Utah state workers were the first state in the United States to switch to a four-day work week and have a three day weekend every weekend; since then Hawaii and Washington have followed suit, while West Virginia and Virginia are close behind. In August of 2008, the state offices in Utah went to a four-day workweek with Fridays off in an attempt to save on energy costs. In a newly released report, the energy savings wasn’t as much as projected, but an unexpected savings on overtime was discovered. Utah saved $4.1 million dollars in overtime pay in the last year by switching to the four-day workweek. State employees wanted the three day weekend, but because of the ten-hour days Monday-Thursday they weren’t up to working additional hours, so the savings was unexpected. The state saved $502,000 in energy costs, and $200,000 on janitorial services, which totaled a savings of $4.8 million.

La Leche League Oxford runs a Maternity Clothes Library, for a small fee per item (currently £2) maternity clothes can be hired and kept for the whole pregnancy. They have many sizes and styles available as well as smart wear for that special night out before the baby arrives. They also have a small number of breastfeeding clothes available.

This idea is something I’ve never come across before, but such a simple and meaningful one. The idea of a library of (fill word in here) extending beyond books like this one, has such great potential to help out communities and individuals in need.

http://www.llloxford.org.uk/LLLmcl.html

Cardboard Citizens changes the lives of homeless and displaced people through theatre and the performing arts.

Mission:
- Present plays performed by homeless and displaced people, to share experiences and problem-solve together.

- Work in partnership to widen the reach of the company’s work and underpin its support for participants.

- Make theatre for general audiences so a wider public can share in the company’s learning and understanding of the issues faced by homeless people.

- Enable excluded people to develop skills and confidence through projects and workshops.

- Meet the practical needs of homeless and displaced people, supporting them in matters of housing, education, employment, health, career and personal development.

Vision:
- Cardboard Citizens strives to be a world leader in its field, creating great theatre that makes a real and positive difference to our society and those living on its margins.

- They know that theatre can be a catalyst for change, growth and learning for participants and audiences.

- They are working to further develop theatre projects in and out of hostels for a wide range of audiences, focussed on the lives of homeless and displaced people.

- They will be supporting people in diverse ways, helping homeless people to play their part in the world, and society to understand how life is lived on the margins.

- Their ambition is to enable every hostel resident in London to be able to access the company’s work, as audience or participant.

- And to offer all homeless or displace people who become involved with the company individual help and support.

- They will produce theatre-based and site-specific productions on a regular and sustainable basis, telling stories of the excluded.

- Every audience member at a Cardboard Citizens show will learn about issues affecting the displaced and homeless people they work with.

- The company will be fully engaged in national and international networks, where appropriate joining in alliances and campaigns to bring unheard voices to the fore. 

- All their partners, peers and friends will have the opportunity to share best practice, knowledge, skills and expertise, and to travel further with us on Cardboard Citizens’ future journey.

http://cardboardcitizens.org.uk/p1.html

FareShare has been operating since 2004 and today has 12 locations around the UK. Established in 1994 as a project within the homelessness charity Crisis, FareShare aims to help vulnerable groups, whether they are homeless, elderly, children, or other groups in food poverty within our communities.

FareShare helps to improve lives:

In 2008/09, the food redistributed by FareShare contributed towards more than 7.4 million meals.
The FareShare Community Food Network has over 530 Community Members across the UK receiving food, training and advice.
Every day an average of 29,000 people benefit from the service FareShare provides.
As well as redistributing food, FareShare provides a programme of education and vocational training opportunities – the Eat Well Live Well programme.

FareShare Helps The Environment:

The redistribution of food by FareShare minimises surplus food going to landfill.
This redistribution of food helped businesses reduce CO2 emissions by 13,950 tonnes in 2008/09.

FareShare’s New Vision:

Open a further 18 depots, bringing the total number to 30.
Provide nutritious food to 2,500 community organisations and charities.
Redistribute 20,000 tonnes of food per year.
Everyday support 100,000 vulnerable people through food provision; as well as provide training and education through our Eat Well Live Well programme.
Offer 6,000 volunteer opportunities.

http://www.fareshare.org.uk/

Usually, when ordering food in a restaurant, you get the choice of which food you eat, but never how much ends up on the plate. Now, a new chic restaurant called SML opened in August 2009 in Times Square at Causeway Bay in Hong Kong and it introduces an innovative size-orientated dining experience. From bite-sized appetizers to large plate main courses, you can always find something you want to try on the menu with the right size!

SML offers the total freedom of choice, except the numbers of choices of Mediterranean food, everything on the menu are in Small, Medium and Large size, so no matter you feel like sharing with a large group of friends or just a casual dinner with your lover, this option is a perfect fit. Different European style dishes will be served with lovely presentation. The wine list features 38 various wines. Some of them are available from the automated wine dispenser. This wine serving system provides the choice of 15mls, a half or full glass of wine, which allow guests to sample different wines and this system surely goes well with this choice-driven restaurant. You can find more out about SML and the new dining concept it has created here.

RockCorps was launched as a social business in the United States in 2005 by 7 friends: Stephen Greene (CEO), Grady Lee (COO), Haley Moffett (Head of Production), Chris Robinson (Creative Director), Toby Garrett (Producer), Paul Hunter and Noel Eisenberg. Volunteers have earned their tickets to RockCorps gigs in cities across the US including New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Oakland, Houston, Chicago, Portland OR, Baltimore, Washington DC and Miami.

