting a rapid response. Here are a few ways to contribute to it:

Donate to relief efforts

• CNN has compiled a list of relief organizations seeking donations in order to deliver vital aid and logistical expertise to Haiti.
• National Public Radio is also putting a list called “Haiti – Some Ways to Help.”

Volunteer

• Read Idealist’s article about disaster volunteering—remember that you can help the victims without even leaving your own community.

Further details

• Beyond the media outlets, visit ReliefWeb’s page on the Haiti earthquakes for continuing coverage of the disaster response.
• If you’re a Twitter user, follow a list such as CNN’s @BreakingNews/haiti-quake list or The New York Times’ @NYTimes/haiti-earthquake

The most important conclusion we reached after digesting all the feedback we’ve received so far is that before launching a campaign to promote this network all over the world, we need to show it working in various places. To do this, we want to work with you over the next few months to achieve three initial goals:

1. Get to the point where if someone wants to start an Idealist Group in their neighborhood, school, or workplace they can get a toolkit with everything they need to do it.

2. Launch Idealist Groups in a variety of places (from small villages to big universities) to make sure that the range of services they provide can work anywhere.

3. Show what would happen if this whole idea were implemented as widely as possible in at least one large city. (We are thinking of starting with New York, where we have a staff, an office, and a critical mass of more than 120,000 people on Idealist.)

To get started on all this, we need to move from the big goal of “closing the gap between intentions and action” to a detailed list of obstacles to action, and a menu of ways to tackle them – which we can then turn into the services that Idealist Groups will provide.

And to do this, we want to hear your story. Specifically, we want to ask you to think of a moment in your life when you had an idea or wanted to take action on any issue, but didn’t do it. What stopped you? And what would have helped you at that point?

To get a better sense of the range of answers we are looking for, and to take this short survey, please click here.

Thanks in advance for doing this. We’ll start sharing some of the results on this blog on Thursday and we’ll have a full report for you next week. If you have any questions about any of this, please post them as a comment here.

Update: You guys are amazing! We sent this email out 20 minutes ago and we already have 30 great responses. Thank you!

Yesterday morning I got this email from Asma Naz in Sindh, Pakistan. As soon as you read it, you’ll see why I am sharing it with you. I couldn’t think of a better way to illustrate both the need and the potential for this network we are building together.

Dear Ami,

I am Asma Naz. I work for women’s human rights and ending violence against women in Sindh, Pakistan, where many women are tortured, humiliated, honor-killed, or trafficked in the name of marriage. In the first week of December one poor woman came to me weeping badly, as her addict husband had sold her three minor daughters to child traffickers for a meager amount of money to meet his intoxication needs. Me and my other companions tried our utmost to recover the baby girls but to no avail.

It may be for your kind information that Sindh Province has a border with the Province of Balochistan with difficult mountainous passages. Here the governmental authorities cannot impose laws with full force due to long existing feudal and tribal customs. So when we came to know that the traffickers had taken the baby girls to Balochistan, 1,000 kilometers away, where they would probably be sold into prostitution, we were much worried and horrified.

By my sheer good luck, last month I had contacted Mr. Sultan Ahmed Tareen in Balochistan through the new Idealist network. We are now in daily contact on mobile phone and internet. Mr. Sultan is an idealist, a UNDP officer, by caste Balouch, and working also for women empowerment. He is well known and respected in circles of local tribal authorities and in governmental offices for his dedicated work.

When I narrated this whole matter to Mr. Sultan, he made hectic efforts for this cause, traced the traffickers, and with the help of local authorities, tribal chiefs, and human rights activists recovered the baby girls from the traffickers and handed over them to us in Sindh. These baby girls and their mother are now safe and sound at our shelter. All credit goes to Idealist organization.

I would say, of course, that all credit goes to Asma and Sultan for this amazing effort. As soon as I got this email I called Asma to thank her, and both she and Sultan, who you can see here, were happy for us to share this story with you.

Feel free to leave a comment for them here. Thank you!

