Madeline Estes

About StreetWise INK:

StreetWise INK is Memphis’ only T-Shirt Screen Printing Workers-Cooperative that is organized and operated exclusively by individuals with experiences of homelessness. They provide high-quality, custom, hand printed t-shirts for a variety of needs. Unlike the vast majority of businesses that seek to “empower the homeless,” Streetwise Ink is unique in that it has been worker-led from its inception. StreetWise INK is further developing their screen printing and business skills while creating steady jobs and income for themselves and others with experiences of homelessness, poverty, and other obstacles to finding meaningful and sustainable work in the Memphis area.

This Weekend!

Come out to StreetWise INK on Saturday, March 17th, from 2pm to 5pm to print your very own StreetWise INK shirt! For members, bring as many shirts as you like, and for folks making donations, please just bring one or two unless you have some to share. (Recommended $5 minimum for those who can.)

Donation-Based Trainings

***If you are interested in signing up individually or as a group for the donation-based Screen Printing Trainings, please follow this link to find out more about our suggested donation ranges for the different trainings.***

Free Trainings

***If you or someone you know has experience of homelessness, living in poverty, or other barriers to sustainable, dignified employment, please feel free to sign up for one or all of the Free Screen Printing & Worker-Cooperative Trainings that are every other Saturday from 2pm to 5pm at First Congregational Church, located at 1000 Cooper (near Cooper-Young intersection).***

To Get a Price Quote

Please fill out StreetWise INK’s Price Quote Request Form.

Follow StreetWise INK on Facebook: https://facebook.com/streetwiseink/

Email: streetwise@midsouthpeace.org

Phone: 901-725-4990

 

As GOT Power, the training department of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, just wrapped up our workshops in collaboration with the Juvenile Justice Project, – the program area currently leading our Criminal Justice Reform work at the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, all I can think about are games, icebreakers, and their place in workshops and meetings.

I think it is safe to say that most people facilitate meetings and workshops around issues and topics that they genuinely care about, and for some of us may be an area of extreme passion, but what does that mean for participant engagement? I would say it could mean a variety of things depending upon your audience, but ultimately your interest and passion alone can be both attractive and boring. Yes, boring…no matter how many times your powerpoint prezzy spins, how often you change the inflection of your voice as you read from your paper, phone, or from memory, or also regardless of how many presenters you have speaking about the various sections of your issue or topic.

Participants and observers sitting in one place for over an hour will at some point become less engaged, tired, consumed with thoughts from earlier that day, or even worse making plans for their speedy exit as soon as they can free themselves from that space. What could that mean for the reception of all of your amazing material? It could mean little, because some people do still take in a good amount of information regardless of their wandering thoughts, but it could mean everything if the person decides that this is not a constructive means for their time.

This is where the importance of breaking tension, shifting the room and space, creating community among participants, and ultimately personal involvement for everyone comes in as super useful tools. What are those tools exactly? Games, icebreakers, and movement are all tools you should consider infusing into your meetings and workshops with participants of any age, especially if you are planning to relay a large dosage of heavy information. It is amazing how much the energy in the room can heighten after a short period of moving, speaking, laughter, or subject (and/or seating) change. Those little things can really be the difference between comfort vs discomfort when trying to create an atmosphere for group participation, attentive listeners vs cell phone users or dozers when delivering information, and also engaged vs disconnected members while trying to garner support from constituents.

Does this mean that any game or icebreaker is appropriate for your audience or subject area? No, absolutely not actually, but as the facilitator unfortunately the responsibility of both reading your audience and understanding what may be needed for that particular space is completely on you. Sometimes, a quick break can be all the change you need to rejog your participants and shift your atmosphere. So I guess the real tip for this week is building an extra 10 minutes into your agenda can take your meeting or workshop a long way!

