Written by Erin Murphy, Director of Education and Advocacy Network at the YWCA Seattle I King I Snohomish.

I’m on a campaign kick these days. The WHAT CAN I DO? CAMPAIGN is located in LA. A grass roots movement raising awareness and compassion about homelessness through art and social action, every month a unique and beautiful piece of art inspired by homelessness is featured in the campaign. Here are a few of their pieces and featured artists.

In the campaign’s own words: 

The artwork allows audience permission with the artist to look, to meditate, to begin to ask questions about homelessness, and ultimately to start an open dialogue where everyone’s views are valid, accepted and informed. The campaign wants its viewers to ask WHAT CAN I DO? so that we may provide our audience with countless answers to and opportunities for this very question.

Our movement begins by building awareness through ads in several local magazines and throughout the online community within Los Angeles: the homeless capital of America. As our network grows, the work will expand outwards to address homelessness with a National Call To Action.

“At first when asked to share my artwork for this very special campaign, I asked questions within myself. How much do I know about homelessness? What do I feel? The title of my artwork is called “Rainbow”. I hope the heart and hope can reach to people through my art and inspire others awareness of homelessness. We really do need one another in this universe and should remember that homeless people are not invisible.”

Check out the rest of their pieces so far HERE. I’m loving how they connect their artwork with calls to action and feature different artists and organizations.

I apologize for the lack of posting this week! I’ve been working on improving the website infrastructure (not the most glamorous thing, I know, but important!) in addition to prepping for presenting at the Center for Nonprofit Success Social Media Summit. I’ll be helping to facilitate a Blogging 201 workshop along with bloggers from Common Ground WA, 4Culture, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. They’ve been a great group to work with and there is still time to register to attend! Although I have not been the best role model this week–only posting once! How ironic is that? As I prepare to instruct others in good blogging practices, I break one of the cardinal rules this week–lack of consistent posting. Ah well, there are always improvements to be made.