Unable to attend a CitizenGulf Benefit tonight? You can still donate directly by clicking the icon below. Tag your tweets and photos #CitizenGulf so we can see them here. Thanks for your support.

A Vietnamese fishing family receives aid in St. Bernard's Parish.

A guest post by Catholic Charities of New Orleans.

CitizenGulf’s National Day of Action will help to support fishing families in coastal Louisiana through starting a Catholic Charities After School Assembly program in the affected area.

You might wonder why we are asking for donations for an after school program. How can that help the situation in the Gulf? Though we plan to provide this program for children, After School Assembly has proven to be a family strengthener. When children are educated and cared for in a safe and no-cost environment, it reduces the stress of the parents and the stress on the family. Because we consider the oil spill to be an economic mental health crisis, we are trying to help families through many varied services.

We have helped hundreds of families along the Louisiana coast with necessities, such as food and emergency bill payment, but they will continue to need our assistance as they struggle to regain their lives and livelihoods. Despite the fact that many of our fishing waters have been reopened and despite media reports that fish are considered safe to eat, many fishermen do not believe that the waters are safe and have not started fishing again.

We started After School Assembly after Hurricane Katrina to fill a need in our community. Many childcare facilities had been wiped out after the storm, and parents needed to know that their children were in a safe environment so that they could good go back to work and help our region’s economy to rebound. And we went further than simply providing childcare; our After School Assembly program provides tutoring and homework help, nutritious after-school snacks, art and other activities.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has given Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans another opportunity to help individuals and families in need. Our work not only addresses the most urgent needs like food and rent, but also has the potential to positively affect the health and safety of the entire family through our After School Assembly program. Thank you for opening your hearts to our community.

These survey results are being released in conjunction with the CitizenGulf events held on Wednesday, August 25 this week. The benefit meet-ups seek to help fishing families affected by the oil spill with education programs. Register today.

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nearly-76-of-facebook-users-find-bp-irresponsible-or-criminal-bGaJfCmGrHzerziDnslE.zip (79 KB)

As part of its efforts to sway American opinion about its responsible approach towards the Deep Horizon oil spill clean-up, BP engaged in a significant advertising campaign, with major online components including social media properties and search engine buys. Ogilvy 360 was brought on to help with the effort. So nearly three months later and four months after the spill how are those efforts working out for BP?

Not so well as a MyType survey reveals. Seventy six percent of all Facebook respondents thought BP was either very irresponsible or criminal in its actions.

The survey was conducted during the past week of 3,000 US Facebook respondents, normalized to the general US population.  Survey respondents were offered one open ended statement, "BP's oil spill was...," and offered four answers:

• A technical malfunction that the company cannot be blamed for
• An honest mistake
• Very irresponsible
• Criminal

When you look under the covers, the survey shows at best some mixed results that are very polarized by children, age, income and environmental. All of the results are statistically significant. Here's an analysis:

The Older Are Less Forgiving

Older Facebook users were much less forgiving of BP than teenagers. No where was this more pronounced that those aged 40-49 years old, who did not believe BP was innocent. Fifty six percent of this demographic found BP very irresponsible and 23% said the company was criminal. Teens on the other hand felt differently, with 51% believing the company was very irresponsible, and only 8% criminal. Twenty three percent of teens thought BP made an honest mistake.

For Geoff Livingston's full analysis click here.

Psychology of Respondents

One of the cool things about MyType is its psychological profiles. While I just analyzed traditional demographic break-outs, MyType can show those inclined towards Power or Imagination. The respondents’ psychological profiles reveal intriguing insights into how personality shapes our perspective towards BP.

"Those who highly value power, for instance, are nearly 5 times more likely than others to choose the “technical malfunction” answer, assigning absolutely no blame to BP," said Tim Koelkebeck, founder and CEO of MyType. "Intellectuals, too, are 36% more likely to choose either that answer or the “honest mistake” response. But others are much less forgiving.

"Aesthetes – those who like poetry, believe in the importance of art and “see beauty in things that others might not notice”, among other things – are roughly 40% more likely to hold BP criminally responsible. And for whatever reason, procrastinators are a full 70% more likely to hold BP criminally responsible."

You can contact MyType for the full survey results via email info [at] mytype.com.

