News

On the weekend of March 1st through 3rd, we had the first Core Organizer Training of the year. The 14-hour training was attended by seventeen diverse participants, ages 20 to 60, from different social and economic backgrounds, and from varied organizations such as Occupy Memphis, H.O.P.E., M.G.L.C.C., GrowMemphis, CROW and others.

The experience of participating in the Core Organizer Training is completely different each time. The curriculum doesn’t change, but the knowledge and experience brought to the group by each participant is unique.

The Core Organizer Training has been built upon a method called “direct education.” Direct education directly confronts and challenges the current traditional system where there is evidence of injustice in how people are taught. Rather than accepting traditional education at face value, which gives all the expertise to textbooks and to teachers or trainers, direct education invites the expertise of the people themselves. Direct education is about liberation and empowerment.  It calls upon the direct source of wisdom – the group itself!

There is a lot of theorizing in organizing; and people can read book after book, but active exposure in the field – true community organizing – yields invaluable experience.

Direct education also opens a safe space for participants to bring to the circle their knowledge as a human beings, and enables them to take risks. Here, their own life skills are realized and easily applied to the work of organizing. This experiential method of education becomes very powerful for teaching. Participants discover; trust and reinforce their inner power; build confidence in themselves; and experience getting to know a group of supportive people who share that effort.

We believe that every person has a lot of knowledge to offer that is supplemental to their organizing or professional knowledge. The Core Organizer Training offers a space for an individual and group to develop, share and grow such skills.

The topics of the Core Organizer Training are Introduction to Organizing, Organizing your Community, Strategy Planning, Media, Transforming Conflict, Nonviolent Direct Action and Campaign. Each one of these topics are approached in an experiential as well as theoretical way. If you want to make your community a better place to live, or you already are working at organizing your community and will want to learn new tools and skills, this training is for you!

Our next Core Organizing Training will be in Spanish on August, 2013. If you speak Spanish or have friends who speak Spanish let them know about this training. Any cultural experience will also be a plus for this training.

Our next Core Organizing Training in English will be this fall.

Please, if you want to participate in those trainings send us an email or call us to register you in our waiting list.

gio@midsouthpeace.org – 901-725-4990

Upcoming Development Support Workshop

Emotional Support for Men

Men are expected to be self-sufficient and to have all the answers to every problem, which leaves them feeling isolated and alone with their struggles. This workshop will help men to have a safe place to explore past hurts and current patterns based in old hurts, to develop close, healthy relationships with women and men, to become better allies to women and to learn how to interrupt sexism, to reclaim a sense of your own goodness and worth, and more.

When: Saturday, March 16, 1 – 6pm

Where: MSPJC, 3573 Southern Ave. Memphis TN 38111 – wheelchair accessible.

Cost: Sliding scale $25-$50

Registration online or by phone is required, please click here to register.

For more information email at gio@midsouthpeace.org or call us 901-725-4990

Donations for scholarships are gratefully accepted.

Find our events on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/midsouthpeace

A Process Toward Reconciliation

In late spring of 2012, the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center’s coordinator of the Community-Police Relations (CPR) project conducted over twenty one-on-one sessions  with local community leaders, initially asking the question:

“What is your vision for community and police reconciliation in our city?”

Mid-South Peace and Justice Center invited both stakeholders from the community and from law enforcement to a kickoff presentation of the CPR project which began with a dialog about the difficulties between the two groups. First, the participants shared concerns about the using the word ‘reconciliation’,  initially the “R” in the title of the project. They expressed their belief that there cannot be reconciliation without first having relationships, and  wanted to re-frame the question to read: “What is your vision for community and police relations?” And thus, the name of the project was changed from Community-Police Reconciliation to Community-Police Relations.

Community members and members of law enforcement from the Memphis Police Department (MPD) and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department met in separate circles for several months until November 16, 2012, when these two groups joined. This CPR “core” group has been meeting monthly ever since, working together to face the challenges and overcome the barriers that have traditionally kept community and law enforcement divided at many levels.

The Core group his now entering a second phase, making plans to roll out similar forums for dialog between community members and law enforcement into different communities across the city.

