Posted on July 4th, 2011
As Serve Austin Sunday approaches, we asked one of our partners, Blackland Community Development to write a guest blog. These folks are amazing, and have a mission and heart that we all can learn from. Take the time, to read our blog from the Blackland CEO, Dr. Bo Mcarver

The sixth UT annexation in 1980 was met by stiff neighborhood resistance and the development of a strong neighborhood association and non-profit. After a 12-year struggle in the press, the university agreed on a permanent line at Leona Street and divested 16 houses and eight vacant lots it had purchased to the Blackland CDC. The houses were rehabilitated with a combination of HUD grants and volunteer labor. Because homeless organizations helped the neighborhood during the struggle, nine of the units were designated for homeless families. The Blackland CDC is the only neighborhood-based nonprofit in Texas for host homeless families. Since the inception of the transitional program in 1994, 161 struggling families have been helped as of June, 2011.

The Solar “SNAP” House, so named because it was made up of four, modular compartments, was donated on the premise that surplus energy from the 8.5 kW solar array would be used by other rental units nearby. That concept was threatened, however, when it was discovered that Texas’ energy deregulation laws did not allow transport of energy across lot lines. At the advice of architect, Joel Martinez, the Blackland CDC solved the problem by legally combining the adjacent lots into one tract; then building a 15-foot breezeway between the solar house and the Harden House (named for its former owner, Minnie Harden). The result was a very strange-looking duplex -- but it is legal to share energy from the Solar House to both units. Dedicated in August, 2008, the Harden-Solar Duplex at 1701 East 22nd has since been home to several families. The SNAP House has been occupied by former UT architect students who have helped “debug” some of the technical problems in the design

Today, the Blackland CDC has 47 units that it rents to households earning less than 60 percent of the average for Austin; the actual rents for the units are far less than that at 34 percent MFI.
Although available land for more development is scarce, it is anticipated that another 15 units can be developed in the near future by infilling existing properties. With almost 25 percent of the single-family housing in the neighborhood, the non-profit offsets some of the gentrification that characterizes neighborhoods near downtown. The effort helps fulfill a motto adopted by the Blackland Neighborhood in 1984, “The dream starts here…” That dream was Martin Luther King’s dream of a community of diverse people living together in peace and harmony.
Bo McCarver, Ph.D., Chair Blackland CDC
Posted on June 12th, 2011

So, why Haiti, if you want to read a few more detailed versions of this, click on any of the three following links: Restore Haiti, pt.1; Restore Haiti, pt. 2; Development. Essentially here's the why: Back in March we made an exploratory trip looking into the human trafficking issue in Haiti.


by Matthew Hansen on May 30th, 2011

While all we did was absolutely great, one of my favorite things is to wake up to a thank you email, and rather than shooting it out to all of you, I thought I would simply post it below:

We put 101 hours into the work today; finished the exterior stairs on the 1904 B unit; stacking the bush for the city to pick up this week; most of the painting on the recycled sheet-iron for the raised-bed gardens, and almost finished the shading trash on the trellises on the raised-bed gardens.
May summer gracefully unfold and find us all with a fresh zest for what is best in our fragile world -- and that we who seek a sense of community continue to bond in labors of joy and meaning.
Bo
Anyway, I'm sure all our partners feel the same way, but it's always great to get an email like this. , so in the words of Bo, "may summer gracefully unfold and find us all with fresh zest" and we'll see you on July 31st for the next Serve Austin Sunday!
Matthew
Posted on May 3rd, 2011
We have two remaining openings for summer internship with Restore Communities and Austin New Church. Internships start May 28th and housing is provided. Interns will have three primary responsibilities:
We will be accepting resumes until May 8th. If you are interested in finding out more, drop us an email at info@austinnewchurch.com or info@restorecommunities.org and let us know of your interests
- Serving our non-profit partners "Music For the City" day camps with the under-resourced in East Austin providing mentoring, projects, and events for children in partnership with various Austin artists and mediums
- Working with us, Restore Communities, in planning the city-wide Serve Austin Sunday for July.
- Working with Austin New Church on a variety of other projects and summer initiatives.
We will be accepting resumes until May 8th. If you are interested in finding out more, drop us an email at info@austinnewchurch.com or info@restorecommunities.org and let us know of your interests
by Steve Fitch on April 13th, 2011