In 2008 RockCorps partnered with Orange and Sony Ericsson to bring RockCorps to the UK. The first concert took place on September 26th at the Royal Albert Hall featuring Busta Rhymes, Ludacris and John Legend. In 2009, RockCorps has grown in the UK with gigs at the Manchester Apollo and again at the Royal Albert Hall. 2009 also saw the the first RockCorps show in France at Le Zenith theatre in Paris.

RockCorps has over 450 charity and non-profit partners in the US and Europe. All of the volunteering events are done in partnership with and for the benefit of local charities.

All of RockCorps funding comes from its brand partners. Orange is RockCorps’ lead partner in the UK and France, both supporting the programme directly and also delivering communications campaigns to help spread the word and inspire a new generation of volunteers. Young people have to give 4 hours of their time to put back into the community, and for their hard work they get given a ticket to a music gig with big name artists playing – the idea is as simple as that.

I was at the Royal Albert Hall for this year’s RockCorps and the atmosphere was amazing, everyone having a good time and feeling good about helping out with the community.

As the idea of RockCorps has already spread from America to the UK and now to Paris, it’s surely only a matter of time before it starts heading to Asia? Japan for instance, where the elderly make up a big part of the population could easily be the type of place where RockCorps works its magic, with the young helping the old.

Give, Get Given.

http://www.rockcorps.com/

http://www.orangerockcorps.co.uk/

Transition Towns start off when a small collection of individuals within a community come together with a shared concern.

They begin by forming an initiating group with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative. A Transition Initiative is a community working together to look at problems squarely in the eye and address them.

After going through a comprehensive and creative process of: awareness raising, connecting with existing groups in the community, building bridges to local government, forming groups to look at all the key areas of life and kicking off projects aimed at building people’s understanding of resilience, 15-20 year projects are formed.

This results in a coordinated range of projects across all  areas of life that strives to rebuild the resilience towns have lost as a result of problems such as cheap oil and carbon emissions.

The communities also recognise two crucial points: that they immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and that there’s no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope, if we collectively plan and act early enough there’s every likelihood that we can create a way of living that’s significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment.

Examples of existing Transition Towns can be found here. From the UK to Australia to New Zealand to Italy to Japan, Transition Towns are currently evolving everywhere.

http://www.transitiontowns.org/

We Are What We Do began life in a corner of East London, as an offshoot of Community Links, an inner-city charity that runs projects in Newham, one of the poorest boroughs in Europe.

Back in 2004, Community Link’s founder, David Robinson, decided to write a paper. It was called Reconnecting and it included his thoughts, based on 25 years as a community worker, on the need for change in society and the power of people coming together to make it happen. He gathered a group of people from the creative industries, business, voluntary sector and government to do something about this. Among this group was Eugenie Harvey, an Aussie with a background in communications and marketing. She met David, felt her calling, quit her job and took up the reigns.

A few late-night pow-wows and a vat of coffee later, We Are What We Do was born. A simple idea, encouraging people to do small everyday actions to make a difference and improve positive lives.

Actions range from writing a letter to taking time to listen to planting a tree. With a nicely designed online interface as well, WAWWD has really tapped into how people currently live their lives. Most of us are ‘too busy’ to do most of these action on the website, but WAWWD encourages people to take a step back and try out any of their current 129 actions.

http://wearewhatwedo.org/

Cities x Design as featured on DESIGN 21, is a 35-city trans-media research trip across the United States that is recorded online and will later be released in film, exhibition and book form. Through visits, observations, and interviews Cities x Design will examine, during this time of economic instability and questioning about America’s future, the connections between cities, local culture and people in the United States. It will highlight how investing in design can change perceptions, boost economies and create unique places.

The documentary created will explore cities where local creativity, commerce and culture merge. It will highlight people, organizations and businesses that use design as a medium to reflect a deeper understanding of their city’s identity. It will reveal the diversity that lives in America’s most creative corners: from a cutting-edge entrepreneur who is working with the New Orleans Government to regenerate a historic riverfront, to a graphic design firm in Austin working with local musicians, a Native-American fashion designer in Santa Fe, or a small furniture company in Denver that uses domestically sourced material. The website, book, exhibition and film will showcase people who play an important role in the regeneration, tourism, branding, and creative economy of their cities. Their ideas are inspired by authenticity, craftsmanship, local identity and culture. These people are charting a new course for a sustainable future in American cities.

Cities x Design began in Orlando, Florida and will pass through New Orleans, Austin, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Boise, Salt Lake City, Boulder, Denver, Omaha, Iowa City, Minneapolis, Madison, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, Columbus, Lexington, Knoxville, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah and Miami.

The idea of taking around a group of people in a sort of ‘tour’ format, to travel around individual countries trying to solve problems has such potential, and doesn’t just need to be design. Imagine taking an MP, philosopher, plumber, businessman, student and a vicar around your country putting their heads together to try and solve local problems within communities. More of this type of conversation I think should take place regularly and documented online like Cities x Design does. A worldwide network of ‘tour buses’ could be created perhaps?

http://trip.citiesxdesign.org/