Recently, a local school district has closed off a computer technology program open to high school students. Their reasons cited were low enrollment. My old boss Chris wrote an excellent letter about his experience with the program in the local paper. It got me thinking, beyond the impact of one individual student, how do these programs effect the world beyond the classroom?

Schools exist to make productive members of society. And when you look into the data, a lot of these technical programs end up being pretty effective. They increase graduation rates and beyond that, students who go through these programs earn more money, have lower unemployment, and lower rates of substance abuse.

So subjectively, these programs are fantastic. But what is their actual return on investment, beyond preventing bad things from happening to teenagers?

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You may remember about a month ago I wrote about my friend Susan's relatives that were going through a hard time financially. I asked:

Is there a site that someone in need could turn to online to help in this desperate situation? And to turn it around, how do people in not-so-desperate circumstances know that their money is actually going to their selected family/charity? 

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We all know buying local keeps money locally and helps local businesses but how often do you think about your purchases?

Spend $20 on June 20 is a concept to raise awareness of what we can do in our own local economies. Our local Ellsworth Chamber of Commerce has been promoting this heavily but I was able to find other locations in North Carolina and New York.

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So I got an email today from my friend Susan asking if I knew anything about online fundraising for people in need. Here's the scenario:

My cousin recently gave birth to her first child 11 months early which is scary, but what's even scarier is that there are lots of health complications, her job isn't great, if she doesn't go back to work in 2 weeks (they've been with the kid in intensive care for a few weeks now) she loses her health insurance, her husband's job got "downsized" and they're almost finished building their house that her husband designed and built with his parent's help. They've been married 1 year. So...their bills are stacking up, they may lose their house soon, and all of us in the family are feeling mighty helpless about the whole thing. How to help? Like many situations, money would solve a lot.

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So if it's one thing my good friends know about me is I'm a socially concious shopper. I let myself eat fast food exactly twice a year (usually when I'm in the process of moving). I buy local whenever I can, which I'm trying to do as I start my business as well. And when I do have to buy something not-so-local, I try to make the socially or environmentally concious choice.

Case in point: The other day, I needed to buy toothpaste. Now I am a religious user of Tom's Of Maine. They are a 'local' company. They are socially and environmentally concious. They treat their employees well. I want to support that.

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