MSPJC Volunteer

 The Juvenile Justice Project has been busy all summer teaching our young ones about their rights with our Know Your Rights Theatre Workshops and we’re not stopping! We are looking to visit classrooms, youth groups, clubs, and more this fall to teach more people how to safely navigate experiences with law enforcement. Our curriculum is flexible enough to be taught to people of all ages, although having participants grouped by age is very helpful. Please let us know if you want us to come to your organization to perform this FREE workshop.

 

Join Mid-South Peace and Justice Center’s Community Organizing Skills Training on November 2, 3 & 4!

Our three-day Community Organizing Skills Training explores the foundational skills to be organizers and create systematic change in a group or community, keeping nonviolence as a foundation.

This training is fully interactive and has direct application in each session. We train use a combination of popular and experiential education, allowing participasnts to explore in a hands-on, direct manner, while also drawing out the expertise that the individual already has within.

Who should attend this Community Organizer Training?
Experienced and less-experienced organizers,  activists, community leaders and any one who wants to learn what ‘community organizing’ is all about.

Topics covered include:
Roles of Social Change, Campaign Planning, Facilitating Meetings, Working with Media and an intro to Nonviolent Direct Action.

Where: TBD
When: Friday, November 2:  6-9pm
Saturday, November 3:  9am-5pm
Sunday, November 4:   2-6:30pm

****** No partial attendance allowed ******

Cost: If your annual income is:
Less than $15,000             You pay: $30
$15,000-$25,000                             $50
$25,000-$35,000                             $100
$35,000-$45,000                             $150
$45,000-$55,000                             $225
$55,000 -$65,000                             $300
Over $65,000                                  $375
Organizational budget over $65K      $375

REGISTER HERE!

Sliding scale based on the individual’s income. If your organization is sending you to the training, use the organizational budget to determine the fee. Please consider that it costs MSPJC $200+ per person to do the training.
Fee includes 14+ hours of training, simple snacks, light breakfast and lunch on Saturday, materials and follow up support from a network of the mid-south best organizers and activists.
Some scholarships may be available, please request scholarship application by email.
Donations for workshop scholarships gratefully accepted!

Registration online or by phone is required for all trainings.
For more information call 901-725-4990, email to gio@midsouthpeace.org

———————————————————————————————-

Upcoming *.*.* FREE Self-Care Workshop *.*.*
Self-Care with Movement and Sound  ::  August 23 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
This workshop is full, if you want to be added to the waiting list email gotpower@midsouthpeace.org or call 901-725-4990

———————————————————————————————-

Grassroots Organizer Training for Power (GOT Power), Mid-South Peace and Justice Center’s training program, is committed to building our community’s capacity through building skills in grassroots organizing, providing support to people doing community work and offering oppression awareness and liberation education.
Our method of education is Popular and Direct Education. Direct education means education that directly confronts and challenges the current system of injustice, which includes traditional education. Rather than traditional education, which gives all the expertise to textbooks and teachers, Direct Education invites the expertise of the people themselves. Direct Education is about liberation and empowerment — going to the direct source of wisdom: the community itself!

Please contact us to get more information and schedule a training in your group or community. Fees are negotiable, scholarships are available and donations for scholarships are greatly appreciated.

Trainings can be designed specifically for established groups, organizations, campaigns, coalitions, etc. Comprehensive weekend workshops on specific organizing skill sets, issue or community-specific formats are available.

Trainings in Spanish are also available. All trainings are offered in English or Spanish as requested. We work and collaborate with bilingual trainers and facilitators.
G.O.T Poder – Entrenamientos en Español

For more information visit G.O.T.Power or write to GotPower@midsouthpeace.org

                                   ≈• Please Let Us Know What You Think ≈•
The Training Department of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (G.O.T. Power) would like to hear from the movement community. We want to know what you think about us and how we could better support your work or group! Please take a couple minutes to complete this short survey. This survey is for everyone, whether you have attended a workshop or not! Feel free to list your name or remain anonymous.
G.O.T Power Survey

