[1]
August 2011 Newsletter
* G.O.T. Power Expands to Serve More Future Organizers in New Ways
[2]
* Efforts Start to Create Low Power FM Community Radio [3]
* Call to Action: Project Homeless Connect Needs Volunteers [4]
* New Program Doubles the Value of Food Stamps at Farmers Markets
[5]
* Power to the People! Neighborhood Alliance August Mtgs and Updates
[6]
* Launch of new initiative for Community Youth Engagement [7]
-------------------------
G.O.T. POWER EXPANDS TO ENGAGE MORE FUTURE ORGANIZERS IN NEW WAYS
We've been busy this summer doing some very exciting development
work on our training program with the help of an amazing national
training organization, Training for Change [8]. The result is a
completely new training program for the community! The program is
still called G.O.T. Power (Grassroots Organizers Training for Power)
but is now made up of three components: CORE ORGANIZER TRAINING (our
flagship grassroots organizing training), a TRAINING OF TRAINERS, and
a series of ongoing SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT TRAININGS.
The CORE ORGANIZER TRAINING, previously known as G.O.T. Power,
teaches participants the foundational skills they need to be effective
organizers and win on issues
that are important to them. We are incorporating a new model of
learning, one based on popular education and integrating experiential
education. This allows people to learn in a hands-on, direct manner,
while also drawing out the expertise that the individual already has
within. The result is a training that is fully interactive and has
direct application in each session. The Core Organizer Training is so
new we highly recommend that even past G.O.T. Power graduates take
this training, as completely new tools are used to teach the skills in
a totally new way. Topics covered include: Intro to Organizing,
Organizing your Community, Campaign Planning, Facilitating Meetings,
Media, Transforming Conflict, and Direct Action. The next Core
Organizer training begins on September 15th. Email our Training
Director Allison at alli...@midsouthpeace.org [9] to get an
application.
We are thrilled to also be able to offer a TRAINING OF TRAINERS
program for the first time. In the spirit of popular education, we do
not want to be the gatekeepers of training knowledge. We want to train
people to do trainings in their own communities, with their own
community members. It is in that spirit that we are creating a
Training of Trainers program. This program is available to all past
G.O.T. Power graduates and graduates of the Core Organizer Training.
This training goes into more depth around skills such as facilitation,
working with diverse communities, transforming conflict, and working
with various group dynamics.
SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT TRAININGS are offered to Core Organizer
enrollees, graduates, and individuals and organizations in the larger
community to enhance their organizing skill sets. Trainings available
include: Mindful Communication, Consensus Based Facilitation, Advanced
Facilitation, GOTV: Civic Engagement, Anti-oppression and Diversity,
Nonviolent Action, Framing and Messaging, Citizen Lobbying, Canvassing
and Phonebanking, and more. Support and Development Trainings are
designed to both build skills and provide personal support structures
for G.O.T. Power graduates or anyone engaged in organizing and
community change work. Recent examples of Support and Development
trainings that were offered by members of our community include
Emotional Support for Activists facilitated by Laura Sullivan, and
Collaborative Art as a Vehicle for Social Action facilitated by
Richard Lou. Check our calendar for the next training. We are also
excited to be offering a workshop on Deconstructing Power for the
national GetEQUAL www.getequal.org [10] organizer training that will
be in Memphis later this month.
Another important and exciting change within our training program is
an expanded capacity for offering trainings to the community. MSPJC
offers many workshops publicly, but we also offer our workshops to
organizations and people working around a specific issue, with each
tailored to meet the organization or group's individual needs. We are
able to offer one of our Core Organizer Trainings, or we can design a
workshop series that will meet your specific needs. If you are
interested in bringing this powerful training to your organization or
group please contact cen...@midsouthpeace.org [11].
We are also incorporating a sliding scale fee model for our
trainings. As we in the non-profit sphere know all too well, depending
on outside funding is not a sustainable or dependable model to rely on
to be able to continue doing our important work. We already know how
valuable these trainings are to our participants, and we are proud of
moving in a more sustainable direction to ensure that we are able to
continue providing top quality trainings. We also hold the value of
keeping barriers-to-entry as low as possible, which is why our
training program is hundreds of dollars less than comparable programs
both locally and nationally, and this is also why we are instituting a
sliding scale model based on an individual's income or an
organization's annual budget. Most trainings are also offered free to
our members.
