One Street News

October 2015

Vol. 8, Issue 6

1. Opening the Nonprofit Helpline
2. Resources - Cycling Without Age
3. Hot Topics – Defying Poverty with Housing

Opening the Nonprofit Helpline

We recently launched our Cures for Ailing Organizations blog to create a means for discussing the most difficult predicaments faced by nonprofits. Most readers know our book Cures for Ailing Organizations. Many of you helped its publication through our Kickstarter campaign and have purchased copies. The book has sold well, but it has not resulted in the sorts of discussions we hope to see through this blog.

Leaders of nonprofits, whether they are fighting for cyclists’ rights or other worthy causes, face many of the same struggles, often alone. Sometimes another leader or a small faction is working to take over the organization. Other times they are battling a history of improper record keeping and confusing policies. The calls and emails that come in to One Street from anxious leaders always have a tone of isolation and the fear that this is only happening to them. Convincing them that many others are grappling with similar issues never fails to calm them.

Now this new blog will have the chance to calm many more nonprofit leaders by revealing solutions to these common problems and inviting discussions through the comments section. Our first post is called Opening the Nonprofit Helpline. Please give it a read and, if you have ideas to share please leave them in the comments section.

Resources - Cycling Without Age

A visionary program, started in Denmark, is springing up in communities all over the world, mostly in developed countries. The simple idea of supplying bicycle rickshaws so volunteers can take seniors on a ride resonates in places where too often old people are shut away from society in nursing homes. Such homes offer important medical assistance, but sever the other necessity of health: connecting with society and the surrounding world. Read the stories and learn how to start your own such program by clicking on Cycling Without Age under Inspirations on our home page.

Hot Topics – Defying Poverty with Housing

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

I cover a wide range of topics here at One Street as I seek out resources to help leaders of bicycle organization through their particular struggles. But housing has not yet come up in any of my coaching calls for assistance. Still, I found myself pulled into the topic recently, more through observation than requests, which culminated in this blog post called Defying Poverty with Housing.

The places impoverished people go after dark are as important to cycling advocacy as nutrition is to claims of cycling’s health benefits. We can’t claim that cycling will improve someone’s health if they are living entirely on junk food. Neither can we claim that bicycles will defy poverty if we don’t open our eyes to the places the most disadvantage people are sleeping. Living homeless is dangerous and often deadly. Hate crimes against the homeless are increasing here in the United States. On all continents, immigrants, Roma, and others who are seen as outsiders are often victims of such crimes if they have no safe place to go at night. Even if a homeless person is not a victim of such a crime, they live in fear that they will be. Beyond the potential for violence, exposure to the elements and the stress of keeping their belongings safe also undermine their health and wellbeing.

But homelessness isn’t the only reason I’ve been exploring housing. Just as the above article on Cycling Without Age notes, seniors are becoming isolated from our society. Then consider children who are driven to school and back, then locked inside their home to play video games. All sectors of our society are being separated and isolated to the detriment of us all. I’m looking for models that break this pattern. Please read the blog post and leave a comment if you know of any or have ideas to help me on my search.