On Friday, February 22, 2013 the group met to address the structures needed to continue the growth of this work.  They determined that in addition to the working groups overseeing facilitation, training, and media/messaging, they would form an outreach working group and a steering committee.  The steering committee — comprised of three members from law enforcement, three community leaders, and the CPR staff at MSPJC — will meet in-between the monthly core group meetings to oversee organizational tasks, and most immediately, to create a proposal for the goals and the format of the community forums to be presented to the core group next month for approval.

CPR is also developing a presentation for the command staff and administration of MPD, and representatives of the Sheriff’s Department, tentatively planned for the end of April. The presentation will be previewed by community leaders and followed by a trial run of the community forum, creating an opportunity for stakeholders to learn more about what the core group has experienced, through various means such as Playback Memphis’ improvisational theater, dialog circles, collective testimony, and sessions to brainstorm solutions.  It will also provide CPR with a chance to see which elements work best in the community forums, and which ones need tweaking before we take them out into other areas of the city.

If you would like to be involved in CPR in any way, please contact us (information below).  As we expand this process, CPR is looking for venues and hosts for the community forums in the coming months – churches, community centers, neighborhood associations and groups, schools, etc.

If you would like more information about bringing CPR to your community or want to host a forum please contact: 

Melissa Miller-Monie
CPR Organizing Coordinator
melissa@midsouthpeace.org
901-725-4990

Providing tools to create: Safety Security and Solutions

H.O.P.E. is the name of a Mid-South Peace and Justice Center sponsored organization whose members are exclusively people who are currently homeless or have formerly experienced homelessness. For over a year now, H.O.P.E. has been organizing and agitating around the issues that are a priority to the homeless community. For meeting times and dates, call 901-300-0006.

A new publication scheduled to launch on March 20th aims to provide a voice as well as opportunity for Memphians with a personal experience of homelessness. ‘The Bridge: Memphis Street Newspaper’ is similar to street news publications in other cities like Nashville and Boston that seek to provide a safe and legal means of income for folks in a tough situation, as well as deliver the stories and opinions of the homeless community to the general public. H.O.P.E. is very excited to see this project launching in the City of Memphis.  We see it as another example of how the conversation is shifting and developing around issues of homelessness and poverty in our city. We also see it as a way our members can share their talents and insights with the larger community. Like ‘The Bridge’ on FB

♥ Project Homeless Connect 3

H.O.P.E. would like to say ‘thank you’ to all our supporters & allies who volunteered last month on Valentine’s Day to show some love for the homeless community with Project Homeless Connect, a massive outreach and service event to break down barriers that make it difficult to leave homelessness. The event was a huge success, with more than 800 volunteers and 720 guests in attendance, 85 of whom were veterans. There were a total of 1049 interviews conducted for housing, 97 consumers assisted with legal issues through the Street Court, 229 vision screenings, 162 medical assessments, 50 prescriptions provided, 88 individuals received Social Security services, 140 people were able to obtain ID’s and 152 haircuts were given.  Project Homeless Connect 4 is set for September of 2013. Check the Community Alliance for the Homeless’  website for more details.

Criminalization of the Homeless- H.O.P.E.’s Ongoing Internal Affairs investigation

On November 15, 2012, at roughly 7:15 pm, H.O.P.E. members were departing from a regular weekly meeting at the Manna House (1268 Jefferson) when they were stopped and harassed by two officers who accused them of ‘obstructing the sidewalk.’ Three members received citations to appear in court on these bogus charges. We had our day in court and the charges were dismissed. However H.O.P.E. members are not content to let this issue rest, as we realize that this type of targeted harassment is an everyday occurrence for many of our brothers and sisters on the street.  On November 16^th, the day following the original incident, H.O.P.E. members filed formal complaints at the Union/Crump Precinct regarding the harassment. Members of H.O.P.E. and witnesses also went to Internal Affairs and filed numerous statements and complaints in order to ensure that this matter was handled properly. After almost four months, we’ve learned a lot about  this process and how frustrating going through all the proper channels can be. We plan on following up this investigation to the satisfaction of our members.