Last month, Fulton McKinney, a man experiencing homeless in his 50’s, was found dead at Memphis carwash. His body had already begun to decompose by the time he was discovered. This deeply saddens and frustrates us, as it should anyone with a shred of human decency. What are we doing as a community to ensure that our most vulnerable residents have access to equitable and affordable housing? There are so many people out there who slip through the cracks and are bypassed-where is the outreach from homeless service providers? Holding a vigil is a nice gesture, as we did earlier this year for Shelley Thompson, a young lady who froze to death at City Hall on a cold January night, but what happens afterward?  At H.O.P.E., we believe it will take more than an occasional visit to the soup kitchen, but ongoing, coordinated outreach, as well as political leadership that is willing to stop paying lip service to poverty, without putting their money where their mouths are. Currently, there is no public shelter in town, the City of Memphis invests NOTHING in direct homeless services, but last year, spent 6 weeks discussing and eventually, passing an ordinance that further criminalized panhandling, but did absolutely nothing to alleviate the conditions that cause the problem in the first place.

Since this is an election season, we are encouraging our members & supporters to attend some of these candidate forums and ask those who want your vote what they plan to do about people dying on our streets, as well as how they will address homelessness if elected. Call the Shelby County Commission at (901) 222-1000 and flood them with questions on which candidates have homelessness on their platform. Call City Council at  901) 636-6786 and demand that they finally allocate funding for direct homeless services, and invest in affordable housing. Things will only change if we demand it! Otherwise, we will likely be reporting on more deaths this year.

Summer Survival Continues, YOU can help!

Our Summer Survival campaign is still underway!  Throughout this summer, H.O.P.E. members are feeding  vulnerable and hungry folks, and their children at Morris Park. We are providing sandwiches, bottled water, and chips, as well as hygiene kits. We’re always in need of more volunteers to help distribute items, which is a great opportunity for anyone who may need community service hours. Youth volunteers are welcome, but must be accompanied by an adult if under 18. We need your help to make this summer great for those in need!

During our first Summer Survival day, we gave away 50 snack bags! Folks were so happy and excited to see us because some of them literally did not know where the next meal was coming from. The next Summer Survival date is this Thursday  July 12th,  so there is still time to donate and volunteer with H.O.P.E!

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.

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.

 

Through the darkness of futures past, the magician longs to see, one chants out between two worlds, StreetWise INK’s new tee! StreetWise INK recently completed an order for Black Lodge Video, set to reopen soon! We were thrilled to print these designs for a business that has been an iconic part of Memphis’ subculture for years. The final product is a beautiful shirt that even Agent Cooper would ditch his coat and tie to sport! If your business or organization is looking for a great investment on custom printed tees, give us a shout.

This summer, the Juvenile Justice Project has already taught over 500 young people from ages 5 – 15 about their rights during police stops. Sine the beginning of June, we have been all over the city, visiting Liberty’s Mass Baptist Church, Girls & Boys Club of Hickory Hill, and 10 different community centers. We have another jam packed month ahead of us. Know Your Rights Theatre Workshops help our youth have safer interactions with law enforcement by arming them with knowledge.

When municipalities don’t invest in addressing homelessness on the front end, they end up paying for it on the back end. Memphis and Shelby County still haven’t collectively decided to make a financial commitment to our residents experiencing homelessness and poverty. The irony is that we end up paying more at the jail and emergency rooms than if we invested in direct homeless services and affordable housing in the first place.

Join Mid-South Peace and Justice Center’s Community Organizing Skills Training on November 2, 3 & 4!

Our three-day Community Organizing Skills Training explores the foundational skills to be organizers and create systematic change in a group or community, keeping nonviolence as a foundation.

This training is fully interactive and has direct application in each session. We train use a combination of popular and experiential education, allowing participasnts to explore in a hands-on, direct manner, while also drawing out the expertise that the individual already has within.

Who should attend this Community Organizer Training?
Experienced and less-experienced organizers,  activists, community leaders and any one who wants to learn what ‘community organizing’ is all about.

Topics covered include:
Roles of Social Change, Campaign Planning, Facilitating Meetings, Working with Media and an intro to Nonviolent Direct Action.

