Act Locally
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Welcome! Whether you're a community leader, a seasoned advocate, a young person looking to turn your concern into action or somewhere in between, you'll find guides, tools and ideas to help you make a difference.
For more resources, inspiring stories and online tools, please visit the homepage of our Action Center.
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- The ABCs of Advocacy. Read our guide to strengthening communities through advocacy.
- Budging the School Budget. A SparkAction guide to influencing school district budgets, with real-world examples.
- The Federal Budget Process in Congress: 2009. What's it got to do with your hometown? Find out!
Volunteer Opportunities
These new videos and an accompanying report show how past Presidents have invested in children--and why the current administration needs to do the same.
Action heroes needed! GenerationOn and Hasbro challenge young people to be heroes in their communities this summer through Action Heroes Needed. Through Aug. 20, youth can act together or on their own to pick a cause, choose a project (or create their own), and report on it for a chance to be selected for a $500 mini-grant.
There is no definite formula for community organizing especially when it comes to food. The going is rough no matter how you slice it. You need perseverance, shared vision and a seemingly implausible helping of time. But when the need is apparent and community members feel a call to action, change is just around the corner.
The Campaign for a Presidential Youth Council is growing. Here are four ways you can support the movement.
Who better to blaze innovative trails in communities than students with their fingers on the cultural, technological and social pulse? So Prez Obama came up with the Campus Champions of Change Contest, challenging students to share their bright ideas.
Big names in the field discuss how a decade of pre-k policy wins has made a Pre-K-12 education system within our nation's reach.
Six states were near-miss finalists in the first two rounds of a federal competition that rewards changes in state education policy. Most of them are continuing the school reform process with their own money.
"Storytelling" may strike many as unreliable and unscientific, not quite the same as knowledge. But it has a near-unique ability to impact and mobilize readers. Here's a look at how storytelling undergirds the link between good nonprofit outcomes with good nonprofit communication through its Eureka! power.
Is it time for Occupy to claim a central message and issue specific demands? Two opposing arguments; your turn to weigh in.
“We know who we are and we know what we want: we're a big, diverse movement that's fighting for an economy that works for all of us, not just the top 1 percent.” A new video aims to give voice (and faces) to the Occupy Wall Street movement that is spreading across America.
Tools to Improve Communities
June 10, 2013
Produced by: 
First Focus
Every five years the United States Congress is tasked with reauthorizing legislation that is commonly referred to as the “Farm Bill.” This legislation reauthorizes child nutrition initiatives, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp program), The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, and SNAP Nutrition Education (also referred to as SNAP-E
May 30, 2013
Produced by: 
Every Child Matters, National Council of La Raza, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
Groups gather in Denver to spotlight impact of budget cuts on kids and seniors.
May 22, 2013
Produced by: 
SparkAction
In western North Carolina, the Cherokee Youth Council helped make recycling easy—and the law.
May 21, 2013
Produced by: 
Food Research Action Center (FRAC)
The Farm Bill is a comprehensive piece of legislation that guides and authorizes funding for most federal farm and food policies, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
May 9, 2013
Produced by: 
The Education Trust
Higher education should be about creating opportunity — NOT getting crushed by lifelong debt. But too many hard-working students and their families have watched helplessly as the cost of college has skyrocketed over the past decade.
“I shouldn’t have to defer my dreams for fear of lifelong debt.”- Awa, Maryland
May 9, 2013
Produced by: 
National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education, and Families
The YEF Institute has published a new report highlighting promising city efforts to improve the lives of children, youth and families in communities with populations below 75,000. Municipal Leadership for Children and Families in Small and Mid-Sized Cities provides a rich array of strategies shared by local officials representing more than 40 cities and town
April 23, 2013
Produced by: 
Children's Defense Fund
A child or teen dies or is injured from guns every 30 minutes. Gun violence saturates our children’s lives. More children and teens die from guns every three days than died in the Newtown massacre. The number of children under 5 killed by guns in 2010 was more than the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty that same year.
April 23, 2013
Produced by: 
Half in Ten
Every day, people in communities across America are now seeing that sequestration is real—and the stakes are especially high for struggling families. The stories are starting to roll in. In central Illinois, parents and others are taking action to prevent 2,200 kids from being kicked out of Head Start.
April 18, 2013
Produced by: 
Mobilize.org
The Mobilizer’s Workbook is the second edition of the powerful youth organizing resource (formerly Mobilizer’s Guidebook) originally released in 2005. Inspired and influenced by the incredible work of Millennial leaders across the country, the Mobilizer’s Workbook captures successes, mistakes and the key advice that transformed big ideas into big action.
April 11, 2013
Produced by: 
Mistakes Kids Make
Mistakes Kids Make is a storytelling project to remind us that the mistakes kids make should not ruin the rest of their lives or the lives of families. Should kids be held kids accountable for their actions? Yes. Should we teach kids responsibility? Absolutely. Do we need to help kids become their better selves? Yes.