Blogging As Global Advocacy - Vincentian Participation

Aidan R. Rooney, C.M.
July 22, 2009

One Issue, Thousands of Voicesbad

Blogs are a powerful advocacy tool.  Think of it! One issue, thousands of voices. Some people did.  Independently organized “Blog Action Day 2008” focusing on poverty  drew 12,800 Bloggers 14,053 Blog Posts and 13,498,280 Readers.

Working toward a Vincentian Blog Action Day on the feast of Vincent dePaul September 27.

What if we have  a world wide discussion of the relationship of educational access to poverty reduction?  This could be  part of the worldwide celebration of the  350th Anniversary of the deaths of Vincent and Louise,

Learn more about the possibilities.

Blog Action Day was October 15 2008. The topic was poverty. The hyperlink will take you to the “wrap-up” page where you can learn lots more about it. How did it work?

Global issues like poverty are extremely complex. There is no simple, clear answer. Change needs to by systemic and far-reaching. By asking thousands of different people to give their viewpoints and opinions, Blog Action Day created an extraordinary lens through which to view these issues. Each blogger brought their own perspective and ideas. Each blogger posted relating to their own blog topic. And each blogger engaged their audience differently.

What is the aim of Worldwide Blog Action Day?

In their own words, “First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. Read more of what they did.

What We Are Doing

We’re going to work towards a “Vincentian Blog Action Day” on the relationship of educational access to poverty reduction. The day will be held in conjunction with the celebrations of the Feast of St. Vincent on September 27. Then we’ll join up with Blog Action Day 2009, and make the global Vincentian voice heard.

Do you want to participate?

… and are you a blogger — from any Vincentian Family group or a collaborator? You can register your presence and your blogname/URL with our new VINCENTIANS NETWORKED Group on the social networking site “Facebook.” We’ll send you regular updates from there after September 1, 2009 right through the wrap-up of Worldwide Blog Action Day 2009 (October 15,) or you can click the Entries RSS link on the Vincentian Blog Action Day site and add it to your feed reader. If you are a Vincentian blogger already, leave your blog URL as a comment on the home page.

And, if you twitter, follow http://twitter.com/blogactionday.

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1 Comment

  1. sr. linda gomez, dc

    I’m very interested in this initiative. It has a very large forum and its impact can just be imagined. I am very glad to be part of this. Poverty has never been an issue that can be addressed only locally, much less individually. With a global participation of different individuals and having a world-wide readership, there is a lot of scope and I’m sure things will change.
    thanks for this initiative!
    Sr. Linda Gomez, DC