Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library - free books for homeless and disadvantaged people
Ranked #96 in Volunteering, #18,326 overall
Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library
The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library achieves this vision by delivering a regular supply of books to homeless and disadvantaged people living in hostels and on the streets, and through community organizations. Currently it operates in Sydney and Melbourne.
The books help the homeless to re-connect with their past lives, absorb new knowledge, re-gain self-respect and reflect on their lives.
The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library
The Footpath Library Story
After the death of a young friend, Benjamin Andrew, Sarah Garnett decided to make herself useful by working as a volunteer with Just Enough Faith, feeding the homeless in the city.
One evening Sarah noticed a man sitting under a streetlight reading a novel while waiting for the food van. She started bringing him a few books and it was here The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library began.
The Footpath Library - reaching out
"I say to Joe [her first reader] all the time 'Look at what you've done!' And he laughs his head off. We now have 18 hostel libraries, with another eight about to open, and Footpath Libraries here [Sydney] and in Melbourne. The aim is to go national and have libraries in hostels in every capital city in Australia in the next two years."...Read on.
The Footpath Library - Michael Kelly's Story
I found the footpath library while queueing up for dinner at JEF's food van across the road on a wintery Tuesday night in 2007.
I'd been a regular since 2004 when I was living in a shitty boarding house in Redfern with my son who'd just been released from Rozelle hospital. A little while before I was living & working as a professional artist in a cosy mud brick studio on the outskirts of Melbourne...Read on.
Sarah's Hope
"These people are just like anybody else except for their circumstances. What I really hope is that eventually, just through the little bit we are doing, that we are changing peoples' attitudes to the homeless and the disadvantaged and that people might not now walk down the street and turn away - they might just say, "Good Day", and have a chat."
Make a Donation
Donate to The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library
CLICK HERE
Proust and the Squid - We truly are what we read
The act of reading is a miracle. Every new reader's brain possesses the extraordinary capacity to rearrange itself beyond its original abilities in order to understand written symbols.
... we begin to realize with ever greater comprehension that we truly are what we read.
Source: Amazon.com - Introduction to "Proust and the Squid:The Story and Science of the Reading Brain " by Marianne Wolfe.
The Park Bench
The Footpath Library now has six directors who work tirelessly to support this amazing charity.
Footpath Library - Links to news, views and posts
- Footpath Fraternity - Reader's Digest August 2009
- It started a s a friendly exchange of novels but has grown into an impressive charity that feeds the homeless and disadvantaged in unexpected ways.
- The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library - openforum.com
- Sometimes you hear about ideas, which whilst so simple are yet so smart that you think to yourself why hasn't someone done this before? The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library is one such idea. Its primary purpose is to give Sydney's homeless and disadvantaged access to books that are distributed to hostels, shelters and halfway houses across the city.
- I Found The Footpath Library - a story of recovery through books
- I found the footpath library while queueing up for dinner at JEF's food van across the road on a wintery Tuesday night in 2007. I'd been a regular since 2004 when I was living in a shitty boarding house in Redfern with my son who'd just been released from Rozelle hospital. A little while before I was living & working as a professional artist in a cosy mud brick studio on the outskirts of Melbourne.
- Squidoo: You can make a difference
- Squidoo provides the opportunity to promote your favorite charity. You can build a lens promoting the charity, encourage charity members to create their own Squidoo lenses about the organization or work with the charity over time to help them to become recognized by Squidoo.
Homeless Shanty
Homeless people take shelter wherever they can find it and try to make the most of their circumstances.
Here is one creative person who has been able to shelter amongst the rocks surrounding the famous Bondi Beach in Sydney.
Photo credit: by cthulhia on Flickr
Footpath Library - Blog Posts from Google
- Affiliate Marketing Coach: Footpath Library Squidoo Lens wins ...
- My Squidoo Lens about the wonderful. Footpath Library initiative recently won a Purple Star Award. The Purple Star award is given only for outstanding lenses created by Giant Squids. So you have to first become a ...
- The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library | Open Forum | Independent ...
- The Footpath Library was founded by Sarah Garnett following the tragic death of a young friend of hers by the name of Benjamin Andrew. At a loss following his death, Sarah had started helping feeding the homeless at the Just Enough ...
- Good Causes: The Footpath Library Helps the Homeless : Marquette ...
- An amazing charity has been working at night in the streets of inner Sydney and Melbourne, which I only became aware of last week. The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library was set up by Sydney resident Sarah Garnett when she saw a homeless ...
