Web Sites Useful

in Teaching/Doing Community Organizing

By

Carol J. Williams, Ph.D., Kean University

 

Studying the Community

 

Community Geography:  http://www.mapquest.com

 

State Websites:  http://www.state.nj.us/

(http://www.state.??.us/)  Substitute your state’s abbreviation for ??

 

New Jersey Municipal Web Sites:  http://www.state.nj.us/localgov.htm

 

New Jersey Municipal Directory – Index of New Jersey Municipal Websites: 

http://www.cityconnections.com//muni/muniview.html

 

New Jersey State Library:  http://www.njstatelib.org/

            Cyber Reference Desk:  http://www.njstatelib.org/cyberdesk/

(Substitute your state library)

 

American Factfinder (United States Census Data):

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet

 

Free Organizing Resources

 

Free Email:  www.hotmail.com

 

Free Listservs:  www.yahoogroups.com

 

Free Webspace:  http://www.freewebspace.net/

 

Free Webspace Provider Offering Scripts:  http://www.tripod.lycos.com

 

Other Free Web Resources:    http://home.att.net/~mswprogram/FreeResources.htm

 

Electronic Advocacy:    http://www.geocities.com/john_g_mcnutt/electron.htm

 

Funding – Information on Federal Grants, Foundations, and Corporations

 

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance:  http://www.cfda.gov/

 

Foundation Center Website:  http://fdncenter.org/

 

Foundation Center FAQ and Links on Proposal Writing: 

http://fdncenter.net/learn/faqs/proposal_writing.html

 

Moody’s:  http://www.moodys.com/cust/default_alt.asp

 

Using Moody’s Company Data: 

http://www.library.ewu.edu/help/HowTo/Moodys.html

 

Standard and Poor’s: 

http://www2.standardandpoors.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=sp/Page/HomePg

 

Standard and Poor’s Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives:  http://www2.standardandpoors.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=sp/sp_product/productTemplate&cid=1026495653731&s=17&b=11&f=1&r=2&ig=

 

Federal Legislative Contacts

 

Congress:  http://thomas.loc.gov/home/legbranch/legbranch.html

Senators by State:  http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index_by_state.cfm

Representatives:  http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html

To find your specific representative in this list, enter your zip code and state and hit “submit”.

 

Government Documents Online

 

Article from BPD Update on Online Government Documents:

http://www.bpdupdateonline.bizland.com/fall2002/id19.html

 

Search Online for Examples of Web Based Community Organizing

 

Have students search for online examples of organizing on a particular issue.  For example, a brief search on homelessness revealed the following: 

 

National Coalition for the Homeless:  http://www.nationalhomeless.org/

 

Homeless People’s Network Discussion List:  http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn/

 

Homeless People and the Internet:  http://bmdavidson.tripod.com/

            (Web site developed on a free web space provider)

 

Habitat for Humanity International:  http://www.habitat.org/

 

Organizations in the United Kingdom:  http://www.shelter.org.uk/

            http://www.crisis.org.uk/

           

(The internet eliminates geographic boundaries in student research just as it removed geographic barrier to community organizing.)