Full Circle Associates

I'm on a roll this afternoon with stuff I'm generating and haven't even caught up with all the draft material I have sitting in the queu: links, references, comments on other blog posts. So be it. The curse of a blogger. That said, this one is worth a side track: Labels are for Jars. From their home page.

What is this Labels are for Jars thing anyway? It’s a state of mind. Do you look at a person and automatically, consciously or unconsciously, label them as a loser...or homeless... or hungry... or an addict?

If so, you’ve just made a judgment about them without knowing what’s inside. That works fine for jars, but it doesn’t work so well for people. People deserve better than that.

Have you ever walked down a street in a major city that has homeless or hungry people and rejected their request for money or food? Have you whispered under your breath “get a job” when you walked past them?

What labels do you have for people who need food?
Homeless? Crazy? Welfare Case?

Labels create distance between “us” and “them,” making their problems seem less and less like our problems. Close the gap. It is your problem. Help feed the hungry.

How Labels helps feed the hungry is through the sales of clever two sided T-Shirts, packaged in plastic jars that they then ask their customers to fill with change to donate to local feeding programs in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the poorest city in the state.

So what does this have to do with online interaction? It is an interesting story. Around 5 years ago I did an adolescent health project here in Washington State (USA). In my research I found a bunch of interesting interactive teen sites and created a page to share them with people involved in the project. I mostly forgot about that page in the every growing miasma of my website. But a couple of times a year I would get requests from non profits serving teens asking me to add their site to my list. But I kept wondering, how did people find this old, rarely updated page? Search on Google and, boing, the page comes up #1! So this connection to me kept occuring.

Earlier this week I got an email from a Label's board member/volunteer Will Newton. Actually, it was his second. The first one must have gotten lost in the spam filter. So Will instantly got my attention from his persistence. This guy was serious about promoting his project. And he was a board member walking his talk, not just going to quarterly meetings. YAY!

I emailed Will and have since learned more about the project and wanted to share it with you, dear readers. And then I wanted to share Will's email because it is exactly this kind of interchange, that comes out of basically a "cold call" email, that can blossom into an opportunity for connection, learning, action. Just the sort of stuff I was rambling about in my last post. (See, there IS a connection here!) Will said it was OK to share his emails, so here are some snippets. And by all means, go to the Labels site and read more. Then do something -- like buy a T-shirt for $19.00 USD (I think my sons are getting one for the Holidays!), and gather some change for Lawrence, MA.

Will's First Successful Email to Me

Good Morning Nancy,

I am writing to follow up on an email I sent to you a few weeks ago. As you may remember, I am on the board of directors for an organization called Labels Are For Jars. Labels Are For Jars is raising money to fund the construction and ongoing operation of a meal center in Lawrence, MA. If you are unfamiliar with Lawrence, it is the poorest city in Massachusetts, and is rampant with crime, drugs, prostitution, homelessness, and hunger. It is a community so poor that often times working families must chose between paying the rent and buying groceries. Of Lawrence's families, 21.2 percent live below the poverty line, compared with 6.7 percent of the statewide population. An overwhelming 31.7 percent of children under age 18 in Lawrence live in households below the poverty line, as compared to 11.6 percent of children under age 18 statewide. Unbelievable conditions for a city just 25 miles north of Boston. I work with a group of volunteers who have come together in an effort to help improve Lawrence, and improve the lives of its men, women, and children. Our goal is to raise as much money as possible to feed as many hungry people as possible, and to do so we have designed a thought provoking black t-shirt, which in addition to looking great, helps to undermine societal labeling. The shirt is adorned with a commonly used negative label, such as "addict", "troubled teen", or "mentally ill" on the chest, and "Labels Are For Jars" across the back. The shirts are sold from our website and through direct sales by high school and college students, who have a unique power to affect change in our society. Labels Are For Jars is comprised completely of volunteers, so every cent we collect is used to help feed the hungry in Lawrence. Our target audience are teens, and we encourage them to not only buy the shirt, but also to help us by becoming street team members in their communities. We not only want to help feed the hungry, but we want to make young people aware of this issue and show them that they can make a difference in a positive way. I am writing to you in the hope that you will be willing to allow us to post a link on your Full Circle Interactive Teen websites site, under the specific issue-related teen sites section. I am happy to discuss our project with you, and also happy to discuss needs you might have in order to create a link from your site. I encourage you to check out our website and learn more about our project. www.labelsareforjars.org Labels Are For Jars is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.

Thank your for your consideration, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Best wishes, Will

And I responded:

Hi Will

Sorry I did not respond to your first email. I did not see it and caught this one in the spam filter today (no perfect solution, that's for sure.)

Sure, I'd be glad to add a link. I'll also blog about it in the next day or two at http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/onfacblog.htm

I'm curious, what kind of response are you getting to the campaign? Do people write you about it? I'd love to know and include that in the blog post. I'm not a top blogger, but some of my readers ARE top bloggers. If they pick it up, it can get some good exposure

N

Will replied (quickly, I might add!)

Hi Nancy,

Thank you very much, you are going above and beyond anything I could have hoped for. I have been part of this project since inception, which I think would put us somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 months. So far we have been getting a great response from 99% of the people that hear about the project. The only exceptions are from people that don't really "get" the concept and are turned off by the negative connotations of the labels. But, like I said nearly all the responses I have seen/heard have been very encouraging.
I don't know how thoroughly you examined our web site, so let me tell you few of our success stories. We have been adopted by two area high schools, and a few area colleges, whose students have formed what we call street teams. These teams go out into the public to raise awareness for our project, and help to sell t-shirts and encourage people to visit the site. I think this sort of "street" marketing is really mutually beneficial for the project and the kids. It helps us by having our target audience talk to our target audience and explain what we are trying to do. It also, and I can say this because I have seen this first hand, has really served as an eye opener for a lot of kids who otherwise might not get involved in a project of this nature, and has served as a powerful lesson that they can really help others and influence positive change.
We have also been able to catch the eye of several local papers including the Boston Herald, which has featured a few articles about Labels Are For Jars. Additionally, we have been allowed to participate at a Boston area radio station's (WFNX) Christmas concert, and sell shirts. Hopefully this will be a great event for us because this station is very popular with high school and college aged kids. Our most recent accomplishment has been the ability to order our second batch of shirts.
We need to raise about $1.3 million to build and operate the meal center, so our goal is certainly lofty, but with some hard work I really believe we can make it a reality, and help some very needy people.
Again, thank you so much for your support. If you would like any more details about the project and the accomplishments of the street teams, etc, please check out the "buzz" section on our site, www.labelsareforjars.org One last thing, when you have a chance to post our link, please send me the address so I can have our web team input the information. We list all of the sites that support us by link, so hopefully you will receive some increased traffic as well.

Thanks again for your support,

Will