Arts
Americans for the Arts
www.americansforthearts.org
is a resource from the D.C.- and New York-based organization dedicated to promoting more art education in schools. The site provides strategies for drawing political and media attention to the issue. Americans for the Arts offers specific action plans for encouraging high-quality arts education on the local, state and national levels.
Civic Engagement
Chat the Planet
www.chattheplanet.com
links youth from around the world in an effort to promote global and cultural tolerance among teens. Produced by NextNext Entertainment and Rapid Blue Productions, Chat the Planet broadcasts video programming in Australia, the United States and the Middle East, with teenagers talking about such issues as political correctness, materialism and the war in Iraq. Video clips and background information frame each topic in an engaging style that is well crafted to attract teen visitors.
Education
College Cost Central
http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/108th/education/highereducation/collegecostcentral.htm
is an effort by the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce to educate the public about the growing cost of attending college. The site connects visitors to fact sheets on college tuition issues, links them to regional coverage of college costs, and provides updates on proposed legislation that would let the federal government stop direct subsidies to institutions that repeatedly impose exorbitant tuition hikes.
Funding
Network for Good
www.networkforgood.org
serves as a vehicle for people to donate to various charities, but also helps nonprofits figure out how to use the Internet to raise money. The site’s Nonprofit Resources section includes educational articles about Internet fund raising, links to sites and organizations that help nonprofits raise funds through the Internet – such as through donation portals like this one – and resources to find funding opportunities at national and community foundations.
Substance Abuse
Alcohol Stats
www.alcoholstats.com
is a useful tool to sift through recent government and university research and polling on underage alcohol abuse. The Anheuser-Busch Companies run the site. Not surprisingly, Anheuser flaunts the positive stats: Eighty-two percent of adolescents do not drink, and the number of teen drunk-driving crashes has declined 33 percent since 1990. While Alcohol Stats shouldn’t be your sole source for statistics and information on underage drinking, it provides some well-displayed data and research.
Violence
Violence Prevention in Schools
www.violence-in-school.info
is an excellent source for news on bullying and other forms of school violence. The site links readers to websites (alphabetically) and news stories (regularly updated and in chronological order) from around the world. Violence Prevention in Schools was developed as part of the Visionary project, a violence-prevention collaborative sponsored by centers in Denmark, Finland, England, Portugal and Germany.
