PHILOSOPHY
If you were a millionaire, what would be your charitable work?
I would buy food and clothing for my lazy good-for-nothing children.
Making sure Democrats are always in power.
helping those with eating disorders
Spcc
My brother is blind with cerebral palsy. He spent the first half of his life at the amazing Perkin's School for the Blind in Watertown, MA where he learned braille, planted gardens on their castle-like campus and swam in their indoor pool as if his legs really did work.
In college, I worked in group homes with clients just like him. As a case manager, I advocated for their human rights, came up with meal plans that made them healthy and happy, and developed an activity calendar so that they smiled each and every day. I made photo albums, held theme parties with fake cocktails, took them on vacation, had cooking classes... you name it, we did it.
After four years of college at a private art school, my student loans couldn't be paid on a social worker salary, so I joined the tech industry in accordance with my degree.
When I visited my old clients last year, almost six years since I last saw them, their happiness and excitement had been replaced with boredom and sleepiness. This was the standard of care I found in OTHER group homes when I was working there, but not at mine.
There were decorations and photos still on the walls that I had made and hung when I worked there. In seven years, they should have made new decorations and taken new happy photos.
It broke my heart to talk to a counselor who had no idea that one of the clients could read. I gave my old client an book and her face lit up. The staff stood there shocked that they didn't know. I stood there shocked that they hadn't even tried.
As they were served their instant macaroni for dinner while one of the staff people talked to her friend on the phone, I left and wished that I could have stayed, maybe forever.
My brother is now in a group home, and we've faced a lot of the same problems. When he got cataract surgery, he ripped his stitches out, he gained twenty pounds soon after moving in, and worst of all, they leave the happiest funniest kid home during group activities because he's in a wheelchair.
He's bored and deserves to have an exciting life just like everyone else.
So if I had a million dollars, I would start a chain of group homes and use my marketing and publishing background for "good". The standard of care would embarrass every other group home I've ever stepped inside.
Every home would have a nutritionist and an activity coordinator. The staff wouldn't be allowed to sit in front of the TV watching music videos or talking on the phone. The staff would be like me, they'd care, they'd even bring their clients home for Thanksgiving if their family didn't pick them up. They'd care, they'd care, they'd care.   | | |
Education, science, reason, space exploration, peace, good arts, protection of the environment, jobs for the poor
The same as it is now as a poor person--giving blood products; reading for the blind; doing Instant Shakespeare.
Teaching a homeless man to fish so that he won't starve to death.
I'm open to whatever the Good Lord has in mind
Feeding the hungry. Those who have money have a responsibility to lift up those who do not, as well as easing the burden on the people who have to pay taxes that are normally associated with social programs.
help animals and environment, it's something that always gives us what we want and never get back anything. |
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