As one of the 100 finalists in the Chase Community Giving contest, we were asked to submit a “Big Idea” (their words) in a very specific format, with only 1,000 characters for each of three questions. Here’s what we submitted:

1. What is the issue you want to address? Can you give some numbers?

We want to change the world by closing the gap between intentions and action, between what we know in our hearts to be possible and the reality we see around us. We will do this by focusing on the fact that every day many of us would like to respond in some way to what’s happening in the world, but for a variety of reasons we don’t. We may feel that we have no time, no resources, no power, or no impact. We may not know where to start, what to do, or who to work with. We may be afraid of failure or ridicule, meetings and committees, wasting our time… This challenge—or opportunity—runs across every issue and community, and it’s huge. Imagine, to use a very pessimistic average, that most people feel the urge to fix something or help someone at least once a month, but don’t act on that impulse. With close to seven billion people on Earth, this comes to 200 million missed opportunities every day, and probably many more. Now imagine if we could cut that number by even just 10 percent.

2. What is your plan for tackling this issue? How will $1MM help you?

We’ll tackle this challenge, online and in person, in several stages. First, we’ll use Idealist.org and other tools to invite people all over the world—in neighborhoods, villages, schools, and workplaces—to ask themselves three questions: What do you want to do to make your community a better place? Why haven’t you done it? What would it take for you to do it? Then, with the obstacles to action clearly laid out, we’ll build a global network of people who want to overcome these obstacles by helping everyone around them find opportunities for action, connecting people with organizations and resources, and pushing and pulling good ideas from and into their community. We’ll do this by building a hub at Idealist.org with tools, models, and stories that can be used by people around the world, and we’ll use every available means—from Facebook to notes on a village tree—to connect people, organizations, and resources in every possible way. $1MM would be a huge help in launching this network.

3. What is the outcome you’d like to see?

Our long-term vision is to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives, and where no opportunities for action and collaboration are missed or wasted. We started in 1995 with Idealist.org, which is now used by 90,000 organizations and hundreds of thousands of people. The next big step, which is happening right now, is to launch this global network of people who want to help themselves and others turn their good intentions into action. We are starting with a new site for this initiative at www.idealist.org/more and by the end of this year we want to see this network operating in cities, villages, schools, and workplaces around the world. The initial response to this idea, by more than 10,000 people in 160 countries, has been wonderful, and we are optimistic that by working with people like you we can quickly make it possible for many more people and organizations to realize their dreams and aspirations for a better world. We hope you will join us.

Let us know what you think about this summary. Thank you!

Update 1: One question that’s recurring in the comments below is how will this $1MM be used. Well, first we need to win it…, but if we do, we’ll use it to help build this network by working with Idealist Groups and Community Points around the world; creating and distributing materials and translating them into multiple languages; adding new features to Idealist.org; and covering additional expenses that come with launching a global campaign such as this one.

Update 2: Two more recurring questions: We couldn’t add any more examples, details, etc., because each answer had to be exactly this long, and not a word longer (but we’ll definitely add them in other materials). And Chase won’t decide who gets this: you will! Voting on their page on Facebook (see the link at the top of this posting) starts on January 15th and ends on the 22nd. Thanks everyone for such a great response!

We are excited to start this new year with you, and we want to wish you and yours a happy 2010, and all the best for this new decade. Thanks for all your support!

Over the last few weeks, my role here has been to respond to ideas, suggestions and stories related to this initiative. It’s been inspiring to see so much enthusiasm, and wonderful to see people thinking critically about how we can make this network as effective and widespread as possible. From ideas about clarifying the vision to suggestions for website features, philosophical musings on idealism to existing models to learn from, the honest feedback has been great.

A short while ago I received this email from Paul Ennis of Sebastopol, California, USA and it made my day:

Thanks for acknowledging my input. Whatever changes you can incorporate based on ‘our’ feedback I’m sure will be appreciated by the community of members you are attracting. Just yesterday I reached out as well to two local ‘idealists’ and have made very wonderful connections with them both. And, the fact that I/we made the connections we did is directly related to what you all are doing – and it is magical!

