Makeover

To wrap up our series of Social Citizens Makeover "before" snapshots, we have Rabbi Erica Rosenkranz, 31, of West Palm Beach, Fla.

Erica says she has known for most of her life that she would become a rabbi, but it was not until 2002 when she went to rabbinic school. She is passionate about her work within the Jewish community because she has the opportunity to help, counsel and inspire people. Since Erica was ordained in 2006, she has chosen to work predominantly with teens and college students because she believes it is important to invest in tomorrow's leaders, so they are equipped to address the challenges of the future.

Erica currently uses email, phone calls, and Facebook to communicate with potential collaborators and partners, but she's sure she could reach a greater audience if she had some Social Citizens tools and a little guidance from our social media expert. At the Commission for Jewish Education, Erica ran the Teen Tzedakah Project, a program meant to help teens understand the importance of helping others by giving of both their time and money. The project has a Facebook profile, which it often uses to communicate with potential members. Erica wants to learn how she can use social media and viral techniques to better communicate about initiatives like that. 

Erica hopes that with her makeover, she will be able to spread the word about what she's doing and inspire others to get involved.

Don't forget to check back in June when we will catch up with each of our makeover winners to see how they have been transformed into Social Citizens.

Next up in our Social Citizens Makeover series is Lauren Schwartz, 23, of Macungie, Penn.

As part of our series of "before" profiles in our Social Citizens Makeover, today we would like you to meet Emily Waugh, 30, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Emily loves spending time with animals, so when she saw a local rescue group at her local PetSmart, she jumped on the opportunity to volunteer with them. That was 2000. Nine years later, she is still active in promoting the wellbeing of animals and finding homes for the thousands of healthy, adoptable animals that die in Oklahoma City shelters each year.

Emily has been working with various rescue groups since that day in the PetSmart, but she was excited to be a part of an umbrella organization, like the Central Oklahoma Humane Society (OK Humane), that has the ability to bring small groups together to pool their resources and make a greater impact. In addition to enjoying working with the other passionate volunteers and the staff at OK Humane, Emily says her volunteer work there is extremely satisfying because she can already see how her time and social media skills are directly affecting the treatment of animals in her community.

 Emily and the humane society already use diverse methods to reach their audiences. To supplement the OK Humane website, which shares organizational information and opportunities to get involved, Emily maintains the OK Humane blog, which gets lots of traffic because of the topical and controversial issues discussed. An active Twitter user, Emily says she has been able to use it to exchange ideas, recruit new volunteers, and promote animals for adoption. She recognizes, however, that the majority of OK Humane’s volunteer and donor base is not on Twitter, so she needs other social media tools to effectively reach all her constituents. She also maintains Facebook and MySpace pages for the humane society, but finds that both of the sites have limitations.

She writes a monthly email newsletter which goes out to all adopters, donors, and other constituents. Weekly local television appearances and regular adoption events are also in their communications arsenal. “I'm a huge fan of social media, but I believe you can't forget the ‘traditional’ ways of meeting and connecting with people, either!” says Emily.

With all the different ways she communicates with people, Emily knows her message is being heard by some – around 6,000 website visitors per month and about 400 Twitter followers, to name a few. But Emily is not satisfied. She says, “Considering that I encounter people every single day in this city who have no idea we exist…my work is far from done; I'm not reaching nearly as many as I'd like to.” One of her biggest challenges is managing all these forms of communication herself, on top of her full-time job, so she could use the Social Actions consultant to help her learn to invest her limited time for the most significant results.

For those of you following our Social Citizens Makeovers unfold, today we introduce you to Matt Chesney, 19, of Valrico, Florida.

Matt has been involved in the Little Red Wagon Foundation since his younger brother Zach started it at the age of six. He says his now 11-year-old brother’s passion for helping underprivileged kids, and specifically homeless youth, is contagious.

After bringing attention to the cause and raising $25,000 by walking from Tampa to Tallahassee in 2007, Zach is planning a 625-mile-walk from Atlanta to Washington, DC, this May to raise awareness around the more than 1.3 million homeless kids in the US. Matt says they hope to mobilize 1,000 kids to walk the last mile to the White House with them to draw attention to the country’s homeless youth.

This March, the Little Red Wagon Foundation will execute its fourth annual “Project 24 Hours,” a fundraiser and awareness event during which they organize Florida middle, high school, and college students to simulate a day in the life of a homeless youth.

Matt is already using Facebook, YouTube, email, and the Foundation’s website to reach others who might want to get involved by attending events, participating in campaigns, making donations or voting in contests. He hopes that a Social Citizens Makeover will help him share the inspiring story of his little brother’s Foundation with a greater number of people and allow them to make a difference for kids in need.

Watch this video about the Little Red Wagon Foundation.

Like any good makeover contest, we want to share a little about our five makeover winners before they are transformed into model (social) citizens. Starting today, we will profile each of our winners to give you the “before” picture. In a few months, we will report back with “after” stories to reveal how each of them has been impacted by the process.

Chuck Warpehoski, 30, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Chuck was initially drawn to the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ) by its ability to make the connection between faith and social justice. “Traditionally, faith has been part of social justice movements, from abolition to labor to peace,” says Chuck. “In the last few decades, the voice of religion in social life has been the voice of the religious right. ICPJ gives me a space to say ‘the religious right doesn't speak for me; I can be spiritual AND progressive. I can follow the examples of Dr. King, Dorothy Day, and the Berrigan brothers.’”

Chuck, who has now been involved with ICPJ for six years and now serves as its Director, is still passionate about the organization, whose programs include work on issues ranging from hunger to Middle East peace, because of the amazing community of volunteers, who give generously of their time, energy and resources to support the Council’s work. “It's really something special,” he says, “and I’m lucky to be part of it.”

Chuck is already using social media as well as traditional communication methods to reach constituents and potential partners and encourage them to attend events, participate in advocacy actions, and donate. ICPJ’s largest communication is a printed newsletter, sent five times a year to a list of about 1,800, but he would like to cut back on the newsletter list to save both trees and cash. ICPJ also sends weekly email newsletters and maintains a Facebook page and WordPress site.

He hopes the Social Citizens Makeover expert from Social Actions will help him learn to effectively use Facebook to connect with new people without overdoing it or turning people off. Chuck is also interested in learning to coordinate ICPJ’s different communications efforts to increase efficiency and to engage all of the organization’s contacts as active partners.