Imagine practicing yoga in India, educating communities about AIDS in Kenya, or working with orphans in Peru.  Volunteers For Peace  (VFP) makes it happen.

VFP is a non-profit organization located in Belmont, Vermont. Their mission is to promote international voluntary service as an effective means of intercultural education, service learning and community development.

They offer placement in more than 3000 projects, often referred to as work camps, in more than 100 countries every year. VFP also organizes 50-60 service projects in the United States each year.

Watching little Sasha Obama steal the show at the Democratic National Convention last night -- the seven-year-old blew kisses and happily intercepted the compliment her daddy, the party's presumptive presidential nominee, had meant for his wife -- I couldn't resist making the joke: Finally, the Cosbys are going to run the nation.

Of course, that required explaining to my teenage son just what The Cosby Show was and how, back in the '80s, the whole country had been delighted to tune in week after week to watch Bill Cosby play Dr. Huxtable, a wise-cracking but wise daddy who made it seem so much fun as he and his lovely, accomplished wife raised their adorable, if incorrigible, kids.

(The Cosbys were fresh in my mind because I was flipping back and forth between the convention and the HBO documentary The Black List, where comedian Chris Rock revealed that his daughters go to sleep holding Bill Cosby dolls.)

Then as I played out the comparison in my mind, I was surprised to realize that although TV's Huxtables and the Democrats' Obamas are both successful, photogenic, and intelligent African-American families, there's a very big difference between the two when it comes to community service.

Sure, Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable were in the helping professions as an obstetrician and a lawyer, but there really was not much of a sense in the show of the world beyond the walls of their well-appointed Manhattan townhouse.

By contrast, the Obama family lore that was playing at the Convention kept coming back to the community: how Barack eschewed Wall Street to serve the community; how Michelle left a high-paying law firm to serve the community.

The campaign video for Michelle even gave a big plug for Public Allies, the nonprofit that trains diverse community leaders, where Barack served on the board and later Michelle served as executive director of the Chicago branch.

That kind of community organizing is a big departure from simply doing the right thing, Huxtable-style. It's also a big departure from the public service generally provided by our leaders -- and from the community service generally rendered by our first spouses.

The community organizing that inspired the Obamas is not just about raising money or sitting on boards -- which is all great -- but about raising other people to become leaders and learn the skills to take care of their problems themselves.

That background is a lot more interesting to me than Barack's religion or Michelle's working class struggles. We've never had a First Family schooled in the principles of helping others help themselves. If the Obamas make it to the White House, I'll be eager to see how that experience leads them to govern.

Celeste Fraser Delgado is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Worthy Causes. Her Do-Gooder blog appears Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Maybe Foreign Affairs is not the best choice of bedtime reading: Just as I was being lulled to sleep by former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's article on the daunting tasks facing the next U.S. president, I was jolted awake by what the author called a "cautionary tale."

Thirty years before Al Gore won a Nobel Prize for scaring people into going green, then-President Jimmy Carter went on prime-time TV to try to rally his nation to kick the foreign oil habit. As Holbrooke writes:

Wearing a much-mocked cardigan sweater, he said that his energy-independence project would be the "moral equivalent of war." When someone pointed out that the initials of that phrase spell "meow," the press had a field day, ignoring the substance of Carter's proposals.

Oh, yeah, Holbrooke adds, "One of Ronald Reagan's first acts as president was to remove from the White House roof the solar panels Carter had had installed." Genius.

So here we are, 31 years later, spending plus-or-minus four bucks a gallon on gas and sending billions of dollars a year to global bullies, like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. And instead of MEOW, we've got GWOT.

You'd think we'd learn. But here comes the McCain campaign, mocking the suggestion that Americans could save as much or more oil by properly inflating our tires and getting regular tune-ups as by off-shore drilling.

And recent polls show that more and more Americans are falling for it.

Looks like the new acronym is HISS: Ha-ha, I'm still stupid!

Kitty cardigan available here.

Celeste Fraser Delgado is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Worthy Causes. Her Do-Gooder blog appears Tuesdays and Thursdays.

