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| Group Kitchens for the Homeless 
There is not enough housing available in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. In my small town of 1800, there are thirty people who live in their cars because their rental was sold. In hi-demand areas, people who work the low-paying service jobs cannot even find a room to rent at double their former rent. Rather than leave their jobs and friends by moving away completely, they move into in their cars to save money. If something else goes wrong, often these "homeless by choice" people can lose everything.To avoid this from happening, I have "adopted" a number of car-dwellers, giving them limited access to my tiny home (showers, taking messages for job-seeking) in exchange for various chores. With this help, most of them eventually found housing. Some of these "recovered homeless" got together and rented a shared place. They decided to start a "pot-luck" evening twice a week for their other friends who were still living in cars: The car-dwellers agree to bring extra food. They prepare the food that's there and clean up the kitchen. The renters get food prepared for them and their dinner dishes get washed. Perhaps a car-dweller who has a job becomes a part of the house when a room becomes available.Reward: The idea already works for me! 
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| Writers Actually Get Paid for Writing
Ever wanted to write something? But procrastinated every time? I bet you know a few other people who also feel the same way. So did I - we started getting together every week, for a couple hours, and reading over each other's work, offering suggestions. If you haven't added more to your story, or written anything new, you have to pay a fine into the pot (we used $5.00). If you don't show up or come late, we fined each other $2.00. This all goes into a pot. When somebody finishes and edits a story, then we throw a small party (just dinner and drinks) and all parade off to the post office to mail it off. For mailing a story you get $10, for having it rejected you get a consolation prize of $15.00 and if it gets published, you get all the money in the pot! Of course adjust the fines and rewards for your own needs - the idea is that it gives you an incentive. We also offer 'scholarships' and 'grants' of $50.00 or less - like if one of us is having a hard week and the paycheck is stretching thin, we are having to work extra and give up writing time because of it, then we can apply for 'scholarship' and if we all vote ok, then you can be given a little $$$ to tide you through - if you DON'T write during that time you have to pay it all back, but if you DO write, it becomes a 'grant' instead. This system has gotten several of us published.Reward: If you use our idea, it'd be great if you could tell everyone about it. If you had enough people doing this, then the rewards for writing could be a real financial help even without getting published.
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