People are looking for various forms of big breakthroughs that will come along and transform our lives, culture and world. The good news is, even though big breakthroughs are fairly rare, they do actually show up from time to time and make life better for all of us. Some world changing breakthroughs, like the furloughed plow, are incredibly simple. The furloughed plow helped to double agricultural production a few centuries ago and we are the fatter for it. Who would have ever thought that dragging a curved chunk of metal behind a cow would make such a huge difference? Well, someone did.
Thank you someone!
Other breakthroughs are so complex that they hardly seem possible, even in comic books. Take safe and clean fusion energy as an example. We know it works great on the sun and on stars. However, when it comes to putting fusion energy into practice on earth, even comic book characters can’t get it to work right. Think about it. Not even Dr. Octavious in Spiderman II (the movie) could get his mechanical hands and arms around the fusion problem. So, as a radioactive breakthrough in his own right Spiderman had to go to work and save the world along with Mary Jane Watson from the destructive chain reaction caused by that mad genius Dr. O and his mini sun.
Thank you Peter Parker!
And now back to reality. There are quite a few problems the world is grappling with these days that appear to operate beyond the reach of a modern breakthrough. Some of the seemingly unsolvable problems we are facing in the world include extreme poverty, modern slavery, and widespread environmental destruction.
Believe it or not, the three issues mentioned above are frequently interconnected.
For the past six years, Eden Reforestation Projects has been working on resolving the problems by applying one creative and simple solution. Eden’s mission statement is “Poverty and Oppression Reduction Through Environmental Stewardship.” First, let’s take a look at the problem and then at the breakthrough solution.

- Millions of failed African farmers and their families are now moving to cities to look for jobs.
- Moving to the cities is not a good solution because there is already 50% unemployment and 25% underemployment in most African cities.
- When they can’t find a job in the city, many of these former farmers are turning to acts of desperation and selling themselves or their children into labor or sex slavery.
In summary, environmental destruction leads to failed farms, and failed farms are increasingly leading to acts of desperation.

Question #1: What if the desperately poor were hired to replant trees instead of cutting the forest down?
Answer: Eden currently employs over 3,500 eco-workers in Ethiopia and Madagascar who are actively healing their own natural environment.
Question #2: What if these national eco-workers were empowered to continue to be farmers and fishermen even as they receive a life changing fair wage that took them and their families out of the at risk category?
Answer: Hundreds of Eden workers are now eating healthy meals, discarding their clothing rags for decent apparel, sending their children to school, going to the doctor when they are sick, and some of them are even adopting abandoned children. All of the above is possible because they have a job.
Question #3: What if the healing of local environments also contributed to the healing of the local farms?
Answer: In Madagascar the planting of millions of new mangrove trees has already reduced coastal erosion and improved local fishing. (Mangroves are a type of tree that grows in coastal estuary systems. They provide coastal erosion control and act as a nursery for baby fish.) After planting over seven million trees in Ethiopia the flooding at the Udo Escarpment has stopped, the farming in the has improved, the wild animal life is returning, and even the springs that dried up years ago are in the early stages of bubbling up again.
Question #4: What if all of this work was cost effective:
Answer: Eden guarantees that for every twenty dollars donated we will plant a minimum of 200 trees, and we will hire a worker for a minimum of three days of life changing labor, and we will continue to support projects that bring freedom to oppressed people. Our hope and prayers is that a growing number of people will see that they can be part of a true breakthrough in our generation. We can heal the environment, we can reduce extreme poverty, and we can break the bonds of oppression.
If you want to watch how environmental issues are connected click HERE.
If you would like to join the Eden League, click HERE
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