- FD 2009/12/21 - Esprit de Christmas
- Sarah Garnett, the founder of the Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library, and two of the library's volunteers, Di Dickens and David Westgate - interviewed by Rochelle Fernandez. Click here for more information about the Footpath Library. ...
The Footpath Library is a TRIBE
...a group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader and an idea.
Seth Godin
Seth Godin's Challenge: We Need You To Lead Us - To Create a Movement
Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate. They establish the foundation for people to make connections...
...two things to create a tribe:
- a shared interest
- a way to communicate
With Tribes flourishing everywhere, there's a vast shortage of leaders. We need YOU!
Source: Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need YOU to Lead Us
The Bigger Picture: Whose Reality Counts?
All powerful uppers think they know
What's right and real for those below
At least each upper so believes
But all are wrong: all power deceives
So we ask: how much is the reality we perceive our own creation as uppers? What are the realities of lowers and how can they be expressed?
Whose knowledge counts?
Whose values?
Whose criteria and preferences?
Whose appraisal, analysis and planning?
Whose action?
Whose monitoring and evaluation?
Whose learning?
Whose empowerment?
Whose reality counts? "Ours" or "Theirs"?
What can we, as uppers, do to make our realities count less, and the realities of lowers - [the homeless], the poor, the weak and vulnerable - count more?
Acknowledgement and warning: Reproduced with some format license from the book, "Whose Reality Counts?: Putting the first last" (page 100), by my friend and co-conspirator, Robert Chambers. Robert offered me this Health Warning/Disclaimer when giving me an autographed copy in 1997 at the World Congress on Action Research in Cartagena, Colombia:
The author accepts no responsibility for damage to the career of any person reading this book.
Please leave your comments about this great endeavor
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Reply
- Kylyssa Kylyssa Oct 31, 2009 @ 2:05 pm
- This is a beautiful project. Reading this lens made me tear up because the only time I felt truly human and at peace when I was homeless was when I was in a book. The public library is a great place to read but if a person is homeless, they often can't get a library card and so can't take the book with them. The seed of this idea is brilliant and it has grown even more lovely with time!
Thank you!
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- ChineseKitesforKids ChineseKitesforKids Aug 30, 2009 @ 5:27 pm
- Great lens! I go to the dollar tree store by my house, stock up on Bibles to keep in my car and whenever I see a homeless person or someone begging I hand them money and/or food along with the Bible. They may not want the Bible but they take it because I hand them money and/or food with it.
Great lens! 5*****
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- Evelyn_Saenz Evelyn_Saenz Aug 28, 2009 @ 4:57 pm
- What a wonderful way to make a difference!
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- sandy moffett sandy moffett Aug 23, 2009 @ 10:36 am
- I just saw a story here in the USA where a college law professor friended a homeless man and now share book readings. A small group of homeless people now get together every week and have a book club. I wish I knew where to donate all of my husband's books. He is an avid reader and I would love to have his books go to a worthwhle cause.
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- Jacqui Insired Jacqui Insired Aug 22, 2009 @ 1:58 pm
- I will continue to watch your website and if you start up in Perth i would love to be part of
such a wonderful organisation,it does'nt get better than this helping people and bringing them something to look forward too well done.
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The Park Bench
The Six Directors who work tirelessly to support The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library
Sarah Garnett
Sarah is a Video Producer living on the northern beaches of Sydney with her family. She started the Footpath Library in 2003. Shane McLachlan
Shane is a Director/Editor /Camera operator and avid surfer. His collection of crime novels were the first books given away by the Footpath Library. Crime remains his favourite genre. Shelley McConaghy
Shelley is a training manager whose passion is seeing people discover and fulfil their mission in life. Jaqui Lane
Jaqui is a corporate publisher and a 'book tragic'. The Footpath Library is an opportunity for her to share her passion for books with others. Tamara Bellear-Mayers
Tamara is an HR business consultant who believes the Footpath Library is a great way to give back to those who may have stumbled in life. She is an avid reader of biographies and true crime novels. Fleur Calvert
Fleur is a lawyer who is thrilled that her passion for reading can be used to help others. Fleur is managing the Footpath Library chapter in Melbourne. by ronpass
Ron here from Brisbane, Australia. I love tennis. walking, reading, cycling and writing.
My major preoccupation is internet marketing via Squidoo, art...
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