News

The 2011 Gandhi-King Conference will occur at Christian Brothers University on October 21-23. This year’s conference is being co-presented with the Peace and Justice Studies Association, which will draw an even larger national audience.

We are very excited to begin the conference weekend Thursday evening with a concert with political singer/songwriter David Rovics. Rovics has been called “the musical version of Democracy Now!” by the show’s host, Amy Goodman. While David tours across the country and around the world, he’s never played in Memphis before, and we’re thrilled to bring his songs and ideas to our community. Check the conference website soon to get details on the concert location and time.

We’re also thrilled to bring some of the highest caliber speakers to Memphis to date. Nipun Mehta and Pancho Ramos-Stierle will open the conference at 11am on Friday October 21st with an address to both the youth conference and regular attendees. Dr. Clayborne Carson of the King Center in Stanford will address the conference Friday evening followed by a viewing and discussion with the Director of the film, Little Town of Bethlehem. David Bacon opens the conference Saturday morning, and we are thrilled to be offering simultaneous Spanish translation for Dolores Huerta’s address Saturday afternoon.

If you’d like to purchase exhibit space at the conference or are interested in being a sponsor or placing an ad in the program booklet, please email allison@midsouthpeace.org.

If you haven’t already, please register now for the conference here and we look forward to seeing you at GKC!

Over ten years ago, in 2001, the Peace and Justice Center created a community garden at the corner of Douglass and Hamilton Street in Orange Mound.  While neighbors and volunteers were planting seeds for okra, cucumbers and melons, they were also planting the seeds of GrowMemphis.  In 2007, with support from Heifer International and the Assisi Foundation, the GrowMemphis program was officially launched.

Now, four years later, GrowMemphis includes a neighborhood community garden program with a network of 25 organic garden projects all over the city, a Food Advisory Working Group that has already begun influencing public policy in Memphis, Shelby County and the state of Tennessee, and the Double Green$ SNAP incentive program that increases revenue for farmers while making farm-fresh produce more affordable for recipients of federal nutrition benefits.

Due to the growth in programming and scope, the Peace and Justice Center has been working to spin off GrowMemphis as an independent non-profit organization.

These preparations have included developing an independent board of directors, business and strategic planning, and filing for tax-exempt status.  The Peace and Justice Center will continue to support GrowMemphis through providing office space and resources while the new organization finds its feet and becomes financially sustainable.

Now, as part of the transition process, GrowMemphis is seeking to hire an Executive Director to take the reins of the new organization.  This exciting full-time position will start January 1st, 2012.  We are seeking applicants who are passionate about community food systems and have the skills and abilities to take a leadership role in program development and management, fundraising and financial management, and networking and relationship building to take GrowMemphis to the next level.  For a full job description and details about how to apply, please visit www.growmemphis.org.

Josephine Alexander, having served as program coordinator for over three years, plans to leave GrowMemphis as the end of the year to pursue her dream of farming full-time.  She and her husband, Randy, are starting a vegetable farm in north Mississippi and will be selling produce in Memphis through farmers markets and their Community Supported Agriculture.  Josephine plans to stay engaged with GrowMemphis and the Peace and Justice Center.

PEOPLE FIRST is an MSPJC supported partnership with residents and activists working in the Binghampton community to raise voter turn out during elections and assist in long term resident-driven grassroots community organizing after the elections end.

For the past month groups of activists and Binghampton residents have been canvassing door to door ,talking with residents and neighbors about the issues that they care about.

This Saturday, Sept 10, People First is hosting a Community Forum for candidates in the City Council District Nine Position 1 race. Both City Councilman Kemp Conrad and Candidate Paul Shaffer have been invited to attend. Both candidates are invited to participate in a forum where the majority of the speaking will be done by voters sharing their concerns and their desires for their community. We do so hope you all will attend this first step in an ongoing and sustained grassroots effort in Binghampton.

People First Candidate Forum

We are inviting District 9 candidates to participate in a community forum where Memphians can share their experiences, concerns, and questions with those who are interested in representing us on the City Council.

We want our neighborhoods to set the agenda for city government, and candidates will have an opportunity to pledge their support for the People’s Agenda an agenda that puts the People First!

We know that you are working hard to ensure that your neighborhoods are healthy, thriving communities, but you don’t have to do it alone.

Join the Neighborhood Alliance to work with others who are advocating, organizing and promoting legislation and policies to improve the quality of life in all our neighborhoods. Working as a team, we can make a difference!

All alliance meetings are on the last two Mondays of each month. The planning and agenda-setting meeting is meant to build the Alliance and decide what form the Alliance will take and what issues will be its focus. Our second meeting is an open-to-the-public workshop on building the skills needed to help your organization grow and thrive.

Planning and Agenda Setting Meeting


Monday, September 19th  at 6 p.m.

Topic: Join our working group to build a consensus agenda across neighborhoods for the improvement of all our communities. Updates on new projects for grassroots organizing in Binghamton and Messick

Organizing Your Community Workshop


Monday, September 26th at 6 p.m.

Topic: (Part 3) GET OUT THE VOTE (GOTV) workshop-GOTV operations and how your neighborhood association can be a player in city elections.

Location: Mid–South Peace and Justice Center Offices • 1000 South Cooper • North side rear entrance of First Congo • Look for MSPJC sign next to bright red doors.