OK Radio host Lynne Norton speaks with Chris Myers Asch with the U.S. Public Service Academy. Chris shares more about how this undergraduate institution will develop our next generation of public service and nonprofit leaders. How will the U.S. Public Service Academy address the urgent need for our next generation of public service and nonprofit leaders? How did Senator Hillary Clinton put the U.S. Public Service Academy on the map? What qualities make an ideal public servant?

Karen Baker, newly appointed Secretary of Service and Volunteering for the state of California, speaks to OK Radio host Joe Folan about California Governor Schwarzenegger's first-in-the-nation action to encourage volunteerism in California and to improve coordination of volunteer efforts between the state's departments and agencies. The Governor signed an executive order to establish the new position of secretary of service and volunteering and appointed Karen Baker who will be a member of the Governor's Cabinet. What is the importance of this role and how will affect nonprofits? How has CA organized resources to best mobilize volunteers? What's on the horizon for the nation and other states to model this effort?

OK Radio host Joe Folan speaks with Allison Fine, Senior Fellow at Demos and Author of "Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age." Allison talks about what organizations need to do and beliefs they need to adopt to stay up to par in the connected digital age. How can organizations capitalize on the resources available to them? What should they not be doing? What do YOU need to know? Download this program now to find out...

I've been waiting for over three hours. I'm only slightly anxious, as my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer here in Guyana has accustomed me to the attitude of the locals, whose expression "just now" means anywhere from five minutes to five months. Reggae music blares in the background; a few young men get up to dance to pass time before the contestants walk on stage. Suddenly the music switches to soca, a Caribbean favorite. A size 24 Afro-Guyanese model emerges from behind the curtain in a tight, sequined dress to a hooting and hollering crowd. Her confidence radiates, and I sit up in my chair, vowing to hold myself as proudly as she does.

::image::This is Miss Big and Beautiful, a beauty pageant dedicated to honoring big boned women. In Guyanese culture, to be "thick" is a good thing. The contest echoes this cultural notion, and emphasizes confidence and high self-esteem as sexy traits. And Guyana isn't the only place paying tribute to their its fleshy women; countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda, St. Kitts and the UK all host the same contest. But critics of the pageant say it encourages obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle that leads to heart disease. Future contestants may be required to hit the gym afterwards, which to me seems contradictory.

In Africa, the country of Angola is taking the beauty pageant concept to a whole new level. Angola endures remnants of a 25 year civil war, including 15 million landmines that still pepper the countryside. Up to 80,000 people in total are said to be injured by the explosive devices. Miss Landmine—a beauty contest started by Norwegian artist Morten Traavik—aims to counter the marginalization of those affected. Women with prosthetic legs, missing limbs and scarred skin don bathing suits and gowns gracefully, despite their physical imperfections. Besides being a symbol of female and disabled empowerment, Miss Landmine ultimately aims to raise awareness, and sees itself as the beginning of a national network of survivors. Furthermore, the goal is to spread the project to other war-torn countries such as Cambodia, which will be hosting its own version of the contest this year. However, critics say that besides being colonialist and anti-feminist Miss Landmine is an unethical exploitation of the disabled and as shallow as the other contests it tries not to emulate, and therefore should be discontinued.

Beauty pageants have always met with conflicting public opinions. What do you think?

Posted by Celeste.

I've been waiting for over three hours. I'm only slightly anxious, as my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer here in Guyana has accustomed me to the "just now" attitude of the locals, a period of time which means anywhere from five minutes to five months. Reggae music blares in the background; a few young men get up to dance to pass time before the contestants walk on stage. Suddenly the music switches to soca, a Caribbean favorite. A size 24 Afro-Guyanese model emerges from behind the curtain in a tight, sequined dress to a hooting and hollering crowd. Her confidence radiates, and I sit up in my chair, vowing to hold myself as proudly as she does.