Not comfortable with creating your own games yet? Check these out: https://www.trainingforchange.org/tools/?topic%5B12%5D=12&searchbox=

This is the training departments first weekly tool or tip of the week. Please let us know if it is helpful, and what subjects or issues interest you in the area of facilitation via email: gotpower@midsouthpeace.org

 

StreetWise INK is Memphis’ only T-Shirt Screen Printing Workers-Cooperative that is organized and operated entirely by people with experiences of homelessness. StreetWise was founded in late 2012 when a group of people with current and previous experiences of homelessness came together in the midst of one of the longest standing encampments of the Occupy Movement. A Homeless Caucus, whose membership would later become the driving force behind Homeless Organizing for Power & Equality (H.O.P.E.) was organized as a direct response to the needs and issues of people most directly affected by many of the economic policies challenged within Occupy. During those initial meetings, the predecessors of H.O.P.E. came up with the four core values that were most necessary to the group as a whole:

Dignity, Self-Determination/Autonomy, Mutual Emotional Support, and Solidarity.

H.O.P.E. realized that if they were to keep these core values in a system that makes it nearly impossible for people experiencing homelessness to find work (let alone sustainable, dignified work that pays a living wage), that it would have to come from their own efforts to make it so. This concept sparked the idea to form a worker-owned and operated screen printing cooperative made up entirely of, for, and by people with experiences of homelessness.

Since then, StreetWise INK has greatly benefited from the contributions and expertise of individuals and groups from their immediate community as well as the broader community at large. From having received timely advice from New Memphis Institute fellows, to having been the recipients of a generous grant from Sparkplug Foundation for equipment, to having recently become proud Community Coop Partners with Democracy at Work, StreetWise INK is well on their way and achieving their goals.

Through donations from university groups (that have come from as far away as Purdue and Kansas), as well as from individuals and organizations that sign up for the hands-on, donation-based Screen Printing Trainings facilitated by Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, they are able to sustainably provide the needed supplies for the Screen Printing and Worker-Cooperative Trainings that are free to people with experiences of homelessness, extreme poverty, and other limiting barriers to self-sustainability through meaningful and dignified cooperative work. With the free Screen Printing and Worker-Cooperative Trainings, members and individuals from the community come together to share useful skills, experience, and knowledge as they work together toward incorporating as a member-owned and managed cooperative screen printing LLC.

***If you are interested in signing up individually or as a group for the donation-based Screen Printing Trainings, please follow this link to find out more about our suggested donation ranges for the different trainings.***

***If you or someone you know has experience of homelessness, living in poverty, or other barriers to sustainable, dignified employment, please feel free to sign up for one or all of the Free Screen Printing & Worker-Cooperative Trainings that are every other Saturday from 2pm to 5pm at First Congregational Church, located at 1000 Cooper (near Cooper-Young intersection).***

StreetWise INK’s Price Quote Request Form.

Email: streetwise@midsouthpeace.org

Phone: 901-725-4990

Follow StreetWise INK on Facebook: https://facebook.com/streetwiseink/

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Meeting THIS Saturday! MBRU featured in Watch Love Work! Fight for $15 Strike!

The Memphis Bus Riders Union is a grassroots organization fighting for accessible, affordable, and equitable public transit in our city. Our members are people who depend on MATA and supporters, and our work is essential for highlighting the racism and classism present in Memphis’ grossly inadequate bus system. 

Greetings, transit warriors! Our first meeting of the year will be THIS Saturday, February 10th from 12 to 2 PM.  Note that we’re changing locations: instead of the Gaston Park library, we’ll be meeting next door at the Gaston Park Community Center (1046 S. Third)! You can get there on the #39 and #17 bus routes. We’ll talk about our role at the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, the 31 campaign, and what’s in the works for MATA this year. Hope to see you there!

Watch Love Work recently put out a video about the Bus Riders Union with our lead organizer, Justin Davis, and our Outreach Coordinator Charles Johnson! They’re a weekly video project that profiles great stories from the Memphis community, and the work of organizations like Just City, Room at the Inn, and OUTMemphis. Thanks so much for uplifting our work! You can watch the video here, or on Watch Love Work’s social media pages.