Where: TBD
When: Friday, November 2:  6-9pm
Saturday, November 3:  9am-5pm
Sunday, November 4:   2-6:30pm

****** No partial attendance allowed ******

Cost: If your annual income is:
Less than $15,000             You pay: $30
$15,000-$25,000                             $50
$25,000-$35,000                             $100
$35,000-$45,000                             $150
$45,000-$55,000                             $225
$55,000 -$65,000                             $300
Over $65,000                                  $375
Organizational budget over $65K      $375

REGISTER HERE!

Sliding scale based on the individual’s income. If your organization is sending you to the training, use the organizational budget to determine the fee. Please consider that it costs MSPJC $200+ per person to do the training.
Fee includes 14+ hours of training, simple snacks, light breakfast and lunch on Saturday, materials and follow up support from a network of the mid-south best organizers and activists.
Some scholarships may be available, please request scholarship application by email.
Donations for workshop scholarships gratefully accepted!

Registration online or by phone is required for all trainings.
For more information call 901-725-4990, email to gio@midsouthpeace.org

———————————————————————————————-

Upcoming *.*.* FREE Self-Care Workshop *.*.*
Self-Care with Movement and Sound  ::  August 23 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
This workshop is full, if you want to be added to the waiting list email gotpower@midsouthpeace.org or call 901-725-4990

———————————————————————————————-

Grassroots Organizer Training for Power (GOT Power), Mid-South Peace and Justice Center’s training program, is committed to building our community’s capacity through building skills in grassroots organizing, providing support to people doing community work and offering oppression awareness and liberation education.
Our method of education is Popular and Direct Education. Direct education means education that directly confronts and challenges the current system of injustice, which includes traditional education. Rather than traditional education, which gives all the expertise to textbooks and teachers, Direct Education invites the expertise of the people themselves. Direct Education is about liberation and empowerment — going to the direct source of wisdom: the community itself!

Please contact us to get more information and schedule a training in your group or community. Fees are negotiable, scholarships are available and donations for scholarships are greatly appreciated.

Trainings can be designed specifically for established groups, organizations, campaigns, coalitions, etc. Comprehensive weekend workshops on specific organizing skill sets, issue or community-specific formats are available.

Trainings in Spanish are also available. All trainings are offered in English or Spanish as requested. We work and collaborate with bilingual trainers and facilitators.
G.O.T Poder – Entrenamientos en Español

For more information visit G.O.T.Power or write to GotPower@midsouthpeace.org

                        ≈• Please Let Us Know What You Think ≈•
The Training Department of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (G.O.T. Power) would like to hear from the movement community. We want to know what you think about us and how we could better support your work or group! Please take a couple minutes to complete this short survey. This survey is for everyone, whether you have attended a workshop or not! Feel free to list your name or remain anonymous.
G.O.T Power Survey

                    [Photo Credit: Alexandria Taelor]

Greetings, transit warriors! It’s only a WEEK until MBRU’s next monthly meeting: join us Saturday, July 14th from 12-2 PM. We’ll be talking about new developments in mobility, MATA’s upcoming budget, and doing outreach in the South Memphis area. We’ll be at A Step Ahead Foundation, on the 4th floor of the Crosstown Concourse!

Also, we’re happy to announce that we have a new survey in the works! We want to hear from riders like us about how you use transit, and what the transit needs are in your community. The survey will be available soon on paper and online. Keep an eye out for updates on this!

Finally, we mentioned last week that MATA was recently selected for a program that works on On-Demand transit service. Maya Smith spoke to MBRU organizer Justin Davis for an article in the Memphis Flyer! “It’s an interesting idea that’s worth researching, but we want to see what this kind of program would look like in practice,” Davis said. Read the full article here. We also highly encourage riders to read this recent column by Tonyaa Weathersbee in the Commercial Appeal! Tonyaa talks about the recent arrival of Bird scooters to Memphis, and points out that this move should be paired with improvements to public transit, streets and crosswalks, and bike lanes.

MBRU holds meetings on the 2nd Saturday of each month from 12-2 PM; our next meeting is July 14th at the Crosstown Concourse. 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!

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.