The Washington Metropolitan Area has been inundated with snow for almost an entire week. Schools, businesses, even the Federal Government have shut down. Today, local jurisdictions, called in the snowplows because the conditions have been too hazardous. It’s bad out there people.

While many of us are taking advantage of this time off from work or using this time to telecommute there are many that will be suffering over the next few weeks. ShannonRenee pointed out in her Twitter post that as we’re praying for the homeless we need to pray for small businesses that are also hit hard by this storm.

This made me think of what we can do to support our communities during the aftermath of one of the worst snow storms in D.C.’s history:

Support Local Businesses
Local small businesses were already struggling during these challenging economic times, but to add insult to injury they have lost a considerable amount of business and revenue. This includes local street vendors, small businesses, transportation companies, childcare providers, and so many more.

What you can do to help:
Take time to bypass the big chains like Wal-Mart and Target and shop at local convenience shops and small businesses. Spend your dollars at businesses that directly impact our local community. Try purchasing your liquor from the local corner store, buying gas from the small independent gas station, taking your computer issues to a local business not Best Buy, dining at a locally-owned restaurant instead of a big chain establishment or purchase your coffee from a local vendor and skip Starbucks for a day (yes, I recognize this may be challenging!).

Support Low-Income Families
Large school systems in the area are filled with students receiving free or reduced-priced lunches. In the D.C. school system, where more than 70 percent of the children are eligible for free and reduced price lunch, the school day was the only opportunity for children to have a decent meal. The goal of the free and reduced lunch program is to protect the health and well being of the children by providing nutritious school meals every day. Many businesses have been forced to close due to inclement weather forcing low-income workers, who tend to be hourly and not eligible for leave,to see smaller paychecks. If they don’t work, they don’t make money.
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President Obama released the Open Government Directive to encourage participation and collaboration while developing a more transparent government.

The Open Government Directive required all federal government agencies to receive public feedback and integrate advice and ideas from average citizens. The Directive was designed to make government think more strategically and function more efficiently while improving the overall availability and accuracy of information.

The first version of the Dashboard tracks agency progress on the deliverables set out in the Directive and links to each agency’s Open Government Webpage. You can see a full timeline of Directive milestones and deadlines here.

The U.S. General Services Administration has provided the technology, powered by IdeaScale under a free citizen engagement license, to make it easier for you to interact with each federal agency.

The Agency Contact Information for IdeaScale is a list of all agencies and their contact information. Ideas and comments submitted via email, phone, or other means will be posted on the agency’s website by moderators which will allow others to comment and vote on these ideas.

Americans are also encouraged to use social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

By now you’ve heard that Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was hit by a magnitude-7 earthquake on Tuesday. The Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country was still struggling to recover from the 2008 catastrophic storms when disaster unexpectedly struck again.

Many schools, hospitals and other buildings collapsed and now fires are spreading quickly with no water to contain the flames. The numerous deaths and destruction have only contributed more suffering to an already impoverished nation. Haiti needs immediate aid and will continue to need aid to rebuild.

The support of the online community has been overwhelming between people using Twitter and  Facebook to share information on ways to help and ways to donate and the U.S. Department of State’s use of their blog and Twitter to provide updates and attempt to reunite families.  Organizations like the Red Cross and musician Wyclef Jean’s nonprofit Yele acted quickly by accepting donations through cell phone text messages.  Rescue teams from the D.C. metro area,  in particular Fairfax County,VA and Prince George’s County, MD, united with other organizations from across the country to support our brothers and sisters in Haiti during this time of need.

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