Finally, our friends at Fight for $15 have a strike day next Monday, February 12th! As we approach the 50th anniversary of the historic sanitation strike, fast wood workers in Memphis are continuing the fight for higher wages and union rights. There will be events throughout the day, and at 4 PM there will be a march starting at Clayborn Temple, 249 Hernando Street. For more information, RSVP on Facebook here!

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MBRU holds meetings on the 2nd Saturday of each month. If you have any questions, or you’re interested in joining our work, contact organizer Justin Davis at justin@midsouthpeace.org. And follow us on Facebook and Twitter to see more updates!

As HOPE continues to push our elected officials to close gaps in homeless services, members are also working to recruit churches to join as  Room In The Inn-Memphis accumulates a network to provide overnight stay to people experiencing homelessness. Room In The Inn is run by an organization by the name of Carpenter’s House, and offers overnight stay to women and children -as well as meals during the coldest months of the year—November through March.  Although Room In The Inn will still be offering these services, unfortunately the demand for shelter is to high for them to accommodate alone. In an effort to not have to repetitively turn people away, they are looking to build a network in which people experiencing homelessness who gather there seeking shelter can be taken to a church that participates in the program when their capacity is reached. Here is where you in the community can help! Room In the Inn is in need of volunteers and meal preparations as well as a churches to host people experiencing homelessness. So if you belong to a church, please try to encourage them to be apart of the network being created and maintained by  Room In the Inn.

Other ways individuals can help meet the immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness is to volunteer at Manna House, 1268 Jefferson Ave, which is a hospitality house to people experiencing homelessness and those financially insecure on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings from 8AM-11AM. Hospitality includes: the welcoming of guests, and offering of basic services such as clothing, hygiene items, showers, and serving coffee or other beverages. Manna House could always benefit from clothing donations, men’s and women’s clothing, and gently used shoes as well. Manna House also opens on Monday evenings at 4:30 p.m. for a light meal for people in need.

For more information about how you can help support HOPE’s vision of shelter & housing for all, contact Tamara Hendrix, (901)725.4990 or tamara@midsouthpeace.org

Feed the Movement!

H.O.P.E. would like to thank Marcos Pizza for providing pizzas for the H.O.P.E meetings on the 1st Wednesday of the month. H.O.P.E  is a supportive advocacy group for people with the experiences of homelessness. One of the ways in which we learn about the aforementioned needs and strategize how we can best support one another through this work is through our weekly Wednesday meetings in which we invite people experiencing homelessness to fellowship, share, and brainstorm. It is very important that H.O.P.E. continues to hear from the homeless community about the differing levels of oppression that many of us may face when attempting to navigate through the impending hardships of scarce services available in Memphis. For many groups and organizations offering free food at meetings is a plus 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.

As H.O.P.E. grows in numbers our expenses grow as well. How can you help? You can help by donating prepared foods on Wednesdays to our meeting that afternoon. 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. Neither of those options seem feasible for you presently? We are also looking for restaurants willing to donate food to our meetings. As always, all forms of donations are completely tax deductible.

If you would like to discuss how you can offer support to HOPE please call Tamara @ 901-254-5964 or email tamara@midsouthpeace.org

 

 

StreetWise INK has been reaching out to likeminded organizations that focus on economic justice, and we were extremely grateful when the fine folks at Democracy at Work asked us if we’d like to become Community Partners!

“Democracy at Work is a non-profit 501(c)3 that advocates for worker cooperatives and democratic workplaces as a key path to a stronger, democratic economic system. Based on the book Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism by Richard D. Wolff, we envision a future where workers at every level of their offices, stores, and factories have equal voices in the direction of their enterprise and its impact within their community and society at large.”

Prof. Richard D. Wolff has a really informative show called Economic Update that you can check out here: http://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

You can read our Coop Profile on their site here: https://www.democracyatwork.info/profile_streetwiseink

Democracy at Work is currently helping StreetWise Ink raise funds to expand our existing projects. If you’d like to be a part of our success financially, please make a one-time or monthly donation via PayPal or check out our Wish List here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18vIqylh-OZPfiPkOjHXRq10rK_A_jk6pfcf60SKUcBI