Archives for August 2012

The Mid-South Peace and Justice Center is facilitating a three-day workshop to foster the development of skills and capacity for groups and organizations involved in grassroots organizing work across our region. We hope this training is an opportunity for us to support one-another and come together into the Memphis Movement! 

What is it?

This is a training for new and established groups that are working to better their community. It is not a training for service providers; this is for groups engaged in grassroots community organizing. This is not your ordinary training. Your group will learn how to use the power of  story to move people to action, you will work together to identify tactics and plan strategy that can be immediately implemented in your work together, and you will support one another in becoming individual leaders leading a collective movement.

Who should come?

Are you involved in a group or campaign that is working for social, economic, environmental or racial justice? Does your group want to build their individual skills and develop a group plan to win on their issues? Are there 5-10 people in your group that will commit to the entire training? If the answer is yes to all three then you should definitely come. If you are unsure about some of the questions please contact us and lets figure it out. This is more than a training; it is a space for movement building. It’s not a movement without you and your communities issues. Sign up now!

How does my group sign up?

To sign up and get more detailed information  contact Giovanna Lopez at gio@midsouthpeace.org or 901.725.4990. There is no cost to participate in this training opportunity. We are asking that each group identify 1-2 lead contacts that will commit to bringing 5-10 members of your group to the training. Participants must commit to the entire training which runs Sept. 28-30 (Fri. 6-9pm; Sat. 9am-5pm; Sun 1-5pm.)

Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality (H.O.P.E.) is the name of a Mid-South Peace and Justice Center sponsored organization who’s members are exclusively people who are currently or have formerly experienced homelessness. Fresh off the heels of victory in our ROAD HOME campaign, where H.O.P.E. won more than $500,000 of County funding for homeless and veterans issues this organization is eager to continue the fight for our people.

PLAY TO STAY CAMPAIGN

On Thursday, July 19^th  at the Peer Center at 669 Madison Ave members of  “H.O.P.E.” held a protest against numerous complaints of sexual harassment against clients and female members of staff by a Peer Center employee.

Over the past two months H.O.P.E. has received numerous complaints from it’s members about instances of lewd and homophobic language and repeated unwanted sexual propositions and the group is taking this very seriously.

As I heard our members share their experiences, we were stunned. This situation with this staff person is out of control including offering one of our members $20 to show him her breasts and telling her and others about the size of his penis, and asking a woman, “if she wanted to be in a “three way” with him and his girlfriend.“

Members of the group say that this is not the only allegation of sexual harassment that they have received from clients and past staff and rises concerns over staff of oversight within the local organization. H.O.P.E.’s members, some of which reside at the Peer Center and  others filed a formal grievance with the Tennessee Mental Health Consumers’ Association,(T.M.H.C.A.) The parent company of the local Peer Center.  The employee in question was suspended and later returned to his duties with a mere stipulation that he receive sensitivity training and is under orders not to speak to the victim accept in cases of emergency.

While we deeply respect the advocacy work of the (T.M.H.C.A.) this is simply unacceptable, especially when you consider that 92% of women who have experienced homelessness have suffered severe physical and or sexual assault in their lifetimes. How can you have a person who is supposed to be counseling these women behaving this way. It not only is unacceptable, but is a direct threat to the healing process.

UPDATE– The Tennessee Dept of Mental Health has launched an official investigation and legal counsel for H.O.P.E. is currently in communications with T.M.H.C.A. legal counsel. We also have learned that a new staff person has been hired at the Peer Center, so that those who do not wish to have peer counseling sessions with the alleged predator will have an alternative. H.O.P.E. will work comprehensively to ensure that all people who are experiencing homelessness are treated with respect, and that our shelters are places of safety and healing.

