Since its inception the Dr. Donda West Foundation (originally the Kanye West Foundation) has helped individuals, families and communities around the world in need of support. In 2005, the foundation donated money to provide textbooks for children in Sierra Leone. In 2006, Kanye and his foundation gave aid to Hurricane Katrina evacuees during their displacement. The primary program of the foundation though is Loop Dreams, a music production program designed to motivate students to stay in school and graduate. “Students study hip-hop culture along with its historical roots, positive impacts and negative influences, write music and positive song lyrics, learn to operate music studio equipment, and produce demonstration recordings through an interactive, fully engaging curriculum”

Learn more about the Dr. Donda West Foundation.

Did you know that slavery still exists today?

More children, women and men are held in slavery right now than over the course of the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade: Millions toil in bondage, their work and even their bodies the property of an owner. (ijm.org)

The International Justice Mission, a human rights agency that includes investigators, lawyers and social workers, exists to secure justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression around the world.

27 million men, women and children are held as slaves, but the IJM is working to end this injustice.

Violence against the poor is not driven by the overwhelming power of the perpetrators – it is driven by the vulnerability of the victims. This violence can be stopped when the power of the law is brought to bear on behalf of those who need it, and when people of good will contribute their financial and professional resources to insisting it stop.

You can be a modern-day abolitionist by helping the IJM. Some of the ways you can participate include volunteering, interning with the organization, and making a financial gift.

Your gift enables IJM to bring rescue and restoration to victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression. In addition to bringing tangible intervention for the victim, your gift enables IJM to hold perpetrators accountable for their abuse, creating a deterrence against future injustice.

Learn more at ijm.org.

From the Friends of the World Food Program:

A bipartisan group of Members of Congress is seeking signatures from the rest of the House of Representatives on a letter that calls on the President-Elect to create a White House Coordinator focused on global hunger issues. Although there are already many separate global food assistance programs, greater coordination is needed as part of a comprehensive U.S. food security strategy. The Special Coordinator for Global Food Security will help ensure that an effective strategy is created and implemented.

Please contact your Member of Congress and urge that he or she sign the “McGovern-Emerson-Payne Letter”.

You can also call 1-866-569-FOOD, which will connect you to the Capitol Hill operator. Then, you will have to ask to be connected to your Member of Congress.

Leisure Lab is participating in Blog Action Day 2008.

On October 15th bloggers everywhere will publish posts that discuss poverty in some way. By all posting on the same day we aim to change the conversation that day, to raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum to an important cause.

We’ll be participating in some way all week.

Senator McCain’s presidential campaign has had a way of race baiting. That is, some of his ads and speeches have communicated in a way that no one can call entirely racist, and yet they provoke those who may be uncomfortable with the idea of a black president due to their own issues with race. In the video below, Jay Smooth presents a parody of those ads:

Over a hundred activists spent the night outside an Illinois Detention Center on June 19th, 2008, to bear witness to the horrors of a growing Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement (ICE) prison system that has been hidden from the public eye for too long.

MediaBistro profiles and interviews Noah Callahan-Bever, editor-in-chief of Marc Ecko’s Complex magazine.

Our intention was never sort of to make the most mainstream magazine. The beauty is the cross-pollination we get between the niche cultures — if you look at what’s going on in mainstream culture, it’s the niche cultures that are driving everything. So in a certain way, I do feel like we have slightly limited ambition, but what we are trying to do is create real, lasting relationships with our readers. If you go super-pop and mainstream, you’re not making the same connections with consumers as you are when you’re doing something that’s a little bit more grounded and niche.

Read more here.