“We see our partnership with Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans as a long-term commitment to help the fishing families and as the perfect organization to not only kickoff our National Day of Action on August 25, but also to keep individuals engaged in the relief effort by taking pledges to fund small but critical projects.”
 – Dan Morrison, CEO Citizen Effect

On April 20, 2010, an unprecedented disaster hit the Gulf of Mexico: one of the worst oil spill's in the history of the United States. The catastrophic aftermath of the spill has affected the entire Gulf Coast region in its extensive damage to marine wildlife, the fishing industry and Gulf Coast communities.

Citizen Effect traveled to the Gulf Coast in late June on a fact-finding mission to learn from local organizations and community members on how we can directly help fishing families overcome this disaster. Our conversations with local organizations and fishing families on who we should work with and how we can best help all led back to one question: “Have you spoken with Catholic Charities yet?”

Everyone from the Greater New Orleans Foundation to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater of New Orleans referred us back to Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans (CCANO). Standing out as an unanimous leader in the relief effort, CCANO’s extensive resources and respected roots in the fishing communities made it the perfect fit as Citizen Effect’s field partner in the Gulf Coast. 

Since 1727, CCANO has established itself as a trusted, community presence throughout the New Orleans region. With 45 different programs, CCANO  delivers health and human services to the poor and vulnerable. Their partnerships with other community-based groups such as the Second Harvest Food Bank, local governments, nonprofits, state agencies, and local churches gives CCANO the necessary experience and insight on how to best direct the relief effort. 

Citizen Effect believes that the most effective response comes from working with organizations that have direct relationships with the communities they serve and the time-tested history of success implementing and managing projects. We decided that the best way to help fishing families in the Gulf is to work with CCANO due to their:

• Longstanding relationship with the diverse communities in the Gulf Coast region
• Commitment to implementing projects that meet the direct needs of community members by listening to and creating programs focused on them
  
• Experience in rapid and effective disaster response as conveyed by their ongoing, post-Katrina recovery work 
  
• Emphasis on collaborating with other local organizations and community centers
  
• Methodology in emergency assistance to Gulf Coast fishing families

In addition, Citizen Effect works to ensure that our partners are equal-opportunity organizations. Although CCANO is affiliated with the Catholic Church, they do not discriminate against religion, gender or race and do not push their affiliated faith onto any that they serve. CCANO’s work focuses on providing services to those in need, a large portion of whom are fishing families, regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds.

Throughout our trip, we were incredibly humbled and impressed by the efforts of the dedicated team of staff and volunteer members at each CCANO project site. Day in and day out, the CCANO team provides hot meals, food coupons and family programs to diverse communities of fishing families throughout the Coastal Parishes of Louisiana. Perhaps one of the most important services CCANO offers are their counseling sessions to fishing families traumatized by the devastating consequences of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Members of these fishing communities work directly as volunteers with CCANO to support and give guidance to those individuals needing advice.

To get involved in the CitizenGulf National Day of Action click here to join or host an event.  The Day of Action is only the beginning though.  Citizen Effect is working with CCANO to develop projects focused on benefitting those affected by the Gulf oil disaster.  You can be a part of the long-term solution by making a Pledge to support Gulf Coast families.  Click here to learn more.

If you've seen this post, then you likely are connected to a #citizengulfer on Facebook or Twitter. But what do others have to say about the oil spill relief project aimed at helping fishing families in Louisiana? Here are eight blog posts by independent bloggers (those not part of the CitizenGulf national team).

1. If Live Aid were crowdsourced, would it look like CitizenGulf.  NTEN Executive Director Holly Ross examines the project from a cool nonprofit perspective.
2. "While the news coverage may have died down a bit, the Gulf Coast is still suffering, especially the fishing families," writes prTini blogger Heather Whaling.  See what else Heather has to say about our efforts to affect change in the wake of the oil spill.
3. Guest blogger Kate Olsen asks on the Whats the Point blog, "Does it makes sense to help out those in need during a man made disaster." 
4. Casual fisher and seafood lover Luis Sandoval explains why CitizenGulf matters to him. I believe Luis is attending the San Jose event.
5. "The great thing about the project is that it takes very little from us to get involved, yet it can make a huge difference to those affected," writes ace communictions blogger Danny Brown.
6. "I hope you'll take action to help our brothers and sisters in the Gulf recover from this most recent storm," says nonprofit blogger Jocelyn Harmon  in her examination of CitizenGulf in the context of crowdsourcing.
7. "For every family like Voisin's, many have folded as oil continued to slosh up on the coastal beaches and shut most of the fishing, shrimping, and oyster businesses down. Many may never fish again, despite skill sets handed down for generations," says Richard Becker in his Liquid [Hip] endorsement of CitizenGulf.
8. "It may not be in the cards for us to take a sabbatical from work and go directly to the sites most harmed by the BP oil spill or still suffering from Katrina’s wrath five years ago, but we can still help make a difference," says Lauren Vargas in her write up.

