Archives for December 2017

The Juvenile Justice Project of Mid-South Peace and Justice Center is looking for adults with court ordered community service who have a passion for the future of our youth. Get all of your hours taken care of through canvassing, PTA/PTO meetings, teaching young people their constitutional rights, and so much more!

We are also looking to build a youth council for young people interested in influencing the future of Hickory Hill. If you are in middle or high school and have a passion for the future of your neighborhood and community we are looking for you. We hope this council will be a combination of youth who have been involved with the juvenile justice system as well as other interested teens. This is a great way to get service hours and make a difference.

The JJP is working with Juvenile Court to build networks of churches and organizations to address our high number of youth offenders and the lack of opportunities for court ordered community service, specifically in the areas of Hickory Hill & Bartlett. We believe that youth are the solution, not the problem so we work with these teens to help them find their place in their​  communities through transformative service opportunities. Studies continue to show that punitive measures often lead to a continued life of crime as opposed to seeking more rehabilitative opportunities, MSPJC firmly adheres to the idea of working with those most affected by the issues. Help us build a better Memphis and partner with our youth.

If this interests you contact Faith Pollan at faith@midsouthpeace.org or at 901-725-4990.

The end of the year is quickly approaching. It is a time for reflection, and a time for recommitment to the movement for Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice. As we close out 2017 (and what a year it has been), many are finishing up last minute shopping and charitable giving. Many of us are  looking forward to taking some well deserved time for rejuvenation, to prepare for the work ahead, so that we can be energized, despite the challenges we know 2018 will bring.

There’s still time to give a few gifts that don’t necessarily come in bows or festive wrapping. Here’s a list of 5 gifts you can give Peace & Justice before the end of 2017.

1. Give The Gift Of HOPE, Help Feed the Movement!

Each and every week, members of Homeless Organizing for Power & Equality (HOPE) meet at Memphis Center for Independent Living (1633 Madison Avenue) to fellowship, share their struggles, and plan ways the group can raise the issues of those most affected by Memphis’ unaddressed housing crisis. For many groups and organizations offering free food at meetings is a nice bonus for their attendees, but for H.O.P.E. it is a necessity, due to the fact that most often the meal offered at H.O.P.E. meetings may be the only meal they will have that day.

You can help by committing to making a monthly donation of  prepared foods one of our weekly Wednesday meetings. Don’t have time to cook or buy prepared foods and bring them to our meeting space? We also accept monetary donations towards this cause. As always, all forms of donations are completely tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Also, BIG Thanks to Marcos Pizza on Madison Ave for feeding the movement once a month by providing pizza! If you would like to discuss how you can offer support to HOPE please call Tamara @ 901-254-5964 or email tamara@midsouthpeace.org.

2. Send the Mayor a Christmas Carol For The Cause

Mid-South Peace & Justice Center has been working for months to get answers from the Strickland Administration concerning a database that may contain your protected healthcare information.
The City now says that there is no written policy on MPD’s practice of placing “hazard indicators” or “premise advisories” on addresses at certain locations that MPD deems “hazardous.” Last week, we placed “Community Hazard Indicator” placards at the headquarters for both the Memphis Police Department and the Mayor, declaring them HAZARDS for failure to be transparent and accountable to the public.

The City should release a policy that governs this practice and ensures that the public knows how their private information is being used by the department.

Make sure the Mayor doesn’t forget this over the holiday break! Just copy & paste the christmas carol below in an email to jim.strickland@memphistn.gov . If you’re feeling particularly festive, call and sing it to him: (901) 636.600:

We Want A Hazard Policy For Memphis
(to the tune of I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas)

We want a Hazard Policy for Memphis!
Only a detailed policy will do!
No talking points–no hyperbole–
A detailed Hazard Policy is what we need to see!

We want a Hazard Policy for Memphis!
To protect our private health-care info too!
There’s not a policy, but there really ought to be,
Release one for the sake of account-a-bility!

We want a Hazard Policy for Memphis!
We’ve been waiting far too long it’s true!
To ensure there’s no abuse, we need to know the truth
Release a policy at once, no need to be obtuse!

Release a Hazard Policy for Memphis
a process for appeal, We’d like to see!
We want a Hazard Policy for Memphis,
Cause We deserve account-a-bility!

3. You Can’t Go Wrong With Pizza!

Pizza Rev is helping Mid-South Peace & Justice Center RAISE SOME DOUGH!
On Saturday, December 23rd, 20% of your restaurant purchases will support MSPJC if you just mention Mid-South Peace & Justice Center at the register.

This fundraiser is valid at both Memphis Pizza Rev locations, but during lunch hours at the Wolfchase location, we’ll also be selling NECESSARY TROUBLEMAKER ($25) and OTHER MSPJC T-SHIRTS ($20).

