Sometimes the problems facing our country seem despairingly large and complicated without any feasible solutions in sight. The gap between the wealthy and the impoverished relentlessly grows as more than 15 percent of citizens are unable to find a full-time job. Small businesses face rising rents, growing health care costs and heavy competition from "big-box" and Internet retailers who offer cheaper prices to consumers while failing to pay a living wage to their workers. At the same time, "70 percent of school districts nationwide endured budget cuts last year [and] 84 percent anticipate cuts this year," according to the Center on Education Policy.
As we grapple with such problems and uncertainties of the present and future, it can sometimes feel that it is beyond our capabilities as individuals to make a difference. The powers that be are too large, and the problems are inexorable, but the human spirit is more resilient. Instead of feeling discouraged we should seize this unique opportunity to address the problems in our own community. While problems abroad may be beyond our control (for now), we have a commitment to make our own communities stronger.
A good example is the American civil rights movement. More than 50 years ago, ordinary citizens found their strength through boycotting segregated lunch counters and bus companies. African-American citizens in Selma, Ala., did not ride the bus for more than a year after Rosa Parks was arrested, until the city finally relented.
Their leaders knew the economic impact of their purchasing decisions would translate into a larger social impact, and the community rallied around their collective pursuit for justice and equality. The current injustices may not be comparable to the evils of segregation, but we can learn from the lessons of a community working together to change the world.
We, the individual authors of this piece, having grappled with such issues for years like many other members of our generation, felt overwhelmed but also curious about what daily decisions we could make to help others. We thought back to our experiences visiting New Orleans, where small business owners returned to a very uncertain and fragile future in the aftermath of Katrina. And while the insurance companies and the government did not necessarily make that return easier, they ultimately did act as pillars of strength in the community.
We also heard from friends and family who are teachers about the amount of money they spend out of pocket every year for supplies. The problem seemed obvious — why is America asking the educators of its future labor force to do more with less? Kara Smith, an Idaho public schoolteacher, captures this sentiment in a recent Fast Company article in which she said, "Public education right now is like telling doctors and nurses that they have to save lives without any materials … We're expected to produce great citizens after students go through 12 years of school, but we're not given any tools to make that happen."
A little less than a year ago, we started thinking of sustainable methods we could use to address some of these problems. We believed strongly in building a mission-driven for-profit company, a venture that would add value to society instead of decreasing it. While millions of people face years of economic distress because of the lack of regulation on Wall Street, we wanted to build something that could help Main Streets, rather than hurt them.
It is only fitting that we begin our venture in the Boston area, where the Main Street program was started. After many of the urban renewal programs of the 1960s did not achieve as much as has been promised, the state of Massachusetts looked for other ways to provide resources to the small business clusters in urban areas. Forty years later, the Main Street program is all over the country, and has succeeded in promoting and developing small business clusters. Somerville is a great example of the success of this program — consider the Union Square and East Somerville Main Street Associations.
At the same time, a quality education for all may be the best model for upward mobility. Nicholas Kristof, who writes mostly about the third world, noted as much in a recent New York Times op-ed: "When I report on poverty in Africa and poverty in America, the differences are vast. But there is a common thread: Chipping away at poverty is difficult and uncertain work, but perhaps the anti-poverty program with the very best record is education — and that's as true in New York as it is in Nigeria."
Every day, people make a choice with their feet, such as walking to class or volunteering at a school, but also with their wallet, such as supporting their favorite local business or walking a little further to the fair trade coffee shop. These choices matter, and we want to create a platform that would give people the opportunity to make their dollar go further — not only to be able to shop locally, but to also be able invest in an education project they care about with that same purchase.
Here in Somerville, there are many great locally owned businesses, as well as many important education projects to support. As you look for opportunities to assist the community around Tufts, we hope to help further your support of local businesses and investment in education.
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Shonak Patel, Nathan Rothstein and Andrew Varly are the co-founders of Swellr.com, a website that advocates fundraising for education. Varly graduated from Tufts in 2006.