Want more?  NetSquared and Causecast have brief write ups. CitizenGulf co-founder Jill Foster wrote up her perspective of the effort on the Matrix Files. I wrote how our fact finding mission activated me on the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the strategy behind the effort on FrogLoop.

I know there are some more posts coming this week, but thanks to all of the bloggers who have already supported CitizenGulf.

Let's be frank, lots of people are helping with #citizengulf and it's awesome. There are so many people spreading the word, I can't even begin to thank them. But this is not Haiti, in large part because of BP's responsibility for causing the oil spill, and its moral and legal obligation to clean up the mess.

Many people express this to me, "Why should I help? It's BP's fault!"

But as we have seen over and over again, BP continues to promise fully responsible actions, only to have its actions completely contradict its PR and messaging. Consider the most recent lies that have been exposed this week:

1) The oil is not gone from the Gulf waters. In fact, University of Georgia scientists have done a study showing that 70-79% of the oil remains in the water. Now we see the role dispersants have played in this Dantean nightmare.

2) Phytoplankton, the base element of the fishing food chain, have been poisoned by this oil. This means the entire Gulf food supply has been affected and will have crude oil poisoning to contend with.

This continued public lying (and the co-signing of this behavior by the Obama Administration) should tell all of us one thing: BP will abandon its responsibility to clean up the Gulf at the first opportunity. The Gulf cannot count on BP or the federal government to resolve this situation.

Any of us would be furious if our homes and livelihoods were treated in such a fashion. In fact, many of us who do not live in the Gulf are angered by the public hucksterism we are being offered by BP and the Obama Administration. But what can we do about it? Plenty, and as my trip to the Gulf convinced me, this hurricane ravaged region definitely needs our help.

The citizengulf program was designed to provide easy, mindful actions to affect change, specifically, by using education to provide fishing families new opportunities for a brighter, more sustainable future. I hope you'll join us on August 25 as we take a day of action together by attending an event, donating or voting.

Beyond the citizengulf program, there are more mindful actions: Write your elected officials and tell them to stand up to big oil and large corporations ruining our country, live a better sustainable life, and restore ethics to the communications profession. Want more? The AARP offers six ways you can make a difference for the Gulf.

No , it's not Haiti. But it's happening in our own back yard at the hands of corrupt oil company with the federal government cosigning it. Whatever you do, friends, I encourage you not to sit this one out. In my mind, it's a civic duty. Take mindful action and say no to BP.

Long before the oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico had dead zones and overfishing issues. Overfishing has reduced stocks by as much as 67% for some Gulf sports fishers. While tight fishing management has worked for species like Red Snapper, overfishing has been a primary issue for the Gulf of Mexico for the past 15 years.

Now with BP's Deep Horizon disaster, even with the cleaned up surface oil, greaterpollution and damage exists. No one knows how bad this will heart the increasingly fragile Gulf ecosystem. NOAA is still assessing the long-term impact of Deep Horizon, but it's likely that most fishers will be the first to know based on their yield.

Generally, overfishing continues to be a huge problem nationally and globally. It has already crushed some marine ecosystems, and can disrupt global food supply for a population that's only growing.

One critical tenant of the #citizengulf education program is to provide fishing families impacted by the oil spill, the possibility of a new path towards different careers. Reducing fishers obviously creates less nets (maybe replaced by others), but there's also the possibility that some of the children may turn their eyes towards creating more sustainable solutions for marine fishing. Wouldn't that be something?

If we don't provide a different opportunity and approach, it's likely that we will push ourselves to the edge with less options. As history has shown, education means more money, greater employment options and better job security. And jobs like marine biology require education and certification.

Let's give these kids a shot.