The Wolfchase Pizza Rev is across from the Wolfchase Mall. You can find it in between AT&T and Chick-fil-A — in the same shopping center as Best Buy.

The address of the second Pizza Rev location is 6450 Poplar Ave.

Invite your friends to this event on facebook!

4. Rosa ‘Round The Corner! Give The Gift of Tickets!
Join the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center this January as we celebrate 36 years of people-powered change, with a keynote address from organizer, journalist, scholar, and former Green Party Vice Presidential candidate Rosa Clemente.

Rosa has been a prominent figure in Black and Latinx struggles throughout her long career. From her central role in the world of hip-hop activism, to her research on Black and Brown liberation movements, to her Vice Presidential run in 2008, Clemente understands that we should be fighting for social change on all fronts. According to legendary rap artist and activist Chuck D, “Rosa speaks from the heart with truth, fire, and passion. She is one of this generation’s most important political voices and community organizers.”

On January 13, 2018, help us kick off the new year at First Congregational Church as we continue to do what we’ve always done: engage, organize, and mobilize for a better Memphis. Tickets are on sale now–get yours TODAY!

Get Tickets TODAY: https://midsouthpeace.org/event/living-legacy-nonviolence-2018-anniversary-gala/

Become a Sponsor: https://midsouthpeace.org/sponsor-living-legacy-nonviolence-2018-anniversary-gala/

5. Give the Gift of Justice!

Have you considered giving a donation to Mid-South Peace and Justice Center in honor of those on your gift list? When you do, we’ll send your loved one a personal holiday card to inform them of the contribution you made in their name along with information about MSPJC!

This holiday season choose the gift that gives back!

Use this link for easy and purposeful holiday shopping:midsouthpeace.org/donate

Simply follow the link above, choose a donation amount, choose the in honor of option, then input the recipient of the holiday card’s name and address. It’s that easy!

Everyone please take a moment to watch the video, Puerto Rico Rising, sent to us by Rosa Clemente about the current state of the families in Puerto Rico post Hurricane Maria. As of Dec. 4th, the death toll has been reported that over 1,000 women, children, and men have died POST Hurricane Maria, and that number is still expected to rise due to the lack of aid, support, and accurate reporting.

Putting Puerto Rico Back On The Map
Puerto Rico is experiencing a devastating humanitarian crisis. However, the mainstream news media has all but neglected the story, with data from Media Cloud, a database that collects news published on the Internet every day, showing that the devastation in Puerto Rico is getting relatively little attention from digital and cable news outlets compared to its coverage on Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. (Read More)

The Current Narrative
In Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 3.4 million, the people are hungry, homeless and dying. The situation is dire, and, per San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, with many towns without potable water, communication or transportation to major cities, it is only getting worse. Despite this reality, the federal government and mainstream news media alike have alleged that the situation is getting better, that it is a “good news story,” as Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke described it just last week.

There is nothing “good” about the disaster plundering Puerto Rico. This is a crisis of many facets: humanitarian, environmental, economic and political. (Read More)

What’s Missing
There is a public health crisis due to the precarious conditions in hospitals and the threat of epidemics stemming from contaminated water. Cities, towns and neighborhoods outside the metropolitan area have been abandoned. What is missing from many of those reports is coverage from the western part of the island and concrete information of plans and immediate, achievable initiatives to move the country ahead, as well as an ongoing plan. Explanations are necessary for why relief has been so slow and insufficient.

The Team
We have put together a team of Puerto Rican and Latinx journalists and media professionals to tell these unreported stories from an independent lens, to investigate why efforts to reach, house, feed and clothe Puerto Ricans are unsuccessful, to highlight the conditions in the western part of the island, to hear the people’s response to the slow and inadequate aid from the U.S. and to obtain information on plans for relief and rebuilding. (Read More)

What Will We Deliver
Together, the team will travel the small island and speak with the people devastated and the local organizations offering relief to guarantee several deliverables:
• We will work with various outlets, including The Intercept, Truthout, mitú, The Root, GRIT Tv, Rising Up and more, to push news items about unreported municipalities
• Make an educational and social media toolkit
• Produce a 15-minute short film on the crises, which will also act as a fundraising tool for a feature-length project
• Produce a full-length documentary, to be produced under Clemente’s Know Thy Self Productions, looking at the island’s progress, or lack thereof, over time and how the people’s politics about its colonial status may shift as a result.

How can YOU help? 
Watch the documentary centering the community of Loiza: Puerto Rico Rising, share it with your network of friends, family, and/or community partners, and donate to support the work of the journalists on the ground bringing awareness to the devestation and need of the families in Puerto Rico.

Video: http://pronthemap.com/

Donation Link: https://www.gofundme.com/reportreimaginerevive-puerto-rico

https://midsouthpeace.org/2017/12/08/2471/