H.O.P.E. members have begun to meet every Friday to form a campaign called Street-Watch which will be doing outreach predominantly in the downtown area to document and address instances of police harassment, and will be working with the public defenders office to organize a series of ‘know your rights’ trainings. stay tuned for more details……………

Feeding the Movement:

H.O.P.E would like to once again thank Just for Lunch and Trolley Stop Market for showing some love by donating meals each month for our weekly H.O.P.E. meetings! We would also like to thank Memphis Center for Independent Living for providing us with space for our meetings while we seek a permanent location. There are lots of ways to feed the movement, and we would like to thank all of our allies for their continued support.

If you are interested in how you can support the work of H.O.P.E. members,please contact Paul Garner @ 901.725.4990 or paul@midsouthpeace.org and don’t forget to ‘like us’ on Facebook for more H.O.P.E. updates!

March 30: Confront the Klan by Building Community.

Creative Arts Building
@ Tiger Lane
Free and Open to the Public
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

There has been much written and said about the planned March 30th rally of the KKK. This rally is inspired by recent Memphis City Council action changing the names of three Confederate parks, Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, Jefferson Davis Park and Confederate Park. The parks were given temporary placeholder names and their permanent names will be decided later with a great deal of promised public input.

These facts have been presented and these stories covered in the media and discussed in our workplaces, classrooms, places of worship and homes. Yet, it falls to the public, to the people of Memphis and Shelby County to answer one pivotal question. What is to be our response to this?

Some very sincere and passionate people believe in being at the scene of the Klan rally to show, publicly and assertively, that hate-mongers such as the Klan and their ilk are neither welcome or wanted within our community.

March 30th at Tiger Lane (old Fairgrounds) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. is the date and time of an unprecedented community-wide partnership under the banner of HEART OF MEMPHIS.

HEART OF MEMPHIS will provide an event that is free and open to the public, safe and family friendly. This event will not only have great music, dance, food and culture, but most of all, will focus on building a long-term movement that opposes racism and discrimination of any kind in our city on March 30th and every day thereafter. This pivotal section of the event is the first annual MEMPHIS UNITED: People’s Conference on Race and Equality.

This will be a space where the greater community can hold substantial conversations and dialog about racism – both interpersonal and systemic – in our community. There will be a rich selection of workshops and trainings available around grassroots organizing, nonviolent direct action, mindful communication, anti-racism and anti-oppression organizing and understanding privilege.

What we cannot have is a lot of energy and passion being expended on Saturday the 30th in the name of fighting racism, that all goes away the next day, Easter Sunday; or worse, a repeat of the violence of 1998.

Let’s make this Resurrection Sunday a resurrection of our community’s commitment to building the beloved community. The event is free and I do so hope that Memphians of all races will attend,  bring your children and, join the work of ending our city’s legacy of hate.

I urge all of us to be mindful and do nothing that would play into the hands of racists and for all of us to act responsibly in the coming days.

Please join our Facebook page here: facebook.com/MemphisUnited
Check out the full Heart of Memphis lineup here.

Peace, Salaam, Shalom.

The Memphis Bus Riders Union would like to see you at our 1 year Anniversary celebration!

Saturday March 9th, 12-2pm at the Memphis Center for Independent Living 1633 Madison Ave. (bus #2)

There will be free food, refreshments and birthday cake!

For 1 year bus riders and supporters have been working to bring the issues of transit dependent Memphians to the attention of MATA officials, city government and the public. Because this effort has been carried out by volunteers, supplies are few and hard to come by. As cuts to public transit funding from the city and federal government increase, so do cuts to service. We’re getting organized and your support keeps it going.

*PLEASE BRING AN ITEM FROM OUR WISH LIST*

-Yellow poster board and or foam core
-Yellow printing paper
-stamps
-scotch tape
-staples/clips
-pens/black markers/black or yellow paint/sponge brushes
-clipboards
-clear packing tape
-yellow t-shirts
-black or yellow Speedball silk screen ink
-silk screens

We appreciate your support! 

See you on Saturday, March 9th, 12-2PM

Memphis Center for Independent Living (MCIL) is excited to announce

“Rolling for Independence!”

 This fundraising event will highlight bike lanes in Midtown.

MCIL was one of the groups instrumental in advocacy efforts for this addition to our community! MCIL has a long history of advocacy for people with disabilities in Memphis, working for equality and accessibility for everyone. This wheeling event offers an opportunity for wheelers and rollers of all types to join together for this family friendly celebration and community building event. Your participation will help demonstrate that disability rights are important and that you support accessible communities where everyone is welcome!