After grinning uncontrollably and passing it along to other staff, I wrote him back to find out more about the connections he was talking about. Turns out, he is in the midst of developing a project called Ocean Rudee & Company to encourage literacy in young children. After browsing the profiles on the site to see who else was in Sebastopol, he found a woman named Cynthi Stefenoni who could help out with multi-media. And now? She’s his new Production Director.

It’s messages like this that make me excited to tackle my inbox each day. I have to agree with Paul and say that this network is special. And it’s people like Paul, and you, that make it so.

Yesterday the top 100 finalists in the Chase Giving contest were unveiled…and we’re on the list! We are thrilled – and we’re in such great company.

Thanks so much to everyone who voted for us in Round One. Now on to the next round: please vote for Idealist on January 15. We could use that million dollars to keep this work going!

DARPA, the research and development office for the United States Defense Department (the same people who helped launch the Internet 40 years ago), recently held a competition whereby they placed 10 red weather balloons around the continental U.S. and challenged teams to locate them as quickly as possible.

The team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) completed the task in nine hours,  by using a crowdsourced approach that rewarded participation through an affiliate program that encouraged people to get their friends to sign up, and in the process build a pyramid of “scouts.”

Techdirt.com has a great article on the challenge, with a number of takeaways that are quite relevant to what we’re trying to do here. While we aren’t searching for big red weather balloons, there are parallels to the change we’re trying to create and the people we need to make it happen.

Paraphrasing some of the lessons from the TechDirt article:

• Power in numbers – teams with different skills ets and abilities can be better than  one “specialist”
• Make it simple to help – if you need lots of help from lots of people, make it easy for them to join your cause
• Give more than one reason to help out – people are compelled to help for different reasons; give everyone a reason
• Help people make your work viral – encourage others to get their friends and family involved
• Reach out to people beyond your own “group” – you aren’t limited by your immediate group. Outside groups and power in numbers have added benefits

As Techdirt points out, these ideas can be applied across disciplines and sectors and leveraged to overcome even the largest obstacles.

Photo by C1ssou (via Flickr).

On Monday evening, taking advantage of a quick trip to our Portland office, Ami and I met with about 20 people in Portland, Oregon, for a conversation about this initiative. We followed the same format that worked so well last Wednesday in New York with similar results.

After doing this in two very different cities, and seeing how easy it is for people to identify the obstacles that stand between intention and action – and what could be done about many of them – we look forward to similar conversations happening around the world in the new year (and we’ll soon be posting more information about how this will happen).

The evening in Portland concluded with several people getting together to organize a follow-up meeting on January 23rd.  To learn more about the next meeting, please contact Tracy. Thanks!

After our first meeting on Tuesday, when about 45 New Yorkers came together in our office to talk about this network, we decided to change the format for the second meeting, which was scheduled for Wednesday evening.

Instead of me facilitating a conversation and taking questions, we did something completely different. I welcomed everyone, we did some quick introductions, and then we immediately asked the 20 people who were there to break up into small groups, with the following assignment: Think of a time in your life where you had an idea or wanted to take action about any issue, but did not. What got in the way? And what would have made a difference at that point?

I gave a couple of quick examples from my own life, and off they went. We said they should take 10-15 minutes for this, but people got into it and after 25 minutes we had to make them stop.

Each group then reported back, and the results were wonderful. People talked about tangible obstacles to action, but many intangibles also came up, from feeling isolated, to being afraid of failing, to being simply overwhelmed by the magnitude of some of the problems we all face.

We quickly put all this on some paper on the wall, and suddenly there were the challenges we want to take on with this initiative. We then talked for a few minutes about how this network – and specifically Idealist Groups in neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces – could help all of us get around these obstacles.

