Ryan Kwapniowski's FLP Portfolio

Social Justice Reflection

 

        The ever so wise Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "the difference between social service and social justice is that social service works to alleviate hardship while social justice aims to eradicate the root causes of that hardship". I relate social justice in my head a lot to community activism. The purpose of community activism is to show our awareness within the world about certain issues and taking a stance and attempting to change things. For our community activism project during our first semester in the Freshman Leadership Program, we hosted a fundraiser Thanksgiving dinner to help raise money for the non-profit precious memories daycare here in Omaha. We saw a problem with in the Omaha community and tried to help as a group. Although we were unable to go straight to the root of why various children and families are left in poverty and need the help of precious memories daycare, we were able to help ease some of the pain and help with just a few of the needs. In the end, I think it takes a lot of little social services efforts to make a big social justice change. The difference isn't overnight and it's something you can wait around for hoping to one day assume the world will solve its' own problems.

 

 

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."

                    -Mahatma Gandhi