Bring the whole family for fun and community building! Ride to honor a particular person, roll with a group or just come by for support. Rolling for Independence will take place on Saturday, March 23rd beginning at 9:30 am and finishing up at noon with lunch and awards at MCIL’s offices at 1633 Madison. This event will offer mapped routes of 2 miles and 20 miles, for the more athletic rollers longer routes can be rolled by repeating either of the mapped routes. Event entry fees begin at $10. Family and group rates are also available. Registration forms and information may be obtained at MCIL or online at http://rollingforindependence-
com.webs.com/. Event sign-in and late registration will begin at 8:30AM on March 23rd for the 20 mile or greater roll. Family and team rollers may sign in from 9AM-10AM. Awards will be given for the team with the most spirit and the individual who has collected the largest total sponsor donations. Helmets are required to participate!

If you have questions regarding this event please Call Sandi at 901-726-6404.

Allison Glass and Jacob Flowers will facilitate MSPJC’s flagship skill building organizer training over the weekend of March 1-3. The Core Organizer Training teaches participants the foundational skills you need to be effective organizers and win on issues that are important to you. If you want to be more effective in the work you’re doing in the community, register here today!

Topics covered include:

• campaign planning,
• tactics,
• coalition building,
• working with and creating your own media,
• conflict transformation,
• meeting facilitation
• nonviolent direct action.

These skills will be taught through hands-on application, resulting in participants having direct experience and practice to that these skills can be immediately implemented. And because this training is skill-based, these skills can be used in any community work in which you are engaged. We will learn together as a group, where all experience and expertise will be honored and shared.

This intensive weekend training will convene Friday 6-9pm, Saturday 9am-5pm, and Sunday 1-5pm at MSPJC, 3573 Southern. You must be present for the entire training, and registration here is required. Please contact Gio at 725-4990 or gio@midsouthpeace.org with any additional questions, and we look forward to learning with you!

Our State, Our Stories :: A Better TN is Possible

On Tuesday March 12 hundreds of everyday citizens will climb onto buses, cram into vans, and carpool from Memphis, Chatanooga, Knoxville and the towns in between to descend on the capitol for the People’s Day on the Hill. We will come together under the banner of Our State, Our Stories: A Better Tennessee is Possible because we know that the grassroots communities of our state have the solutions to the problems that plague us. We know that real change never comes from the halls of the legislature, it comes from the people.

Join grassroots communities all over the state as we mark Tuesday March 12, 2013 as the first annual People’s Lobby Day on the Hill. 

We know that the problems faced across the state can be fixed using grassroots solutions. We are the experts; we are the voices that our representatives need. Join us!

Bus is leaving and returning from First Congregational Church at 5:30am on Tuesday March 12 and returning by 7pm that same day. 

Free Transportation provided, donations gratefully accepted.  Pay what you can for snacks and lunch.

Register online here.

Invite your friends to our Facebook event here.

This Thursday, February 7^th at 1:30pm at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center members of the organization Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality (H.O.P.E.) will be having their day in court to fight against issues of police harassment against the unsheltered and insensitivity to people with disabilities.

We want to urge the community to stand with us tomorrow Feb 7^th at 1:30pm at General Session Div 1 at 201 Poplar to stand in solidarity with not only our members but for many of our brothers and sisters on the streets who suffer daily harassment due to the profiling of people experiencing homelessness. This is not about the community vs. the police but is about people of good will, decency and humanity standing against those who would misuse their authority and as such are the criminals.

Background

The grassroots group has been meeting at the Manna House at 1268 Jefferson every Thursday night for almost a year now. On Thursday Nov.15th at 7:15 p.m. as the meeting drew to a close, H.O.P.E., organizer Paul Garner was locking the gate to the Manna House and the group was about to depart, when two MPD squad cars made a U-turn and pulled up on the remaining seven members present.

One MPD officer named stepped out of his vehicle and approached the members who were standing by the two staff member vehicles. The officers present were rude and openly hostile to the membership going so far as accusing one of the ladies present of being a prostitute. That member was Marian Bacon, a disabilities advocate and Independent living specialist who works for the Memphis Center for Independent Living, and former trainer for MPD’s Crisis Intervention Team, which responds to calls for individuals who have mental illness issues. Ms Bacon, who suffers from anxiety and pronounced PTSD from a childhood incident involving police officers, was deeply traumatized by the event.

