ChangeCamp is about what we can do when we are motivated to make change to improve the lives of others and hence our collective wellbeing, through empowering them in their capacity to help themselves. In the spirit of this, I am taking up the cause of a project very close to home for me – a great example of technology used with care for social benefit.
Making Change at ChangeCamp – before the opening circle
The project is called Phones for Fearless, and the premise is simple:
Fearless City is asking for donations of used cellphones and digital cameras from the public, which will be redistribute to low-income and/or homeless residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in order to give them access to methods of expression (photo, audio, video, blogging) for telling their stories. The aim is to bridge the digital divide with Vancouver’s most vulnerable and marginalized residents by letting them tap into life, jobs and family through low-cost low-barrier Internet access.
Over Christmas, their story spread like wildfire on Twitter (Monica Hamburg has some analysis, even) and the donations have been pouring in. The generosity has been so amazing and widespread that the team at Fearless tell me they are getting requests to donate phones from all across the country.
If you are attending ChangeCamp, I will be taking phones and cameras back to Vancouver with me when I go back on Monday. Please, please, please bring cameras and phones to donate!
Yes, this is very last minute, but scour your drawers, your dusty boxes of old tech crap you’re thinking of selling or recycling, and bring along the phones with the buttons you didn’t like or that had bad reception in your apartment to MaRS tomorrow. Ask your friends, your neighbours, your family!
If you’re like me and really like to use your phones into the ground before abandoning them, consider what I’m going to do, which is cashing in that stack of slowly-accumulating Fido dollars to grab either a replacement phone or even a shiny brand new one, to donate to this campaign.
Not going to ChangeCamp? You can still contribute!
Got a phone/camera and not at ChangeCamp (or its afterparty at HackLab TO)? Catch me on twitter (I’m @counti8) and I’ll see if I can make it out to pick up the phone from you on Sunday or Monday. I have a Metropass and am very willing to travel for this.
Fearless City is an awesome organization to support. Fearless is a Vancouver Non-Profit group providing tools, resources, and cultural outreach to artists and residents in the improverished Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. For more information on this campaign, check out this post by Dave O Raincity Studios, who helped round up the first phase of the campaign.