H.O.P.E is continuing to investigate allegations of criminal wrong doing at two other local homeless service providers at the request of our members. H.O.P.E. is getting a lot of reports from women experiencing homelessness that employees at a local shelter are having inappropriate sexual conduct with female clients in exchange for shelter or “PLAY TO STAY” as it has been called. In addition H.O.P.E. is also continuing to alert authorities to gross misappropriation of federal HUD dollars intended to be used to provide shelter and utility assistance for those experiencing homelessness at another local service provider.

H.O.P.E. will be performing street outreach now, and over the course of the next few weeks and months to reach out to unsheltered men and women, to document these cases to pass on to the DA and Police, to DEMAND a full investigation, and prosecution of any and all offenders.

Over the last few months our core group has had discussions over the word Reconciliation.  It is agreed the best fit for the vision our community is to build toward Police Community Relations, with a focus on: *Safety   *Security   *Solutions

In Memphis and Shelby County all residents have basic needs and wants. A few of the needs are to feel Safe and Secure, in Memphis and Shelby County Solutions are needed:

In many communities the relationship between community members and law enforcement has deteriorated to the point of breakdown. We are working with communities across Memphis and Shelby County so that they can lead a process that will move towards improved relations between their communities and law enforcement.

Policing has changed a great deal since the first policemen walked their beats in the early 1800’s. Today, most officers live miles away from their precincts and patrol large areas by car rather than by foot. As a result, police have less contact and conversation with the neighborhood residents they watch over, and this lack of communication can cause fear, mistrust and frustration on both sides, changing police-community relations for the worse.

Such confrontational relationships can exist between the police force and an entire neighborhood or just a segment of the population, such as African Americans, youth, or immigrants. In any of these situations, a positive partnership can only be developed by discarding negative stereotypes, initiating a frank dialogue based on mutual respect, and becoming open to collaborative community policing. In other words, both sides need to go through a transition. We are working to improve community police relations by….

• Creating a safe space for dialogue about the real issues between the community and police that is led by the communities suffering most from negative interactions with the police.

• Building security for our community that is based in tactics that are self determined by our communities. How do we handle crime in our community? Will we handle it with brute force? Or will we focus on community based solutions? These are the questions that we need to answer and it is those answers that should dictate policy and implementation.

• Putting forth the solutions that will remove the barriers to positive relations. This is not a project solely about dialogue and healing. It is about healing so that our community can re-engage in setting the agenda for how we deal with the problems that we face. We are here to make a change!

So, what change will we make? How will we improve? That is something we all have to decide and it is a conversation that is starting now. Join us! Contact:

Melissa Miller-Monie, Organizing Coordinator, melissa@midsouthpeace.org or 901.725.4990.

Coordinated through the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center

1000 S. Cooper St. • Memphis, TN 38104

MSPJC was honored to facilitate a Core Organizer Training for the members of H.O.P.E. (Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality), on July 21-23 at the Memphis Center for Independent Living. H.O.P.E. reached out to the Center and requested that we lead a training for their members that focused on campaign planning, power analysis, fundamentals of community organizing, facilitation and direct action.

The training team got busy designing a curriculum that served the group’s direct needs and met the goals that were given for the training. The training attested to the many benefits of established groups undertaking deep training work together. While we met the technical skill goals that were outlined, H.O.P.E. members met many other important unspoken goals.

Through using our training method of direct education, we were able to draw out important knowledge and experience that the group had within themselves. In the closing circle, some members said they were taking away a new sense of leadership within themselves, whereas prior they didn’t see themselves as leaders within the group. Others said how beneficial it was to follow these new leaders and see a different way of accomplishing goals. Members also said how they felt closer to all the members that were at the training and felt a renewed sense of importance in the work they were doing together.

Instead of individuals participating in our general Core Organizer Training, H.O.P.E. members were able to continue to build relationships with each other and focus directly on the work and goals that H.O.P.E. is working towards. The MSPJC training staff would love to serve your group or organization in a similar way. Please contact allison@midsouthpeace.org to talk about how we can create a training that meets your groups’ needs.