H.O.P.E. members calmly asked the officers if they were being detained or arrested, and asked for their names and badge numbers.  To this the lead officer aggressively replied, “You can have my badge number, it’ll be on the ticket I’m about to write you,” 

 The officer then wrote three citations for “Obstructing a Sidewalk” to H.O.P.E organizer Paul Garner, H.O.P.E. member Edward Jackson and H.O.P.E. organizer and Disability advocate Marian Bacon of the Memphis Center for Independent Living.

The officers in question detained our members for over an hour and fifteen minutes and ignored Ms Bacon’s request to sit down or to be allowed to go to the restroom, as due to her physical disability she cannot stand for long periods of time without intense pain.  As a result Ms. Bacon was humiliated physically and emotionally to the point that she urinated on herself due to emotional stress and fatigue.

Since last November the group has for filed numerous complaints with MPD at the Union/Crump precinct and with MPD Internal Affairs, which as of yet despite meetings with MPD administrators have yet to receive any official reply about their complaints.

This began on November 16^th where members filed formal complaints at the Union/Crump Precinct about the incident. In violation of proper MPD procedure the members received no confirmation that the complaints were received. As a result we spoke with MPD Deputy Chief Martello and Deputy Director Berryhill and with their prompt assistance scheduled a meeting with the acting commander Major Casad at the Union/Crump precinct on December 21^st. At this meeting the group was informed that the matter had been transferred to Internal Affairs and that at that time internal affairs had taken no action, as they had no paperwork from our members. This is also a violation of proper procedure as how can our members fill out the proper paperwork if the department never informs them of the matter being transferred to IAD in the first place?

Members of HOPE and witnesses went to Internal Affairs on January 8^th and filed numerous statements and complaints in order to ensure that this matter was handled properly. At that time members of HOPE were told by IAD that we would receive notification of the finding of their investigation on January 28^th.

Once again proper procedure was not followed as there was no such notification given and when HOPE contacted IAD on January 30^th, we were told by Lt. Mark Winters that IAD had completed their investigation on January 10^th and had returned the matter to the Union/Crump precinct. They were awaiting the final actions of the precinct and that IAD was still awaiting a response from the precinct leadership. For the past three months our members have been jumping through numerous hoops and at each point we have followed the procedures laid out to us to the letter and yet at we are still no closer to a just solution to this issue than we were when we started.

Where do we go from here?

The group will be fighting these charges Thursday in court and will exhaust the appeals process to ensure justice however our chief concern is resulting emotional trauma to Ms. Bacon who suffers from anxiety and pronounced PTSD from a childhood incident involving police officers.

At the preliminary court date on January 14^th Ms. Bacon courageously confronted her fears by going to court despite the fact that she was deeply emotionally distressed and terrified. Sadly the city’s prosecutor refusal to dismiss the charges or hear witness testimony further triggered her PTSD. Ms. Bacon was reduced to tears and had a severe anxiety attack when in the presence of the offending officer. We have raised these concerns for Ms Bacon’s emotional health to the City of Memphis prosecutor Teresa Jones yet despite having legal counsel Ms. Jones refused to allow Ms Bacon to be excused from being in the courtroom during the upcoming court date.

HOPE members will discuss future legal and direct action on this issue at our regular Thursday night meeting as well as being a participant in the MSPJC sponsored Community Police Relations Project-CPR. For the past nine months the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center has been working with over 70 community leaders from across the city and members of law enforcement from MPD, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Dept, Shelby County Juvenile Court and the District Attorney’s office to engage in a process of improving community police relations. We are working to find community led and supported solutions to crime and violence in Memphis.

This project has had members of a Community Circle and the Police Circle meeting monthly in separate groups to open a dialog about the issues both emotional and structural that create barriers to a more respectful and positive relations between the community and law enforcement. Now that these two groups have merged this Core Organizing group is preparing to host a citywide series of community forums that will lead to a community crafted action plan to directly address and promote positive and institutional changes within MPD that can remove barriers to better Police and community relations. HOPE members are and continue to be part of this process and plan on direct engagement with the leadership and the officers of the Crump precinct.