Archives for September 2011

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 Peaceand 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, andwe 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 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 calling on the community to call our Mayors A. C. Wharton at 576-6000 and Mark Luttrell at545-5000 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.

MSPJC is very happy to announce our first Core Organizer Training to begin on September 15th! Read more information below about the training and sign up here to register.

Core Organizer Training
The Core Organizer Training 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.

What: Core Organizer Training. A maximum of 20 people will be trained in order for all to get individual support and for the maximum learning potential for the group.
When: Beginning September 15th. Meetings take place for the following 7 Thursdays from 6-8:15, ending on November 3rd. This training builds upon itself each week and participants must attend all sessions. Partial attendance is not allowed.
Where: First Congregational Church, 1000 S. Cooper

Cost: Sliding scale based on individual’s income. If your organization is sending you to the training, use the organizational budget to determine the fee. It costs MSPJC $200 per person to do the training. Fee includes over 16 hours of training, simple snacks, and follow up support from a network of the mid-south’s best organizers and activists.

If your annual income is…              You pay …
Less than $15,000              $30
$15,000-$25,000                $50
$25,000-$35,000                $100
$35,000-$45,000                $150
$45,000-$55,000                $225
Over $55,000                     $300

Registration:
Register online here or call 725-4990 to register over the phone.

MSPJC offers many workshops publicly, but we also offer our workshops to organizations and people working around a specific issue, with workshops 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 to meet your organization or group’s specific needs. If you are interested in bringing MSPJC to your organization or group to do a workshop, please contact center@midsouthpeace.org.

Register for Core Organizer Training here.

The Training Team is ending the year strong with two intensive weekend-long training opportunities:

Core Organizer Training (November 8 – 10)

The Core Organizer Training is this upcoming weekend, November 8-10. We’re already at capacity for participants, with people coming from all over Memphis as well as a group from Alabama. Our team is really looking forward to facilitating, helping the group recognize how much they already know about grassroots organizing, and facilitating the building of new skills that will help accomplish the group’s goals in building healthier communities around Memphis.

If you have been unable to participate this time around, don’t worry, we’ll offer this training again in the spring! Send an email gio@midsouthpeace.org to get on the waiting list.

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Training for Social Action Trainers (December 6 – 8)

We’re thrilled to be hosting a Training for Social Action Trainers on December 6-8, facilitated byTraining for Change based out of Philadelphia. This intensive training is a huge capacity-building opportunity for Memphis organizers, trainers, facilitators, teachers, activists, and anyone interested in learning how training can further their goals of challenging injustice.

MSPJC has worked and trained with Training for Change for several years now. It was under their leadership that the training department made the important shift of using direct education to do our work; that is, letting participants experience the tools for themselves so that they can fully integrate what we’re trying to get across. Come learn more for yourself.

Read more about the training and register here.

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Training Re-Cap: Media 201

We were very excited to facilitate our first advanced media training, Media 201, on October 26th. We had a great group of participants who worked hard at building skills around creating our stories, thinking about both what our allies and others say about us and how we can create media goals to further our campaign goals. We also delved into framing, messaging, creating talking points and ways that we can stay in control of ways that the media portrays us. Everyone had a lot of fun role playing and practicing staying on message when being interviewed, as you can see in this photo!