Hi everyone,

I just created this group as an inspiration from the YNPNdc Young Executive's Round Table this morning.  What a great resource to connect with other young people starting and heading up nonprofits!

I thought i'd be a good way to start with introductions from everyone who joins the group.  A short description of my organization and my bio are below.  Welcome everyone!

Deanna

Nica HOPE: Haciendo Oportunidades por la Educacion

Nica HOPE is a new nonprofit that seeks to provide education and vocational training to marginalized communities in Nicaragua.  Education and vocational training will grant the necessary skills to access opportunities for employment and income-generation for these communities, while increased coordination and networking will allow better access to existing opportunities. Instruction in critical thinking, creativity, and hands-on problem solving with an integral focus on values and character-building will develop students into effective, well-rounded workers and individuals.  Nica HOPE will leverage available resources in financial, human, and social capital in order to provide opportunities for these communities to improve their own lives through socioeconomic advancement.

Deanna Ford, Executive Director and co-founder.   Deanna graduated in 2003 from Princeton University with a degree in Economics and Latin American Studies. Afterwards, she came to Washington, DC to work as a research assistant at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  Deanna will complete her Master of Public Policy at Georgetown University in May 2007, where she has focused on issues in international economic development.  During school, she has also worked as a consultant for Agora Partnerships, an organization fostering business development in Nicaragua, and as a research fellow for the Center for Research on Children in the U.S.   Deanna spent last summer working in underdeveloped communities in Nicaragua with Manna Project International on projects in education, health, and microfinance. Deanna will be returning to Nicaragua full-time in the summer of 2007 to direct and develop project operations of Nica HOPE.
Contact: Deanna@nicahope.org

Hi, I'm Jamie Vijay. I live in Indiana, work as a graphic designer in Michigan, and have a nonprofit that rescues animals from Georgia......so I'm all over the place. :)  My personal life is pretty boring, so I'll just cut my personal intro short and skip to the nonprofit....

I started Saving Shelter Pets with a few other people about 2 years ago. Many of us were involved in rescuing animals from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and through this experience we learned how much worse the pet overpopulation problem is in the southern part of this country. Saving Shelter Pets was created to help rescue animals from high-kill shelters in Georgia, and to move them into safe no-kill rescues in northeastern states where there are usually waiting lists of people wanting to adopt a dog!  In a way, it's a weird sort of "supply and demand" situation –– where the supply is in Georgia, and the demand is in states like Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, etc.

In addition to our Rescue & Transport program, we are also working on proactive solutions such as our Puppy Promises program and our Spay & Neuter program (which currently serves select counties in Georgia & Ohio)

We hope to continue growing so we can eventually branch out and help more areas of the US. Most importantly, we want to continue focusing on the bigger picture. While rescuing animals is certainly an important part of what we do, the only way to make a real difference in the fight against pet overpopulation is through Spay & Neuter and education programs.

Cory Richardson  -- art and adventure therapist  --- Space Creator

Action Hero Netrwork

Stitch Uganda Together is the current project. I'm sewing hammocks and selling them to create community sewing rooms and play spaces in Uganda, Africa. See: http://beta.razoo.com/causes/stitch_uganda_together  or better yet... on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2408133160

I'm keen to work with Opok Farms in Uganda, who are organizing through Razoo: http://beta.razoo.com/groups/opok_farm_village  and I like how they are openly sharing the process through Ned: http://www.ned.com/group/opokfarms/news/2/

Action Hero Network Google Group ( http://groups.google.com/group/Action-Hero-Network ), as of tonight, is open for all members to send messages to the group. I was doing bi-weekly Cor Reports, which were a digest of the emails sent to me and cool links, stories and quotes collected off the web.

This is a leap of faith I've put off for a long time, because we all get too many emails, right?!  Yes... and I feel that I will get in the way of this network reaching its potential if I continue to control it.  I read that in a non-profit how-to manual. At some point, the leader always needs to step out of the way to allow the organization to grow beyond them and take on a life of its own. Grassroots... it's all about getting beyond the ego.

Action Hero is a support network to help the masses find the heroes, and then be inspired and informed to become heroes themselves.  Razoo is doing a similar thing, and has done a great job at putting it all together. You'd use the Razoo Action Hero Network ( http://beta.razoo.com/groups/action_hero_network) to promote what in going on in your razoo group, or in your world as a whole, which may have nothing to do with any razoo group, but you just want to tell everyone.

There are so many groups and great things happening everywhere... Action Hero is a hub to bring them all together.  What inspires you? What concerns you? Post it on Action Hero!

Other projects include:

Saint John Common Unity Circle - http://actionhero.smugmug.com/gallery/2339564#122430270

The Roblito Community Center for Cultural Exchange -http://www.solomax.com/roblito.html

Tribal Spaceship Collective -http://tribes.tribe.net/tribalspaceship

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Making Love in a Disaster Zone  - 30 minute doc I made about Katrina relief. The sound and picture are not great... but this is an inside look you will not see anywhere else!

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=7741275027359055423