Get Started on Your New Years Resolution

With the dawning of a new year, we've moved passed our parties and our family functions and are now sitting and thinking what will I do this year to make a change in my life and make a difference for others. As you sit-down and thin of your New Year's resolutions, remember life is not about what you have, but what you do. We are not remembered by what we leave behind, but by those whose lives we touch.

This year my resolutions include taking a more active role in securing a better future for the children and working for more sustainable approaches to end modern slavery, and while I know my resolutions may be ambitious I know that if we all make one small resolution this year to help secure a better future, and act upon it, then we can truly change the world. So what can you do to take that small step? Here are a few ideas to get the ball and your mind rolling;

• Sell gifts you don't need through eBay's Giving Works program (givingworks.ebay.com), which earmarks a percentage of sales for the charities of your choice.
• Donate your used, working computer equipment to Kidsurfer Project to use for after-school tutoring of at-risk city youth. 
• Start or join a local childrens/youth resources hotline, or volunteer to staff a National Childrens Coalition Referral Hotline a few regular hours each week from home (calls can be forwarded to where you are!)
• Help distribute information from Children Now, Childrens Defense Fund, National Childrens Coalition or Kids Campaigns about what children need.
• Form or join an existing Join Together community group to prevent teen substance abuse.
• Give unwanted clothing and toys to kids in need.
• Volunteer at a local soup kitchen.
• Help sponsor, fix-up or staff a local playground.
• Collect books for local youth programs and schools in your community.
• Become a volunteer to be a counselor or assistant at a day-camp for children in need or children with disabilities. 
• Also take a look at some of the ideas and ways you can act in my holiday posts; 25 ways for you to help make a child's life better this holiday season. and Gearing Up For Holiday Giving.


As you embark on the journey that is 2009, remember to have fun and enjoy life, especially the little things. Luck and prosperity has been bestowed upon you, forget not that there is always someone who dreams of a life like yours, that there is a child out there dreaming for only the basicsfreedom, education, food and shelter. I hope you look back on 2008 with fondness at your success and achievements and look forward to the New Year with nothing less than hope and ambition for yourself and the world's children.

Don't forget to read the 2008 Year in Review page.