We are so glad to be able to continue to support the Memphis
community by building a base of organizers with the skills to be able
to make positive change within our community. We know that our
experiences and lives are interconnected, and the positive change that
occurs in your community affects us all. We look forward to learning
with you soon and we appreciate your continued support!
-------------------------
EFFORTS START TO CREATE LOW-POWER FM COMMUNITY RADIO STATION
WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN RESHAPING THE LANDSCAPE OF RADIO?
WANT TO HELP BRING DEMOCRACY NOW! TO MEMPHIS?
A ten-year-long collective grassroots effort to open the airwaves to
community radio stations achieved victory on January 7, 2011, when
President Obama signed into law the Local Community Radio Act, which
will allow Low-Power FM (LPFM) stations to flourish.
LPFM stations are small, community-based FM radio stations that are
run by non-profits, such as colleges, churches, schools, labor unions,
and other community groups. These non-commercial stations are ideally
positioned to meet local needs by giving a voice to local groups and
people who otherwise lack access to media outlets, providing a
platform for discussing local issues, presenting news and viewpoints
often ignored by media, and creating diversity on the air through the
representation of minorities.
The Mid-South Peace & Justice Center would like to invite you to a
meeting to discuss the creation of a low-power, non-commercial
community radio station for the greater Memphis area.
DATE: September 1, 2011
TIME: 6:00 pm
LOCATION: Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, located at 1000 S. Cooper
St.
If you have any questions, please contact Jacob Flowers at (901)
725-4990 or ja...@midsouthpeace.org.
-------------------------
CALL TO ACTION :: PROJECT HOMELESS CONNECT NEEDS VOLUNTEERS
PROJECT HOMELESS CONNECT is a massive one-day event targeting
unsheltered homeless people in Memphis and Shelby County at which all
the resources and services needed to end homelessness for individuals
are provided under one roof--at one time. Community volunteers pair up
one-on-one with homeless individuals beginning with street engagement
and ending with providing access to a wide array of resources at the
Cook Convention Center. Dozens of agencies and service providers join
together to break down barriers that make it difficult for individuals
to leave homelessness behind.
This project is a venture of the Community Alliance to End
Homelessness and the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center is proud to be
a community partner in this effort.
We urge everyone to please sign up to be a volunteer at this event.
This will be a massive effort, and we as a community must mobilize to
ensure that it is as much of a success as it can be. To register to
volunteer or to get more info, go to the event page here [12]and help
us spread the word to your neighborhood association, civic clubs and
congregations. They need 1,000 total volunteers, so please make every
effort to help yourself and spread the word.
WHAT - PROJECT HOMELESS CONNECT
WHEN - FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH, 9 A.M. TO 5 P.M.
END HOMELESSNESS
We are also asking that you help us spread the word about the dire
need of those who are experiencing homelessness in the brutal summer
heat. We are calling on the community to call our Mayors A. C. Wharton
at _576-6000_ and Mark Luttrell at _545-5000_ to urge them to keep
their campaign promises to provide set-aside jobs for those who are
experiencing homelessness out of the $7.4 million in city contracts
for blight demolition, neighborhood clean up and renovation work. We
can curb blight _and_ give those who are homeless a fighting chance.
-------------------------
NEW PROGRAM DOUBLES THE VALUE OF FOOD STAMPS AT FARMERS MARKETS IN
MEMPHIS
How do you make your food stamps go farther? Take them to the
farmers market!
GrowMemphis has launched a new program to give shoppers using
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, formerly
known as Food Stamps, more purchasing power at two Memphis farmers
markets. The new program, called Double Green$, will provide a
dollar-for-dollar match up to $10 when shoppers spend their SNAP
benefits at participating farmers markets.
Earlier this year, the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market [13],
South Memphis Farmers Market [14], and Urban Farms Market [15] became
the first farmers markets in Memphis, and among the first in
Tennessee, to accept SNAP benefits market-wide. Now, the Double Green$
program will go even further toward increasing access to fresh,
healthy, and affordable foods, especially in the food desert areas
surrounding or nearby these markets, by making locally grown fruits
and vegetables more affordable.
Both the Cooper-Young and South Memphis farmers markets are
participating in Double Green$. The Urban Farms market is waiting for
a determination of their eligibility. All three markets currently
accept food stamps.