This all felt like a breakthrough for several reasons. First, we didn’t have to describe the challenges – they simply emerged. Second, it was clear that a similar conversation would have been possible anywhere in the world, and that many of the themes would have overlapped. And lastly, it was great to see that after describing the challenge so clearly, people felt this was something they wanted to take on, and that they could easily imagine themselves doing that.

[All photos from Wednesday's meeting by Nadia Saah.]

Last night 45 New Yorkers came together in our office to talk about the vision behind this network.

The meeting, and a follow-up survey to attendees, gave us a lot to think about – from how best to structure these meetings to how to build the best possible community of connectors in New York and worldwide. We’ll share more notes and some specific lessons learned later this week. In the meantime, here are a couple more pictures from last night. We’re off to meeting #2!

Thanks so much to all who attended.

[All photos by Julia Smith.]

Tonight and tomorrow in New York, we’ll hold our first exploratory conversations with 60-80 of our neighbors to discuss how this network might play out here.

These doors will open in just a few hours!

Our next in-person meeting will take place on Monday, December 14 in Portland, Oregon, USA. To join us, please RSVP here.

As with the New York meetings, we’ll take photos and notes, and share a report here the following day. We know that we’re starting small, and we’ll do our best to host additional meetings very soon.

This week, in our New York office, we’ll be hosting the first meetings for people who want to be part of this network. On Tuesday we’ll have a general dialogue with anyone interested in this initiative, and on Wednesday we’ll have a more focused conversation with those people who said they want to start an Idealist Group in their neighborhood, school, or workplace. We’ll be taping these meetings and taking notes, and we’ll share a report here the following morning. It will be great to meet some of you in person, and we’ll be having many more meetings soon, both here and in other places.

With the aim of sparking conversation and fostering a sense of community, this past April two artists sent carefully constructed handwritten messages to their neighbors in a small village in Ireland. One of my favorites read: We appreciate all the things you have done that no one has noticed. And we think of them often. The project, Mysterious Letters, was a hit and the couple is now in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania doing the same thing.

When I first read about the project I loved the idea, and couldn’t help but think it would be great to see Mysterious Letters replicated by anybody anywhere in the world. So it was fun to receive an email from Jessica Lutseck in Cortland, Ohio, USA about applying this idea to this network:

Wouldn’t it be great to send out little notes like this in our own communities, asking our neighbors to join us here? Just a thought on how we could grow the network in a way that really seems to grab attention and connect people on- and off-line.

Great idea, Jessica! If you’re tired of the usual online or mobile outlets, why not pick up an old postcard or tear out a piece of notebook paper and invite your neighbors to join us the old-fashioned way?

We just had a great meeting with a woman who owns a video-production company close to our NY office, and two of her staff. Two of the owner’s daughters found their jobs through Idealist, and she very much wants to help.

Bottom line: she and her staff are very excited about the launch of this network, and they want to volunteer their services to produce a good video to present and promote it. We’ll meet with them again next week, and hope to have more news soon.

Sara McElmurry writes from Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, Mexico:

I’m a research professor in the language department at a small university in the mountains of northwest Oaxaca. Most of my students come from modest economic backgrounds and are the first in their families to go to college.

I love this idea. It may be challenging to roll out here because of lack of internet access, language issues (people in surrounding communities speak indigenous languages), and generally geography and accessibility (lots of mountains and bad roads), but where there is a will, there is a way!!

Thanks Sara! I suspect that many people would love to join you there, and yes, the situation you describe is challenging, but that’s also the reason for doing this. Thank you!

Palau, an island state in the Pacific ocean, is one of the smallest and most isolated countries in the world, with 20,000 people living on 459 sq km (177 sq miles). And among those 20,000 people, two have joined us here. Sue Kenney-Pfalzer and Cindy Haro are both in Koror, Palau’s largest town, and both are lawyers there.

Welcome Sue and Cindy, and I look forward to visiting some day!

Two weeks after launching this initiative, this is what we know:

1. Together we can build this network. We absolutely can. It won’t always be easy (one person wrote that “all the easy things have been done,” and she was right), but together we can do this.

