For about the past two years, we've been hearing that change starts with us...and it's true. Jim Wallis said recently that change doesn't happen because new presidents are elected, it happens because individuals rally behind social causes and push them to the forefront. It happened with the Civil Rights movement. It's happening with Blog Action Day (kudos to all the bloggers here participating, your stories are encouraging, touching and inspiring). And it's happening among a committed group of high school students at Manhattan's Hunter Science HS.

History teacher Kevin Froner issued a challenge to his students - register to vote, and register your friends. The result is a new non-profit called the Youth Voter Project (www.first30days.com/making-change-easier/articles/rock-the-youth-vote.html), which aims to register every 18-year-old student in the country...no small feat for a group of kids from the Bronx!   Read more...

Today, October 15th, is the second annual Blog Action Day where bloggers around the web unite to put a single important issue on everyone's mind. Last year, the subject was the environment. This year, the focus is on poverty. The aim of this project is to get everyone talking about ways to build a better future. We’ve invited Ode’s own Editors and Readers Bloggers to participate in this worldwide discussion on the environment. Check out our Editors' Blog and Readers' Blog for the latest entries.

• Muhammad Yunus talking about poverty
• Poor people show us how to save the world economy
• An ode to richness
• Poverty robs families of proper nutrition
• Measuring poverty differently
• The poverty of peace
• Poverty, a Turkish story
• Rural tourism as a tool for poverty alleviation in Africa
• Poverty of imagination? Lets make peace immortal!

With gas prices high, many commuters have downgraded from four wheels to two and started riding bikes to work. To help these commuters, Congress passed the Bicycle Commuter Act, which will make bikers eligible for a $20-a-month tax-free reimbursement from their employers for bicycle-related expenses beginning in January.

The League of American Bicyclists say they have been pushing for this legislation for about seven years. Now, the organization is obtaining guidance from the IRS about how employers can set up this type of program.   Read more...

Video Volunteers is a non-profit organization working in the villages and slums of India to create content relevant to issues in the area for the people living there. Many in the villages being covered cannot read or write.   Read more...

An amazing story of a lion reuniting with his closest friends.   Read more...

He's been a quadriplegic for 33 years and his medical and personal care expenses are through the roof. As his friend and ally I am forever trying to find ways to help him raise much needed funds for medical treatments, van repairs and the odd unanticipated catastrophes. It's a tough gig, though.

When Michael was 16, and newly injured it was easier. Kids elicit public sympathy in a way that a 49 year old white man in America just doesn't. And the adults that were his champions back in the day are getting old now, if they are even still here.   Read more...

Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari said Saturday that finding jobs for young people in the Middle East and Asia will be a major challenge to peace building in the next decade. Within the next 10 years, more than 1.5 billion young 15-30 year olds will be entering the job market. However, only 300 million on them will get a job because of poor education.

Therefore, Ahtisaari Ahtisaari, is working with a group in Qatar to educate young people in effort to continue building peace around the world.   Read more...

I have stopped reading the news headlines and turning on the TV. It's disheartening to watch as desperate Republican supporters yell "kill him!" and "terrorist!" at McCain rallies across the US.

No matter what a person's political beliefs are, now is not the time to create division, hostility or fear. It's hard to watch people who are angry and scared start to lose control...in part because it's a feeling we can all identify with.   Read more...

MicroPlace says their mission is to help alleviate global poverty by enabling everyday people to make investments in the world’s working poor. It allows customers to purchase investments on MicroPlace from security issuers. The security issuers use the funds to support loans to lending borrowers. Borrowers use the loans for their small businesses. Their profits help repay their loans and also go to help improve their families living conditions.

Tracey Pettengill Turner was inspired to start MicroPlace when she returned to the United States from Dhaka, Bangladesh with the belief that microfinance could be a powerful tool to alleviate world poverty. She loved that microfinance combined capitalism, human dignity, and hard work. In 2006 MicroPlace partnered with eBay who believed MicroPlace could be an opportunity to but their assets to work in a way that could change the world.   Read more...

On their website, the Happinness Foundation says it is an “alternative to traditional philanthropy.” They provide pro bono consulting services to Nonprofit Organizations. All workers are volunteer business experts who want to help Nonprofits increase their impact on society and the world.

They say their purpose is "...to inspire and enable people to make other people happy by giving of themselves, improving the quality of life for everyone envolved.”   Read more...