Questions? Contact Brad Watkins at brad@midsouthpeace.org or 901-725-4990.

PROJECT HOMELESS CONNECT is a massive one-day event targeting unsheltered homeless people in Memphis and Shelby County at which all the resources and services needed to end homelessness for individuals are provided under one roof—at one time. Community volunteers pair up one-on-one with homeless individuals beginning with street engagement and ending with providing access to a wide array of resources at the Cook Convention Center. Dozens of agencies and service providers join together to break down barriers that make it difficult for individuals to leave homelessness behind.

This project is a venture of the Community Alliance to End Homelessness and the Mid–South Peaceand Justice Center is proud to be a community partner in this effort.

We urge everyone to please sign up to be a volunteer at this event. This will be a massive effort, andwe as a community must mobilize to ensure that it is as much of a success as it can be. To register to volunteer or to get more info, go to the event page here and help us spread the word to your neighborhood association, civic clubs and congregations. They need 1,000 total volunteers, so please make every effort to help yourself and spread the word.

What – Project Homeless Connect
When – Friday, September 16th, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

END HOMELESSNESS

We are calling on the community to call our Mayors A. C. Wharton at 576-6000 and Mark Luttrell at545-5000 to urge them to keep their campaign promises to provide set-aside jobs for those who are experiencing homelessness out of the $7.4 million in city contracts for blight demolition, neighborhood clean up and renovation work. We can curb blight and give those who are homeless a fighting chance.

MSPJC is very happy to announce our first Core Organizer Training to begin on September 15th! Read more information below about the training and sign up here to register.

Core Organizer Training
The Core Organizer Training teaches participants the foundational skills they need to be effective organizers and win on issues that are important to them. We are incorporating a new model of learning, one based on popular education and integrating experiential education. This allows people to learn in a hands-on, direct manner, while also drawing out the expertise that the individual already has within. The result is a training that is fully interactive and has direct application in each session. The Core Organizer Training is so new we highly recommend that even past G.O.T. Power graduates take this training, as completely new tools are used to teach the skills in a totally new way. Topics covered include: Intro to Organizing, Organizing your Community, Campaign Planning, Facilitating Meetings, Media, Transforming Conflict, and Direct Action.

What: Core Organizer Training. A maximum of 20 people will be trained in order for all to get individual support and for the maximum learning potential for the group.
When: Beginning September 15th. Meetings take place for the following 7 Thursdays from 6-8:15, ending on November 3rd. This training builds upon itself each week and participants must attend all sessions. Partial attendance is not allowed.
Where: First Congregational Church, 1000 S. Cooper

Cost: Sliding scale based on individual’s income. If your organization is sending you to the training, use the organizational budget to determine the fee. It costs MSPJC $200 per person to do the training. Fee includes over 16 hours of training, simple snacks, and follow up support from a network of the mid-south’s best organizers and activists.

If your annual income is…              You pay …
Less than $15,000              $30
$15,000-$25,000                $50
$25,000-$35,000                $100
$35,000-$45,000                $150
$45,000-$55,000                $225
Over $55,000                     $300

Registration:
Register online here or call 725-4990 to register over the phone.

MSPJC offers many workshops publicly, but we also offer our workshops to organizations and people working around a specific issue, with workshops tailored to meet the organization or group’s individual needs. We are able to offer one of our Core organizer trainings, or we can design a workshop to meet your organization or group’s specific needs. If you are interested in bringing MSPJC to your organization or group to do a workshop, please contact center@midsouthpeace.org.

Register for Core Organizer Training here.

The Training Team is ending the year strong with two intensive weekend-long training opportunities:

Core Organizer Training (November 8 – 10)

The Core Organizer Training is this upcoming weekend, November 8-10. We’re already at capacity for participants, with people coming from all over Memphis as well as a group from Alabama. Our team is really looking forward to facilitating, helping the group recognize how much they already know about grassroots organizing, and facilitating the building of new skills that will help accomplish the group’s goals in building healthier communities around Memphis.

If you have been unable to participate this time around, don’t worry, we’ll offer this training again in the spring! Send an email gio@midsouthpeace.org to get on the waiting list.

Training for Social Action Trainers (December 6 – 8)

We’re thrilled to be hosting a Training for Social Action Trainers on December 6-8, facilitated byTraining for Change based out of Philadelphia. This intensive training is a huge capacity-building opportunity for Memphis organizers, trainers, facilitators, teachers, activists, and anyone interested in learning how training can further their goals of challenging injustice.

MSPJC has worked and trained with Training for Change for several years now. It was under their leadership that the training department made the important shift of using direct education to do our work; that is, letting participants experience the tools for themselves so that they can fully integrate what we’re trying to get across. Come learn more for yourself.

Read more about the training and register here.

Training Re-Cap: Media 201

We were very excited to facilitate our first advanced media training, Media 201, on October 26th. We had a great group of participants who worked hard at building skills around creating our stories, thinking about both what our allies and others say about us and how we can create media goals to further our campaign goals. We also delved into framing, messaging, creating talking points and ways that we can stay in control of ways that the media portrays us. Everyone had a lot of fun role playing and practicing staying on message when being interviewed, as you can see in this photo!