2. The three goals we mentioned – closing the gap between intention and action, connecting better across all the lines that divide us, and getting good ideas to bubble up and travel faster – resonate with people all over the world, in all walks of life.

3. Looking at people’s photos, and reading their short bios, it’s clear that we are an incredibly diverse group, and that’s a great start (it’s almost impossible to “become diverse” if you don’t start that way).

4. With 10,700 people so far, we are very well spread out: there are now at least five of us in 300 towns and cities, and at least three of us in 600 different places.

December can often seem like a very short month, but in spite of that, there are three big things we want to accomplish by the end of this year:

* Launch Idealist Groups and make sure that the 3,000 people who have said they want to start one feel like they have the tools to do this.

* Express this whole idea visually (as a video and as a presentation).

* Translate the most important parts of this site to the most popular languages on the web.

On Friday or Monday we’ll post more details about these goals, and about what you can do to make them happen, but in the meantime please think of a few people you like – the people you’d happily take with you if you had to spend a year or two on a small island – and invite them to join us at http://www.idealist.org/more

Thanks in advance for doing this, and for moving this project forward one more step!

Yesterday the Boston Globe featured an article called The Power of Positive Deviants – “outliers in a community who, despite having no special advantages, are doing exceptionally well.”

The idea behind positive deviance is that someone can observe a community (a hospital, say, or a school or village), spot the people who seem healthiest, for example, and watch them to see why it is that they thrive when others may not. Then one can encourage the “positive deviants” to share their unique habits with their neighbors, leading to a healthier community for everyone. From the article:

At bottom, positive deviance amounts to simple common sense. But that may be what’s most revelatory about it. Instead of throwing money at a problem or devising grand solutions, it urges us to look a little more closely at what’s already happening.

As we prepare to launch Idealist Groups around the world, how can we be sure we’re looking at what’s already happening? How can “positive deviants” within a global network inspire others through their example?

p.s. If you see an article or know a story that relates to this initiative, always feel free to let us know.

[Image via Boston.com]

From Downers Grove, Illinois, USA, Courtney Hrejsa posts this great photo and says:

I love the idea that change can happen efficiently! We are all so busy…too busy for more meetings that go around in circles or ideas that never spawn action. But by working together, we can be collectively brave enough, and held accountable enough, to actually take those meaningful steps! Let’s do it!

This week two volunteers translated our vision for this network into Spanish and Italian, and early next week we’ll post these translations here. More languages are on the way, and our hope is that by the end of December we’ll have this done in ten or twenty of the most popular languages on the Web.

As people sign up, you can see their last twenty locations showing up on a map of each country. Here are a few nice ones right now:

(Yes, I love maps.)

It’s been ten days since we set out on this adventure, and Mark Grimes from Portland, Oregon, just became the 10,000th person to join us here. Welcome Mark, and welcome everyone! The next few days are a holiday in the U.S., and we’ll use this time to get ready to connect with you next week and start turning these ideas into something we can all see and touch. Thanks again for taking this leap of faith with us, and happy Thanksgiving to those in the U.S.!

Have you heard about the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook? By voting for Idealist by Friday, you can help us win $1 million to continue connecting people, organizations, and resources around the world.

Voting only takes a minute, and it will make a big difference. Can you take a moment to vote for Idealist and ask your friends to vote for us too? Thank you!

Update: The voting application may be overloaded. If the page doesn’t come up when you click on the link, please try reloading once or twice – that usually does the trick. Otherwise, it would be great if you could come back later tonight when things slow down. Thanks again!

Last night we did a quick search, and it turns out that there are five or more of us in 278 towns or cities, and three or more in 576 places around the world. These include 16 people each in Kampala, Kathmandu, Bangalore, and Beijing; 18 each in Accra, Paris, Cape Town, Berlin, and Singapore; 24 in Vancouver, 29 in Melbourne, and 47 in Toronto; and 78 in Baltimore, 82 in London, and 274 in Chicago! Welcome all!