GOOD Magazine: On Skid Row, Part 5 - Afterword

Since the "Skid Row" video series went up online, I have received an incredible amount of emails and other contact from prospective activists. I was so surprised that most of them were kids from around the country. Most of them had ideas about what they wanted to do.... Raise money at their schools, make documentaries, volunteer at shelters... Most were looking for a specific nonprofit to connect with to perform their service. One kid in particular, Brandon - a 15 year-old from Texas - was compelled to do something but couldn't figure out what. He couldn't let go of this idea. When he saw the kids living on Skid Row he was overwhelmed, angry and a little devastated. He said he was shocked.

Brandon was going to have to do something and that was that. His friends weren't supportive. They didn't understand why he was moved. He started messaging me on MySpace, trying to hone in on a meaningful philanthropy. I asked him what it was in the documentary series that moved him. He said it was the kids. Weeks later, after a lot of messages back and forth and after having considered a lot of different ideas, he decided to write a story for his school paper. I said I would help him and that he could use me as a resource to direct him to stats and stories about poverty and the children in this state. I told him to tell the truth about how he felt and his experiences. That's what Brandon's doing.

Part 5 of the "Skid Row" series gives a lot of suggestions about what I think are meaningful ways to perform enlightened philanthropy on Skid Row in Los Angeles. There are links to three 501(c)(3)'s on my MySpace page.

Talk about it. Write about it. Blog about it. Call a congressman. Call a mayor. Pray about it. Chant about it. Write a check. Tell somebody. Tell everybody who will listen that it's unacceptable to have 9,000 people in various states of homelessness in the shadows of 5-star hotels in Los Angeles. Volunteer. Go to Skid Row and meet someone who lives there. Subscribe to a collective consciousness that demands that compassion is essential for everybody...

Affordable housing for everyone in Los Angeles will become possible when it's impossible for politicians to get elected without making it their priority. I don't know how that will happen. I suspect that 500,000 enraged voters on the steps of City Hall would do the trick. I believe they call that an uprising.

For more information about Sam and his "Skid Row" video series, be sure to check out his MySpace profile. Also, read his recent interview with the AWEARNESS Blog, in which he describes the true scope of the homelessness problem on Skid Row.