"We've been slowly ramping up this program with our SNAP customers
for the past few weeks, and the response has been overwhelmingly
positive from vendors and shoppers alike," said Sue Easley, organizer
of the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market. "It's been a great
experience working with GrowMemphis and our other local farmers
markets as a team to bring something to Memphis that has the potential
to really help our low-income residents, our farmers, our
neighborhoods, and our rural communities, all in one swoop."
How does it work? Shoppers can go to the market booth and swipe
their EBT card, receiving tokens that can be spent with vendors.
Double Green$ will match, dollar-for-dollar and up to $10, the amount
that they put on their EBT card with tokens that can be used to buy
fresh fruits and vegetables.
"Double Green$ gets more people to the markets, increases revenue
for farmers, and increases access to healthy foods for low-income
residents" says Josephine Alexander of GrowMemphis, "We know that food
stamps make Tennessee stronger. Now, food stamps can make farmers
markets stronger, too."
By increasing attendance and sales at farmers markets in areas with
limited access to healthy food, those markets become stronger and more
successful, so that they can continue to serve neighborhood residents
with much needed access to healthy and affordable food choices.
In order to bring this program to Memphis, GrowMemphis partnered
with Wholesome Wave [16], a Connecticut-based non-profit working with
partners in 26 states to implement double value coupon programs like
Double Green$ that benefit consumers in under-served communities and
the farmers who provide for them.
The program is expected to run through the end of October. Funds for
Double Green$ have been provided by the Wholesome Wave Foundation,
Whole Foods Market, the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, and
Seedco.
-------------------------
POWER TO THE PEOPLE! NEIGHBORHOOD ALLIANCE :: AUGUST MEETINGS AND
UPDATES
We know that you are working hard to ensure that your neighborhoods
are healthy, thriving communities, but you don't have to do it
alone.
Join the Neighborhood Alliance to work with others who are
advocating, organizing and promoting legislation and policies to
improve the quality of life in all our neighborhoods. Working as a
team, we can make a difference!
All alliance meetings are on the last two Mondays of each month. The
planning and agenda-setting meeting is meant to build the Alliance and
decide what form the Alliance will take and what issues will be its
focus. Our second meeting is an open-to-the-public workshop on
building the skills needed to help your organization grow and thrive.
[AUGUST MEETINGS]
_PLANNING AND AGENDA SETTING MEETING
_
Monday, August 22nd at 6 p.m.
Topic: Join our working group to build a consensus agenda across
neighborhoods for the improvement of all our communities.
_ORGANIZING YOUR COMMUNITY WORKSHOP
_
Monday, August 29th at 6 p.m.
Topic: (Part 2) GET OUT THE VOTE (GOTV) workshop-GOTV operations and
how your neighborhood association can be a player in city elections.
LOCATION: _Mid-South Peace and Justice Center Offices * 1000 South
Cooper * North side rear entrance of First Congo * Look for MSPJC sign
next to bright red doors._
Questions? Contact Brad Watkins at b...@midsouthpeace.org [17] or
901-725-4990.
-------------------------
LAUNCH OF NEW INITIATIVE FOR COMMUNITY-YOUTH ENGAGEMENT
The Neighborhood Alliance is now proud to be working with Shelby
County Juvenile Court in finding meaningful service opportunities for
young men and women with court-ordered community service.
Contact us with any neighborhood clean-up, community garden or other
neighborhood activities that your association or congregation is
working on. Please list the dates and times and how many volunteers
are needed and a contact person's info. Juvenile Court will then
work with our staff to assign young people with court-ordered
community service to opportunities that are close to their homes. The
Neighborhood Alliance sees this as an opportunity for mentoring and
reaching out to young people within our neighborhoods and more than a
simple community service opportunity.
We are proud to report that we have already secured commitments from
the SOUTH MEMPHIS FARMERS MARKET as well as the Binghampton-based
URBAN FARM and URBAN MARKET. We want to extend our thanks to these
wonderful new partners, and we hope they are but the first of many
more.
_If you have any upcoming events that would be a good opportunity
for youth community service, please contact our Organizing Director at
b...@midsouthpeace.org or 901.725.4990._
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[10] http://www.getequal.org
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[12] http://67.225.169.216/~communit/?page_id=1027
[13] http://www.cycfarmersmarket.org
[14] http://somefm.org
[15] http://www.urbanfarmsmemphis.org
[16] http://www.wholesomewave.org
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