Madeline Estes

Greetings, transit warriors! We had a great time at MBRU’s August meeting! The group debriefed on our first town hall of the year, learned more about Pittsburgh, PA’s bus riders union, and talked about what Shelby County’s recent elections mean for public transit. Be sure to join us next month: Saturday, September 8th from 12-2 PM at A Step Ahead Foundation (Suite 451 in the Crosstown Concourse). 

As you may have noticed in our recent newsletters, there have been a considerable number of deaths over the past years of people living on, or formerly living on the streets., most of which H.O.P.E. members knew as friends until their passing. Our charge today, is that one death is far too many! We must let the powers that be know that we need more affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness. People are not expendable, and they certainly have rights. Housing is a human right! So, H.O.P.E. wants to keep stirring the pot until this topic boils to the top and is an everyday topic.

H.O.P.E. is planning a Day at City Hall, 125 N. Main on August 21 at 4:30 p.m. Parking will be FREE in the Mud Island lot at Poplar & Front Street. Although we are not on the agenda, we are going to pull  comment cards for the ‘Public Comment’ section of the meeting. This may take some time, because we have to wait until the regular agenda is over. We want to pack the place with supporters and signs to demonstrate how unfair it is to allow people to die without a home and be forced to live in uninhabitable conditions. We want the council to feel our pain, and pledge to do something about these travisties. Please meet us on this day to stand up for those who can’t and be an advocate for people experiencing homelessness!

Project Homeless Connect 2018
It’s that time of year once again, when we reach out to the community to recruit volunteers for Project Homeless Connect 2018, a day-long service fair where those people experiencing homelessness can access a host of services and resources under one roof. These services often include housing assesments, minor medical clinics, job resources, haircuts, and of course plenty of copiues of H.O.P.E.’s Memphis Survival Guide! PHC2018 is on October 11, starting at 8AM and will be held at the Cook Convention Center. You can help make this year a success! Volunteer registration is now open, just click, HERE. Volunteers must be 18 years of age. Training is required.

Greetings, transit warriors! MBRU’s monthly general meeting is almost here! Come join us, THIS Saturday, August 11th from 12-2 PM at A Step Ahead Foundation (Suite 451 in the Crosstown Concourse). We’ll be debriefing on our July town hall, highlighting more #TransitJustice from around the country, and diving into Memphis Business Journal’s recent cover story on MATA. We can’t wait to see you!

Greetings, transit warriors! MBRU had a great time at our South Memphis Town Hall! Watch Fox13’s coverage here. We had great conversation with community members about what transit is like in the South Memphis area, and what needs they have going forward. We also had Councilman Edmund Ford, Jr., the Memphis Center for Independent Living, and Citizens for Better Service as some of our guests. Thanks so much to Second Baptist Church, Pastor Karl Berry, and the Shelby County Election Commission for their help putting this on! We’ll be working on more town halls throughout 2018, so keep an eye out for your neighborhood!

Also, remember to take MBRU’s NEW TRANSIT SURVEY! We want to hear from riders all over Memphis about how you use MATA service in your neighborhoods. We’re working on making versions in Spanish and for people with visual impairments. Take the online version here, and we’ll have paper survey at all our town halls this year!

This summer, the Juvenile Justice Project had two stellar interns from the University of Memphis, Monae & Casey! Together, we ran Know Your Rights Theatre Workshops with over 900 young participants at Liberty’s Mass Church, the Boys & Girls Club of Hickory Hill, Girls Inc, and almost every community center in the city!  Last week, we said goodbye to Casey and Monae for the remainder of the Summer, as they prepare for next semester’s course load.

H.O.P.E. has been getting a lot of emails, Facebook posts, and calls about what to say if you come across someone panhandling and if its permissible to give them money or not. We should start at the root cause of why someone would panhandle in the first place. For one, not every person is lazy or not looking for work. People who panhandle are not always the “booze drinking under belly of society” that the media would have you believe them to be. Many, if not the majority,  are out of work individuals who can’t afford stable shelter because they can’t find or sustain suitable employment. A couple of odd jobs just won’t make ends meet, plus food and other necessities aren’t just hard to afford, but almost impossible to store and keep up with if you don’t have a home. With these facts in mind, yes, it is okay to give assistance or money to a person living on the streets. Also equipping them with accurate information about how to receive housing assistance is vital as well.

Recently, the story of a local bartender at Huey’s restaurant giving a man with only two dollars a full meal went viral. While it was noble of the bartender at Huey’s, people experiencing homeless are a proud and would rather not have to beg, and as we found out,  the man wanted to pay everything he had for the meal. This is why you should approach every individual as a human being. Especially if the individual seems to be dealing with mental illness. Just because you can’t get yourself together doesn’t mean you don’t have dignity. H.O.P.E members can tell you about how they’ve been shunned from places, barred from using the restroom at certain establishments, or treated unfairly while living on the streets. When people are treated with kindness, they are more likely to open up about their situation and receive the kind of care they need. This usually only happens when nothing is forced on the person, when they are given options,  and the decision to get help is left totally up to them.

Now that you know how to approach a person living on the streets, please do so. We have opportunities for you to volunteer in January for the Community Alliance for the Homeless’ Annual-Point-In Time Count or volunteering to with the City’s Outreach Team, which patrols or seeks out those who are vulnerable on the streets and provides assistance if need be. Also, you can volunteer with H.O.P.E., who does regular outreach to the community of those experiencing homelessness.

For more information about how you can help donate or support HOPE or those who do the work to combat homelessness,or would like to put on a HOPE shirt and volunteer,  contact Tamara Hendrix, (901)725.4990 or  tamara@midsouthpeace.org.

Mid-South Peace & Justice Center has been working with Whole Child Strategies to equip neighborhood stakeholders in Klondike-Smokey City, North Memphis with the tools to organize a grassroots neighborhood council that advocates for the needs residents have identified in their community. For example, chronic absenteeism and exclusionary discipline practices are common barriers to a child’s likelihood of graduation and educational success.

To divide the work and move towards solutions, new working committees are being launched tasked with developing strategies to address these issues. So far, there are 4 committees; Transportation; Community, Parental, & School Support; Mental Health & Wellbeing; and Crime & Safety. As the neighborhood meetings and work continue,  meeting participants may create and dissolve committees as they deem helpful and appropriate in making sure KSC and everyone connected to the neighborhood thrive!

The next KSC Neighborhood Council Meeting is April 19, 2018 at 5:00 pm at Dave Wells Community Center. Join us, and learn more about the working committees, and learn how you can be a part of the change you want to see in Klondike Smokey City, North Memphis!

The KSC has a Neighborhood Council meeting every month. Keep an eye out in the newsletter for more information about the project and upcoming meeting dates. If you have any questions, or you’re interested in joining our work, contact organizer, Cassandra M. Smith at cassandra@midsouthpeace.org.