This is (http://www.sknvibes.com/Entertainment/News.cfm/1185) Miss Big and Beautiful, a beauty pageant dedicated to honoring big boned women. In Guyanese culture, to be "thick" is a good thing. The contest echoes this cultural notion, and emphasizes confidence and high self-esteem as sexy, despite carrying extra pounds. (Seeing the women make me think the song "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" by United Kingdom pop star Mika would be good theme music). And it's not only Guyana who pays tribute to their fleshy women--countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda, St. Kitts and the UK all host the same contest. But critics of the pageant say it encourages obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle that leads to heart disease. Future contestants may be required to hit the gym afterwards, which to me, seems contradictory.

In Africa, the country of Angola is taking the beauty pageant concept to a whole new level. Angola suffers from remnants of a 25 year civil war, including 15 million landmines still peppering the countryside. Up to 80,000 people in total are said to be injured by the explosive devices. (http://www.miss-landmine.org/misslandmine_news.html) Miss Landmine--a beauty contest started by Norwegian artist Morten Traavik--aims to counter the marginalization of those affected. Women with prosthetic legs, missing limbs and scarred skin don bathing suits and gowns gracefully, despite their physical imperfections. Besides being a symbol of female and disabled empowerment, Miss Landmine ultimately aims to raise (http://www.miss-landmine.org/film.html) awareness, and sees itself as the beginning of a national network of survivors. Furthermore, the goal is to spread the project to other (http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/banmines/resources/affected.asp) war-torn countries such as Cambodia, which will be hosting its own version of the contest this year. However, feminist critics say that besides being colonist, Miss Landmine is an unethical exploitation of the disabled and as shallow as the other contests it tries not to emulate, and therefore should be discontinued.

Beauty pageants have always encountered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_pageant) conflicting public opinions. What do you think?

I'm of the school of thought that New Year's resolutions should be simple, concrete, and easy to fulfill—those things that you have wanted to do, but just haven't gotten around to it because you haven't had any sense of commitment before. Last year I resolved to schedule appointments with the dentist and eye doctor, even though I didn't have any pressing issues with my teeth or eyes. Although I kept putting it off due to lack of urgency, I did succeed at getting it done by the end of the year because I had promised to.

This year, I'm considering some simple eco-friendly resolutions, like saving electricity by unplugging my cell phone charger, computer, TV, coffee maker, and toaster whenever I'm not using them; and either joining my local CSA or buying from the farmer's market more regularly. (I've heard that the more people you declare your resolutions to, the more likely you are to complete them. That's why I'm sharing mine with the world! And you can, too, by leaving a comment.)

On the work-related side of life, here are some suggestions for simple, concrete New Year's resolutions you or your organization could commit to:

• Update your organization's website and all your pages on social networking sites that you may have forgotten about—including your personal profile and your organization's profile on Idealist!


• Go through the stack of business cards or pile of sign-up sheets from all those events you've been to and start a system for managing those contacts.


• Post all of your organization's events and campaigns on Idealist this year (it's free!).


• Share more photos and videos to bring attention to your work.

If your resolutions involve work, volunteering, or taking action, remember that Idealist can help!

Please share your personal or work-related resolutions in the comments below. Happy New Year!

Posted by Joanna.

Urban Institute researchers and a dozen contributors explore how public housing reform policies could overcome the persistent disadvantages facing black communities and black families and whether ignoring these disadvantages may undermine the long-term vision for public housing's transformation. Authors recount the history of racial segregation in public housing, highlight the consequences, and debate remedies.

Urban policy expert Margery Austin Turner will become the Urban Institute's vice president for research. Maida Schifter, a senior project manager, will serve as corporate secretary.

Nobel Laureate Robert M. Solow, vice chairman of the Urban Institute Board of Trustees, sums up the Institute's 40 years of achievements by exploring the interaction between policy research and policy action. While social policy is sold as "leaps and bounds" research uncovers the true slow and incremental steps toward success. Yet research is indispensible for action because it weeds out bad ideas and gives policymakers objective evaluations. Solow concludes that it is in this complex but crucial interaction where the Institute's real work is done, citing several of the Institute's key accomplishments.