Our friend David J. Neff of Austin-based Lights.Camera.Help. has contributed this guest post about an exciting new campaign around online gaming for social good:  

At Lights. Camera. Help. We talk a lot about the power of documentary film and video for making measurable, on the ground impact — which is exactly what a new project from Chicago-based Kindling Group is doing for the issue of homelessness. It’s a transmedia campaign called @home, and it’s using documentary film, social media, and a smartphone “game for change” to educate and inspire action community by community.

I recently took an amazing course on Gamification from the Wharton School. As part of that I learned a lot about transmedia and gamification. I’m seeing more and more transmedia projects exploring issues from a multitude of angles, but the addition of @home’s mobile app — which you can play tailored to your own city — is particularly exciting. As you follow the game’s neighborhood map, you watch video interviews with homeless individuals, and by solve location-based puzzles (like deciding whether a person qualifies for supportive housing). And, as you progress through the game, you’ll raise funds for real home move-in kits for homeless individuals in your community.

The @home team created a prototype of the game at POV’s Hackathon last month, and produced a video documenting the experience. Watch to see a walkthrough of this innovative smartphone game:

And support this project’s current crowdfunding campaign here.

Tags: David J. Neff, Gamification, home, Lights Camera Help, video

Guest blog post by Paul McArdle

At Austin’s annual South by Southwest, innovation cannot be ignored, its role imperative, if not absolute.  Considering this 2013 event and its global, exponential attendance, it is fair to relate this dynamic characteristic and what seems to be the dissolve of the individual among the vast collective ‘sea’ of new ideas, both technological and artistic. However, this observation cannot be made without acknowledging that it is with an individual’s vision by which the ideas of innovation are created and shared.  More importantly, though, it is their initiative that counts.

It is within this ‘forward-looking’ atmosphere wherein Mobile Loaves and Fishes launched, for its second year, an opportunity for our homeless brothers and sisters on the streets of Austin to earn a modest income, one based on service and compassionate relationship.  This opportunity, known as Street Treats, is part of ROADS (Relationships and Opportunities Allowing for Dignity and Security), which is a faithful initiative of the vision of MLF I am working alongside.

Considering the mass of unique, creative, and progressive innovations undoubtedly presented this year, the primary focus of ROADS Street Treats does not account merely for the measurement of its inherent effectiveness or success, but primarily in its ability to allow for personal and relational engagement, which, in a sense, serves as the modality for opportunity, and in that sense embraces its innovativeness.

As a new assistant to the ROADS team, and it being only my second year attending the event, my immersion into this year’s SXSW could not have come as more of a direct experience.  This being the case, I am certain it was one of honesty.

With this in consideration, the integration of my newly applied knowledge of ROADS with my interpersonal interactions with our brothers and sisters who were participating gave a very realistic glimpse into the life of service and its mutual reciprocity: as I watched, heard, and held conversations with such remarkable men and women of great willingness to participate in such an event, I was greatly impacted by the their faith in action. Their overall willingness to get out into this field of this event more than suggested a characteristic that cannot be quantified by courage.  All the more, it was this primary observation that I will singularly attest to that dissolved my personal presumptions heading into the week.  This I believe concretely advocates for these opportunities to be met with success.

Therefore, as I am continuing to participate with Mobile Loaves and Fishes faithful commitment to meet those in need with dynamic opportunities, I am continually becoming convinced that these ‘innovations’, their ingenuity shared for our homeless brothers and sisters, is our faithful response to God.

Tags: Austin, ROADS, Street Treats, SXSW, Texas

This month Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ staff is reading The Circle Maker at the suggestion of our founder Alan Graham, who has found it immensely beneficial in focusing his attention on our Community First! housing project.

The Circle Maker’s author, Mark Batterson, is the founder and pastor of the National Community Church in Washington, D.C.  In this book, Batterson talks about how his intensely focused prayers were responsible for helping him and his family see the NCC grow from an idea to a reality.  As Mobile Loaves & Fishes prepares to launch our newest initiative, we will be practicing this same method of focused prayer to ensure our work is aligned with God’s Will.

The Circle Maker begins by re-telling the story of the ancient Jewish prophet, Honi.  During a devastating drought, Honi was asked by his community to pray for rain and so, drawing a circle and stepping inside, he raised up his voice in prayer and told God that he wasn’t moving from the circle until God sent rain.  It was a bold request, made as a simple childlike demand—with complete faith that it was within God’s power to grant.  And God granted his request.

Batterson encourages us to pray like Honi.  He says, “Bold prayers honor God.  And God honors bold prayers.”  By dreaming big, praying hard, thinking long, and working toward our goals as if they are assured, we are channeling our energy into alignment with God’s.  We simply cannot fail.

