Life Sources!

For this assignment, we had to research at least 6 resources we would find useful for a possible future career or a current activity or volunteer work we are involved in. I researched 6 different sources for what my hopeful future career will be, which is to work with LGBT youth. I found a few website sources, some of which i found to be very useful resources if I am able to get a job working with LGBT youth.

Pflag

The first website is dedicated to people who are friends, parents, and families of LGBT people, (PFLAG). Their vision is to create equality for LGBT people who are often very misunderstood in our society. They are dedicated to educating others and advocating for gay rights and to fight the discrimination because of homophobia and heterosexism.

National Sexual Violence Resource Center

Another website I found is the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. They claim to serve as the nation’s principle information and resource center that focuses on all aspects of sexual violence.

Women’s health.gov

The third website  Women’s health.gov. They focus on issues that affect women’s health, such as sexual assault because sexual assault affects every woman and girl in some way or another. They offer a FAQ page that includes violence against women, like sexual assault. which may come in useful if I meet a youth who has been a victim of sexual violence. 

GLBT National Help Center

This next website is a GLBT National Help Center. They offer free confidential phone and internet peer-counseling, along with information and local resources for LGBT people. They offer two different hotline numbers available for either youth talkline, or a national LGBT hotline.

Twin Cities Pride

Another group website I found is called Twin Cities Pride. The staff working on this website believes in challenging the discrimination against LGBT people and to inspire equality and achievements of the LGBT community. 

Blogs:

Note: I did find that researching blogging tools and websites for my research to be the most difficult. Most of the sources I found were support groups and information providing other resources.

100 Best LGBT  Blogs

This website offers inspiring and powerful blogs from all over the world. This is a great way for LGBT people to express themselves and share their feelings and their experiences as a person who is LGBT. If I am going to work with LGBT youth, I think this would be another great source for them or myself to get some inspiration and information to offer them for further help.

Overall, I found that researching resources for a possible future career, current volunteer work, or life goal is very useful and important. Learning about queer liberation and advocating for LGBT rights is a really important issue for me, and that is why I would like to find a career that is actively involved in working with LGBT people. I found that while researching for useful resources it can be difficult, because you want to find a good source that provides useful information relevant to your topic. 

International Feminist Websites

In class, we had the chance to look over and learn about different international feminist websites. The two that I found really interesting were Women's Net and Visualising Women's Rights in the Arab World.



Women's Net was interesting to me because the website was created to help women find sources and tools they can use to contribute to social activism. Most people are aware that women's rights in some places in Africa are complicated. Many women suffer poverty, and are unable to go to college to pursue higher educations, and the responsibility of being the main caregivers for their families and children. They are also expected to contribute to labor work with the men to provide resources for their families and homes. Women's Net acknowledges these issues and want to provide women with access to information to reaching out to other women in identifying the barriers women in Africa face. They believe in promoting gender equality and creating wider communication technologies available to women. In an article posted on the website, it was discussed about the 2011/2012 Budget plan, R670, which leaves the creators of the website hopeful that the budget will be used correctly with the justice and police to upgrade information technology, since so many women and children are potential victims to online predators.
I think this website is a great way for feminists to learn about important issues in Africa, and what should be done to fighting against gender inequality. But I noticed that the website design could use more of an eye catching layout. Perhaps the creators of the website are not fully trained in how to design layouts on websites a certain way, or maybe posting live video feeds and video blogs would also be a good attention grabber to the viewers.  I also noticed on the Home Page of the website, the word "organization" is spelled incorrectly. That is not a huge issue, but it is just something I noticed right away when I visited the website.

The second website, which was VWR, which is called "Visualising Women's Rights in the Arab World" was created by women's rights activists in Arab to help strengthen the use of visual techniques for women. There are 45 women's rights activists involved in the workshop. Blogging is a useful tool in the projects to share progress of work being done and documenting workshops being held. They focus on several issues such as how women are represented in the Arab world, the Arab world's visualisation of social and political issues, conflicts in the Arab World, and women's rights worldwide. Their blogs also share stories and articles on current events and issues affect women in the Arab world on the home page.
I think this website was interesting because many women struggle for certain rights, especially in the Arab world, so I think it is great this website was created by other women's rights activists to help bring awareness and attention to women in the Arab world, and how visual techniques can be useful and helpful to them. I like the design of the art work created on the main home page, because it has a really different and unique look to it, but i also think that this website could use or offer more visual techniques that can really catch the reader's attention. Another issue that i think is a concern for a lot of feminist websites is getting the website brought to people's attention. How can people find this website or learn about it? Issues like these are important to consider so more people can visit this website and learn what they can do to help bring awareness and advocacy to women's rights in the Arab world.