I stumbled into community organizing in 2003 by answering a job posting for a position as an Office Manager at Northwest Federation of Community Organizations. The organization has since expanded and changed its name to Alliance for a Just Society, but the focus remains on working with grassroots organizations around social, racial, and economical justice issues. During my time there, I was given the opportunity to learn and do a wide variety of things.
Below is a quick review of Alliance for a Just Society’s website over the years. Not coincidentally, it also parallels much of my development as a web designer. The timeline begins with the latest year on top.
2010-2014: WordPress
The organization changed its name to Alliance for a Just Society and I completely reconstructed its website. I used tutorials found on ThemeShaper to create a custom theme for use with WordPress.
Moving to WordPress allowed me to reach a goal that I had long been dreaming about – the ability to create sophisticated websites that I could hand over to someone else to run. No longer did adding or editing content have to go through me. Instead, writers were empowered to do it themselves, even if they did not have much technical knowledge.
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I re-made Alliance for a Just Society’s website – this time to be used with WordPress, allowing non-technical users to add their own content.
I used jQuery Cycle Plugin for the slider of featured posts on the home page.
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I used jQuery UI to create the accordion effect on this FAQ which explained the new provisions and protections under Health Care Reform aka Obamacare.
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For almost ten years, Alliance for a Just Society’s website featured my hand-crafted code. I learned a ton during this time. To illustrate the evolution of this site, as well my own development as a creator of websites, I have included screenshots from 2006, 2005, 2004, and 2003.
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I used Superfish jQuery Menu Plugin for the drop-down menu.
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