Batterson’s story is an inspiration because it is full of the kind of success that is so obviously unachievable without God’s help.  As he says, “Nothing honors God more than a big dream that is way beyond our ability to accomplish.  Why?  Because there is no way we can take credit for it.  And nothing is better for our spiritual development than a big dream because it keeps us on our knees in raw dependence on God.”

The Circle Maker is part religious reflection, part self-help, and part inspirational story-telling.  Regardless of your denomination you can read the book and benefit from Batterson’s call to unwavering trust in God’s Plan and His Ability to grant us anything we need or want that is aligned with His Will.

Here at Mobile Loaves & Fishes we don’t just hope God will bless our Community First! project.  We are counting on it.

Won’t you pray circles around Community First! with us?

Tags: Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker

Tags: St. Tomas More, Summer Camp

One of the things that sets Mobile Loaves & Fishes apart is our prolific, organization-wide love of social media.  We want you to engage with us WHEREVER you are on the web.  Are you following us on your favorite social network?  Click on the icons below and show us some love!

Yesterday, hundreds of Non-Profit Organizations joined forces for a single day of fundraising which totaled $2,796,151 in 24-hours.  It was thrilling to watch our community respond to the needs of these dedicated organizations, building momentum throughout the day.

Mobile Loaves & Fishes was able to raise $30,925 on the site, and with a matching grant from Alamo Drafthouse, MLF was the 3rd highest total fundraising organization with $55,955 at the end of the day.

A sincere THANK YOU to those who participated from Austin — as well as those from outside our city who donated, too!  A huge thanks goes to  Alamo Drafthouse for providing a greater incentive for folks to support us–we’re so humbled that their company believes in us enough to make such a generous gift.  We also appreciate the volunteers who represented us at the Alamo Drafthouse last week to spread the message about Amplify.

The funds raised during Amplify will continue to support the Food Truck Ministry, our ROADS program, providing dignified entrepreneurial opportunities for the homeless; our Community First! program which lifts the chronically homeless off the streets into affordable housing; and Genesis Gardens, our program for building community based on renewal and a shared love for the earth.

God Bless!

The Mobile Loaves & Fishes Family

Tags: Alamo Drafthouse, Amplify Austin, fundraising

This year, Mobile Loaves & Fishes ROADS program is releasing greater opportunities during SXSWi with the launch of three new vendor carts, manned by homeless individuals who are earning 100% of the profits to support themselves.

The carts will sell snacks, Blue Bell ice cream, a selection of pies from Texas Pie Kitchen, and coffee.

The MLF crew will be downtown on Sunday, March 10 at 3:00pm at the South Entrance to the Capitol (11th and Congress) to celebrate and launch this exciting new initiative.

Join us–bring your entire family–and celebrate the joy that comes from helping people help themselves.

The first 100 customers will receive a free, exclusive MLF Street Treats t-shirt.

We have created a Street Treats Launch Party event on Facebook.

And you can follow the official Street Treats Twitter account for updates and to find out the vendors’ locations throughout SXSW: @StreetTreatsATX.

Check out our media coverage of this event!

KUT – Austin

Austin Culture Map

KEYE TV

Mark Horvath at SXSW – Huffington Post

Tags: homeless entrepreneurship, homeless job opportunities, Street Treats, SXSW

It’s wasn’t enough for Mitscoots’ founders to simply volunteer or make donations to their favorite charities when they saw a need in the community.  No, the Austin-based start-up has found a way to put ‘doing good’ into the very fabric (pun intended) of their business.

After serving alongside Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ out on the streets of Austin, Tim and Agata Scott decided that there was one very simple, very specific way they could help our homeless brothers and sisters:  by making sure they had clean socks to wear.  The Scotts then developed a line of socks that are high quality, comfortable, and stylish and began selling them to locals, and then donating them for Mobile Loaves & Fishes to carry out on to the streets to distribute to our homeless friends.

“American manufacturing means jobs right here in the states and that matters to us,” Tim said.  “We have tried to address the needs of everyone that is involved in our socks from start to finish. Granted, it might be cheaper and easier to have them manufactured overseas, but we are about making the right decisions and not the easy ones.”

But Team Mitscoots didn’t stop there.  Working with Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ ROADS program, they employ homeless individuals to help with the packaging of the socks, giving them an opportunity to earn a dignified living in a safe, comfortable environment.

“We are about empowerment and offering a hand-up and not just a hand-out,” he said.  “When those that need it do work for us, they know that they have contributed to something bigger and that gives them a since of pride and accomplishment that goes well beyond just a charitable gesture. We don’t just want to help the homeless, we want to make a system where they have the ability to help themselves.”

Learn more about Mitscoots at their website, and watch the video to learn more about this fantastic company:

Tags: Homeless, Mitscoots, ROADS, Tim Scott